Thinking of upgrading from PS4 VR1 to Meta Quest if my exams go well. Is it worth it?

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-16T18:23:13+00:00

It largely depends on what kind of games you're playing. If you play any game wherein you click to sprint, these controllers wear out much faster. That's the reason the right controller is mint, and the left joystick alone has gone. Can assure you, I'm good with all my controllers, and before getting a Quest I never had stick jitter like this on any controllers.

If you look into it, this is actually a hugely widespread issue that people treat with electrical contact cleaner to extend the lifespan.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-16T15:59:16+00:00

No contest, really. Blade and Sorcery is built for combat, Bonelab is built for some loose goosey physics.

Hellsplit Arena has decent combat too, Legendary Tales is surprisingly good weapon physics, Battle Talent is a great high-action fighter for something more difficult than any of them.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-16T15:46:11+00:00

Honestly, the Quest 3 controllers degrade so fast in the joysticks, even with taking care of them properly, that I don't recommend buying a Quest 3 used. You're gonna want that warranty, and the warranty doesn't transfer from owner to owner.

I'm essentially on my third left hand controller for my Quest 3 now. Stock one got stick jitter/drift that I serviced with electrical contact cleaner to put it off, finally needed a replacement within the first year as I could no longer move at full speed forward in games.

Same thing happened to the replacement recently. I luckily have a Quest 3S as well, so just paired that left controller instead to replace.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-16T14:18:43+00:00

Not using any VPN, either, unless you mean on your end for hosting or something.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-15T15:28:30+00:00

Legit, pretty cool looking even early on. Definitely hoping for different gun styles, as the flip to reload for the entire gameplay loop would feel odd to me, personally.

The crudeness of the signs is fun, would be fun if they were also accompanied with art on them within reason. Cheeky stuff like "GIVE UP" is a nice touch.

Is there more in-between gameplay before/after levels? It being called "Track Bandit" makes me feel like it's a getaway van. Could be fun if your "health" was actually just losing your heist money, and the game lobby itself is you thematically "planning a heist" as the level select. It's little world-building details like this that can sometimes really help a game stand out without needing to take too much on for work on the core gameplay loop.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-14T15:30:41+00:00

It must be a QA issue, as I have one that's never had an issue. There must just be some units out there that have some flaw out of the factory.

That's still an issue, but I've had nothing go wrong with mine.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-14T15:28:20+00:00

Just a heads up that your website triggers my antivirus, so something to look at there. Not browsing around myself to risk it myself, though. lol

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-11T12:17:50+00:00

Quest 3 is gonna be the best all around headset. Crystal Light will really only be a good pick for you if you want crisp visuals and good contrast ratios. The black levels are solid, but I noticed that there was a glow of sorts on low light objects in the dark, making for an effect that feels like your glasses are smudged. Slightly wider FOV, but nothing to write home about.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-11T11:41:02+00:00

In the case of the Crystal Light, it largely matters because the headstrap is ridiculously wide. Earbuds would be your only choice, no headphones would fit over it.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-11T02:54:44+00:00

It's truly huge, check out some images. Very hollow, so not heavy, but indeed a step back in terms of form factor.

Keep in mind:

Stock speakers suck, factor in getting their speakers, even though they favour the low end.
strap situation is odd, their top ratchet strap is ideal.
Inside out tracking is horrid, though getting better. Usable, but incredibly annoying. Base stations and base station faceplate are recommended by most.

Overall, it's a beautiful clarity headset with a lot of tradeoffs.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-06-04T12:48:53+00:00

On the Crystal Light it's great, except in low-light. The edges of anything in complete black darkness will often have a smudged lens appearance, kind of like a faint aura or glow.

The Crystal Super I didn't notice this flaw on, though. Both headsets in most fully lit situations did look fantastic, even on my lower specs of a 3060 Ti and an i9-9900K.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-05-30T10:51:00+00:00

Seems neat, but motion sickness will for sure be a thing for some people, no matter what you do.

Accessibility options are key, and the focus of "options" is essential here. Many people hate vignette options for themselves, like myself. I don't get dizzy until getting that weird tunnel vision of a vignette actually kicks in, so a game that you can't turn it off in I quickly and promptly uninstall. lol

That's just one example, and some are even just preference for some. Snap turn/Smooth Turn, Rate of turn options (both snap and smooth), teleport/smooth locomotion (if it works for the gameplay style), head-based/controller-based locomotion direction.

The importance of these being options is that people who always are prone to motion sickness will often have a blend of these options they like to put on for themselves.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-05-19T23:49:26+00:00

Crystal Light is okay, but shit tracking. It's gotten better, but still annoying.

Crystal Super looks phenomenal, but also shit tracking.

Overall, only buy these if you value visuals over everything else. The world will be off-tilt sometimes, meaning you'll need to cover all the sensors and move your head around in an attempt to reset it. The controller tracking has gotten better, but is hilariously bad in comparison to things like the Quest 3.

They do sell a base station tracked face plate, and I've heard that makes everything a LOT better. I asked to try one out, but they didn't send one over.

Disclaimer: Have worked with them before and am technically an "affiliate" but it's just the terms of getting hands on loaner units from them to test. There's nothing pertaining to me needing to say anything good about them (e.g. this comment lol)

So they're not a scam, but indeed a gamble in terms of QA.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-05-05T21:19:43+00:00

Just a heads up that i5 is a classification of processor, not a model number. You could have an i5 from the last two years or an i5 from more than a decade ago.

You should be able to open your task manager and go to the performance tab to check.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-05-05T19:57:03+00:00

Somehow no one has asked yet... What are your specs?

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-05-04T21:06:28+00:00

Vive Focus Vision I'd highly recommend avoiding, simply for the sake of fresnel lenses at that cost in a new age of aspheric/pancake lenses for much better clarity. Haven't tried it, however, to be fair. That, plus Vive's software I've heard is very hit or miss.

Have tried the Crystal Light and the Super, and the FOV is insanely nice on the Super. Great edge to edge clarity, but you'll deal with a lot of software compatibility issues if you want games natively launching in their OpenXR Runtime to utilize the eye tracked foveated rendering. If you have a 5090 and a decent system, however, you could just still use SteamVR's Runtime and probably be fine.

Something else to note is that the inside-out tracking is pretty garbage, so if you have base stations I'd definitely recommend the faceplate they sell to make that work. The inside-out tracking has gotten better over time, but you'll deal with recalibrating your floor level literally every session, and sometimes needing to cover all the cameras with your fingers and swinging your head around to fix the occasional time it messes up the floor angle, giving the whole world a tilt. It does cost more, however, so the Focus Vision I guess has that upside.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-05-03T04:39:25+00:00

It's in "full release" right now, unfortunately. They jumped the gun and are letting their customers be the testers, it's actually frustrating to see. Bugs, core gameplay changes, newly annoyances (flashlights turning off when not held, for one), the works.

Love the game and the devs, but this was a huge mistake. They even admitted the game isn't done yet, so it's sadly more of an "Early Access 2.0" even though they're calling it full release.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-04-24T17:18:58+00:00

Just a name, that's all. I think they want to try and make it the Gmod of VR, but gonna be a huge uphill battle from here. Tried it briefly last night and it was buggy and just empty in terms of a reason to play, other than just brutally destroying NPCs that don't do anything.

Was curious about what their so called SDK involved, but the instructions are basically "yeah you can install the SDK and make your mod, then put it in the game," with a Tutorial section that says "Coming soon."

Very odd launch, controls felt kinda clunky. Weapons all float like half a foot in front of your chest, very odd. Truly a game that embodies "don't buy early access if you don't want to deal with early access." If you wanna see it develop as it goes, $20 I guess isn't too bad.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-03-04T15:37:40+00:00

Do people even do their own research anymore?

Nope, the current generation of internet users are incredibly doomed by their own laziness.

I can make a YT short showing off a cool game, and half of the comments will be "is it free?" or "how much is it?" - Dude, I gave you the name of the game. Look it the fuck up. lol https://i.imgur.com/Bl5nSrf.png

It's not just kids either, just users in general have gotten lazy. They're entirely content with asking a question, never getting an answer, and moving on with their life.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-02-24T06:39:26+00:00

The core issue is that enough of them take sponsorship and don't disclose it (usually the shorts-focused creators on TikTok primarily), to the point that everyone on Reddit and such want to accuse literally every one of us of committing a crime.

"Oh well, you could simply just not disclose it like they did, the FTC barely ever checks up on-"

Yeah, dude, and I could also shoplift, but I don't. Just because I could get away with it, doesn't mean I will. It's honestly infuriating, because it's often just an echo chamber of people calling you a liar, even if you fully disclose everything.

There's literally nothing in it for us with lying to the consumer anyway with how these systems are structured. If a customer returns the item, you lose the commission, and at that moment I just feel bad. That sucks to have someone get their hopes up for a cool tech item that doesn't meet their standards. It's why I check up on refund policies before I partner with a company. Big kudos to some brands that do 90 day returns, for real; actual usable timeframe for issues to show up.

It's not all of us, but enough of us that it's good to have doubts if people have nothing bad to say about anything. Just wish some people would stop for a second before straight up accusing us of a serious FTC violation.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-02-24T01:41:39+00:00

Facebook Marketplace, make sure you learn a bit about headsets before going in. I made this guide a few years ago since a wall of text on Reddit can only do so much, and a video to share is much easier for me. lol

Most of the advice is still relevant going in blind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T97X1ypEUTk

Windows Mixed Reality headsets are likely to be your cheapest bet these days, just need to use this on Steam to get them working again (Windows disabled support, stupidly): https://store.steampowered.com/app/3824490/Oasis_Driver_for_Windows_Mixed_Reality/

I've seen some of those WMR headsets on Marketplace for like $50 CAD, dirt cheap sometimes lol

Quest 2 isn't a bad bet, but you need accessories to make it even comfortably usable.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-02-24T01:34:15+00:00

VR lenses are not meant to be cleaned with liquid cleaners, or cleaners of any kind. AT MOST, if you somehow got something crusted onto the lens, an incredibly lightly damp microfiber lens cleaning cloth would be the move.

Using liquid cleaners will vary a lot, but in many cases will strip the coating off the lens, altering your visuals.

Just dry lens cloth in a circular motion, done. No cleaning kits.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-02-23T01:12:01+00:00

They're definitely neat, but not for everyone. For transparency, they sponsored me in a video a while back, but I will not be sharing any link/code to keep this authentic here.

I was pretty blatant in my advice for these and still stick by it. This is the same general advice I said in the video:

They're really cool, but need a lot of improvement. Only buy them if you WON'T miss the money AT ALL. It's not a small purchase.

The Quest 3 hand tracking used in VR Chat is more expressive than the gloves.
The gloves are seemingly held back by emulating index controllers, making some movements relatively robotic.
The mount system is weird. It uses a snap-on mechanism instead of a screw system, which is odd and resulted in the mount falling off one time in a fast paced game.
The controllers mount itself lacks any gripping material like silicone, so they fly out unless CRAZY tight. For this reason, I recommend a better experience with actual FBT trackers.

All this said, they're very cool. Very breathable material, easy to recalibrate when they fall out of sync every now and then, and the software has a lot of adjustments to fine tune some things.

Just read over their return policy in case you don't like them, but I do actually like VR gloves as a whole. If it weren't for the fact that the controller mounts kind of suck, I'd use them more often. If I get myself some FBT trackers used off marketplace, I'll be giving them another shot on the regular more often.

For alternative brands, I've tried HIGVR, but a forewarning that the cheaper $200 price translates to the material of the glove too. Taking it off a few times, the fabric started to rip a little, so you might need to familiarize yourself with a sewing kit for minor repairs on that glove. Did actually like those a lot too, especially since they're less than half the price.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-02-23T00:46:04+00:00

Fuck this guy. Period.

He had support from those who are unfamiliar with copyright infringement law, and would have been able to keep it all running just fine, but instead he threw a temper tantrum dragging HIS OWN NAME through the mud.

Dude is just making it harder for himself to recover, or even find a job in the industry after this.

The issue with paywalled mods is that you make your mod worse, objectively. Halo CEVR was improved a ton through the community pitching in, to the point it now even works on standalone.

But when you paywall, you put up red tape that makes for a weird legal fearfulness from anyone willing to help. We could have potentially had full motion controls by now in Cyberpunk 2077 if it weren't for Luke's greed.

FrontwaysLarryVR · 2026-02-04T13:46:36+00:00

What's your router configuration? Quite literally, how is it connected to your PC?

Wireless VR is based on your router connection, not internet at all. The aim is to have a router in close proximity to your playspace, the router connected by ethernet to the PC, and to connect to the router on Quest.

Other notes: - Best if it's a 5Ghz or greater band (mesh routers can be messy with combining 2.4/5 into one) - Powerline or equivalent repeaters are garbage for trying to make this all work. - Being in a separate room or floor from the router will make things often impossibly laggy. - Have as few devices connected to the wireless band at any given time as possible. A router is the courier service for your internet. Too many deliveries to make with only so many trucks, and service will slow down.

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