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[PeteZaTheHutt]

Holy crap! Just got an e-mail saying that my order has been processed and will be shipped soon and to watch for another e-mail with a shipping tracking number!!! I'm in Canada (Niagara Region) and my pre-order was at about 7 and a half minutes after the pre-order page went live. SO excited after all of this waiting! I've got a brand spanking new Alienware Area 51 with dual GTX980's that I bought specifically for the Rift (and also so that I could get ARK: Survival Evolved running half decently) and it's been patiently waiting for it to arrive. Soon, my precious... soon.

P.S. - Thanks to all who have given impressions on the software and games that are currently available. It has really helped me to decide on some of the games to buy.

 

[GearDraxon]

Had my parents over to try the Rift (and VR in general) for the first time this evening. At first they didn't get exactly what it was all about, but after a few of the Dreamdeck demos, Dad really dug it.

We played a couple hours of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, and it was great to see Mom put the headset on, and immediately reach out her hands and try to manipulate things in the space. It was my first time playing, and that game is a blast, even if it's not reliant upon the VR experience. Loved being able to peer around / closer to the bomb to make out details, though.

Vive arrives tomorrow, we'll see if it works in my space.

 

[Dr.Acula]

This won't happen.

I think VR is going to be a real market, but Oculus could end up being the askjeeves/palm pilot/livejournal of the sector.

 

[Herr Starr]

I think VR is going to be a real market, but Oculus could end up being the askjeeves/palm pilot/livejournal of the sector.

Honestly, Vive has a much better chance of falling into that trap if either of the two companies are at risk (they aren't, but this is for the sake of argument). The Rift, by all account, is a higher quality device, while the Vive was in many ways rushed to market in order to compete with the Rift. It shows, though both are very high quality devices. If Touch turns out to be a product at an equally solid level as the Rift, the Vive could very well end up being the less good alternative for all user groups. But the truth is that both are going to have a healthy lifespan during this first generation of hardware.

This is NeoGAF. If any community on the Internet should be familiar with delays and broken promises, it's got to be us. It's par for the course in gaming. Yet how many of these delays and broken promises do we remember after the products have been in our hands for a few weeks/months? Pretty much none of them. Anyone who thinks the Rift's chances have been damaged as a result of the delays and Luckey's twitter comments, is deluding himself.

 

[TheRed]

Holy shit guys VR is amazing. Played some Chronos and man that game has pretty environments and is the most immersive thing I tried. Tried Subnautica and it was really cool to be underwater swimming around. Watched some videos that made me exciting for cooler longer stuff to be made in the future. Played Lucky's Tale and it was really great, it looks great even though on videos it looks kinda dull, looking forward to the rest of that. I checked out some

Spoiler

VR porn

because my curiosity got the best of me, it was weird but also pretty cool. Then I messed around with Virtual Desktop which seems cool has some gorgeous backgrounds from the workshop like the star wars ones. Then I discovered the Milkdrop background and ended up listening to 5 straight songs surrounded by a music visualizer, it was incredible, the Rift's headphones are really damn good. The Rift is so nice,when I compare it to the Vive that I get tomorrow it's gonna be hard to decide which one I'm gonna sell when I thought for sure it would be the Rift but now not so sure. I'm loving the Rift too much. VR is amazing, this was my first experience with it and its amazing, pixels are visible but its so worth it, I can't imagine how mindblowing VR is gonna be in gen 2 or 3 when you can't even notice the pixels. Now off to try Eliteangerous!

 

[Peterthumpa]

Yep, just got mine today. Tried Lucky's Tale first and holy fuck, this is Mario 64 levels of awesomeness. I just couldn't believe it, I was INSIDE that world. I could write a whole page of things to talk about the Rift, but I just want to go back to it. Sorry guys, peace.

EDIT: Is there a GAF friends list?

 

[Thoraxes]

This has probably been answered before, but can I still use all the injects and hacks on stuff with the CV1 to get it to run other games with forced 3D where applicable? Like using VorpX or something. I've only seen people mostly talk about playing games on the Rift from the Rift store, and didn't see any info on this in the OP.

Any help would be appreciated. I scheduled a demo session at Best Buy and should I get the urge to purchase a headset... well, i'd very much like to.

 

[JambiBum]

This has probably been answered before, but can I still use all the injects and hacks on stuff with the CV1 to get it to run other games with forced 3D where applicable? Like using VorpX or something. I've only seen people mostly talk about playing games on the Rift from the Rift store, and didn't see any info on this in the OP.

Any help would be appreciated. I scheduled a demo session at Best Buy and should I get the urge to purchase a headset... well, i'd very much like to.

Yeah you can. You just have to turn on the setting in Oculus home that allows third party apps to be run on the Rift. There's also a different program that's going to be free that is getting updated for the CV1 called Vireio perception that will be out this week that will do the same thing as VorpX

Also we really should start a google doc for Oculus Home username sharing. I have zero friends on there right now

 

[Foggy]

The launch has clearly been shambolic, but I gotta say that the headset delivers spectacularly. For someone who has only used the DK1 and GearVR, I was startled at how great the display is. The SDE is certainly there but I would say it's totally negligible and hasn't affected immersion in the slightest. Unfortunately I only got 30 minutes to mess with it yesterday but I'm genuinely blown away. So yeah after hearing all the positives with the Vive and my firsthand experience with the Rift, both of these headsets really, truly deliver.

Now when I get home I'll have Luckey's Tale, Eve Valkyrie, The Climb, Blaze Rush, and Technolust waiting for me. I'll probably pick up Virtual Desktop as well. After waiting all these years (and all these weeks), it's worth it.

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

So is there any decent speculation on when touch will be bundled with the Rift in retail? I feel like that's when I want to jump in.

 

[qa_engineer]

Honestly, Vive has a much better chance of falling into that trap if either of the two companies are at risk (they aren't, but this is for the sake of argument). The Rift, by all account, is a higher quality device, while the Vive was in many ways rushed to market in order to compete with the Rift. It shows, though both are very high quality devices. If Touch turns out to be a product at an equally solid level as the Rift, the Vive could very well end up being the less good alternative for all user groups. But the truth is that both are going to have a healthy lifespan during this first generation of hardware.

This is NeoGAF. If any community on the Internet should be familiar with delays and broken promises, it's got to be us. It's par for the course in gaming. Yet how many of these delays and broken promises do we remember after the products have been in our hands for a few weeks/months? Pretty much none of them. Anyone who thinks the Rift's chances have been damaged as a result of the delays and Luckey's twitter comments, is deluding himself.

What about the Vive was compromised in order to get it to market at the same time as the Rift? The fit and finish? The design? Both of which are subjective. The only advantage, and its a minor one, I can think of is that the Rift has a slightly better view-able sweet spot. Other than that I fail to see how the product was rushed to market, especially when the device shipped with its "touch" controller support day one. Not agreeing with the other comments about Rift becoming palm pilots etc. just pointing out that the Vive was not rushed. Instead both are brand new, state of the art hardware that will evolve as the software improves.

 

[The Elite]

Maybe both will do just fine.

I hope both do better than just fine though.

 

[Wrestlemania]

What about the Vive was compromised in order to get it to market at the same time as the Rift? The fit and finish? The design? Both of which are subjective. The only advantage, and its a minor one, I can think of is that the Rift has a slightly better view-able sweet spot. Other than that I fail to see how the product was rushed to market, especially when the device shipped with its "touch" controller support day one. Not agreeing with the other comments about Rift becoming palm pilots etc. just pointing out that the Vive was not rushed. Instead both are brand new, state of the art hardware that will evolve as the software improves.

I wouldn't say it's rushed, but I would definitely say that more time spent on the design and fit of the headset would have been a huge benefit. The fact that people are modding the straps and writing guides to how to wear it is pretty ridiculous, you just don't need that with the Rift.
The Rift is considerably easier to adjust and more comfortable to wear, both of which help in maintaining the sweet spot, which is better on the Rift but I don't know how much of that is optics or just that it's less prone to shifting around once it's on.

 

[nynt9]

Is it possible to buy Oculus games through a browser like Steam or do I have to have the client installed on a machine?

 

[mitchman]

I also have:
AltspaceVR
Virtual Desktop
BigScreen VR

They all work on SDK 1.3?

 

[qa_engineer]

I wouldn't say it's rushed, but I would definitely say that more time spent on the design and fit of the headset would have been a huge benefit. The fact that people are modding the straps and writing guides to how to wear it is pretty ridiculous, you just don't need that with the Rift.
The Rift is considerably easier to adjust and more comfortable to wear, both of which help in maintaining the sweet spot, which is better on the Rift but I don't know how much of that is optics or just that it's less prone to shifting around once it's on.

I would agree with that based solely on the fact that there are far more conversations about modding the vive for comfort etc. I am one of the lucky few where the Vive fits pretty well once its been adjusted and the weight has no impact on long term use.

However, the overall design of the Rift and Vive are not that great in my opinion. Especially when compared to the short time I've spent with the PSVR. From a design, comfort, fit and finish stand point it stands heads and shoulders above both. Both the Rift and Vive have this claustrophobic ski goggle design where the PSVR is like a welders mask that sits gently atop your head. If Sony made a PC compatible version of the PSVR with support for advanced tracking and controller support I would be all in.

 

[Thoraxes]

Yeah you can. You just have to turn on the setting in Oculus home that allows third party apps to be run on the Rift. There's also a different program that's going to be free that is getting updated for the CV1 called Vireio perception that will be out this week that will do the same thing as VorpX

Also we really should start a google doc for Oculus Home username sharing. I have zero friends on there right now

Thank you for the answer!

 

[The Elite]

They all work on SDK 1.3?

Not sure about BigScreen but I believe it does. Virtual Desktop is on Oculus Home and I believe Altspace works as well.

 

[Herr Starr]

What about the Vive was compromised in order to get it to market at the same time as the Rift? The fit and finish? The design? Both of which are subjective. The only advantage, and its a minor one, I can think of is that the Rift has a slightly better view-able sweet spot. Other than that I fail to see how the product was rushed to market, especially when the device shipped with its "touch" controller support day one. Not agreeing with the other comments about Rift becoming palm pilots etc. just pointing out that the Vive was not rushed. Instead both are brand new, state of the art hardware that will evolve as the software improves.

Just to be clear, when I say "rushed" in this particular context, I don't mean it as in "released too early". I mean it as in "released as quickly as it was possible for them to do".

The enthusiasm for the Vive mainly comes from its great implementation of motion controllers in a room-scale environment, something the Rift can't offer yet. When it comes to the headset itself, it has more of an "industrial" look to it, based more on improving what worked for the Rift DK2 rather than going in new directions with it. Comfort and parts of the optics are arguably worse than the Rift. As the Tested guys said: the Vive is currently a better experience than the Rift, but whenever they use the Vive they wish that they could use the Rift with the Vive controllers instead.

Valve getting into the commercial VR race was apparently a late decision, something they only decided on after Oculus had a considerable head start. Valve had lots of experience with their hugely expensive studio setup, but creating something for the consumer market is somewhat different. Them deciding to go head to head with Oculus took everyone by surprise, particularly considering how much of a head start Oculus had at the time.

 

[mitchman]

Not sure about BigScreen but I believe it does. Virtual Desktop is on Oculus Home and I believe Altspace works as well.

I didn't see Virtual Desktop yesterday and I see if nowhere on https://www2.oculus.com/experiences/rift/ when accessed from Europe. I hope they're not doing some lame region specific stuff like on the GearVR.

 

[Herr Starr]

I didn't see Virtual Desktop yesterday and I see if nowhere on https://www2.oculus.com/experiences/rift/ when accessed from Europe. I hope they're not doing some lame region specific stuff like on the GearVR.

Virtual Desktop doesn't support Windows 7, so they can't offer it for sale on Oculus Home. If you buy it on Steam, you also get an Oculus Home key for it, or at least you did when it was launched. I don't know if it's still true, but I haven't heard anything to indicate this has stopped.

 

[The Elite]

I didn't see Virtual Desktop yesterday and I see if nowhere on https://www2.oculus.com/experiences/rift/ when accessed from Europe. I hope they're not doing some lame region specific stuff like on the GearVR.

Sorry. Should have been more clear. I bought the Steam copy and was given a key for Oculus Home. I assume they are still offering that?

Like the person above mentioned, it's due to the fact they don't offer Windows 7 support.

 

[twisted89]

Oculus was delivered about and hour ago, was super excited and just straight into Chronos. This is the first time I've tried VR and maybe I set my expectations a bit too high, the experience was great but in every game I've tried I all I see are extreme jaggies and what appears to be no AA which is extremely off putting.

I don't know if I've got something set up wrong? Or I'm just seeing the effects of viewing a screen so closely? Increasing the resolution of the game helps but they're still very noticeable.

 

[wonderpug]

Oculus was delivered about and hour ago, was super excited and just straight into Chronos. This is the first time I've tried VR and maybe I set my expectations a bit too high, the experience was great but in every game I've tried I all I see are extreme jaggies and what appears to be no AA which is extremely off putting.

I don't know if I've got something set up wrong? Or I'm just seeing the effects of viewing a screen so closely? Increasing the resolution of the game helps but they're still very noticeable.

I think the stuff you're talking about depends on the game. I'd recommend you try the Henry, Lost, and The Rose and I short stories and see if you feel those have the same issues. I think those are gorgeous.

 

[twisted89]

I think the stuff you're talking about depends on the game. I'd recommend you try the Henry, Lost, and The Rose and I short stories and see if you feel those have the same issues. I think those are gorgeous.

Well, I went and tried all of the games you suggested, the pixelation is still very much visible and annoying. Maybe I've just been spoilt with ultrawide monitor and decent AA but for a £500 device on its 3rd iteration I am slightly disappointed.

The gap between my nose and the rift is clearly noticeable letting in external light and being able to see the rift in my peripheral vision the whole time is also off putting not to mention the incredible amount of glare/god rays apparent in dark scenes.

 

[StudioTan]

Well, I went and tried all of the games you suggested, the pixelation is still very much visible and annoying. Maybe I've just been spoilt with ultrawide monitor and decent AA but for a £500 device on its 3rd iteration I am slightly disappointed.

The gap between my nose and the rift is clearly noticeable letting in external light and being able to see the rift in my peripheral vision the whole time is also off putting not to mention the incredible amount of glare/god rays apparent in dark scenes.

Don't expect sharpness comparable to an HD monitor, we don't have displays at high enough resolutions and even if we did we don't have computers capable of driving 2 4k or 8k displays in 3D at 90 FPS.

You have a screen literally 2 inches from your eyes, you're going to see pixels. It's almost like going back to using CRTs. We'll eventually get back up to super high resolution displays but don't expect it soon unless they get foveated rendering working, even then we need super high resolution panels which don't exist yet.

Once you get past that expectation you'll forget about the lower fidelity and start to feel immersed in the world.

 

[Animator]

Honestly, Vive has a much better chance of falling into that trap if either of the two companies are at risk (they aren't, but this is for the sake of argument). The Rift, by all account, is a higher quality device, while the Vive was in many ways rushed to market in order to compete with the Rift.

"By all accounts " lol yea sure. Having used both that can't be further from the truth.

 

[twisted89]

Don't expect sharpness comparable to an HD monitor, we don't have displays at high enough resolutions and even if we did we don't have computers capable of driving 2 4k or 8k displays in 3D at 90 FPS.

You have a screen literally 2 inches from your eyes, you're going to see pixels. It's almost like going back to using CRTs. We'll eventually get back up to super high resolution displays but don't expect it soon unless they get foveated rendering working, even then we need super high resolution panels which don't exist yet.

Once you get past that expectation you'll forget about the lower fidelity and start to feel immersed in the world.

I can accept the pixelation, fair enough but the rest of the issues just seem like straight up design flaws to me instead of technical limitations - The nose gap, peripheral view and the glare, surely these are all things that can (and probably should have been!) fixed before the consumer version released.

 

[flyinpiranha]

Absolutely, Apple and Samsung. Apple and Samsung have repeatedly delayed distribution to secondary retailers of anticipated products that are backordered to preorder customers. It's frankly done all the time and to be honest, when I was working on a lot of retail contracts for manufacturers in the early 2000s, the standard version of those agreements always had clauses that allowed delays and or cancellation if for whatever reason the manufacturer could not fulfill the orders. Oculus is owned by one of the largest media companies in the world and retailers like Best Buy and Amazon depend on Facebook to promote sales and connect with their customers. As such, I doubt that delaying another month or two and/or accepting preorders in store rather than actually making units available for pickup before preorder customers would destroy the relationship between Oculus and retailers.

Wait, so you named two of the single largest companies in the world to compare to a tech startup and an infant technology new in processing?

Facebook got the talent there, they have been hands-off for the most part. This is a startup of new technology, not companies who actually have their own stores.

 

[mnannola]

Well looks like I have a Vive and Rift both being shipped, and I can't cancel either one since both have been charged on my card. Decisions decisions...

 

[TheRed]

Guys, Subnautica is fucking great. More people need to try it.

 

[Wrestlemania]

"By all accounts " lol yea sure. Having used both that can't be further from the truth.

Depends on how you're determining "higher quality". As an owner of both, while the Vive unarguably has a better tracking system and controllers, the Rift is a much higher quality headset in terms of build, ease of use and comfort.

 

[wonderpug]

Depends on how you're determining "higher quality". As an owner of both, while the Vive unarguably has a better tracking system and controllers, the Rift is a much higher quality headset in terms of build, ease of use and comfort.

What puts the Vive tracking system ahead of the Rift for you? The greater freedom to set up the base stations wherever you want, or something else?

 

[Pops Maellard]

Well, I went and tried all of the games you suggested, the pixelation is still very much visible and annoying. Maybe I've just been spoilt with ultrawide monitor and decent AA but for a £500 device on its 3rd iteration I am slightly disappointed.

The gap between my nose and the rift is clearly noticeable letting in external light and being able to see the rift in my peripheral vision the whole time is also off putting not to mention the incredible amount of glare/god rays apparent in dark scenes.

The SDE should fade if you can find a way to ignore it. It was constantly on my mind with DK1, and I had small moments with the DK2 where I forgot it. With my Vive, I haven't thought about it since day one (until this tread, actually). Given that the Rift has comparable if not slightly better optics, you should be able to slowly forget about it if you want to.

Oh, and turn off the lights in your room to fix the nose gap issue. Only one of the HMD's I've owned hasn't had a nose gap, but playing in a dark room totally solves that.

What puts the Vive tracking system ahead of the Rift for you? The greater freedom to set up the base stations wherever you want, or something else?

I'm going to preface this by saying my Rift just got charged, and in two days I'm going to have both of these things on my desk. That said, the Vive lighthouse tech is arguably superior to what Oculus is using with the constellation setup. The lighthouses can be scaled up to rooms much bigger than what Constellation can support without degrading in tracking quality. There's also the issue of hardware fragmentation, as every Vive owner has lighthouses but not every Rift owner has two Constellation trackers. At the core of it, Oculus's solution is competent but just not as elegant as Valve's. Valve's also happens to be for sale right now.

 

[LaneDS]

Guys, Subnautica is fucking great. More people need to try it.

I can barely play that game on a monitor due to fear of the ocean depths and am pretty sure playing it in VR will straight up kill me.

 

[Animator]

Depends on how you're determining "higher quality". As an owner of both, while the Vive unarguably has a better tracking system and controllers, the Rift is a much higher quality headset in terms of build, ease of use and comfort.

No it's not. I can barely fit the rift to my face because I wear glasses. It is terribly uncomfortable to use. I am not sure what about the build you claim is better? The headphones? I don't really care about them since I can use my own much higher quality headphones with vive. Also unlike rift vive headset is moddable as in there are already mods that take 5-10 minutes to do where you replace the whole strap system and end up with a headset lightyears ahead of rift and stock vive in terms of comfort and usability.


The only thing I would give to rift over vive is the ease of setup due to not having to deal with lighthouse placement.

 

[TheRed]

I can barely play that game on a monitor due to fear of the ocean depths and am pretty sure playing it in VR will straight up kill me.

Yeah it's scary to push out farther, and at night I went out with my flashlight and it was nerve wracking hearing the sounds all around. But I needed to find a fish to survive so had to go out at night. Really cool game and I'm not usually into any of these type of games. Can't wait to play more of it.

 

[Wrestlemania]

No it's not. I can barely fit the rift to my face because I wear glasses. It is terribly uncomfortable to use. I am not sure what about the build you claim is better? The headphones? I don't really care about them since I can use my own much higher quality headphones with vive. Also unlike rift vive headset is moddable as in there are already mods that take 5-10 minutes to do where you replace the whole strap system and end up with a headset lightyears ahead of rift and stock vive in terms of comfort and usability.


The only thing I would give to rift over vive is the ease of setup due to not having to deal with lighthouse placement.

I don't wear glasses so I can't entirely compare my experience to yours, but I find the Rift massively more comfortable and I've never been able to find an entirely comfortable way to wear the Vive, and my face gets really hot while using it. If I have to resort to modding it to fix that, then it's pretty poor design on their part, and I'm not entirely sure which mods make it "lightyears ahead" in terms of comfort. Wholesale replacement of the straps? You've then still got the cable to contend with, which is a lot more intrusive that the Rift one.

 

[wonderpug]

I'm going to preface this by saying my Rift just got charged, and in two days I'm going to have both of these things on my desk. That said, the Vive lighthouse tech is arguably superior to what Oculus is using with the constellation setup. The lighthouses can be scaled up to rooms much bigger than what Constellation can support without degrading in tracking quality. There's also the issue of hardware fragmentation, as every Vive owner has lighthouses but not every Rift owner has two Constellation trackers. At the core of it, Oculus's solution is competent but just not as elegant as Valve's. Valve's also happens to be for sale right now.

On paper I'd agree the Lighthouse system is more elegant, and I felt it was the superior system leading up to the launches, but in practice I hear more reports of Vive users dealing with tracking issues than I do Rift users.

The Lighthouses having greater range is a bonus for people who have a ton of space to dedicate to roomscale, but since the Rift has enough range for Valve's recommended roomscale dimensions, the Vive's extra range beyond that is not going to be utilized for most users.

I do totally agree with you about fragmentation. Even with two Constellations, developers are almost always going to be designing their games with a front 180 play area in mind to accommodate the Rift recommended sensor configuration. I get why Oculus is recommending that route, and I get that many games will have a natural 'front', but I think there are also a ton of great gaming possibilities that will work better with full 360 hand tracking (like what we already see with the Vive's launch library).

My biggest issue with the Constellation setup is figuring out how I'm going to run a cord for my rear sensor for room scale. I've got a 10 foot USB 3.0 cord I could test out now, but I'd need closer to 30 feet to cleanly route a cable to where I'd want a rear sensor. I'm really worried about how it'll affect performance having that long a cable.

 

[Bsigg12]

No it's not. I can barely fit the rift to my face because I wear glasses. It is terribly uncomfortable to use. I am not sure what about the build you claim is better? The headphones? I don't really care about them since I can use my own much higher quality headphones with vive. Also unlike rift vive headset is moddable as in there are already mods that take 5-10 minutes to do where you replace the whole strap system and end up with a headset lightyears ahead of rift and stock vive in terms of comfort and usability.


The only thing I would give to rift over vive is the ease of setup due to not having to deal with lighthouse placement.

I feel the Rift is lighter, cooler and more comfortable overall than the Vive. I can understand the glasses complaint but after having both for a few weeks now, I agree with the guys from Tested where I wish I could use the tracking of the Vive with my Rift. Also, you can use your own headphones with the Rift, the clip on headphones are removable.

 

[wonderpug]

Do I not have to worry about people with glasses scratching up my Rift lenses? I'm kind of terrified to demo VR to any of my friends & family with glasses, and I really wish the Rift either had the Vive's adjustable lens depth or the alternate facial interface insert that was previously promised.

At the moment I'm waiting to hear about a 3rd party facial interface that'll hold the headset further away from a glasses wearers face, but am I just being overly paranoid?

 

[Dr.Acula]

My biggest issue with the Constellation setup is figuring out how I'm going to run a cord for my rear sensor for room scale. I've got a 10 foot USB 3.0 cord I could test out now, but I'd need closer to 30 feet to cleanly route a cable to where I'd want a rear sensor. I'm really worried about how it'll affect performance having that long a cable.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the lighthouses don't receive realtime data, they're outputting light which the headset uses for tracking

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Just canceled my Rift pre-order since the Vive plays Rift games. Those of you waiting, you're welcome

 

[GeoGonzo]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the lighthouses don't receive realtime data, they're outputting light which the headset uses for tracking

Correct. Wonderpug is talking about the Oculus tracking solution, though, not HTC's.

 

[Seiru]

Just canceled my Rift pre-order since the Vive plays Rift games. Those of you waiting, you're welcome

My thankfulness depends on whether your order was <15 minutes in.

 

[wonderpug]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the lighthouses don't receive realtime data, they're outputting light which the headset uses for tracking

Correct. Wonderpug is talking about the Oculus tracking solution, though, not HTC's.

Yup. The Lighthouses you can stick wherever you want and you only need to worry about a power source, but Constellation needs a USB 3.0 connection to your main computer.

The main advantage of the Oculus solution is that it asks less of the user. "Put these on your desk. Done." But for the people who are willing to drill holes in their walls or buy photography tripods and such to get the benefits of an opposing corner sensor setup, Lighthouses can accommodate that easier.

Actually I guess the hypothetical main advantage of the Oculus solution, according to them, is hand and body tracking eventually being done by their cameras. The current sensors can't do it, but if Constellation 2.0 or 3.0 has the capability in the coming years, I would imagine an Oculus user could just buy the latest and greatest sensors without having to buy a new headset -- the newer cameras would still be able to see the older Rift headsets, but would be able to add in the body tracking features.

 

[pj]

Yup. The Lighthouses you can stick wherever you want and you only need to worry about a power source, but Constellation needs a USB 3.0 connection to your main computer.

The main advantage of the Oculus solution is that it asks less of the user. "Put these on your desk. Done." But for the people who are willing to drill holes in their walls or buy photography tripods and such to get the benefits of an opposing corner sensor setup, Lighthouses can accommodate that easier.

Actually I guess the hypothetical main advantage of the Oculus solution, according to them, is hand and body tracking eventually being done by their cameras. The current sensors can't do it, but if Constellation 2.0 or 3.0 has the capability in the coming years, I would imagine an Oculus user could just buy the latest and greatest sensors without having to buy a new headset -- the newer cameras would still be able to see the older Rift headsets, but would be able to add in the body tracking features.

An interview with someone from valve indicated to me that their vision of the future is hybrid tracking systems. If body tracking becomes a thing, they could easily retain lighthouse for HMD/controller tracking and release a camera for body tracking, or even use rift's.

 

[Zaptruder]

I can accept the pixelation, fair enough but the rest of the issues just seem like straight up design flaws to me instead of technical limitations - The nose gap, peripheral view and the glare, surely these are all things that can (and probably should have been!) fixed before the consumer version released.

Except for the nose gap* those other 'flaws' are largely the result of difficult design optimization solutions between various trade-offs that exist due to inherent limitations in our current technology base (i.e. we need better materials tech, better computing, better optics, better manufacturing, etc, etc).

*I agree is a bit extreme, even if the intent may be to allow continued room visibility for utility purpose. I've resolved it by carefully taping up a portion of it so it's not particularly obvious unless I'm actually looking for it.

Unless you're willing to wait two-three more years for consumer VR tech, this is as good as it gets. Of course most others are not as patient - if the flaws are something that you can't look past right now, you're certain to get great resale value for it.

The Vive is very similar, with a slightly different set of compromises. The prevailing opinion seems to be that the Rift has a somewhat better HMD, and for now, the Vive is a far superior VR experience (due to motion controllers and room scale).

An interview with someone from valve indicated to me that their vision of the future is hybrid tracking systems. If body tracking becomes a thing, they could easily retain lighthouse for HMD/controller tracking and release a camera for body tracking, or even use rift's.

There's incredible value to be had in body tracking. Even Kinect 2 grade body tracking would add significant value to VR - even if it's somewhat reduced for gaming due to latency. It's an obvious direction for VR to go - and will open way for a social VR future where people are able to 'emote' with their full body (or rather just act naturally while others pick up on their body language). At that level, VR begins to have real disruptive impact on other socialization paradigms.

 

[Dreamwriter]

No it's not. I can barely fit the rift to my face because I wear glasses. It is terribly uncomfortable to use. I am not sure what about the build you claim is better? The headphones? I don't really care about them since I can use my own much higher quality headphones with vive. Also unlike rift vive headset is moddable as in there are already mods that take 5-10 minutes to do where you replace the whole strap system and end up with a headset lightyears ahead of rift and stock vive in terms of comfort and usability.


The only thing I would give to rift over vive is the ease of setup due to not having to deal with lighthouse placement.

Rift is more comfortable since it is quite a bit lighter and the rigid strap system allows it to balance much more comfortably on your head - you aren't strapping something to your face, you are putting it on like a hat and the headset is lightly pressed against your face by springs.

Vive headset has similar issues with glasses. Every review I've read/watched, including Tested, says using the Vive with too-large glasses tends to pinch your nose, while wearing the Rift with too-large glasses tends to pinch your temples (where the glasses frame touches your head). As for headphones, the Rift's built-in headphones are very high quality, and even if the user happens to have higher quality headphones the Rift is able to use its built-in ones for very accurate 3D sound, since the sound designers know the exact characteristics of the drivers and their distance from the user's ears. And of course being built-in they are very comfortable and easy to wear - if you are using your own over-the-ear headphones with a Vive, that's a real pain, because you have to first put on the Vive, then the headphones over the straps, and reverse that when taking them off. I've done that for years with Oculus DK2 (which has a similar strap system), and while doable, it's a real pain. With Vive I'd much rather use the included earbuds, even if their quality is quite low.

Can you link to one of these Vive strap mods where you replace the Vive's strap system ending with a headset light years more comfortable than the Rift? I've never read of such a thing and I follow this closely. I know it's possible to replace the straps, but to my knowledge nobody has come up with any replacements.

 

[Herr Starr]

And of course being built-in they are very comfortable and easy to wear - if you are using your own over-the-ear headphones with a Vive, that's a real pain, because you have to first put on the Vive, then the headphones over the straps, and reverse that when taking them off. I've done that for years with Oculus DK2 (which has a similar strap system), and while doable, it's a real pain. With Vive I'd much rather use the included earbuds, even if their quality is quite low.

This (along with the wired Xbox 360 controller I used) was honestly the main reason why I rarely used the DK2 after a while. It was just too much of a bother to change my soundcard settings to headphone mode, plug them in, place them on my desk, find and plug in the 360 controller, put it in my lap, turn on and put on the DK2, put on the headphones, lift the DK2 enough for me to use the mouse to start whatever app I wanted to try, then pick up the 360 controller. Reverse all of that for when I wanted to take a break or stop for the day.

With the Rift, all I need to do is put the device on my head (which is now more like putting on a hat than the ski-google setup of the DK2) and press a button on the included wireless Xbox One controller, and I'm good to go. It starts the software automatically and allows me to start what I want to play directly from VR without having to fiddle with my monitor. The barrier for me to play VR games on impulse is now much, much lower than it used to be.

Also, unless someone has a seriously high-quality set of audiophile headphones (most people don't. Headphones being expensive also has nothing to do with this), the Rift's headphones are going to be much better than what you already have. It's kind of sad to see so many people dismiss them as crap solely based on their appearance. Doubly so because it helps explain why fancy-looking but shitty-sounding headphones are so popular these days. Going from my regular gaming headphones (I do have studio headphones for music work, but don't use them for gaming) that I used with the DK2 to the Rift's inbuilt speakers is a big step towards improved presence. Not only is the 3D good, but I pick up much more subtle sound cues, such as the crispy details of a pinball rolling across the pinball table. It was the thing that really pushed Pinball FX2 VR into something that truly felt real for me yesterday. The pinball itself no longer felt like an artificial construct; it felt real and heavy, and I imagined that I knew exactly how it would have felt in my hand if I reached out to pick it up.