Rift vs Vive - my perspective

Mark D

M
Sometimes it's difficult to see the wood for the trees. I hope everyone has a great time which ever headset they choose [heart]
 

Slopey

Volunteer Moderator
Slopey
Ok, so I've moved around rooms in my house, and now have a room-scale space which I can just about work with which gives me about 2m square. First up - you need more space than you think you do, especially if you don't want to be continually chaperoned. Again, the Vive ear buds are annoying by virtue that they exist at all, and the cable is the bane of my life in a way that the Rift isn't. I've managed to get the Vive more comfortable now by pulling up the cable so there's a big loop above the headset, that seems to balance off the tension in the cable which was pulling the HMD in a way I didn't like - it's still nowhere near as comfy as the Rift, but it's acceptable.

So - Vanishing Realms....

HOLLLLLLLIEEEE SHHHEEEET!!!!! It's D&D, and I'm IN IT!!!!!! I can light candles with torches, I can light fires with torches like you'd expect to! I have a sword! I can put things in my "batbelt" style backpack! I can fight really big skeleton thingies! It is amazeballs!

I need a bigger house so I can walk around more, but aside from that it's great. Downsides are you need more space than you think, and if you get too close to the chaperone walls the game pauses and wants you to recenter which screws up your immersion, and the cable is a pain - a royal pain in the bottom. Seriously, it's a real pain! My room isn't large so I could probably get away with some sort of ceiling mounted rig to hold the darn cable out of the way, but that'd probably result in more tension on the HMD.

But anyway - I'm very impressed by it. My 10 year old is going to wet his pants when he gets home from school and tries it!

The controllers suit the medium perfectly - they feel like hilts anyway, so holding torches/swords feels natural - we'll see how it works with other weapons and games.

But up - can't deny that the Vive is awsome at this sort of stuff. So for seated/ED and ease of use - Rift. But for walking around, obviously, it's the Vive. I'm already planning on pitching an 8 man tent I have out the back garden when the weather is nicer and having VR parties in it - that would give me easily 4x12m of play area, enclosed. With more space I could run around the baddies, where as now it's pretty much duck/weave and try not to hit a (real) wall! :)
 
Last edited:

Slopey

Volunteer Moderator
Slopey
Yeah, got a pair of them :) The only problem is they can fall off your head. And thanks to the cable placement on the Vive they have to go over it which is annoying on your head :/
 

Spam

Spam
Thanks for all this Slopey, I've been thoroughly enjoying it.

So, now you've had some good running with both -

You have to give one back. Which one will you keep?

(Your previous posts have put my HMD-swingometer back in the middle again.)
 

Mark D

M
Slopey said:
So - Vanishing Realms....

HOLLLLLLLIEEEE SHHHEEEET!!!!! It's D&D, and I'm IN IT!!!!!! I can light candles with torches, I can light fires with torches like you'd expect to! I have a sword! I can put things in my "batbelt" style backpack! I can fight really big skeleton thingies! It is amazeballs!..... But anyway - I'm very impressed by it. My 10 year old is going to wet his pants when he gets home from school and tries it!

The controllers suit the medium perfectly - they feel like hilts anyway, so holding torches/swords feels natural - we'll see how it works with other weapons and games.........
Click to expand...

Slopey in your opinion did the room scale VR with controllers feel like the holodeck (basic version) from Star Trek or would that be going too far?

Exciting times for us early adopters & geeks :D
 
Last edited:

Hexcaliber

Hexcaliber
brooksoid said:
I'd love to have an in-game frame rate so I could examine the hit of turning some of the detail back up - but I have to say, it's still a pretty good looking game at the VR High settings. Definitely miss ambient occlusion though.
Click to expand...
Ctrl F activates ED's frame rate counter it shows up in the lower left of the display, not sure it will display with VR but dont see why not; and fwiw Ctrl B shows ED's built in bandwidth display.
 

Soda Popinski

Soda Popinski
For VR parties, I opted for a light-weight "Walkman" style earphone. They don't go in your ear, so no ear wax sharing. They're not as heavy as cans, so they won't fall off easily, and they're cheap. $6 on Amazon for Panasonic On-Ear Stereo Headphones RP-HT21. I just wrapped up the cord with the included twist-ties to make it shorter.

If you like swinging around swords, try "Spell Fighter." It's free and the fencing feels a bit better. It's not as polished, more of a long demo. It came out of a motion capture studio, so the skeleton warriors in it aren't so cartoony and move better. Also you can cast spells using Voice Attack ("Summon Golem!").

The most polished game I've played was "Call of the Starseed: The Gallery Part 1." It's a puzzle / adventure game heavily influenced by 80s movies like "The Goonies" and "Explorers."

Lately I've been playing a lot of "Fantastic Contraption." I even made a video of it. I made a Mars Rover style contraption.
 

shadragon

shadragon
Slopey said:
Yeah, got a pair of them :) The only problem is they can fall off your head. And thanks to the cable placement on the Vive they have to go over it which is annoying on your head :/
Click to expand...
Sounds like I'll have to work harder to integrate my Vive and headset into this then.

Also, just found this Ars Technica review. Head to head comparison between the OR and Vive.
 
Last edited:

Slopey

Volunteer Moderator
Slopey
Spam said:
Thanks for all this Slopey, I've been thoroughly enjoying it.

So, now you've had some good running with both -

You have to give one back. Which one will you keep?

(Your previous posts have put my HMD-swingometer back in the middle again.)
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, I'd keep them both to be honest - they do quite different things. The Vive for Room scale, but I wouldn't play anything I could play on the Rift with it, purely as it's easier and more comfortable to do on the Rift.

But I'm loving Space Pirate Trainer far far too much!!! :)
 

Slopey

Volunteer Moderator
Slopey
DanTheMan said:
Thanks as always Slopey!
With my knackered eyes VR is not going to be viable then :-(
Well, it's saved me a bundle then.
Click to expand...

I've see talk of the Vive being the way to go in that regard - you can mod the foam sides also to suit if you're brave enough. The Rift doesn't let you change the distance from your eye to the lens, but the Vive does, so if you ratchet it out a good way - you'll loose a bit on the FOV but you might manage to get your glasses into it.

Actually, I've just tried again, and I *can* do it, but I need to ratchet the lenses to the max distance, then put my glasses into the Vive, then put the whole thing on as one - that seems to work. It's a little uncomfortable but useable (as the Vive isn't the most comfortable thing anyway). I have really think Oakley lenses so ymmv. Although I'm finding I can manage without them with my prescription. But it's a non-starter in the Rift - but there are several 3rd party lens mods appearing so you should be able to find something to suit :)
 

Slopey

Volunteer Moderator
Slopey
Mark D said:
Slopey in your opinion did the room scale VR with controllers feel like the holodeck (basic version) from Star Trek or would that be going too far?
Click to expand...

A very basic version yes, where you're limited in space also (which obviously ST didn't have a problem with). When you're looking down a trapdoor in Vanishing Realms, you *know* you're close to the edge, and you don't want to step on the hole for example. It does feel pretty real. Especially when you're on stepping stones on a stream or something - you know you're in a real room with a solid floor but you don't want to fall off! :)
 

Soda Popinski

Soda Popinski
Slopey said:
A very basic version yes, where you're limited in space also (which obviously ST didn't have a problem with). When you're looking down a trapdoor in Vanishing Realms, you *know* you're close to the edge, and you don't want to step on the hole for example. It does feel pretty real. Especially when you're on stepping stones on a stream or something - you know you're in a real room with a solid floor but you don't want to fall off! :)
Click to expand...

So true. There's that bit of someone playing Budget Cuts (so fun), where there was a hole in the floor (technically drop down ceiling), and they tried to stick their head in there, hitting the actual floor. Also, my mother-in-law in Cloudlands Minigolf froze up and refused to step through a knee high castle wall when we were guiding her back to the ball. I think she screamed "No! There's a wall there!"
 

brooksoid

B
Sometimes, I have no patience and VR has been one of those occasions... I read about Pascal but I wanted ED in VR and I wanted it now like I wanted Elite when I was 14!
So, the 970 goes on eBay this weekend, and when Pascal comes out, the 980Ti will end up on there too.

The "problem" with ED is that it was designed for flat gaming in the first place. Oculus's experiences are built to look great on a 970, and they absolutely do.
The additional strain to transform and render a scene twice hits more than just fill rate, especially when you've designed that game to look its absoulte best in 2D.
The more I think about it, the more I'm not surprised it takes so much grunt!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom