Support NeoGAF

[Dreamwriter]

Lower res RGB display over a 4k Pentile. That's the context.

Carmack also wants the perfect VR device, something which doesn't exist. Like, he wants way higher than 4K resolution displays. Nobody is arguing that pentile is superior to RGB, but pentile actually helps in terms of performance at the lowest level, and of course is going to be quite a bit cheaper.

 

[Krejlooc]

Re:subpixel arrangement

Its been funny watching people trump rgb subpixel arrangements, because the move from rgb to pentile from dk1 to dk2 was highly celebrated for many reasons, most important being that rgb subpixel arrangements are subject to jailbarring. Unless sonys headset randomizes the rgb arrangement per row, it will also have the same problem. The problem manifests when you show a solid screen of the same color - say red 255, 0, 0. Because in this instance both green and blue subchannels are entirely off, it gives a 2 subpixel wide gap between pixels, which looks like vertical jailbars on dk1, but would probably look like scanlines on psvr because of the screen orientation.

And I doubt the people testing these headsets are savvy enough to report on jailbarring.

Regardless, the spin to claim rgb subpixel arrangements are automatically superior reads to me like people coming late to the vr game, because there was significant celebration in the move from rgb to pentile screens. It's also funny to watch people boast about "20% more subpixels in rgb" without accoubting for wasted pixels along the bridge of the nose thanks to a single screen. Rift cv1 and vive, by nature of their split screens, waste far fewer pixels.

 

[pottuvoi]

Lower res RGB display over a 4k Pentile. That's the context.

PSVR is 1080p RGB, The others are 1440p Pentile. Apply John Carmack Logic.

Actually CV1/Vive are 2160 x 1200.
In single color cases psvr has ~20% better resolution.

Didn't like pentile on DK2, quite visible in wrong places. (Elite Dangerous)
Theoretically RGB sub-pixels could allow some cleartype style 'resolution' boosting, but it should be used very carefully. (Perhaps maximum of ~30% resolution bufore it starts to look too bad?)

 

[Durante]

Don't get me wrong, everything else being equal (including fill rate and resolution) a RGB layout is preferable to a pentile one, but everything else is not equal in this case. And we don't even have any idea about one of the most important parameters (fill rate).

For what it's worth, I'm a huge proponent of RGB OLED displays in cell phones (and tablets, and monitors, etc), and have been for a long time, but I don't think it's nearly as important for a VR HMD. Let me explain.

By far the most immediate and noticeable difference in practice between a display with a traditional and one with a pentile layout is how well perfectly horzontal and perfectly vertical lines are rendered. That's exceedingly important in any traditional flat-screen display, since tons of user interfaces, fonts, symbols and so on primarily use perfectly horizontal and vertical lines. Just look at the GAF page you are reading right now!

However, after a VR headset reverse optical transformation pass, perfectly horizontal and vertical lines are no longer perfectly horizontal or vertical. So, in VR, those lines will be no more common on the display than any other arbitrary line direction. As such, the biggest drawback of a pentile layout is actually far less of a big deal.

 

[Cyriades]

Actually CV1/Vive are 2160 x 1200.
In single color cases psvr has ~20% better resolution.

Yep, even better.

 

[Sleeping Lesson]

However, after a VR headset reverse optical transformation pass, perfectly horizontal and vertical lines are no longer perfectly horizontal or vertical. So, in VR, those lines will be no more common on the display than any other arbitrary line direction. As such, the biggest drawback of a pentile layout is actually far less of a big deal.

Not to mention that fact that your head, no matter how hard you try, is never going to be perfectly still, and therefore almost never perfectly level.

 

[Krejlooc]

Don't get me wrong, everything else being equal (including fill rate and resolution) a RGB layout is preferable to a pentile one, but everything else is not equal in this case. And we don't even have any idea about one of the most important parameters (fill rate).

For what it's worth, I'm a huge proponent of RGB OLED displays in cell phones (and tablets, and monitors, etc), and have been for a long time, but I don't think it's nearly as important for a VR HMD. Let me explain.

By far the most immediate and noticeable difference in practice between a display with a traditional and one with a pentile layout is how well perfectly horzontal and perfectly vertical lines are rendered. That's exceedingly important in any traditional flat-screen display, since tons of user interfaces, fonts, symbols and so on primarily use perfectly horizontal and vertical lines. Just look at the GAF page you are reading right now!

However, after a VR headset reverse optical transformation pass, perfectly horizontal and vertical lines are no longer perfectly horizontal or vertical. So, in VR, those lines will be no more common on the display than any other arbitrary line direction. As such, the biggest drawback of a pentile layout is actually far less of a big deal.

In fact, given the optics and resolution of these headsets, pentile subpixel scatter basically manifests as a soft sort of anti aliasing over the entire picture. The lower the resolution of the headset, the more beneficial that is. At dk2 levels, even with the soft natural blurring of the pentile subpixel scatter, people were still putting diffusers on the screen to help with pixelation.

 

[Stasis]

Yeah, I still hope someone comes up with the perfect (and relatively simple way) to ceiling mount the cables before push comes to shove and I need to actually start working on getting my room ready

This. I'm itching to go but I'm no pioneer. I've got the tools and a decent amount of ability and ideas, but I'd much rather follow someone else's great (and simple, as you say) model. My father-in-law is a home improvement badass but he knows nothing about tech. He's interested in how this will play out, though, so he's on board to help if I then help him set up the tech aspects for his future room.

I can't wear anything other than over-ear headphones comfortably for any length of time, so that's what it will be for me. I guess it would be ideal to get a pair with a detachable cable and try to find a very short cable.

And this as well. I'm super fussy with headphones now. They have to be circumaural and lightweight for any extended use. I mostly use Sennheiser HD598's atm. I can wear those for hours with no issue but if I go back to an old gaming set for the mic, like Logitech G35's, I'm now uncomfortable within 30 minutes. Too heavy and dense. I'll need to figure this out. The Senn's do have detachable cables as standard.

 

[Krejlooc]

Get a boom mic stand for cable management. A 15' hdmi and usb extender is enough to run up the boom stand. I place mine slong the edge of the room and it lets me extend my cables all iver the extents of the room while keeping everything nice and a above me. Plus I can collapse it down to something tiny when I am not using it.

I use wireless headphones, personally. A pair of skull candy plr2, I bought them several years ago when they were one of the onlu wireless headphone options. Im not an audiophile so they are fine for me. I have a subwoofer in the room as well to provide oomph that I cant get from my headphones.

 

[jmga]

Lower res RGB display over a 4k Pentile. That's the context.

PSVR is 1080p RGB, The others are 1440p Pentile. Apply John Carmack Logic.

Isn't he talking about smartphone displays that don't use custom pixel arrays like Oculus and Vive do?

Do you really think they would have put a more expensive display on their 600$ HMD if a cheaper and lower resolution one was better?

And hardware requirements would have been lower too.

 

[pottuvoi]

In fact, given the optics and resolution of these headsets, pentile subpixel scatter basically manifests as a soft sort of anti aliasing over the entire picture. The lower the resolution of the headset, the more beneficial that is. At dk2 levels, even with the soft natural blurring of the pentile subpixel scatter, people were still putting diffusers on the screen to help with pixelation.

Yup, when you sample image into non fitting array of samples you get softness depending on scaling method used.
Only difference between this and using non-native resolution on normal display is that no-one renders/optimizes image into pentile, thus no-one gets the perfect image quality of the dislay.

Actually can one actually feed native pentile image to pentile or does all displays just accept RGB input and convert to pentile?
If Oculus/Vive can send post-warp image in properly arranged format the pentile could look very good.

 

[Monger]

I think lots of developers didn't talk about Vive versions, because they supplied quite a limited number of dev kits to the developers early on. It was only early this year when they started pushing out much more Vive Pre dev kits. I believe there will be more titles announcement that will be compatible with Vive in the coming months.

There's an Nda around any exclusivity agreements so developers can't talk about it. Word is it's a 6 month agreement on exclusivity for most titles.

 

[Krejlooc]

Yup, when you sample image into non fitting array of samples you get softness depending on scaling method used.
Only difference between this and using non-native resolution on normal display is that no-one renders/optimizes image into pentile, thus no-one gets the perfect image quality of the dislay.

Actually can one actually feed native pentile image to pentile or does all displays just accept RGB input and convert to pentile?
If Oculus/Vive can send post-warp image in properly arranged format the pentile could look very good.

It accepts rgb and converts to pentile. If it didnt, then that would be a logistical nightmare for devs.

 

[Durante]

And this as well. I'm super fussy with headphones now. They have to be circumaural and lightweight for any extended use. I mostly use Sennheiser HD598's atm. I can wear those for hours with no issue but if I go back to an old gaming set for the mic, like Logitech G35's, I'm now uncomfortable within 30 minutes. Too heavy and dense. I'll need to figure this out. The Senn's do have detachable cables as standard.

I love my ATD-AT700s, but they have a 3m non-detachable cable so I think I'll have to get a new pair for VR.

Re:subpixel arrangement

Its been funny watching people trump rgb subpixel arrangements, because the move from rgb to pentile from dk1 to dk2 was highly celebrated for many reasons, most important being that rgb subpixel arrangements are subject to jailbarring. Unless sonys headset randomizes the rgb arrangement per row, it will also have the same problem. The problem manifests when you show a solid screen of the same color - say red 255, 0, 0. Because in this instance both green and blue subchannels are entirely off, it gives a 2 subpixel wide gap between pixels, which looks like vertical jailbars on dk1, but would probably look like scanlines on psvr because of the screen orientation.

And I doubt the people testing these headsets are savvy enough to report on jailbarring.

Regardless, the spin to claim rgb subpixel arrangements are automatically superior reads to me like people coming late to the vr game, because there was significant celebration in the move from rgb to pentile screens. It's also funny to watch people boast about "20% more subpixels in rgb" without accoubting for wasted pixels along the bridge of the nose thanks to a single screen. Rift cv1 and vive, by nature of their split screens, waste far fewer pixels.

That's a good point, I haven't really thought about that before.

I only thought about the single screen vs. 2 screens in terms of the flexibility of IPD adjustment.

 

[pottuvoi]

It accepts rgb and converts to pentile. If it didnt, then that would be a logistical nightmare for devs.

Most devs would just use the normal libraries from Oculus and Valve woudln't they?
The warp pass? would be the one that would handle the conversion, not the normal rendering framebuffer. (well unless you ray-trace in which case you can directly aim for the post warp directly.)

 

[Krejlooc]

Most devs would just use the normal libraries from Oculus and Valve woudln't they?
The warp pass? would be the one that would handle the conversion, not the normal rendering framebuffer. (well unless you ray-trace in which case you can directly aim for the post warp directly.)

I mean for image composition. Yes, those libraries would handle the conversion for you as well.

 

[simonski]

Tried out the Vive in PC World on Tottenham Court Road earlier, they're there for 6 weeks apparently, so plenty of time to have a go.

An overwhelmingly positive experience, I think largely down to the 360 tracking and the motion controllers - had it been a seated demo with an xbox controller I doubt it would have felt significantly different to the Rift DK2. FOV felt similar to the DK2, and SDE was subtly present, but softer and more like a texture than a proper SDE. Seconds into the first demo and I wasn't thinking about either.

I forget the name of the first demo, it's the dual wielding space shooter. Works very well as a concept, though I did find myself pretty much rooted to the spot and reluctant to spin around too much. A lot of fun.

Job Simulator was next and here was where I felt more at ease moving around. It's quite simplistic, and fun, but wouldn't be at the top of my list to try again.

And then Tilt Brush, which was like some kind of soothing magic. Loved it. Came to an end far too soon.

Aside from a couple of moments where the controller tracking went a bit funny (immediately recovered), everything was silky smooth. Not sure if I could tell the difference to the 75hz of the DK2 however. But overall pretty incredible, I can't wait.

 

[Bsigg12]

Guys we're 11 days away from the first shipments going out/being delivered for the Rift. I'm getting so damn excited!

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Guys we're 11 days away from the first shipments going out/being delivered for the Rift. I'm getting so damn excited!

Possibly sooner, I suspect. I'm guessing the Kickstarter backers will get theirs early.

 

[Bsigg12]

Possibly sooner, I suspect. I'm guessing the Kickstarter backers will get theirs early.

I'm waiting for shipping confirmation for mine. The reason I'm getting a Vive is because I am getting my Rift for "free". I can't wait to really dig in with both headsets.

Kind of off topic, but I've been really impressed with how often Oculus has been updating the Oculus services for GearVR. They seemingly are updating or fixing things weekly. Hopefully that continues with the Rift and Oculus Home services.

 

[Arulan]

I've been trying to find more information about this for some time. Does anyone know the capabilities of the amp in the HTC Vive? Specifically whether it can drive HD 600s (300 ohm impedance).

 

[blastprocessor]

I really dislike pentile and am looking forward to playing with an RGB screen. One think that really put me off DK2 is screen door and l feel pentile makes it worse

 

[Dreams-Visions]

I really dislike pentile and am looking forward to playing with an RGB screen. One think that really put me off DK2 is screen door and l feel pentile makes it worse

Considering its low resolution, that's not really a surprise.

 

[Zalusithix]

Jumping back to my extreme overhead rail management idea, I thought of a way to (moderately) reduce the build complexity and significantly reduce the cost. Instead of a Cartesian design, make it move akin to a circle cutter. One rail supported and rotating from the center of the play area. The length of the rail is the radius of the (now circular) zone. Upon that rail rides the gantry which has the management pole coming down. Total build would be two motors, one rail, one gantry and other misc parts.

 

[bj00rn_]

Krejlooc's point about the big improvement going from striped RGB in the DK1 to pentile in the DK2 is an important one.

There's no linearity in extrapolating a percentage of subpixels here, and you will make yourself look a bit stupid if you do. ..Unless you compare static one colored lines in certain colors at approx the same resolution..

 

[FlyinJ]

After playing around in my Vive Pre for the past few days, I have to say it is by far the most impressive VR experience I have ever had.

Room scale really needs to be experienced to understand how amazing it is. The only drawback is my room is pretty small, and some of the room scale demos had out of reach areas. There are methods people are experimenting with to fix this problem through dynamic scaling of the environment... but it's an understandably complex issue that we're all trying to solve for the first time. That said, I really like the teleportation paradigm that a lot of demos use. It works well, and didn't cause the disorientation I was expecting.

Tiltbrush truly is the killer app of VR. It is extremely intuitive and simple to use... and it's immediate impact upon the user is of awe. I've had about 5 different people try it, 4 of them complete luddites, and none of them wanted to leave it. It's pretty much the Mac Paint of VR.

The Steam integration is extremely well done. Just press a button on the controller at any time and a floating Steam interface appears in front of you. It's very similar to the Xbox and PS "home" buttons.

I've also barely gotten sick at all in it, and I'm unfortunately very susceptible to VR sickness. I spend about 2 hours in mod box, and in the end started getting queasy... but that's the only time it has hit me.

So yeah, I've tried all the HMDs and interfaces now except for PSVR, and Vive wins hands-down IMO.

 

[mrklaw]

I don't think anyone is trying to say the PSVR screen is better than either OR or Vive. Just that the RGB arrangement goes some way towards mitigating the lower relative resolution compared to those two devices. Obviously more resolution is generally better, and the twin screens is a significant improvement to not waste pixels.

 

[mrklaw]

Tried out the Vive in PC World on Tottenham Court Road earlier, they're there for 6 weeks apparently, so plenty of time to have a go.

An overwhelmingly positive experience, I think largely down to the 360 tracking and the motion controllers - had it been a seated demo with an xbox controller I doubt it would have felt significantly different to the Rift DK2. FOV felt similar to the DK2, and SDE was subtly present, but softer and more like a texture than a proper SDE. Seconds into the first demo and I wasn't thinking about either.

I forget the name of the first demo, it's the dual wielding space shooter. Works very well as a concept, though I did find myself pretty much rooted to the spot and reluctant to spin around too much. A lot of fun.

Job Simulator was next and here was where I felt more at ease moving around. It's quite simplistic, and fun, but wouldn't be at the top of my list to try again.

And then Tilt Brush, which was like some kind of soothing magic. Loved it. Came to an end far too soon.

Aside from a couple of moments where the controller tracking went a bit funny (immediately recovered), everything was silky smooth. Not sure if I could tell the difference to the 75hz of the DK2 however. But overall pretty incredible, I can't wait.

ooh, trip up to the big smoke next week I think! Thanks for letting us know about this

 

[DOT DASH DOT]

Tried out the Vive in PC World on Tottenham Court Road earlier, they're there for 6 weeks apparently, so plenty of time to have a go.

An overwhelmingly positive experience, I think largely down to the 360 tracking and the motion controllers - had it been a seated demo with an xbox controller I doubt it would have felt significantly different to the Rift DK2. FOV felt similar to the DK2, and SDE was subtly present, but softer and more like a texture than a proper SDE. Seconds into the first demo and I wasn't thinking about either.

I forget the name of the first demo, it's the dual wielding space shooter. Works very well as a concept, though I did find myself pretty much rooted to the spot and reluctant to spin around too much. A lot of fun.

Job Simulator was next and here was where I felt more at ease moving around. It's quite simplistic, and fun, but wouldn't be at the top of my list to try again.

And then Tilt Brush, which was like some kind of soothing magic. Loved it. Came to an end far too soon.

Aside from a couple of moments where the controller tracking went a bit funny (immediately recovered), everything was silky smooth. Not sure if I could tell the difference to the 75hz of the DK2 however. But overall pretty incredible, I can't wait.

Sounds great man! Does the actual image look crisp? Or does it look low res? Aside from SDE etc.

 

[Kevin]

Specs aside, between Oculus and HTC Vive, which vr set do we think will become more popular in the long run?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Specs aside, between Oculus and HTC Vive, which vr set do we think will become more popular in the long run?

PSVR.

 

[Krejlooc]

Specs aside, between Oculus and HTC Vive, which vr set do we think will become more popular in the long run?

The rift. I doubt htc's headset will even be the most popular form of valve's vr in the end.

 

[mckmas8808]

Depends on the person and the particular experience. None of this is really surprising me. Critiquing VR is going to be a roller coaster ride for the next little while. I am going to take every review with a grain of salt until I have had a good opportunity to sit down with software and figure out what works in VR and what doesn't.

It's just like any review for any product in life. It's all subjective. No need to take their opinions as salt.

 

[Zalusithix]

Specs aside, between Oculus and HTC Vive, which vr set do we think will become more popular in the long run?

Rift easily. Cheaper, has had *way* more coverage by the general press, and is backed by Facebook. That's fine as long as there's enough business out there to keep a competitor healthy. Competition is needed in the PC market.

 

[The Elite]

It's just like any review for any product in life. It's all subjective. No need to take their opinions as salt.

It's different when we're dealing with a technology that a lot of potential critics have shown that they don't necessarily really understand. Listen to last week's Beastcast or all the people who think the PSVR breakout box still handles actual graphical processing. All of that plays a part in the understanding of what people will be reviewing.

I think once this technology has been out there for a while and people know what to expect and can make reasonable expectations for future games and hardware critical analysis will improve. Until then, yeah, I am going to take reviews with a grain of salt because I don't know how each individual reviewer understands this new medium or how they will generally react to VR.

I don't think that's unreasonable.

 

[Krejlooc]

Rift easily. Cheaper, has had *way* more coverage by the general press, and is backed by Facebook. That's fine as long as there's enough business out there to keep a competitor healthy. Competition is needed in the PC market.

For many people, the "occolous" is synonymous with vr itself.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

For many people, the "occolous" is synonymous with vr itself.

As it should be. The brand name is well known thanks to Samsung. It was a great idea to partner with them. The nice thing about the PC market, however, is that brand names aren't as relevant or impacting because of how information disseminates and is discussed.

 

[Zalusithix]

For many people, the "occolous" is synonymous with vr itself.

Pretty much. My own parents assume anything that looks like a VR set has to do with Oculus.

 

[Krejlooc]

As it should be.

Bull, oculus has no more claim to the realm of vr than nintendo had to video games in the late 80s. A single company becoming synonymous with the entire medium is dangerous.

 

[Zalusithix]

Bull, oculus has no more claim to the realm of vr than nintendo had to video games in the late 80s. A single company becoming synonymous with the entire medium is dangerous.

It doesn't matter too much in this case because Sony will break that idea. They're a big enough company that's well known outside of just gaming.

 

[Krejlooc]

It doesn't matter too much in this case because Sony will break that idea. They're a big enough company that's well known outside of just gaming.

Nobody is buying playstation 4s to develop enterprise software for.

cardboard will be the most mainstream vr platform, and people already confuse it as an oculus product

 

[mrklaw]

The rift. I doubt htc's headset will even be the most popular form of valve's vr in the end.

I'd go one step further and say I think there is a good chance the most popular motion control enabled headset on PC will also be the rift. I expect them to have significantly more units sold, with most being rabid early VR adopters, so I expect a high percentage will buy oculus touch

 

[mckmas8808]

It's different when we're dealing with a technology that a lot of potential critics have shown that they don't necessarily really understand. Listen to last week's Beastcast or all the people who think the PSVR breakout box still handles actual graphical processing. All of that plays a part in the understanding of what people will be reviewing.

I think once this technology has been out there for a while and people know what to expect and can make reasonable expectations for future games and hardware critical analysis will improve. Until then, yeah, I am going to take reviews with a grain of salt because I don't know how each individual reviewer understands this new medium or how they will generally react to VR.

I don't think that's unreasonable.

No that's totally reasonable. People need to smarten up if they are going to be talking about and reviewing these products.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Bull, oculus has no more claim to the realm of vr than nintendo had to video games in the late 80s. A single company becoming synonymous with the entire medium is dangerous.

Definitely not bull.

"As it should be" refers to the marketing investment made and partnerships they have forged. Oculus' presence via Samsung VR in particular has made it almost a household name. That's what they got by being the first to develop these partnerships and put their money where their mouthes are for the general public to see.

If HTC had been the company that came up with GearVR and packaged it with their phones I'd say "as it should be" for HTC. But they didn't. So they don't get to enjoy that pole position status in the minds of the general public.

Though its fair to say that the general public doesn't matter since I suspect both companies will sell most of what they make this year, it may matter once hardware starts approaching something under $400 and has more general applications and curated experiences beyond gaming become available in meaningful quantities and high qualities.

 

[Zalusithix]

Nobody is buying playstation 4s to develop enterprise software for.

cardboard will be the most mainstream vr platform, and people already confuse it as an oculus product

I'm not sure how much of a use VR ultimately has in the enterprise area. VR seems like it would be a stopgap to AR there. Regardless of how that future turns out, enterprise isn't going to be swayed by mainstream ignorance. Well, they shouldn't be at least.

In the mainstream, it'll be up to Sony to clarify that the PSVR is something different. They have the ability to do that with their marketing reach.

 

[FlyinJ]

I'm in the Sony VR camp as well. Gear as the second most popular.

Having a PS4 and not having to worry about installing high end graphics cards and purchasing a high end PC is huge.

 

[Onemic]

For mainstream consumers PSVR is definitely gonna be the most popular...and I dont think it will be close either.

 

[artsi]

Specs aside, between Oculus and HTC Vive, which vr set do we think will become more popular in the long run?

Well, Vive has the better tracking tech at the moment, but better is not always more popular.
Rift has got the VR media attention for so long time it would be difficult to win by numbers.

Just some data that's available right now:

1) Rift had 5x the search traffic of Vive on Jan 6th vs Feb 29th (pre-order days)
2) Rift has 2x the search traffic of Vive today
3) /r/oculus has 68,911 subscribers vs 18,405 on /r/vive
4) Alexa rank of 4,897 (oculus.com) vs 28,369 (htcvive.com) = 5.7x the website traffic (estimated)
5) Oculus has 299,746 followers on Facebook vs 17,057 followers of Vive
6) Oculus has 192,364 followers on Twitter vs 29,210 followers of Vive

Also:

1) Rift has a lower price
2) Rift has some exclusive games (it's not nice but it pulls customers)
3) Samsung is already pushing millions of Gear VR's to people with Oculus brand in them

Of course none of these alone are an indication of higher sales, but accounting everything together I'd say it would be a wonder if Vive outsold the Rift.

 

[simonski]

Sounds great man! Does the actual image look crisp? Or does it look low res? Aside from SDE etc.

It is sharper than the DK2, not massively, but there is a difference. What I felt was that (much like going from DK1 to DK2) the additional resolution makes the horizon look further away. Depth is increased, if that makes any sense?

Distant objects still look pretty low res, it'll be interesting to see how Elite fairs when approaching a station for example. Some supersampling will no doubt help.

 

[Cartman86]

Well, Vive has the better tracking tech at the moment, but better is not always more popular.
Rift has got the VR media attention for so long time it would be difficult to win by numbers.

Just some data that's available right now:

1) Rift had 5x the search traffic of Vive on Jan 6th vs Feb 29th (pre-order days)
2) Rift has 2x the search traffic of Vive today
3) /r/oculus has 68,911 subscribers vs 18,405 on /r/vive
4) Alexa rank of 4,897 (oculus.com) vs 28,369 (htcvive.com) = 5.7x the website traffic (estimated)
5) Oculus has 299,746 followers on Facebook vs 17,057 followers of Vive
6) Oculus has 192,364 followers on Twitter vs 29,210 followers of Vive

Also:

1) Rift has a lower price
2) Rift has some exclusive games (it's not nice but it pulls customers)
3) Samsung is already pushing millions of Gear VR's to people with Oculus brand in them

Of course none of these alone are an indication of higher sales, but accounting everything together I'd say it would be a wonder if Vive outsold the Rift.

Only thing to note is that Oculus has been used as the default VR subreddit. They post Vive and PSVR content there. It is slowly changing thoug.