What Software needed for an HP Reverb G2

Hello, I'm expecting my new HP Reverb G2 today (was supposed to arrive yesterday) and was wondering what is the minimum software required to operate it. I don't use Steam for anything and I purchased MSFS 2020 from Microsoft. So do I still need to install the Steam VR App?

Hi Kevin, all you really need is the Windows Mixed Reality Portal, which I believe you download (for free) from the MS store, if my memory serves me correctly.

It’s also a good idea to download OpenXR

 

 

Regards

Steve

windows mixed reality which should load when you connect the G2 if not do a windows update and it should download. Also you will need windows mixed reality OpenXR runtime... there's also a firmware update in you haven't got that far check on HP reverb site under support files... Lastly tape your socks to you're legs, because the first time you sit in the cockpit it's going to blow them off........

 

 

edit: Steve posted while I was tapping away....... Getting in the helicopter this afternoon in VR blew my socks off!!

Edited April 1, 2021 by daspinall

windows mixed reality which should load when you connect the G2 if not do a windows update and it should download. Also you will need windows mixed reality OpenXR runtime... there's also a firmware update in you haven't got that far check on HP reverb site under support files... Lastly tape your socks to you're legs, because the first time you sit in the cockpit it's going to blow them off........

 

 

edit: Steve posted while I was tapping away....... Getting in the helicopter this afternoon in VR blew my socks off!!

 

Glad you also liked the helicopter

I didn’t know about the firmware update! I must check that out, thanks :)

 

Regards

Steve

Thank you David and Steve for your prompt replies. I appreciate it very much. The G2 just arrived and I'm getting ready to dive right in and get "my socks blown off". No dinner for me tonight as I will be flying all day into the night, after I get it up and running!!

Hell i'm excited for you happy landings ;)

WOW!! I have to find new socks as the ones I was wearing got completely blown off and I can't find them!! I thought my Rift S was good but this new G2 is spectacular. No screen door effect at all like the Rift S has. I can actually read the instruments sitting normally in the aircraft without having to lean way in like before. Very crisp and sharp. And the view outside is unbelievably crisp and sharp. Thanks David and Steve for all your help. Again, I really appreciate it. Now my son-in-law gets my Rift S for his birthday. It will drive my daughter nuts. Edited April 1, 2021 by kevinfolsom

I’m so glad it’s worked out for you. Some say.. that you can’t read gauges in VR. We both know this is no longer the case LOL

Happy flying :)

 

Regards

Steve

Thank you, Steve. You are absolutely correct. I couldn't read the gauges with my Rift S without leaning way in which is very unrealistic. With the G2 I don't need to lean in at all to read them-even the small push buttons in the G1000 are easily readable with minimally leaning in. The gauges are crystal clear and very legible. This is one of my best purchases I have ever made. The sad part is I spent many $1000's of dollars building a full size 737NG cockpit with every single panel, switch, knob, gauge, a full size 737 floor mounted flight control yoke, PFD, MFD, a stand alone FMC-CDU, a full overhead panel, a 737NG throttle quadrant, rudder pedals, a ground steering tiller and a full center radio console with 3 32" monitors for the outside view. All to fly the I-Fly 737NG in P3DV4.5 What a waste of money now that i have this nice G2 VR headset to replace all that hardware.

I got the HP Reverb G2 based on reading your comments, Steve. They are completely accurate opinions and I agree this is the best VR headset you can buy today for a reasonable price. For anyone seeking to buy this VR Headset, beware of where you buy it from. Some places will add an additional $200 to the price. I had to buy my Oculus Rift S for $500 more than list price last April 2020 because they were very rare with the supply being very low compared to the high demand. But I did it anyway because I wanted to experience VR. The law of supply and demand will always get you.

Hi Steve. I see your computer system is a couple of tiers above what I have. You can see my system in my signature. In you opinion, is there any VR settings I need to adjust to maximize FPS? Or are there places I can go to get these settings?

Hi Kevin,

have you installed OpenXR? You want to put that in if you haven’t already. Check the box for “use latest preview” (under developer settings)

& also check the box “custom render scale” - I have my scale at 70

 

Something else you may want to do, it reduce all your “PC” graphics settings to minimum within flight sim, (assuming you’ll only fly in VR from now on)

This means VR will work smoothly from the start, otherwise you sometimes have to wait a minute or two for it to smooth out. At least I often find that’s the case anyway.

Hope this helps

 

I’m glad you’re pleased with the G2. It’s so much like being in a real aircraft isn’t it? I bought most of my setup just last year..the Saitek panels.. three 43” TVs... all obsolete now as I can’t see them with the headset on LOL

If I was buying a new setup today, I wouldn’t bother with the big screens, I’d just go with the G2

 

Regards

Steve

Edited April 2, 2021 by g7rta

I have pretty much all of my graphics settings on ultra / maximum and find it’s still quite smooth. However, it can still slow right down in the large cities, like London for example.

It tend to avoid such places if poss.

 

Regards

Steve

I got the HP Reverb G2 based on reading your comments, Steve. They are completely accurate opinions and I agree this is the best VR headset you can buy today for a reasonable price. For anyone seeking to buy this VR Headset, beware of where you buy it from. Some places will add an additional $200 to the price. I had to buy my Oculus Rift S for $500 more than list price last April 2020 because they were very rare with the supply being very low compared to the high demand. But I did it anyway because I wanted to experience VR. The law of supply and demand will always get you.

 

 

We are similar in this department, I first bought the Quest 2 because I could not wait for a G2... Have to say the Quest 2 is a fine bit of kit in it's own right but for flightsim it don't come close to the visual quality of the G2..... I think for me the most impressive single one thing with the G2 and flightsim is the runway when landing, is very realistic and makes for landing light aircraft a piece of cake!

 

glad you are all sorted, I'd be a tad pissed if I had built a sim then someone threw the G2 at me lol

After reading a post on the official forums about the latest drivers being a “must have” - I’ve just downloaded them.

Nvidia 465.89 & sure enough there’s a significant improvement in performance! Certainly London (which has always been always a bit jerky) is much smoother!

 

 

Regards

Steve

Hi Kevin,

have you installed OpenXR? You want to put that in if you haven’t already. Check the box for “use latest preview” (under developer settings)

& also check the box “custom render scale” - I have my scale at 70

 

Something else you may want to do, it reduce all your “PC” graphics settings to minimum within flight sim, (assuming you’ll only fly in VR from now on)

This means VR will work smoothly from the start, otherwise you sometimes have to wait a minute or two for it to smooth out. At least I often find that’s the case anyway.

Hope this helps

 

I’m glad you’re pleased with the G2. It’s so much like being in a real aircraft isn’t it? I bought most of my setup just last year..the Saitek panels.. three 43” TVs... all obsolete now as I can’t see them with the headset on LOL

If I was buying a new setup today, I wouldn’t bother with the big screens, I’d just go with the G2

 

Regards

Steve

 

Thanks, Steve. I have installed Open XR and set it up as you recommended. And yes it is quite like being inside the aircraft. I find myself trying to lean against the imaginary door and lurching forward in my chair when applying the wheel brakes on the ground. It is that immersive.

Thanks, Steve. I have installed Open XR and set it up as you recommended. And yes it is quite like being inside the aircraft. I find myself trying to lean against the imaginary door and lurching forward in my chair when applying the wheel brakes on the ground. It is that immersive.

 

I know exactly what you mean. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve started to raise my right arm up, so to rest it on the copilot’s seat.. but then realising the seat doesn’t exist LOL.

 

If you haven’t done so already, I recommend you download the latest nvidia drivers 465.89 - they were released a couple of days ago & so far I’m impressed with the performance.

 

Regards

Steve

Thanks. I will get that updated and check it out.

I know exactly what you mean. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve started to raise my right arm up, so to rest it on the copilot’s seat.. but then realising the seat doesn’t exist LOL.

 

If you haven’t done so already, I recommend you download the latest nvidia drivers 465.89 - they were released a couple of days ago & so far I’m impressed with the performance.

 

Regards

Steve

 

I have been running Version 452.06 for a long while and has been fairly smooth. Unfortunately I did update my Nvidia driver to Version 465.89 and it made my VR experience in MSFS 2020 like a slide show. Frame rates were way down. It was like watching photographs being placed in front of me one at a time. It was bad. I experimented with all Nvidia Graphics Card Drivers between these two versions and found Version 461.72 to be the best and smoothest for my VR experience.

I have been running Version 452.06 for a long while and has been fairly smooth. Unfortunately I did update my Nvidia driver to Version 465.89 and it made my VR experience in MSFS 2020 like a slide show. Frame rates were way down. It was like watching photographs being placed in front of me one at a time. It was bad. I experimented with all Nvidia Graphics Card Drivers between these two versions and found Version 461.72 to be the best and smoothest for my VR experience.

I'm not sure what driver I have. Where can I check? I recently downloaded and installed Nvidia's latest "game ready" driver and coincidentally or not, ran into a serious problem the next time I booted up my computer: My monitor stayed dark; "no signal." I have an HP Omen monitor that seems to require both the HDMI and displayport cables to be plugged in for it to work with the displayport. (I've never tried to switch it to HDMI.) I checked the cables first thing. They were both tight. I was forced to do a hard shutdown. When I then rebooted my computer, I got a blue screen in which Windows 10 offered to repair itself, which it couldn't. I then had to use my recovery thumb drive to restore my OS, and then rebuild all my other wheels. So I am really gunshy about loading any new Nvidia drivers at this point. MSFS is working well now. If my current video driver ain't broke, why "fix" it?

I have been running Version 452.06 for a long while and has been fairly smooth. Unfortunately I did update my Nvidia driver to Version 465.89 and it made my VR experience in MSFS 2020 like a slide show. Frame rates were way down. It was like watching photographs being placed in front of me one at a time. It was bad. I experimented with all Nvidia Graphics Card Drivers between these two versions and found Version 461.72 to be the best and smoothest for my VR experience.

 

 

Sorry the new drivers didn’t work for you Kevin. They made a big difference to others on the official forums & I also saw an improvement. One thing mentioned on the other forum was to also turn on HAGS (Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling) this in in Window 10, under graphics settings.

Mine is actually turned off. I haven’t tried it with HAGS on yet, but will do. Maybe MSFS will be even smoother? You may get want to try it yourself and see if it helps. Just press your Windows key and start typing graphics...

Ultimately if 461.72 is works best for you then I’d stick with that.

One other thing to mention.. do you have GeFore Experience installed? I don’t. When it prompted me, I put no. Some say you’re better off without it. I have used it previously but I removed it a few weeks back after having a problem or two.

 

Steve, the easiest was to check which graphics drivers is to right click on your desktop and go into the nVidia control panel. Click on “Hep” (from the menu at top left of screen) followed by “system information” - you will see your driver version in the box that pops up.

It doesn’t sound right that your monitor requires both cables for it to work. Maybe there’s a fault somewhere? It should work with just the display port, unless this is an HP thing

Neither should you have had so many problems after updating the divers. Sounds like something’s not right to me. Did you do a clean install when you put in the new drivers, or just update them? Clean install is usually best.

 

 

 

Regards

Steve

Edited April 3, 2021 by g7rta

Just tied MSFS with HAGS on.. then again with HAGS off.

 

I get a slightly better performance with it off.

When on, there was a slight screendoor effect in the G2.

The latest nVidia drivers have helped though :)

 

 

Regards

Steve

Steve, the easiest was to check which graphics drivers is to right click on your desktop and go into the nVidia control panel. Click on “Hep” (from the menu at top left of screen) followed by “system information” - you will see your driver version in the box that pops up.

It doesn’t sound right that your monitor requires both cables for it to work. Maybe there’s a fault somewhere? It should work with just the display port, unless this is an HP thing

Neither should you have had so many problems after updating the divers. Sounds like something’s not right to me. Did you do a clean install when you put in the new drivers, or just update them? Clean install is usually best.

 

 

 

Regards

Steve

 

I checked. I have driver v. 461.09. it seems to work just fine. Where do you go for driver updates? And what do you mean by a "clean install" for drivers?

 

I have turned on the graphics scheduling option in Windows. I didn't know there was such a thing until you mentioned it. I will see if it makes any difference when I launch MSFS shortly.

 

As for the monitor, it was that way out of the box; I didn't want to take it back to Best Buy as long as it was working. I've never Googled to see if this is a fault. Probably should have. I only tried updating the drivers the one time, when I downloaded Nvidia's "game-ready driver," after which the monitor didn't work and I was forced to do a hard shutdown and then had to restore Windows from my recovery thumb drive. In any case, the driver in question was, per Nvidia's description, supposed to improve performance for some specific games, not including MSFS 2020. I downloaded that driver from the Nvidia Experience site. Perhaps that's not the best source for the latest and greatest drivers for our purposes?

 

Finally, on the subject of Nvidia, do you run MSFS 2020 with V-sync on or off? My monitor is G-sync compatible, but MSFS seems to run better, with fewer CTDs, if I turn on V-sync, with its 30 FPS limit.

 

I have never had so many problems with a computer before, actually. Still, I don't think there's anything wrong with my desktop.

Edited April 3, 2021 by Aptosflier

Hi Steve, if nVidia drivers 461.09 are working fine then you may want to stick with them... personally I’d give the new ones a try, as you can always put the older ones back in (as long as you don’t have the same problems as last time)

 

You can get the new ones here...

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/results/172062/

 

If you do decide to install them... when you launch it... it first unpacks the files.. then “Installation Options” pops up

The options are Express (which is the default option) or “CUSTOM” - this is the one you want.

After selecting custom & pressing Next, you will see several things to install (I wouldn’t bother with GeForce Experience) but the rest are ok.. but at the bottom you will see “Perform a clean installation” ticking this box, removes your old drivers before installing the new ones.

 

I personally am glad I installed these new drivers as I amdefinitely getting better performance. Kevin said his performance dropped though. I just hope you don’t have the previous problems if you do install them. I did try turning on “hags” this afternoon, but I founds that it reduced my performance slightly... or rather my Reverb G2 had a slight screendoor effect. Others have said it improves performance, but I’m not so sure.

 

As for V-Sync... mine is off (pc screen settings) - but I tend to fly in VR only now, and the option isn’t available on the VR menu anyway

 

I can’t find much online about your monitor, but I did find this...

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Gaming-Desktops/Monitor-Issue-with-Omen-25L/td-p/7922300

 

 

Regards

Steve

Edited April 3, 2021 by g7rta

Apparently I did not do a clean installation as I used the "Express" installation. I will try again performing a clean install this time and report back.