What is the best virtual reality headset

Virtual reality has forcefully entered the homes of Italians after years in which it was used only in the scientific and military fields with great success.

Virtual reality is provided within video games (made precisely for this purpose or which present virtual reality as an additional modality) will allow you to increase the level of integration between the game and the sensory perceptions of men, integrating sight (with special stereoscopic glasses capable of recreating a virtual environment that can be visited at 360 degrees in every direction), hearing (via special headphones or earphones) and through tactile perception (via special remote controls to be held in the hand to obtain vibrating feedback or to control the hands of the virtual alter ego).

Right away, the best solutions for trying virtual reality at homeusing a computer that has the right hardware components and, above all, with the 3D viewer suitable for PC.

READ ALSO: 3D virtual reality viewers from your smartphone

1) Meta Quest 2

The best virtual reality kit that we can try at home is the Meta Quest 2created by Facebook and created to be able to function even without the aid of a PC (stand-alone).

The Facebook viewer has its own store of apps and games to use, is easily configured with gestures and controllers and can guarantee hours and hours of fun, as well as being able to allow access to the metaverse of Meta.

The version with link cable provides a convenient cable to connect the viewer to the computer, thus using it as a classic virtual reality viewer (available on Windows 11 and Windows 10).

For further information we can read the guide above Quest 2, the future of virtual reality and the Metaverse.

2) VR Valve Index

One of the most modern and captivating viewers that we can connect to the PC is the VR Valve Indexoptimized for playing VR games available on Steam.

The complete kit has everything needed to recreate the VR environment at home (in the living room or bedroom) and, once connected to the PC, allows you to open the optimized version of the Steam store and directly use the virtual controls to open any compatible game.

Currently the headset with the best quality/price ratio available on the market, although a powerful PC is still required to play in VR (as we will see later).

3) PICO 4

A latest generation viewer at an affordable price is the PICO 4considered by many to be the true heir to Quest 2.

With this headset we can play games compatible with PICO, connect it to the PC to take advantage of the functions related to virtual reality and, very pleasantly, it also supports streaming apps such as YouTube and Netflix, so we can enjoy films with 3D effect and sound enveloping as if we were at the cinema.

The Telegram app is also available, for messaging or accessing multimedia content on this platform.

4) PlayStation VR2

If we own one PlayStation 5 we can enjoy virtual reality without too many configurations or optimizations, by connecting the viewer to the Sony console PlayStation VR2.

This headset is optimized for the VR games available on the PlayStation Store, is immediately ready to use, has convenient controls, excellent video resolution and spatial audio, obtained thanks to the integration of eye tracking, feedback of headphones and 3D audio.

For further information we can read the guide above which console has the best games between Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo.

5) How to use VR viewers on PC

Before purchasing any VR headset to connect to the PC we recommend that you check the minimum hardware requirements of each headset, so as to be sure you can use it on the gaming computer we have set up.

As an example we show you i requisiti hardware del VR Valve Indexi.e. the Steam viewer (the best-selling for PC games):

• Operating system Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux or SteamOS.
• At least 8 GB of RAM.
• Scheda video NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (o superiori) o AMD RX480+ (o superiori).
• Dual-Core HT processor or higher models.
• USB 3.0 or higher port (to connect headset connections)

These requirements are easily achievable on any modern gaming PC, but it’s best to check that you can play VR games without any problems whatsoever. For further information we can read our articles on which computer to choose and requirements for a good PC and you have Best laptops for gaming.

Conclusions

Today VR viewers are sold at decidedly more accessible prices compared to a few years ago: the average cost is around €500, with cheaper products (such as PICO 4 and Meta Quest 2) and more expensive and equipped products (such as VR Valve Index and PlayStation VR2).

On the same topic we can read the guides on how try the 3D Mixed Reality included in Windows 10 come on how to choose the video card for your PC graphics.

If instead we were looking for the best VR games we can read the guide to best free VR games to try on PC.