I tried non-beta 2.1 in my 4 days old Vive yesterday. I have also a DK2 which I used extensively with ED for over a year now. I started the game without Steam nor SteamVR running in the background. The following is on my subpar system (i5-3470, GTX970, 16GB RAM) on the VRHIgh Preset.
Frameratewise it felt much smoother than in the DK2. This took me by surprise as I would have thought the higher resolutiuon would make it unplayable.
Visually, it is MUCH nicer than the DK2. The SDE (which I barely notice in the DK2 anyway) was even less pronounced, and the font was definitely more readable. I use a green UI, so maybe the increased luminosity helps in the Vive too (despite the fact that it doesn't have a pentile display). I really wondered about the people complaining about text not being readable and jaggies everywhere. I don't know if it's the above mentioned UI color, my "experience" with the DK2 (And thus reduced expectations, as opposed to the people who were playing on triple-4K monitor before and who might have expected that kind of visual fidelity in VR), or sheer luck that I hit the lenses sweetspot automatically. I *did* notice some godrays, but honestly I never was bothered by them at all.
The only negative thing I can say about the whole experience is that the completely messed up IPD was really jarring. I was already slightly too small in the DK2, but the Vive is worse. Changin the ipd on the vive didn't help, but I think I read that the scale in the vive has been fixed in the beta (no harddrive space left to install it:/, so I am eagerly awaiting that.
(also : forget about running around on the bridge. switch to external camera while on a landing pad, position it with your back to the ship, approx. at a normal person's eye level, and WALK on the landing pad toward your ship. THAT was incredible
