It's VR crunch time commanders, and I need your help !

[Kinky Jalepeno]

Ok so on the 3rd August I'm off to buy a VR set for my PC ( I have a monster spec so no need to ask me about that).
I have the obvious two choices here, Rift or Vive.

I was leaning towards the Vive as it seems the more polished option as I understand users of the Rift have to go through the whole setup procedure quite regularly when things go screwy, is this correct? The Vive by all accounts just works pretty much out the box.

Question 1 - Is Rift the a more hands on/mess about getting it working type of setup?

I keep reading that the Rift is a better headset for ED, but not many people go into detail about why, so why is that?

Question 2 - Do the two headsets have same quality of head tracking? Optically do they both look very similar?

Since both now support room scale, thats not really a consideration. My main concern is the head tracking and visual quality.
I'd be especially interested in the opinion of anyone that uses/has tried both platforms.

Thanks in advance o7

Edit for extra info
Play area available = about 2m x 3m
I have an expensive 7.1 wireless headset so in-built audio is not a concern

Are the Rifts Touch (that's what they are called correct?) controllers better than the Vives wands in your opinion?

 

[Globusdiablo]

Ok so on the 3rd August I'm off to buy a VR set for my PC ( I have a monster spec so no need to ask me about that).
I have the obvious two choices here, Rift or Vive.

I was leaning towards the Vive as it seems the more polished option as I understand users of the Rift have to go through the whole setup procedure quite regularly when things go screwy, is this correct? The Vive by all accounts just works pretty much out the box.

Question 1 - Is Rift the a more hands on/mess about getting it working type of setup?

I keep reading that the Rift is a better headset for ED, but not many people go into detail about why, so why is that?

Question 2 - Do the two headsets have same quality of head tracking? Optically do they both look very similar?

Since both now support room scale, thats not really a consideration. My main concern is the head tracking and visual quality.
I'd be especially interested in the opinion of anyone that uses/has tried both platforms.

Thanks in advance o7

At 450 euros the Rift wins no contest. Both are very similar in performance.

If you're buying for Elite: Dangerous mainly, there really is no doubt:

https://www.oculus.com/rift/

 

[Dibiase]

I just got the Rift two weeks ago and the setup was about the easiest thing I have setup in a while. It really only took me about 30 minutes. The head tracker works great and it is very comfortable to wear. I don't have and I have not tried the Vive but I have compared the specs and they offer the same resolution so I would imagine they are pretty comparable image quality wise. The my main reason for picking up the Rift is right now it is half the price of the Vive.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Ok so on the 3rd August I'm off to buy a VR set for my PC ( I have a monster spec so no need to ask me about that).
I have the obvious two choices here, Rift or Vive.

I was leaning towards the Vive as it seems the more polished option as I understand users of the Rift have to go through the whole setup procedure quite regularly when things go screwy, is this correct? The Vive by all accounts just works pretty much out the box.

Question 1 - Is Rift the a more hands on/mess about getting it working type of setup?

I keep reading that the Rift is a better headset for ED, but not many people go into detail about why, so why is that?

Question 2 - Do the two headsets have same quality of head tracking? Optically do they both look very similar?

Since both now support room scale, thats not really a consideration. My main concern is the head tracking and visual quality.
I'd be especially interested in the opinion of anyone that uses/has tried both platforms.

Thanks in advance o7

Rift is very easy to set up. I havent had to re do mine since I got it, which is nearly a year ago now.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

at the similar price point of a month ago, it would have been worth a discussion.

the vive has some advantages - slightly better FOV, slightly more robust tracking, not needing to worry about balancing usb load

the rift some advantages - better erganomics, better image quality (reduced SDE), better motion controllers, better "free" bundled games pack

however at the current summer of rift prices it really is no contest imo. £399 for a rift, and touch AND a bunch of games?.........

which ever you go for you will get a good VR experience, its just one is £400, the other is £750.

I have a 3m x 3m play area and with 3 sensors the rift is more than capable of fantastic tracking - albeit once you do the usb load balancing dance.

 

[BlackSpaceCowboy]

I have the Rift and would buy it again just because of how much better the touch controllers are.

But the Rift USB cameras are more of a pain because you need extension USB cables to have 3 cameras in your room. But you only need 2. I'm using 2. I have 3rd but haven't set it up yet.

Fallout 4 will be on the Vive only initially. Lone Echo is on the Rift.

I would go with the Rift for this generation.

 

[Alec Turner]

I was leaning towards the Vive as it seems the more polished option as I understand users of the Rift have to go through the whole setup procedure quite regularly when things go screwy, is this correct?

Did you get that from this video review by any chance?

https://youtu.be/pyhaF5YoOms

Anyway, No, having to go through the whole setup procedure quite regularly is NOT my experience. As I commented on that video this morning ...

Another very happy Oculus user here who does NOT have to keep going into the setup software, I setup my sensors and space once when I first got the Rift last year and again when I got Touch plus the extra sensor and it's worked perfectly ever since, I just put on the headset and play. As others have said it's even amazingly tolerant of me moving my sensors, When I'm playing a front facing seated game I tend to move the 2nd sensor out of the way to the back of my desk, it doesn't mind me doing that at all. Then when I want to play something like Robo Recall I just move the sensor back to the front of my desk and away I go. Great video but I'm not quite sure what the guy is on about in this regard. Thought it was worth mentioning since he states it's the deciding factor for him in choosing the Vive.

The Vive by all accounts just works pretty much out the box.

Question 1 - Is Rift the a more hands on/mess about getting it working type of setup?

Not as far as I know. In fact, from the vast number of Rift vs. Vive threads here on the forum (see the "Rift vs Vive" section down the bottom over here: Alec-s-best-of-the-forum-(and-elsewhere)-thread), as far as I can tell there's a tiny bit more tweaking required with the Vive to get the best ED experience out of it.

I keep reading that the Rift is a better headset for ED, but not many people go into detail about why, so why is that?

Again, from reading all those other threads I get the sense that the graphics quality of ED in the Oculus is ever so slightly better than the Vive. Early on, when the Rift clearly wasn't as good at room-scale tracking as the Vive, I think the Oculus fans may have over-exagerrated this to justify their purchase against its tracking deficit but, from people who have owned both, it sounds like there may still some truth in it. The other reason the Rift is good for ED is because ED gaming sessions tend to be quite long (several hours) and the Rift is slightly more comfortable (although I believe they've reduced the weight of the Vive since I last tried it).

Question 2 - Do the two headsets have same quality of head tracking? Optically do they both look very similar?

Certainly for ED the head tracking quality is probably indistinguishable. It's only really when you get into large room scale now that the Vive still has the advantage (aside from anything else it's got slightly longer cables and I think getting power to the Vive base stations is slightly easier than running another USB cable around the room from the PC for the 3rd Oculus sensor that's required). Optically they both use Fresnel lenses to magnify the screen for your eyes, the Oculus lenses tend to produce rays coming out of bright lights against dark backgrounds, the so-called "go rays", while the Vive lenses tend to produce a ringed effect from what I've heard (I shouldn't comment further tho since I only have the Rift).

Since both now support room scale, thats not really a consideration. My main concern is the head tracking and visual quality.
I'd be especially interested in the opinion of anyone that uses/has tried both platforms.

Thanks in advance o7

Skim some of those Rift vs. Vive threads I mentioned above, quite a few of those had comments from people who owned both. Basically I think they're both brilliant. At the moment, with the $399 summer deal for the Touch controller bundle I think the Oculus is definitely better value but if they were exactly the same price I think it would be a tough call (personally I'd buy the Oculus again and I'm sure the Vive owners would say the same).

 

[popuptoaster]

I bought a Pimax 4k, if your not bothered about room scale or the hand controllers (I have HOTAS for ED and a decent steering wheel set up) for the games you're playing then it's higher resolution and better "screen door" effect makes it good value if you get it from Gearbest in one of their flash sales.

Mine was about £240 so even with the OR price drop it's still a good value way into VR, i will probably buy a Rift or Vive eventually but the Pimax is very good for the sit down games I'm interested in at the moment so I'll wait for the next gen before I worry about room scale i think.

(I did try both OR and Vive, neither seemed worth the extra cash UNLESS I wanted room scale, the Pimax definitely has them beaten on picture quality and set up but the OR was more comfortable to wear, not that the Pimax is bad, just not as good as OR, about the same as Vive.)

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I'm sure I'm repeating someone but it seem you have gotten the two mixed up.

The vive and steamvr is definitely the buggy one that feels the least finished.
The vive has gotten a lot better and more stable since I got it last year. But the rift has always presented a more stable and polished experience.

The tracking solution is not equal. The vive/steam lighthouse system is the more capable.
Two units work for complete tracking.
The rift need three cameras to even get close and they only really work up to a distance of roughly 180cm.

With the current price on the rift I can't recommend the vive to anyone bug it's room play features are superior, but this is kind matched with the less elegant wands vs the touch of the.

If one was to really go for the vive I would wait longer until steams knuckle controller are out.

But again with current price of the rift it is the no brainer choice.

 

[DaggerSnake]

I'd Echo the sentiments of most here. I tried both and settled on the Rift.

Visual prescense is equal.

Software polish and execution goes to the Rift.

The Touch controllers are the current VR benchmark for hand prescience "hands" down. Once you experience Exclusives like Lone Echo and Mages Tale, you'll have little doubt. I think new Vive controllers are in dev. The "knuckle" looks very similar to Touch.

Vive has the room scale advantage, but I'm using a two sensor setup and have rarely run into issues. The cable prevents you really running around, and I find myself basically playing games facing forward and just looking for left to right when I need to.

 

[Orvidius]

As far as easy/difficulty of setting up the Rift CV1, I'll give some thoughts. Overall it's very easy, and the software walks you through some basic setup, such as making sure things are plugged in, and it has you do a little bit of calibration. It'll have you hold a touch controller at eye level, then extended out in front of you, so that it knows your height and which direction is "forward", and you'll set up the "Guardian" boundaries, so that it knows where your play area is. There's not much more to it than that.

However from a technical standpoint, there are a few things you can do to avoid potential problems, such as balancing the USB load. Don't plug the USB connectors into adjacent ports. It's even better if you can get a dedicated, multi-channel USB card (one controller per port, instead of one for every 4 ports, or thereabouts). If you need to use extension cords for the sensors, get the "active" ones (they self-amplify). Those are straightforward things to do up-front, but a pain to diagnose if they're causing problems later, because it might falsely look like a bad sensor, or poor tracking performance, or Windows driver issues, or something like that. If you do have head tracking issues, move the USB cables around, and try it without extension cables, and see if that's contributing first. Otherwise, it's pretty painless and usually works out of the box.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Well even though the rift has a more streamlined setup the vive setup isn't exactly difficult.
The rift might take 20-30 minutes, the vive. Maybe 20 minutes longer.
but thats after making allowences for mounting the lighthouse units vs just placing the oculist cameras on the desk.

 

[vanfanel]

The tracking solution is not equal. The vive/steam lighthouse system is the more capable.
Two units work for complete tracking.
The rift need three cameras to even get close and they only really work up to a distance of roughly 180cm.

I'm not sure what you mean only working at 180cm. I did a large roomscale test hopefully to dispel some of the rumors that rift can't do large roomscale. I did use 4 sensors but 3 sensors worked just as well at that distance minus the one corner. Here is my test results using a playspace of 4.2m x 4.2m with the cameras roughly 5.1m x 4.8m apart: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/6p2szw/roomscale_testing_427mx427m_with_4_sensors/

 

[Strangepork]

I recently bought a second hand DK2 for 170 pounds.

It works brilliantly with a few setting tweaks which make the resolution really quite acceptable.

It runs fine of my 980m gaming laptop. (so no need to upgrade hardware).

I prefer playing in the dk2 than on a 40 inch TV.



It's a very good option for using VR.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I'm not sure what you mean only working at 180cm. I did a large roomscale test hopefully to dispel some of the rumors that rift can't do large roomscale. I did use 4 sensors but 3 sensors worked just as well at that distance minus the one corner. Here is my test results using a playspace of 4.2m x 4.2m with the cameras roughly 5.1m x 4.8m apart: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/6p2szw/roomscale_testing_427mx427m_with_4_sensors/

By 1.8m I mean sustain fully accurate tracking, but that might well be closer to 2m.
That's distance to closest sensor, if you have multiples setup in a corner pattern this is very unlikely to occur.

 

[Flimley]

I will add to this ..
I bought the Oculus rift because its on sale. This solely justified the purchase. It comes with "all" the peripherals.
It was super easy to set up as your guided through the process step by step. And I was playing Elite within 40minutes or so.
The tracking works excellently with just one of the two sensors supplied, even if I stand up or crouch down and wander around slightly.
It costs £399. Case solved for me.

Flimley

 

[TorTorden_VR]

I bought my rift last year for £600 and the touch later for a £100.
Even though I already had the vive before buying the rift I don't regret it.
And since 90% of my game time is spent in Elite where the rift both looks better and performs better.
The vive has mostly been shelved for the past year.

$400 Is a very good deal.

 

[Moonax IRL]

Ordered the rift at the sale price on the 19th from the Oculus site, still waiting for a shipping date, support reckons it could be two weeks. The price drop was a good move from Oculus as it will increase their share of the market and expose them to more consumers. The Vive is just way too expensive and looks very overpriced at this stage.

 

[vanfanel]

By 1.8m I mean sustain fully accurate tracking, but that might well be closer to 2m.
That's distance to closest sensor, if you have multiples setup in a corner pattern this is very unlikely to occur.

With a single sensor tracking is ideal up to 1.8m however as long as both sensors can see you tracking should be much better than that. Properly configured you should have enough overlap to avoid single sensor tracking. Oculus' own documentation says you should have ideal tracking up to 3m with 2 sensors. In my own testing that appears to be the case. I think I understand what your saying but your original message sounded like you were saying tracking was only good up to 1.8m with 3 sensors. I guess that would be true if you placed them somehow without overlapping coverage

 

[dogbite]

A pretty easy step by step setup. A lot of people don't check their usb compatibility with the Oculus test and can run into some difficulty. No all usb controllers are equal in quality even on some really good mobos.
https://support.oculus.com/1usb
A simple google or a post here quickly solves what is recommended for usb and hdmi extensions for the Rift, depending your needs.

360 tracking with 2 sensors in 8x10 ft play space is rock solid for me on the Rift. If you find a game that does occlude Touch, a 3rd camera is cheap enough.
Visual quality is similar. Those who own both lean to the CV1 for ED quite a bit. The best looking VR is native titles. I can't believe Robo Recall and Lone Echo would look any better on the Vive, and these are sweet looking games in VR.-{edit}Just adding fyi that my 2 sensors are at opposite diagonal corners, 12 ft spread, 7 ft elevation.

Touch is a great piece of kit and Touch games take full advantage of all of it. Even though Lone Echo will apparently run in "Revive", I doubt the excellent locomotion would translate to Vive wands and even if the new Grip controllers work (more money to spend) they likely won't translate well to Touch titles.

You can remove the headphones from Rift (1 screw) in a couple of seconds. many don't bother as they are surprisingly good.


And the price makes it no brainer. At $400USD and some nice software Riftt/Touch bundle is a winner. You save $400 over Vive. If the Rift sale and competition force Vive to say drop their price by say $200 this year you could own both by XMas for a $200 difference over what you would spend now on Vive alone. The only advantage to Vive right now is you won't have to wait to get one.