Rift vs Vive - my perspective

[Slopey]

Are you really sure there's no discernible FOV difference? The internets say otherwise. (jk)

Anymore joy on wearing glasses in either device?

You can do it, but you're going to be very squished. Both myself and my wife have tried both the Rift and Vive with glasses on, and it's an uncomfortable experience at best. If you have thick frames, forget it. Best solution is contact lenses, or if you have a slight prescription, you might be happy with the compromise of just not bothering with the glasses and accepting a bit of fuzziness.

 

[SpitTheDog]

Ignore the idiots. Don't stop doing what you are doing.

 

[wstephenson]

Are you really sure there's no discernible FOV difference? The internets say otherwise. (jk)

Anymore joy on wearing glasses in either device?

There's also this kickstarter. I have had a couple of interactions with them, and they seem like serious chaps.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/451454651/vr-lens-lab-glasses-for-virtual-reality-headsets

 

[Arubeto]

I'm going to stop bothering reviewing these any more, because people telling me that what I'm actually observing is not what I'm observing is getting tedious. I'm not some VR newbie, I've built Unity games using the DK1/DK2, engineering visualisations using them, I know my IPD, and I know how to set up and use both the Vive and Rift.

No, please don't stop reviewing them, Slopey, I am reading all of your posts (and those of the other guys lucky enough to already own one at least and try to make objective reviews) with great interest.

I still believe the front-facing camera and the live-feed it can provide (in addition to those cool blue edge lines it displays) may be the only reason I could possibly cancel my Rift pre-order and go for a Vive instead. You didn't seem to be very impressed by the camera though, and several people said the nose gap can be used in a similar fashion to catch a glimpse of your keyboard / controller / whatever. I still think the nose gap and entering light would distract me and reduce the immersion - something I really want to achieve with an HMD! - but then again, as Jacobai pointed out, that may be a minor issue that can easily be fixed manually, using some rubber flab.

Concerning room-scale VR, I am very interested in it, but can wait a little longer (in contrast to finally being able to play ED in VR!) and believe Oculus will be able to achieve something comparable to Vive with the second camera and the Touch controllers, eventually.

About the controllers themselves, I have to agree that - just judging by the images and what I read about them - I prefer the design of the Touch controller; IMHO, they seem to be even better suited for VR than the - already great - Vive controllers. I love the idea of the Touch imitating hand and finger movements / placements and belief it could achieve everything that the more conventional "wand" controllers (for someone who is used to controlling games with wands by using the Wii for many years) of the Vive can do now as well.

I hate that I have to wait for late July/August for my Rift, but I am less inclined to switch to a Vive just to shorten the waiting time, now.

 

[shadragon]

Hey Slopey,

Cheers for doing the groundwork for set-up and use of the Vive. Mine arrives in a few weeks and I'll be taking your experiences to heart. I've never used an HMD before and hope the Vive / ED mechanics can be worked out before delivery, but as you said, I'm keeping mine regardless. I also kickstarted the FOVE.

Luckily, while I do wear glasses I'm nearsighted, so I should be able to do without them with the HMD in place.

VR is new tech and no device is better than any other at the moment, at least not across the board. One can hope people with different devices will work together to smooth out the differences and get common standards long term for the benefit of all in the VR community.

Keep up the good work.

 

[wstephenson]

I still believe the front-facing camera and the live-feed it can provide (in addition to those cool blue edge lines it displays) may be the only reason I could possibly cancel my Rift pre-order and go for a Vive instead. You didn't seem to be very impressed by the camera though, and several people said the nose gap can be used in a similar fashion to catch a glimpse of your keyboard / controller / whatever. I still think the nose gap and entering light would distract me and reduce the immersion - something I really want to achieve with an HMD! - but then again, as Jacobai pointed out, that may be a minor issue that can easily be fixed manually, using some rubber flab.

Concerning room-scale VR, I am very interested in it, but can wait a little longer (in contrast to finally being able to play ED in VR!) and believe Oculus will be able to achieve something comparable to Vive with the second camera and the Touch controllers, eventually.

I'm considering selling my unopened Vive for what I can get and waiting for the Rift. Talk me down off the ledge!

 

[Arubeto]

I'm considering selling my unopened Vive for what I can get and waiting for the Rift. Talk me down off the ledge!

To be honest, if I already had an HMD sitting at home I am not sure I could resist the urge to finally play ED with it, no matter how good the reasons were to switch to another HMD

 

[Spam]

There's also this kickstarter. I have had a couple of interactions with them, and they seem like serious chaps.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/451454651/vr-lens-lab-glasses-for-virtual-reality-headsets

Nice one, ta very much.

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

To be honest, if I already had an HMD sitting at home I am not sure I could resist the urge to finally play ED with it, no matter how good the reasons were to switch to another HMD

Me too, I'm a bit dumbfounded by wstephenson comment. Wow.

Vive. Sitting there. Unopened. Sacrilege.

Considering someone will pick it up on fleabay for the same asking price just so they can jump the queue.

Appreciate slopey's efforts giving us some real-world use/issues on the two headsets. I learned more in this thread than 2/3 of the other Vive vs Rift reviews.

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

I'm considering selling my unopened Vive for what I can get and waiting for the Rift. Talk me down off the ledge!

Are you made of stone man!!! How can it be unopened?

Look the PreVive had Elite working fine as they did demos on it. Whatever issue ED and the Vive currently have it'll be temporary. Now imagine you sell the Vive and have to wait till August/September time for the Rift and ED fix the issue next week.

Keep calm - but then if you have a Vive and not even opened it I imagine calmness is a strength

 

[SpitTheDog]

Are you made of stone man!!! How can it be unopened?

Look the PreVive had Elite working fine as they did demos on it. Whatever issue ED and the Vive currently have it'll be temporary. Now imagine you sell the Vive and have to wait till August/September time for the Rift and ED fix the issue next week.

Keep calm - but then if you have a Vive and not even opened it I imagine calmness is a strength

He'll just put it on the shelf next to his complete set of unopened Star Wars action figures and Millennium Falcon.

 

[B1ll Adama]

You can do it, but you're going to be very squished. Both myself and my wife have tried both the Rift and Vive with glasses on, and it's an uncomfortable experience at best. If you have thick frames, forget it. Best solution is contact lenses, or if you have a slight prescription, you might be happy with the compromise of just not bothering with the glasses and accepting a bit of fuzziness.

Slopey, i bought the prescription version of the CV1... they work beautiful and lovely and are crystal clear.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtem1w2fkvpsygn/CV1.JPG?dl=0

 

[Slopey]

Slopey, i bought the prescription version of the CV1... they work beautiful and lovely and are crystal clear.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtem1w2fkvpsygn/CV1.JPG?dl=0

Well - that's one way to do it I suppose!!

 

[Slopey]

I still believe the front-facing camera and the live-feed it can provide (in addition to those cool blue edge lines it displays) may be the only reason I could possibly cancel my Rift pre-order and go for a Vive instead. You didn't seem to be very impressed by the camera though, and several people said the nose gap can be used in a similar fashion to catch a glimpse of your keyboard / controller / whatever. I still think the nose gap and entering light would distract me and reduce the immersion - something I really want to achieve with an HMD! - but then again, as Jacobai pointed out, that may be a minor issue that can easily be fixed manually, using some rubber flab.

Doubtless someone will tell me that I'm doing it wrong, but so far I've turned on the camera feed option, and I get a feed of the room when I double-click the system key on the controllers. But it's not proper full colour high res video - it's edge detection only - you can't see any details. It *is* handy for putting the controllers down on a table, untangling yourself from the infernal cable, and checking where you are, but it's not the sort of thing you could leave on while in a game - it'd be way way too distracting.

As for typing - you'll see the outline of the keyboard, and the keys, but it's not like you can read them - see this picture (the bottom green half - that's what it looks like).

You *can* get a full colour video feed whilst in the Vive Home/dashboard thing which pops out a flat video panel to the left of the controller, which is quite cool. But I couldn't find a way to get that in game as yet.

 

[Sir.Tj]

So? I've seen a lot of reviewers comparing them side-by-side too and they do see a great difference between both device FOVs. When all of them (as far as I've seen) all say that there really is a difference I just find it highly doubtful when you're saying the exact opposite, considering you said the FOV on the Rift seems bigger in the first post. Although that was before knowing about being able to adjust the lenses, which leads me to think you kind of 'reviewed' them prematurely without really knowing what one or both devices are really capable of. This is not criticizing you for having an opinion, but when 9 out of 10 reviewers says 'this' and you 'that' I find the other 9 more believable and I think you missed something. To be honest, it's not even a matter of opinion, it's a fact that the FOV on the Vive should be bigger (considering the specs/hardware and HTC empathizing on the fact they did it for being able to see the floor in Room play), so I believe the lenses are not set up correctly or both devices must sit on your head really different from each other.

Please remember that Slopey is posting his opinion on what he's experienced so far.

Not really any need to start taking pot-shots at someone who's taken the time to give other a review on their findings.

If someone does take the time to share and then gets shot down, don't complain if they then don't share anymore.

 

[Arubeto]

You *can* get a full colour video feed whilst in the Vive Home/dashboard thing which pops out a flat video panel to the left of the controller, which is quite cool. But I couldn't find a way to get that in game as yet.

I guess that's what I had in mind. Is what you are describing the same thing we can see in this screenshot

taken from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiDBp6OnsKY at the 19:33 mark? It's pretty small I guess, but I thought it might be useful if you get really near to to keyboard with it?

Also, aren't the blue outlines / edges of the real world objects produced by the tracking system and the reflection of the IR light emitted from the base stations? Or is it really just the Camera, without help of the base stations, that performs the real time edge detection on the visible light spectrum?

 

[Derage]

Please remember that Slopey is posting his opinion on what he's experienced so far.

Not really any need to start taking pot-shots at someone who's taken the time to give other a review on their findings.

If someone does take the time to share and then gets shot down, don't complain if they then don't share anymore.

Why are you telling me this? I'm not taking pot-shots, I explained in fine detail why I don't believe his opinions are justifiedwhich is my opinion. And like I said there are plenty of reasons to believe someone could be wrong if a lot of other users experience otherwise. I'm not saying that he is wrong but when other people experience something completely the opposite there might the possibility he (or the others) did something wrong when testing the devices. Hell, I've seen plenty of owners that weren't even aware of the ability to adjust the lenses in the Vive while using it for a while already.

 

[Slopey]

I guess that's what I had in mind. Is what you are describing the same thing we can see in this screenshot
http://i.imgur.com/LZk1W3L.png
taken from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiDBp6OnsKY at the 19:33 mark? It's pretty small I guess, but I thought it might be useful if you get really near to to keyboard with it?

Thats it yes, but as far as I'm aware, you can only get that in the Dashboard/home environment - not in-game.

Also, aren't the blue outlines / edges of the real world objects produced by the tracking system and the reflection of the IR light emitted from the base stations? Or is it really just the Camera, without help of the base stations, that performs the real time edge detection on the visible light spectrum?

I think it's off the camera feed as iirc, i could look at places which the lighthouses couldn't see (out of a door etc), and still see the output - but I'd need to check that again to be sure, but I'm pretty sure that's the case. There's also a chaperone grid you can turn on which is off the lighthouse scan, but that appears as a blue grid (like being in a StarTrek prison really!) which you can overlay on, but it's really annoying.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Why are you telling me this? I'm not taking pot-shots, I explained in fine detail why I don't believe his opinions are justifiedwhich is my opinion. And like I said there are plenty of reasons to believe someone could be wrong if a lot of other users experience otherwise. I'm not saying that he is wrong but when other people experience something completely the opposite there might the possibility he (or the others) did something wrong when testing the devices. Hell, I've seen plenty of owners that weren't even aware of the ability to adjust the lenses in the Vive while using it for a while already.

Honestly,

Take a bit of time when posting a reply to someone who has taken the effort to give their own honest opinion on their findings in a more constructive manner and everyone's happy.

Your post came across as quite confrontational and I was just gently pointing out the fact it wasn't needed.

We're all fans of ED and esp VR and it's interesting to read peoples 1st impressions of the various VR headsets especially if they have two side by side.

Anyhoo... back to my raging jealousy of that jammy swine slopey and his Vive and CV!....

 

[Soda Popinski]

So? I've seen a lot of reviewers comparing them side-by-side too and they do see a great difference between both device FOVs. When all of them (as far as I've seen) all say that there really is a difference I just find it highly doubtful when you're saying the exact opposite, considering you said the FOV on the Rift seems bigger in the first post. Although that was before knowing about being able to adjust the lenses, which leads me to think you kind of 'reviewed' them prematurely without really knowing what one or both devices are really capable of. This is not criticizing you for having an opinion, but when 9 out of 10 reviewers says 'this' and you 'that' I find the other 9 more believable and I think you missed something. To be honest, it's not even a matter of opinion, it's a fact that the FOV on the Vive should be bigger (considering the specs/hardware and HTC empathizing on the fact they did it for being able to see the floor in Room play), so I believe the lenses are not set up correctly or both devices must sit on your head really different from each other.

2 things to consider. Facial geometry is different for different people. If Slopey's Rift fits HIS face better, he may get a larger FOV than the average reviewer. If Slopey's Vive fits his face at a further distance, then he may get a smaller FOV than the average reviewer. YMMV.

Second thing is, the Rift's image is more square shaped, while the Vive's image is a circle, so it may be wider on the vertical and horizontal, but narrower on the diagonal.

That said, at a VR expo, I've tried a CV1 for about 10 minutes after trying the Vive and found the Vive slightly wider FoV, but more SDE. Importantly, the CV1's sweetspot is larger, which means you actually use that peripheral view better. I now have a Vive, and while much better than the DK2, I still find I still need to face the thing I'm looking at to really read it. So a lot of the extra FoV is sort of wasted. I love the Vive for the Room Scale, but expect to use the Rift CV1 (if it ever arrives, :06 pre-order here) for ED, Warthunder, and Crom willing, Mechwarrior.

There's also a chaperone grid you can turn on which is off the lighthouse scan, but that appears as a blue grid (like being in a StarTrek prison really!) which you can overlay on, but it's really annoying.

Pro-tip, change the grid color in SteamVR to Red. It screams "danger" and helps your friends (and me) smack the controller against walls less.