Vive owner here, seems to be a lot of Oculus love from you guys, I only owend the Oculus DK1 and thought is was terrible so i cant say anything about the CV1
OK. I'll play this game. I can't stand by as the Vive guy throws down the gauntlet to dis my Rift. :eek
The DK1 is a developer's kit with primitive specs. Of course it's terrible against the Vive or the CV1 (which you haven't tried) . It wasn't a commercial product and was even constructed with mostly off the shelf parts. So that statement shouldn't weigh on anyone's decision as to getting the Rift vs. Vive.
I've owned the Vive for 9 months now and can honestly say it's been mind blowing, The Vive + Steam is just a perfect match
Steam works for Oculus Rift, too. I don't understand. You can use the Steam storefront and Steam calibration. With the Rift you're not tied to the Oculus store. With Vive you're tied to Steam.
and Nothing Oculus offers even comes close to true roomscale play. No contest there, on that front the vive leaves the rift in the dust.
On what basis do you say that? Oculus does have true roomscale.
You haven't even tried Oculus roomscale play so that assertion makes no sense. You could have made that statement 9 months ago but that was before Oculus even released Touch.
When both platforms were initially released, Oculus simply didn't have roomscale solution because they were refining the Touch while HTC broke ground by introducing it first. I feel like they rushed a ratty product to market just so they could beat Oculus at being the first. What they released were those ridiculous melee weapon controllers. I'd rather wait for a polished, well-designed product (Oculus Touch) than dump money on something shoddy from the start.
What I do like about the Vive is that their headset has a camera where you can, if you want, see a ghost of your environment during gameplay. That's one feature I wish I did have with the Oculus. In Oculus you can have a default view that shows a wireframe of your predefined borders when you get close to them but it would be nice to see random objects on the floor to avoid, too. Do you find that a very useful feature?
The hardware and software is just great, and the lighthouse technology currently has no rival, the only thing not up to par on the vive are the trackpads on the controllers, they tend to break after months of heavy use and in this area the touch controllers and their anologue stick have the vive beat.
"No rival?" How is that? I hear the lighthouse is slightly easier to setup than Rift but, in truth, they're both going to take time and effort to get perfect. Roomscale VR is roomscale VR. Unless there are tracking issues the experience is going to be the same with either device. So far the only device that has worrisome tracking issues is the Sony VR.
And the Rift controllers alone were worth the wait. Since they rest around your hands you can perform a lot of functions and forget there's a controller in your hand. You reach out and see your virtual hands grabbing things, pushing buttons, punching, etc. The Rift controllers are tough. I've accidentally bashed them into hard objects and I have little more than superficial scuffs.
With the Vive you're always aware that you're holding two giant batons. I've heard Vive owners frequently smacking themselves in the head with those giant clubs. You're also more likely to smack things accidentally and those sticks break like crazy. Good luck with customer service.
In terms of immersion the Rift controllers alone tip the scales far in favor of the Oculus.
The current support from HTC is also abismal and if you decide to purchase a vive, gro through a third party retailer and not HTC.
Rift support isn't great either. They're severely understaffed and the warraty is essentially non-existent. Fortunately the Rift (and I presume the Vive) are pretty solid devices that have survived drops and accidental blows ... at least so far in my experience.
Also the rift has more hight quality games, however how long will this last when facebook no longer pays developers to make games?
Still it is about time valve releases the vive games they are working on.
I didn't know that the quality of games were that much different. I assumed the selection was pretty comparable between the two but, then again, I haven't tried the Vive selection of games. I didn't know Vive generally had lower quality games.
Actually I thought that most games were actually portable between the two platforms. In some cases there might require minimal tweaking but most titles can be made to run with either. I'll have to look into that further.
Honestly the rift was never a option for me personally because it always seemed pretty clear to me that valve was in it for the long haul and would support the Vive and newer iterations for years to come, not so sure about facebook.
Facebook isn't committed to Oculus? That's news to me. I think their long term objective is in applying it to social networking. You can get glimpses of the capability if you ever tried Big Screen where both Rift and Vive guys can interact in virtual spaces.
I've got 120 hours in Onward right now and when i hear Rift users talk about how they had to purchase 3 camera's just to get something close to roomscale i think yeah no contest.
When you get a Rift with Touch you have two cameras already. A third camera is $59. Big deal.
The vast majority of apps aren't roomscale implimentations and don't require it. Racing sims, Space craft sims, virtual theaters etc. are sit/stand experiences that don't need full roomscale. It's just that the handfull of roomscale apps are what can showcase the potential of VR.
The Oculus can be configured a number of ways to suit your needs. There's only one Vive setup. If you don't want/need full roomscale VR, or if you don't have a large space (yet) or if you simply don't want to drill into your walls or ceiling, you can have a compact setup with one or two sensors on your desk.
You don't even have that option with the Vive. With the Vive you're committed to mounting lighthouse sensors in the corner of your room where you can get them above eye-level which means you're either drilling into your walls/ceiling or having to buy 6 foot stands (if you're lucky you might have really tall bookshelves at either corner of a room so you don't have to do either). You can even do limited roomscale with two Oculus sensors but adding a third really helps.
Still, I don't understand how requiring a third sensor would make the Oculus any worse than the Vive. If you think that 3 sensors makes the Rift "inferior" I could also make the case that the Oculus sensors are more advanced because they're small, discrete, cylinders - smaller than a roll of quarters and can be mounted at desk-level or up high. If you mount them to the wall or even put them on stands you hardly even notice them. The Vive sensors are giant cubes that need to be mounted above eye level.
The Oculus sensors might not even be noticed but ,whenever someone walks into a room with Vive, the first question is, "What the heck are those big cubes doing on your wall?"
In truth, if you're in VR who cares how many sensors you're using or how big they are. The experience is the same. It's just that the Oculus doesn't make your room look like a soundstage.
Also valve seems to be putting way more effort in developing newer updated technology, so i'm very optimistic about the future of the vive.
"More effort?" I don't keep up on VR news but how is Oculus putting less effort into development? The way it felt to me is that Oculus wanted a refined product from the start with their Touch. I felt like HTC, in their haste to be the first to get roomscale, dumped those unweildy baton controllers on the market. HTC is working on comparable controllers to the Touch but I'd be pissed that they didn't work on the improved controller from the start because that means I'll be having to buy the new controller when(if) HTC produces it.
I like that Oculus seems more polished and a complete product from the start. As I said before, the balance and ergonomics of the headset make for less VR fatigue. The HTC isn't as well balanced and is a much heavier piece of gear you're strapping to your face. The HTC is also front-heavy in comparison. The HTC headset isn't as well ventillated and it gets sweaty really fast. The Oculus Rift feels a lot more natural and is well ventilated. It's clear that thought went into these aspects in the design.
So for now the Rift is the smoother experience, however the Vive has already won the battle and if Valve gets HTC to tighten up their game, i see nothing but good things in the future.
With everything going on around Oculus/Facebook right now, i just dont see a future for the rift, and with the vive outselling the rift 2 to 1 at the moment it seems most people would agree.
HTC outsold the Oculus simply because they were the first to impiment roomscale VR with handheld controllers. The early Rift release didn't have Touch and was released with an X-Box controller. Had there been no HTC the Rift wouldn't have been released until the Touch was perfected. The triumph of HTC sales is more a triumph of strategic marketing and aggressive pricing more than anything else.
I do still find it funny how i take roomscale VR for granted now, it's really amazing yet it's just become so normal in my day to day life. Cant wait to see what the next few years will bring.
No doubt we're still in early phase with VR in general. Resolution can be improved for either platform. But, even if what we have is first generation VR, the ride is well worth it.
Both are nice systems. But the Rift controllers alone would seal the deal for me to go the Rift. But I also can't stand the weight, imbalance and sweatiness of the Vive headset on my face - especially after feeling how comfortable the Oculus Rift headset is. I'm sure some day HTC will make improved controllers but the ergonomics aren't going to change and why should you buy a system knowing you would also have to buy the upgraded controllers in the future?
Now can we both get along and agree to scoff at Sony VR?
