I have had my Vive for about a month now, and I simply can't stop playing it. It's one of those experiences that you cannot understand unless you put it on yourself.
A lot of people seem to want higher resolution on the Vive, and many state that they will "wait" until the "2K or 4K" versions are available.
Here's what I have to tell you: It will be at least a couple of years before we have 2K or 4K on either headset. It's brand new technology, and as such it will take a good while before the 2nd or 3rd gen iterations are even feasible. Think about it. If these ones cost $600-$800, how much do you think a 2K or 4K will cost? The first step in advancing the technology is making these affordable so that more people adopt them. The more people that adopt these, the cheaper they will be to produce, and the cheaper future generations will cost, and so on.
IF you really want to see those 2K and 4K versions, and you are able to afford it, don't hold back. Buy one or the other right now. Asides from the fact that I guarantee you will not regret it (as will all others that own it, you will NOT regret it and you WILL be blown away), you will be supporting the industry.
No matter how good the technology is, no matter how innovative it is, in the end its up to us consumers to either drive it forward, or let it die. If enough of us don't adopt this new technology, the companies that make it will deem it not worth the investment and kill it.
Now, is the resolution on these really that bad? Since I have the HTC Vive, let's take a look at the Tutorial and The Lab.
First, the tutorial. The tutorial for the Vive is a simple program that teaches you everything you need to know about using the Vive. The visuals on the tutorial are outstanding. Those with the Vive would know what I am talking about. The details on the robot, the balloons, and everything else is simply brilliant. As far as I can tell, there is no aliasing to be seen either.
Now, let's look at The Lab. Even the cartoony minigames have good visuals (subjectively) and aliasing is kept to a minimum if at all. For example, Robot Repair puts you in the shoes of a robot repair engineer. When the robot comes apart, the attention to detail is pretty impressive. Again, there is no, or very little aliasing.
To make this short: The resolution on the Vive and Oculus is actually very good for the size of the screens. In the end, it's about how good the developers are at making the games for it. As developers get better at making new rendering techniques, games will also get much better and crisper for our VR Headsets.
Valve's The Lab is a very, very good demonstration of the potential of the HTC Vive and the kind of quality you can achieve if games are made correctly.
Lastly, let's not forget the term "DPI" (dots per inch). Smaller screens with lower resolution can sometimes look better than bigger screens with higher resolution due to the distance between the pixels. On smaller screens, dots, or pixels are closer together, which helps the screen look sharper.
For example, compare a 1920x1080 5" phone screen with a 1920x1080 65" TV (like the one in my living room). The difference is obvious.
Thoughts?
