Im interested in VR

[oshb5ems]

Hi All

Iv been thinking about adding a VR headset to my system. I just wondered what everyone is using. Iv had a quick look and the obvious Oculus Rift stands out but in 3 versions the DK1, Dk2 and CV1 and at ascending prices. But what else is out there and are they any good? Im just looking for a general opinions please.

Thanks OS

 

[Alec Turner]

Your two main options are Oculus Rift (CV1 - the other models are old dev kits) or the HTC Vive.

There's about a gazzilion forum threads debating which is better.

I've highlighted a bunch of these in the "Stuff to do with VR" section over here ..

Alec-s-best-of-the-forum-(and-elsewhere)-thread

I would recommend taking a look at the stuff in that section.

Personally I've got an Oculus and I absolutely utterly utterly love it! I hear good things about the Vive too.

If you have any further questions then these forums are a terrific place to ask. You'll find a lot of very enthusiastic and helpful people here.

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

Before buying an HMD blindly, you should definitely go and test both the Rift and the Vive. There are several factors to take into account, like wearing glasses under the HMD, image sharpness vs larger field of view. Roomscale isnt a factor anymore, as both HMDs offer good roomscale experiences, excellent tracking and hand controllers.

Personally, i use a Rift CV1 with Touch Controllers and a third sensor for full roomscale VR (which is awesome). I chose the Rift, because i find it is more comfortable to wear (subjective observation! Differs from wearer to wearer) and i prefer image sharpness and less screendoor effect over larger field of view and less god rays. As said above... test them both, before buying. When testing, be prepared to be a bit underwhelmed by the image quality, as most shops will not have optimized setups.

Also make sure, that your rig can support at least mid-range VR quality with your HMD of coice, if you want a decent and lasting experience. I run a GTX1080ti, a 4690K i5 and 32 Gigs of RAM which allows playing Elite in Ultra settings. My recommendation would be, not going under a GTX980ti or GTX1070. I started VR with a GTX970 and after upgrading i noticed how much i was actually hurting my eyes in terms of exhaustion. I could play about 2 hours with the 970 and with the new card i can play without time limitation and exhaustion.

Regardless how you decide, you are about to enter a new realm of gaming.

I hope this helps CMDR o7

 

[jojon]

Don't bother with the DK models - the letters stand for "Development Kit". These were stepping stones toward the "real thing", allowing developers to work on titles before mass market launch, and features and support is scarce.

Rift and Vive are roughly equivalent, but there are some differences. Which of these are important is a bit of a personal thing, so it would be really useful if you could find opportunities to try both, before deciding - that is always advice no.1.

One rarely mentioned aspect is the ranges of eye-to-eye distance ("IPD") they accomodate (you want to match the HMD with your eyes, so that they both look through the centre of their respective lens, for maximum clarity), which you may want to factor in if your IPD is far from the populace median. The Rift goes a bit lower than the Vive (slightly lower than 61mm), and the Vive a little higher than the Rift (slightly above 71 - there will no doubt now be responders arguing that this latter doesn't matter, due to the Rift having a larger percentage of the viewable area simultaneously in focus, and consequently allowing more stray from the "sweet spot", which is true-ish, as long as you don't mind some image stretching).