PatrickM

'Thunderbolt 3 ports in some cases can support Displayport 1.2+ signaling via virutalization or via native hardware support' WRONG! https://thunderbolttechnology.net/tech/faq 'What is the difference between Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C? Thunderbolt 3 is a superset solution which includes USB 3.1 (10Gbps), and adds 40Gbps Thunderbolt and ***DisplayPort 1.2*** from a single USB-C port. This enables any dock, display, or data device to connect to a Thunderbolt 3 port, fulfilling the promise of the USB-C connector. See more information on the Thunderbolt Blog' Wow. You are actually just basically completely wrong. Are you stupid or just lying? Please can I speak to someone who actually knows about VR technology, please? Thunderbolt 3 is a SUPERSET of Displayport. That means it does everything tha DisplayPort 1.2 does AND MORE. So to conclude I have a laptop with 1 TB SSD, i7 8th gen, 32GB of RAM, a Thunderbolt 3 port, a GTX 1060 6GB, Windows 10OS, Steam VR... which would cost over £1500 off the shelf for the same specs, a lot of laptop with those specs are actually over £2500, which you call an 'entry grade laptop for Fortnite NOOBS', which exceeds minimum specs in every possible way, and you say I 'completely ignored' them. And it's on me to make it work, not you. Totally ludicrous and embarrassing.

'You pretty much hit the nail on the head around "VR Ready". It's marketing, nothing more.' Wrong. It is a configuration of ports and hardware that meet a certain minimum standard in the aggregate. How, on the one hand, can I be flying around in Google Earth VR yesterday on a Vive Pro plugged into a Dell G3, yet on the other you claim this to be 'just marketing'? There is a configuration that clearly could work here if HTC bothered to make it work, but clearly they just do not, and then this is my fault. What *you* are saying is marketing, nothing more, because your employer couldn't be bothered to design a system for edge slight edge cases. None of the problems I have faced have been unique to me or my setup. There are plenty of other reports of distorted sound, base stations bricking, flickering picture, the headset signal dropping out intermittently. This is not my hardware problem, it is yours. Why would I shell out another £1000 or more on a 1070ti i7 desktop when the same things will probably just happen all over again? Can't we just accept that it is your hardware problem and not mine? That you need to make your products work for your customers who do read the minimum specs, do make every effort. Thunderbolt 3 is a SUPERSET of Displayport 1.2. This is the reality, what you are saying is not only technically incorrect but offensive and also legally shows that you don't even understand the hardware you are selling and supporting.

'You're both running GTX1060 - MaxQ. MaxQ is a less-powerful version of the Desktop 1060 - it is not equivalent to a desktop 1060 chipset. The GTX1060 Max Q is below the Vive Pro's system requirements; the difference between a GTX1060 and a 1060Max Q is significant when it comes to the higher resolution requirements of the Pro. ' The difference between these cards is 5% at most. I have the full 6GB VRAM Laptop 1060 version so there is basically zero difference.

' You're buying an enterprise grade HMD with a higher resolution and higher requirements than our consumer HMD, and attempting to run it off an entry level gaming laptop designed for casual gamers and Fortnight players. That laptop is okayish for gen 1 HMDs; not great but okay. It's simply not suitable for higher resolution HMDs and you'll need to adjust your expectations of what that laptop's capable of. "there is no good reason to my mind" does not translate well into technology which has firm requirements which are clearly listed. ' Well when people who work in enterprise are as amateurish as you, it's no use the pot trying to call the kettle black, to my mind anyway. I have hacked around to make the Vive Pro work on the Dell G3 reasonably coherently. It would work perfectly if your organisation could be bothered to design your products properly, but you do not and then you blame the customer. I can run engineering simulations, data science pipelines on the Dell G3 no problem. It's a great laptop, especially after modding with an SSD and extra RAM. Perfectly suitable for 'Enterprise Grade' applications in other areas, just not yours. Clearly this is my fault, even when it meets the spec sheet 100%. I, as a very well informed consumer, have every right to believe that when your specs specify Displayport 1.2, a SUBSET of T3, a T3 should be more than adequate. You as a technical professional specalising this kit should know what SUPERSET means in terms of cabling, in terms of the engineering reality. The Displayport signal carries straight through a T3 cable the same as a DisplayPort one does, no hardware, firmware, up-or-down conversion necessary. You're the Silicon Valley pro, I'm just some guy who lives in Wales.

My Dell G3 has the minimum specs because Thunderbolt can put out a Displayport 1.2 signal. 8th gen core i7, 32GB RAM, GTX 1060 Max Q, Windows 10. So basically you spent an hour writing a rant about me, saying I've completely ignored the minimum specs, like some idiot, and then posted a minimum spec sheet which the Dell G3 meets over 100%. Congratulations, you played yourself. With that being said and me having proved you, the expert and the professional wrong, how can I now get my sound to work?

Sorry but I disagree. I actually got the Vive Pro headset working in extended mode last night on my Dell G3 with a DisplayPort to Thunderbolt 3 cable, before one of my base stations bricked. The sound coming from the speakers is fine for about 5 seconds after plugging into Steam VR before it becomes wonky and distorted. The article you shared is only partially correct, as the Thunderbolt 3 connects to the Intel GPU which is boosted by the NVidia graphics on demand. So it does work, and it can be made to work. I made it work yesterday. Your excuse, both technical and on behalf of your employer, is that 'this headset is too good for the likes of your Fortnite gamer bro laptop' which is basically just an intellectually lazy and half-assed response, which I proved wrong yesterday anyway. It does work, and you, as technical supprt, just cannot be bothered to service your customers nor is HTC able to service any sort of coherent technical standard Only problem now is the sound, which is crackly and distorted. You will probably blame this conveniently on the cabling again, but there are dozens on complaints about this is the forums again, and the only technical supprt offers is to switch everything from the hardware to the drivers to SteamVR 'off and then on again' until the correct sound patch is working. Seems to me like this whole product is a hodge podge mish mash of tech anyway, and neither you nor HTC nor even your users have any idea to make it work out of the box, just like me. And then when it doesn't work you call us stupid and pen nonsensical rants which end up being non sequitor anyway.

It's a pure design fact of Laptops that they will be constrained on the ports that they are able to have. This is why laptops marketed as 'VR Ready' don't have a DisplayPort but instead USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 to cover all the edge cases. It's then beyond belief to me that HTC are telling me I need a laptop with a specific Displayport output, configured in a specific way. The whole purpose of Thunderbolt 3 is that is covers all these bases in one, surely the right drivers/firmware should be able to make this work instead of advising me, who has spent the best part of £1200 on a brand new Vive Pro, to go spend another £1000 just to get a compatible port for your cabling system. It's ridiculous. I might expect this from a used car salesman, but the Vive Pro is supposed to be the world leading VR device for VR Ready laptops and desktops. I bought one brand new off the shelf delivered from Taiwan. This should work, there is no good reason to my mind why it should not. Please surely this can be resolved.

I have the exact same issue. Vive tech support told me to buy a new laptop, but I bought the Dell G3 with 1060 Max Q and Thunderbolt 3 and modded it wth 32GB of RAM and 1 TB SSD because there should be nothing technically preventing it from being VR ready for any device. 8th gen i7 CPU. It is marketed all over the internet as an affordable 'VR ready' machine, Thunderbolt 3 should easily support a DisplayPort signal. I am extremely disappointed that HTC tech support are telling me to shell out £1000 on an entirely new computer just because of one technical hiccup where a Thunderbolt port can't speak to a Displayport, when a Thunderbolt is basically a DisplayPort with extra stuff. They share all the same DNA. This is bread and butter stuff imho. The whole purpose of Thunderbolt 3 is that people don't have to buy a new laptop for all occassions, and it's the job of the manufacturer to make it work imho, not mine to have 12 laptops for every external device that I purchase. I am using the Vive Pro, setup goes fine apart from the HMD display just mirroring the desktop display, not displaying what it should be.