Vive vs Rift: Help me decide what to buy!

[Mark D]

A more detailed comparison from Tested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBieKwa2ID0

I get the feeling when you get down to brass tacks, there is no significant difference between the Rift & Vive in terms of the day to day display experience for gaming. Really its all down to those extra tracking & room-scale features the Vive ships with now and if those are important to you.

Great video & I think you are right.

People have rightly pointed out, whilst the Vive seems to be edging the scores now because of room-scale, when the Touch controllers arrive the Rift may close that gap or even overtake. IMHO that aspect will be a bit of an unknown until it happens and they can be retested together (along with other developments). I thought my DK2 was great and both these systems seem much better. Looking forward to the next generation as I feel they will continue to improve quickly.

 

[Mark D]

Comfort is also a big thing to consider as it was highlighted many times in this review:

Norm: "Everytime I play a Vive game, 10 minutes in, I think to myself, boy I wish I could play this exact same with the tracked controllers wearing an Oculus Rift

Jeremy: "I can say the exact same sentence, in fact when yesterday I was playing on the Vive, I had to take it of and say, UGH, I really miss my Oculus Rift, because it is just so much more comfortable"

Whilst the quotes are correct - which features are 'a big thing' IMHO is a very personal choice. I liked they provided a balanced review looking at lots of features with pros and cons for both systems (because that is clearly the case).

 

[Soda Popinski]

Problem is that VR can make you loose balance very easily, plus games tent to become more intense while leveling up, a jump in the wrong direction and [OUCH]

Balance is only an issue with games where you move using a D-pad. For room scale, where you walk around, not really a problem.

While fighting skeleton swordsmen in "Vanishing Realms" I pulled off a jumping sword thrust to the collar bone. I'm pretty sure I looked exactly like Brad Pitt in Troy when I did it (go to 1:30)
[video=youtube_share;Sq-uMIZGETs]http://youtu.be/Sq-uMIZGETs?t=89[/video]

(essentially a "Superman Punch" with a sword or Vive Controller).

 

[jabokai]

Whilst the quotes are correct - which features are 'a big thing' IMHO is a very personal choice. I liked they provided a balanced review looking at lots of features with pros and cons for both systems (because that is clearly the case).

Ergonomics man... both those comparison videos stress that, and it pretty much sums up most of what you can read online. Vive is the one to DEMO to your mates right now but if you're buying with the lifetime of the device in mind, the Rift is the one to buy. Notwithstanding the fact that Touch and Oculus room scale have an element of the unknown (even though they don't really - they'd been demoed to hell and back with great feedback and will only get better, not worse.)

I've been saying it for a while - don't discount the value of things like comfort and the built in headphones. When you've used VR for far too many hours (I know) you will really come to appreciate these things that some people are dismissing as just a minor thing here or there.

 

[Adam Lusardi]

Don't worry I'm sure the aftermarket people will soon have us chewing at the bit with new all in one comfort plus clip on head straps. (make mine in neon)

 

[PIXEL]

A more detailed comparison from Tested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBieKwa2ID0

I get the feeling when you get down to brass tacks, there is no significant difference between the Rift & Vive in terms of the day to day display experience for gaming. Really its all down to those extra tracking & room-scale features the Vive ships with now and if those are important to you.

The best review/comparison I've seen - Thanks for posting this link - interesting graphics rendition discussion

Looking forward to comfort + hand peripherals in the future on CV1 for sure

 

[bitstorm]

Hmmm.

I'm reading Rift seems to have slightly easier to read text than the Vive. Now this on it's own seems to be an advantage to the Rift but the Vive is running wider FOV which means it's trading that off for a slightly lower effective pixel density.

Could anyone who's used both talk about this? Anyone who's used them have any thoughts/insights on it?

 

[jabokai]

The Tested comparison video above talks about it... If you trust them!

 

[bitstorm]

The Tested comparison video above talks about it... If you trust them!

I'll check it out. Yes Tested are great.

Interestingly the Vive doesn't look so expensive anymore once you factor in tax :

Rift ~£640
Vive ~£740

(Well you know what I mean =p)

So essentially + two controllers + built in camera (+ extra lightbox?) for £100?

Hmm.

 

[PIXEL]

Hmmm.

I'm reading Rift seems to have slightly easier to read text than the Vive. Now this on it's own seems to be an advantage to the Rift but the Vive is running wider FOV which means it's trading that off for a slightly lower effective pixel density.

Could anyone who's used both talk about this? Anyone who's used them have any thoughts/insights on it?

Some folk may be able to understand this...
I can't wear varifocal glasses for screen use as they change perceived parallax as my head moves around.
Just sitting and looking forward static is fine.

With VR you are moving your head to position your experience within a space within an environment, peripheral vision is surplus to requirements and if you want to look at those things you move your head (like in real life) - How many times in real life can you look out of your line of sight and clearly see as if you looked straight at it, without getting strange looks from passers by?

....best to get a try out of VR to see how you get on before deciding

 

[Heavenly-Hammer]

I've changed my mind from earlier.

If your goal is the best experience in Elite you can have today - Get a Rift. FDev hasn't put in the same kind of work to get ED working for the Vive as they have for the Rift. It has less settings options and poorer performance as a result.

Otherwise, get a Vive. Everything else about my Vive ownership experience has been incredible and every 3rd party game for the Rift will be on the Vive in a month or two anyway. The room scale experience is absolutely insane.

I am, however, quite bitter than FDev didn't do better by the Vive, despite it being a highly advertised game for the Vive launch. It looks objectively awful and appears to be running far below the Vive's default resolution for no known reason. It only looks good when Supersampled at a rate of 1.5x minimum. But that puts a great demand on most systems which can't run at that level of resolution. Compare with the Rift which seems to be able to be completely customized (resolution), can properly use SweetFX, etc. Current ED implementation for the Vive can do none of those things. Feels real bad man.

 

[jabokai]

I'll check it out. Yes Tested are great.

Interestingly the Vive doesn't look so expensive anymore once you factor in tax :

Rift ~£640
Vive ~£740

(Well you know what I mean =p)

So essentially + two controllers + built in camera (+ extra lightbox?) for £100?

Hmm.

Eh? The Rift at £499 (plus the ridiculous shipping charge both headsets have) includes tax. Assuming you're in the UK.

Otherwise, get a Vive. Everything else about my Vive ownership experience has been incredible...

Do you have a Rift as well, to make that recommendation? You don't find the ergonomic differences, etc, mentioned in the comparison videos above as significant?

 

[bitstorm]

Eh? The Rift at £499 (plus the ridiculous shipping charge both headsets have) includes tax. Assuming you're in the UK.

Sorry you're right, it was the big "This price does not include tax and shipping. Subtotal: $599.00" on checkout that confused me. The actual receipt does indeed say tax included.

I've ordered both btw. =p

One will probably get cancelled.


Have to say watching that Tested video I'm even more confused now!

Vive has amazing touch controllers right now, millimetre accuracy, people say they feel ilke they could juggle with them, which let's be honest is pretty incredible.

Oculus has touch on the way but their tracking system is fundamentally different so there's no guarantee on which will turn out better.

The differences in the headset, Rift seems better in the comfort stakes , which would be good if you're the type to spend hours with the thing on. Also it's said it renders text slightly better, though the other Tested reviewer suggest they felt the Vive showed more definition generally on edges (not in text).

Im starting to thing the big differentiator is gonna be the software side of things, how and what games support each headset, how all that is going to pan out, and I know little about that at this time.

For me (and possibly others) I'm likely to upgrade to the 2017 version (or whenever) so in the end I don't think any decision is final. The shorter term investment nature of it might sway towards the Vive.

Heh dunno, at least the huge delays on delivery mean there's no rush to decide. =p

 

[CATPAIN KIRK]

I, like many people who can afford such toys, have a young family. Nobody I have to share my home with would appreciate me commandeering one of our larger rooms just to play video games with. This is a deal breaker. I also have a cat who will very likely become an invisible obstacle for me if I try that room VR thing.

So I have a question for any Vive owners; is it possible to just set up the vive, with simple head tracking, so that I can sit in front of my PC and play ARK, or Elite, or Warthunder, or Alien, or whatever else? Or to get head tracking do I absolutely have to put electronic crap all over the ceiling/walls/etc?

The Vive's emphasis on roomscale is actually something I consider a bit of a marketing mistake on their part. If the Vive can precisely track head movement in a 5*5*5m area (5m is a lighthouse beacons range limit), of course it can track you just as precisely if you stay in place in a seated position in a smaller volume. SteamVR setup procedure even offers an option to set it up for a seated position just to skip the calibration steps needed for roomscale.

I've read this concern numerous times, so there seems to be a PR issue in that regard on Valve/HTCs part.

 

[Heavenly-Hammer]

Do you have a Rift as well, to make that recommendation? You don't find the ergonomic differences, etc, mentioned in the comparison videos above as significant?

I've spent time with both the Rift CV1 and Vive CV1. The ergonomic differences aren't relevant in my opinion or experiences. They're both reasonably comfortable, both easy to fit snuggly. I wouldn't put much stress on any individual review. For example: http://www.destructoid.com/review-htc-vive-352103.phtml. Opinions are somewhat varied with some preferring certain aspects of the Vive and others preferring certain aspects of the Rift...sometimes drawing polar opposite conclusions. In the end, I can only represent my own experiences and I've worn the Vive for 5 or 6 hours and had no comfort issues, so there's that. My headphones are far superior to the built-in headphones the Rift Vive comes with but they may be an upgrade from whatever headphones you currently own so ymmv on that front. I also found that the screens were quite comparable as I have found no games where the text was difficult to read. FWIW, I've never lost track of any of my controllers or had the world "shift" like the Tested guys were talking about. But I'm also only about 30 hours into that ownership experience.

If I had to do it again, I'd buy the Vive again. I'm really happy with Steam and its integration, the hardware and its consistency so far, and the games I've been able to play. I feel like its a seachange in gaming and every time I put on my headset I feel like I'm somewhere else entirely. I can't really offer you more than that other than the recommendation to go and try one for yourself.

But AGAIN: if playing Elite in the best possible way today is your motivating factor (this is an Elite forum), I again say that the Rift offers an objectively better, more stable experience. FDev has put objectively more time into getting it right for Rift launch. At present, last I saw there was "no timetable" for fixing ED for the Vive/SteamVR despite their original goal of being ready for the Vive launch as they were for the Rift launch.

 

[Frank]

For me (and possibly others) I'm likely to upgrade to the 2017 version (or whenever) so in the end I don't think any decision is final. The shorter term investment nature of it might sway towards the Vive.

Heh dunno, at least the huge delays on delivery mean there's no rush to decide. =p

I'm one of those others. I doubt very much that this will be the last VR helmet I buy. I'm very curious to find out who is going to win the VR helmet battle.

I'm not sure that the roomscale thing is such a marketing mistake by HTC. They've found a way to differentiate themselves from Oculus, and have done a good job of getting the true VR games off the ground. The whole thing about customers not having the space to flail around might not be such an issue with their target audience, America. Everything's big over there, including their living spaces.

 

[shreddog]

But AGAIN: if playing Elite in the best possible way today is your motivating factor (this is an Elite forum), I again say that the Rift offers an objectively better, more stable experience. FDev has put objectively more time into getting it right for Rift launch. At present, last I saw there was "no timetable" for fixing ED for the Vive/SteamVR despite their original goal of being ready for the Vive launch as they were for the Rift launch.

Well, I have the Vive on Day1 preoder shipping any moment now, so not really an option to cancel that and wait till august for a Rift to arrive. But Damn, that sucks since ED will be my main game for VR. Hopefully there will be some software updates both from HTC and FDev to fix the issues.
Oculus did their job well, runtime 1.3 seem to be a huge improvement even on the DK2's.

 

[CATPAIN KIRK]

I'm not sure that the roomscale thing is such a marketing mistake by HTC. They've found a way to differentiate themselves from Oculus, and have done a good job of getting the true VR games off the ground. The whole thing about customers not having the space to flail around might not be such an issue with their target audience, America. Everything's big over there, including their living spaces.

As such, putting an Emphasis on roomscale is not a mistake. Walking around in VR is a great experience and was one of the first things I've tried in VR back in 2014.

Obsidian Ant was asking for a Video demonstrating translational tracking in ED before he bought one and I uploaded one of the first 'roomscale' videos using the DK2, an USB and HDMI extension cord whilst placing the camera 1.5m above and beyond recommended specs and lots of recalibrating. It sucks, but then I have a job and am not interested in becoming a "youtuber" and most people didn't seem to know there was an option to record non-stereoscopic videos in VR at all.

Currently, VR is a great thing to explore - Terra Incognita to some extent. To me, the Vive is more advanced and progressive, pushing the boundaries way further at a way higher risk.

Oculus is a casual approach, aiming at causing no nausea by providing third person games you don't need VR for. Of course there's no motion sickness in third person platformers using a console controller - simply because there's no feeling of presence in the first place.

 

[Heavenly-Hammer]

Changed my mind again. Considering people don't know if they're getting Rifts anytime in the next decade, imma recommend the Vive. Shipments may be a week or two behind, but they for damn sure aren't 3 months behind.

 

[jabokai]

Changed my mind again. Considering people don't know if they're getting Rifts anytime in the next decade, imma recommend the Vive. Shipments may be a week or two behind, but they for damn sure aren't 3 months behind.

That's because everyone's buying the Rift!