OSVR HDK 2 - Open Source Head-mounted display for OSVR- Works with SteamVR and OSVR experiences

The hardware is great, and I didn't have much trouble with setup... however, my unit had some nasty bubble distortion right in the center when used with SteamVR, and I could not find a way to correct it. I couldn't play Elite Dangerous with that distortion rendering whatever I looked at illegible, so I purchased a Rift CV1. It's too bad, because I thought the OSVR HDK2's display looked a bit better outside the distorted area.

A very good headset if you're willing and able to put up with some of the technical problems that come with using it. I wouldn't advise buying it if you aren't somewhat competent in or comfortable with working on both in-depth software and basic hardware level with the headset, as the process needed to even get the headset set up and running can be a bit difficult, let alone general operation and maintenance. Overall, though, if you're looking for a decent sitting/standing VR headset for the sub-$400 price the consumer market was expecting, and you're willing to learn and work a little for a quality experience, then look no further.I should preface this with a couple things about my situation in particular. Due to some issues with my better hardware, I'm running below the minimum recommended spec for VR - my AMD R9 280 graphics card, in particular, does seriously bottleneck performance when using this headset, and it shows on more graphics-intensive games, where FPS can drop down to 20 or less if I'm not careful with settings. While this doesn't affect me a lot, performance like this would definitely cause motion sickness in a lot of potential buyers, so *absolutely* be sure you've got the hardware at home to handle the headset. And on motion sickness - my lack thereof makes me incapable of really telling you if this headset can make you nauseous - your mileage may vary. This is known to be a serious deal-breaker to VR users, so I recommend giving this purchase a second thought if you're known to be motion sick, or even so much as suspect that motion sickness could be a problem for you.Now, first things first - setup! It's awful at first, because so many people online have their own little processes to set up the OSVR stack, and they're all a little different, and they're all not quite guaranteed to work. Some advice - do NOT use the all-in-one installer, as it has quite a few problems. Just do it manually, and follow the official install guide on the OSVR Github page. It's a bother at first but it's a deceptively simple process and once you've figured out the ins and outs of the headset, making a re-installation or re-configuration isn't a big deal at all. The headset has its quirks but once you've got them all worked out it should be usable with at least SteamVR, which currently is just about all you need to run most VR applications as of the time of this review.The only problem on the hardware side of setup is strap adjustment. The headset comes completely unadjusted and it took me a while to figure out how to loosen up the top strap (the thick cable on top of the headset can be pulled through the box in the back to allow you to loosen it up). As long as you know that, however, adjustment isn't too bad - just make sure no weight is resting on your nose, and that your eyes are seeing through the sweet-spot of the lenses at all times, or else it gets hard to breathe and the picture gets a bit blurry.And on the subject of picture quality - this was something I was worried about when buying this headset, but the HDK 2 left me pleasantly surprised. The overall screen quality and optics of the headset are very good; screen-door effect is minimal, and text and details are not hard to make out as a result. I had to RMA my initial purchase due to some contrast issues with the screen (the process being relatively painless, likely thanks in part to my cooperation with OSVR support before filing the RMA), and I can say that both versions came with a fair amount of little dust particles in-box. This isn't an immersion-breaker or a serious annoyance, and even if it ends up that way, the screen can be removed, cleaned, and replaced, though the process isn't exactly user-friendly at first.One small thing in particular to mention is the lenses have some distortion around the sides that I haven't found a way to correct, and this can be slightly annoying, though certainly not particularly problematic. It's also worth mentioning that if you have long hair, like me, it's best to tie it back at the start of a play session - your hair can and will slip through the cracks in the front of the headset and those hairs will potentially make their way into the headset's screen compartment, which will require you to take the headset apart and give it a nice rigorous cleaning - certainly not the most fun you can have with the headset. Also, a pro tip - try not to clean the lenses without proper equipment. You're asking for a bad time if you try to wipe the lenses off without good lens cleaning materials. The brush that comes with the headset works OK for this.The diopters at the bottom of the headset are a bit finicky - as someone with myopia, I need to use these a bit, and they aren't nearly as stiff as they should be, making them often push back to -2 from my chosen positions if I don't have the headset on just right. You can probably fix this with a spacer of some kind, or just better headset adjustment than how I've got mine set up; honestly, my eyes aren't bad enough for them to be a serious problem. I can say, however, that the individual adjustment is great, since my eyes have to be adjusted differently for me to see optimally.Tracking leaves a bit to be desired. Rotational tracking is good, yes, but there is some drift, occasionally requiring you to restart the OSVR server or switch to another rotation mode. And roomscale is not quite possible with this headset - at least not until we get support for extra tracking cameras, so be prepared to work with only seated and possibly standing experiences for now.And on the subject of tracking, the worst part of this headset is the positional tracking. At its best, it can be wonderful, and does well for immersion. But a single IR camera combined with only front-facing IR LEDs on the headset's faceplate comes with some obvious problems: no 360° tracking, and some occasionally jittery and laggy tracking even when you *are* set up optimally. The worst quirk with it, by far, is that the IR tracker sometimes just completely loses track of the headset, and my headset's position starts drifting off to nowhere. The most reliable way to fix it is simply covering the headset's faceplate for a moment or looking away from the IR camera. The best way, however, is to perform a cringe-worthy dab that covers the LEDs with your forearm, which not only fixes the problem very quickly, but also makes you look even more like a shameless dork with a VR headset. I highly recommend this method if you end up with this problem.So - in summary, it's worth the $350 if you're that hyped for VR. I would wager it comes with more problems than the Rift or Vive, yes, but no other HMD can match the price point of this headset and still have so many features, especially with the added bonus of being open-source on all levels. Be prepared for a difficult initial setup and some consistent tracking problems (at least until software updates can soften that up), and make sure your PC can handle 2K@90fps consistently before making this purchase. If you're in the market for a VR headset, can't spare the cash for a Vive, and want to get into playing or developing sitting VR experiences, look no further. This was exactly what I ordered and I'm very satisfied with my purchase.

Edit: 11.23.2016, 1.5 months in.I would like to add some of my findings so far. The nose discomfort issue was easy to solve, I just adjusted my head straps a bit and pulled them down in the back, this pulls them off of my nose and makes it way more comfortable. I ended up twisting the cables to make them act like a single cable. For the dust and hair on the screen I just stuck the little blower brush it came with up through the opening in the bottom for the eye adjustments and cleaned them off.The only con that remains is the largest one of them all, the tracking... It works great as long as you don't turn past 85 degrees in either direction. Once the front LEDs are no longer visible the tracking changes from positional to rotational (even though the side AND rear LEDs are still visible AND Razer advertises it as having 360 degree positional tracking). This shouldn't really be an issue but it is because of these bugs:1. There is coasting, if you move your head quickly to around 90 degrees it can think you went roomscale and fly you out of the cockpit until you are 6 feet away from your seat, a few seconds after you look back it realizes where you are and puts you back in the airplane. The HDK2 calibration has helped and I think I have just adapted to slow down a little when turning through those areas that trigger it. I don't think about it anymore and it does not bother me but it does make tracking an enemy in a head on merge impossible without losing sight of him for about one second as you slow down through 90 degrees. I would love to see it fixed.2. You lose positional tracking at around 90 degrees. The accelerometers and gyroscopes still give you rotational tracking but there is a noticeable transition where you twitch into and out-of your positional location (leaning, ducking, zooming) while looking back and forth in a dogfight, for example.3. In DCS World (and a few others I have tried like Radial G) the software seems to put your POV directly on the LEDs. Imagine your eyeballs sticking 3-4 inches out of your face. Sitting in a tight cockpit and you turn your head, your eyeballs would smack into the glass and your view would "swing" instead of turn. This is what I get in DCS World. It isn't that bad and again, I feel a little trigonometry in the software could triangulate your eye position easily and set your POV correctly. On second thought it probably doesn't even need trig, just a table that says (If you are using these 3 LEDs for data, then the eyeballs are "here" (add or subtract "x" from the LED triangle coordinates). Disclaimer, I have no idea if the software uses three point triangles, I just know that is what is required to get enough information to do the job.4. There is yaw drift. As the software loses sight of the LEDs and reacquires them, errors build up on where straight and center is. After a few hours the system can think straight ahead is 45 degrees off to the side. Most games can recenter but that doesn't fix the fact that leaning forward gets read as moving 45 degrees off from straight forward. If it gets bad enough (straight is 90 degrees to your side) leaning forward will make your POV lean to the side.It is still great product, perfect if you don't plan on looking back past 90 degrees to either side (like maybe racing games) and it has all of the hardware required to fix the tracking, we just need some coders to help the Open Source community out and fix the software... I was told the fix was coming very soon when I purchased, then told soon, then told "somewhat soon", now I haven't heard anything in a couple of weeks... Shouldn't this be Razers responsibility? Instead of 5 million for game development they should have put up a fund for rewarding tracking fixes...Original Review:"Words can not describe the experience" is the best way to describe the experience but I will do my best with words. I have owned a Rift DK2 and used a Rift CV1 and can say that the screen is much better and clearer on the HDK2 vs either of those. The HDK2 has the same screen resolution and size as the Vive and CV1 but has a true RGB panel, that means 50% more subpixels and a better image for the same PC horsepower. It also has true/normal lenses that are adjustable, per eye!I played DCS World in VR for 4.5 hours last night. I just got my OSVR HDK2 in on Monday 10.10.2016. I updated the camera firmware (right click on the camera in "Devices and Printers" and click update firmware) and followed the directions for setup with my Nvidia GPU (GTX 1060) on YouTube. To find the directions, search YouTube for "OSVR HDK 1.3, 1.4 & 2.0 Software Setup Tutorial". The video is by "RTPC Mod Life". I had it running, with SteamVR, in 5 minutes (he also has a video for you AMD guys)! It is now consumer ready if you follow that guide, if that was holding you back you can buy it now.I fired up the campfire demo that comes with the runtime and it worked just fine. DCS World 1.5 standalone (non-steam version) started up correctly the first time with SteamVR running in the background, I would fully expect the steam version to work just as well. I loaded up a quick mission in the P-51 and I was THERE, in the cockpit, flipping switches and dogfighting a German, remembering how hard it is to check your six in (almost) real life from my Oculus DK2 days!It is AMAZING, if you have a VR device you NEED to fly this sim, and if you fly this sim you NEED to get a HDK2! If you ever looked at a military airplane and thought "Cool" then you need to get this headset and that sim (and a joystick). DCS World 1.5 is free and comes with 2 free planes, get the standalone version (from their website, not from steam) because they have huge sales on planes every season that the steam version doesn't. I could do things like; make amazing long range gun kills (in the P-51!), pick and hit THE SPOT on the enemy plane I wanted my bullets to hit just by "feel" (looking off to the side, not using the P-51 sight!), make buttery smooth landings on the center-line EVERY TIME, fly under bridges, fly between a towers guy wires with JUST enough room to fit a P-51 sideways, and other things that I couldn't do very well, or at all, on a monitor! I don't have just any monitor either, I have a 110 inch HD projector with TrackIr and all that, it doesn't get used for DCS anymore! Flying with the HDK2 is VERY close to the real thing, I would know, I am a pilot. You can tell exactly where the ground is, anyone that has played a flight sim on a monitor has flared for landing and then been surprised by the 15 foot drop down to the runway they thought was only inches below. This doesn't happen in VR. Pointing the plane in the direction of travel over the ground for landing is very natural feeling and easy now. It is much harder to overshoot your enemy too, the speed difference and distance is so easy to judge it shouldn't be called judging, you just see it.I am running on a very old motherboard/CPU/RAM with a new GTX 1060 SC. I have an old, gen one, i7 920 OCed to 3.8 Ghz, 12 Gb DDR3, and some SSDs. DCS World runs well at VR settings with shadows set to low, I get 30-120 FPS, average is around 45-60 near a city with some smoke and burning craters made by my enemies' planes. I do not feel any motion sickness and only notice judder below 35 FPS, and it still isn't bad. DCS World is hard on a single core, my old i7 struggles there, the overclock helps but I am CPU limited in this sim. I run the sim at it's recommended VR settings and use 1.8 pixel density with 2x AA and 2x AF, it looks great! The gauges are readable and spotting enemies during a dogfight is a non-issue. Spotting in the distance is difficult still though.There are some CONs. The plastic eye pieces can rest on the bridge of your nose, I might need to pad those, it caused a little discomfort after a few hours. The cables are a mess, I will get some conduit or something to make it more like a single wire and cut down on tangles. I have rudder pedals and a joystick that add to the normal wire mess (KB + mouse) for me.The headset came with 2 spots of what looks like dirt on the screen, one is pretty large (the size of a cockpit button!), and a hair on the screen. I will try an air duster but might need to disassemble to get rid of them, not happy about that. The positional tracking gets off (but rotational tracking keeps working fine) when you look past 90 degrees and there was some yaw drift that was pretty bad on day one (i thought about returning it) but steam did a SteamVR update that almost completely solved those problems on the morning of day 2. The headset does have LEDs on the back so there should be no problem updating the software to give full 360 degree position and rotational tracking with the current hardware. Being open source I could try using my TrackIr along side the HDK2's tracker for better tracking past 90 degrees. I could use my little brother's old kinect to set up room scale with limb tracking too and I have a bunch of wii motes laying around somewhere for hand tracking... I will update this review as time goes on, I have only played DCS so far and it is well worth the money for that game alone! Even with the CONs I give it 5 stars and for the price, it is the obvious choice, especially for seated experiences. A little more improvement in the tracking software, a strip of nose padding foam, and I would call it perfect!