How bad are the Vive problems vs. Rift?

[captainkoloth]

I've tried both units at demo locations at stores and I've been really really impressed with VR generally and am going to invest in one of the two headsets. Here's my situation: I think primarily I will be playing more hours of E than anything else in VR. I know that it looks significantly better in Rift than Vive. However, my problem is that I'm a glasses wearer, I have eye issues that prevent me from wearing contacts, and I find the Vive to be much more comfortable with glasses than Rift. So my questions is this: How bad, really, truly, are the Vive graphical issues vs. Rift? Are we talking (subjectively) 5% worse? 20%? 50%? I work crazy hours so I'm probably going to be able to play maybe 2-3 hours a week. If I get lucky. So are the issues things I'm going to immediately, obviously notice, or are they things I would only see after playing and straining my eyes to see tiny text things after 750 hours+? Because I'm not going to be able to play anywhere near that amount of time. So basically, I realize the Rift's graphics are better, but are they that much better to be worth the tradeoff of extreme discomfort and if I'm only going to play a max of a few hours a week? Because the tradeoff here for me to have the improved graphics is, quite literally, physical pain.

PLEASE PLEASE don't turn this into an thread to bash Vive, or the developers, or whatever; I've gotten really frustrated with that on other forums where I've posed this question. Putting aside how we got to this point and whether this performance disparity should exist, I just want to know, as things stand today, and given what I laid out above, are the Vive problems really so bad that I should still go with the Rift?

 

[Retrac100]

Got my Vive 2 weeks ago. I can't compare to the Rift as I don't have one of those. I can only say that since 2.1 went live, I'm very very happy with how it looks. The only place I have a problem reading text is when I receive a message in the comms panel. That's very difficult, but apart from that, it's all good. Of course, it's not like my 4K monitor, but I won't play Elite any other way now. The experience is just totally brilliant, literally a childhood dream come true! So I would say if you have any worries about the Vive, don't worry! It really is fantastic. I have a TitanX card for comparison.

 

[shadragon]

Any issues are manageable. The text (on default HUD color) is hard to read, but you can use alternate colors to get around that. If you have a decent gaming rig and set it up properly, the Vive gives a very good experience.

Note, any issues are in E: D alone. All other VR titles I own work flawlessly.

 

[Mike Kangaroo]

Aye, my wife's eyesight isn't the best either and will occasionally use glasses and the Vive hasn't been an issue in that regard.

As for Elite, there is a render bug or something going on, the Devs are aware of it. given enough PC horse power you can basically overcome it now and it should be fixed up later.

as for me, I only play Elite in the Vive now, it is just too much fun

 

[Slopey]

How bad, really, truly, are the Vive graphical issues vs. Rift?

You're asking the wrong question to be honest.

The only real questions are: a) do you wear glasses, and b) do you want room scale?

If you answer yes to a) - buy the Vive regardless if you want room scale or not. It's 1000% more comfortable with glasses on than the rift (where wearing glasses in it is difficult if possible at all).

If you answer no to a) then if it's a yes to b) then buy the Vive.

If it's a no to a) and a no to b) then buy the Rift.

Simples. ED aside (and you shouldn't buy an HMD only for ED as there are so many other amazing experiences), the difference in quality between the Rift and Vive is negligible.

 

[Drexel Viehbock]

I have both. Funny enough, the VIVE came first then a week later the CV1. I ordered both pre-order day one (CV1 <9 min.) Anyway, the VIVE currently suffers horribly in Elite. The CV1 is 50-60% better image quality, however, this is due to some anti-alias bug. Even with ZERO anti-alias on the CV1, the image quality on th CV1 is much better. The VIVE is amazing on everything else. The integration with steam, desktop and environment, IMO, is better than Oculus. I am sure FD will get the alias bug worked out after that the experience should be the same.

Tracking is spot on on both units, however, the lighthouses on the VIVE are a PITA. I have to unplug them after every session. They take some time to "Boot UP", 30-90 seconds. This is due to reports of them not shutting down and getting over used all the time. This is the ONLY other issue I have with the VIVE.

I really LOVE both units. Gen 2 is going to be AMAZING in a few years.

 

[VR Dextrovix]

I have both and I wear glasses and I've found the Vive is much more comfortable to wear due to its design. I find that despite the *slightly* lower quality with ED, it's hardly a major concern. They both have the god-ray effect, but I find it less prominent with the Vive. Therefore, I think the OP should choose a Vive, especially as ED quality is being looked into by FD so I expect that to improve in the future.

I originally bought both so for sit-down experiences I'll use the Rift, and room-scale I'll use the Vive. Therefore, as I've found the Rift isn't as confortable with glasses, what I've done is support a Kickstarter that's going ahead in making custom lenses to go in both headsets, so I won't need to wear glasses at all.

https://vr-lens-lab.com

Therefore there is still an option for the OP to use a Rift with the above as an extra cost- still cheaper than the Vive if room-scale is of no interest, and used just for ED.

 

[captainkoloth]

Thanks! This is helping a lot.

To the extent that ED does look better in the Rift, what exactly is the difference? I haven't been able to tell from screenshots. Is it blurriness? Framerate? Not having a headset yet it's hard for me to know what exactly aliasing problems mean in the VR experience context.

 

[RoninCahill]

My Vive is still suffering from bad resolution. I can barely read writing. bases out 5km are very blurry. I have tried every setting and am using the best one I can muster at the moment. Still, its pretty cool in VR. I am confident they will improve the resolution.

 

[dutchy2000]

Thanks! This is helping a lot.

To the extent that ED does look better in the Rift, what exactly is the difference? I haven't been able to tell from screenshots. Is it blurriness? Framerate? Not having a headset yet it's hard for me to know what exactly aliasing problems mean in the VR experience context.

I know the pictures I am about to provide are in my DK2, but I am thinking the Vive has a similar issue, so the picture should be representative. When 2.1 dropped the quality of the text (and everything else) dropped signficantly. Luckily someone found an oculus debug tool that allows to override some settings and increase the quality.
Stock 2.1:
http://imgur.com/BuVRxv3
Using debug tool to basically get 1.4SS:
http://imgur.com/KJ5DyGv
Supposedly it looks like Stock 2.1 in the Vive and the other picture is more like the CV1. But this is the DK2. I hope I haven't confused you too much, but the difference is very clear in the text readability.

 

[dogbite]

Thanks! This is helping a lot.

To the extent that ED does look better in the Rift, what exactly is the difference? I haven't been able to tell from screenshots. Is it blurriness? Framerate? Not having a headset yet it's hard for me to know what exactly aliasing problems mean in the VR experience context.

One of the most complained about things seems to be the difference in the sharpness of the lenses. T
his is interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtLmYFF2mN0

 

[Epyx]

I would agree that the issues with the Vive are manageable. I also think they are mostly video card/performance related. Case in point. I had an R9 290 for running the HTC Vive and Elite Dangerous. I was getting between 15 and 45 fps depending on which graphic FX i enabled/configured. The sampling in particular was jerky at 1.5 and even at 1.0 with other settings enabled. End result...it was blurry and smudgy. Switching to an Nvidia 1080 (you can make a separate argument that you shouldn't need to upgrade from their min spec) and not only can i sample at 1.5 but with other settings enabled I can maintain not only 90fps but make that 90fps look SO much better. End result ED looks crisp and amazing like how i had pictured it looking before my Vive arrived. Honestly with the Nvidia 1080 and some tweaked settings ED differences are NIGHT and DAY.

 

[dogbite]

I would agree that the issues with the Vive are manageable. I also think they are mostly video card/performance related. Case in point. I had an R9 290 for running the HTC Vive and Elite Dangerous. I was getting between 15 and 45 fps depending on which graphic FX i enabled/configured. The sampling in particular was jerky at 1.5 and even at 1.0 with other settings enabled. End result...it was blurry and smudgy. Switching to an Nvidia 1080 (you can make a separate argument that you shouldn't need to upgrade from their min spec) and not only can i sample at 1.5 but with other settings enabled I can maintain not only 90fps but make that 90fps look SO much better. End result ED looks crisp and amazing like how i had pictured it looking before my Vive arrived. Honestly with the Nvidia 1080 and some tweaked settings ED differences are NIGHT and DAY.

Sure it would be nice if everyone could just throw hardware at the problem (throw away your 980 and buy a 1080) but the differences between the way the game is running on the Rift and the Vive are rooted in the time ED has had to work with each companies SDK's, the amount of time each company has been optimizing their drivers and the difference in Fresnel lenses. Time will tell, but software may well mitigate a lot of the issues both HMDs have. In another thread here the Oculus users are finding that using the SDK debug tool to edit the "pixel display override" they are able to get super sampling levels back to 1.5 and even 2 external to the game setting. I would expect Frontier should be able to achieve this in game at some point without us all buying new cards.

 

[Epyx]

Sure it would be nice if everyone could just throw hardware at the problem (throw away your 980 and buy a 1080) but the differences between the way the game is running on the Rift and the Vive are rooted in the time ED has had to work with each companies SDK's, the amount of time each company has been optimizing their drivers and the difference in Fresnel lenses. Time will tell, but software may well mitigate a lot of the issues both HMDs have. In another thread here the Oculus users are finding that using the SDK debug tool to edit the "pixel display override" they are able to get super sampling levels back to 1.5 and even 2 external to the game setting. I would expect Frontier should be able to achieve this in game at some point without us all buying new cards.

You are of course correct. It is ludicrous to expect anyone to just throw hardware at the issue. I fully realize im throwing my money at a workaround not the root cause. HOwever, hopefully as you say given time and expertise the devs will be able to address issues on both units.

In the interim though and until my Rift arrives, I am happy with the Vive experience.