Testing Vive after DK2, impressions

[S. Belmont]

I finally had the chanhe to test Vive at friends house. I own and use dk2. Here are my two cents.

Vive is surprisingly comfortable. Rift CV1 must be barely noticeable. Vive image quality is naturally better than in dk2, but not much actually. God rays were very visible, but not distracting in Elite.

If I was buying a new vr-device, I would go for Rift CV1, just because it's said to have better image quality and if it is even more comfortable than Vive. Roomscale was impressive, but not something I would miss currently. Best experience was Elite.

In conclusion, dk2 does pretty good job compared to Vive, so I'm in no hurry to upgrade new vr-device at this point.

 

[Y2K]

Owned dk2 last year for a few week, decided to sell it to upgrade my gfx cards ( 2x280X's - crossfire ) and be ready for cv1 when it was released. Had my gtx 1080 a few week.. amazing card!! And got my cv1 2 days ago ( thanks to my lovely wife to be ( 2mths )). The difference between dk2 and cv1 is amazing and well worth it. 1: its very light and very comfortable to wear for extended periods, i remember after a few hours with the dk2 it was almost a relief to take it off your head, not with the cv1. 2: the picture quality is there and is a very noticable upgrade from the dk2 and this is with no tweaking over the last few days which im about to do. no pixelization that bugged me on the dk2, text is readable which was another drawback of the dk2. its very very playable. i dont see god rays except on menu screens where there is alot of black background with white text i see none at all in game. 3: it just works. I remember you had to jump through hoops, stand on your head, do a little dance and phone a friend to get the dk2 working, this thing you just put it on your head and your welcomed by the Oculus home, from there you can do anything, really well thought out and very user friendly. 4: like others, i didnt think i would use the rifts headphones, but they really are very good! as good as my headphones which is a blessing, less wires i have a single cable coming off the back of the rift, and it all works from 1 hdmi and 1 usb - no power adapter

its been over a year since i sold my dk2 in order to upgrade gfx cards and be ready for the cv1. Im premium beta backer - so i get every single upgrade thats ever released for elite free ive not played it on my monitors since i sold the dk2, once you experience this game in vr theres no other way to play it. its changed alot since i played it, last night i landed on a planet for the first time, amazing experience and really well done! theyre making this game a classic and i hope they continue to make and release major updates like this, hell id even go for a monthly subscription to help fund it all which i know alot of other people would do. My advice to dk2 owners after owning both dk2 and now cv1, very worth the upgrade. Get your dk2 on ebay - theyre going for £200 upwards.

 

[Aio]

If you bypass part of the frontier rendering with steamvr settings you end up with an image quality better than cv1. Vive has heavier but better lenses from an image quality point of view with less ridges. The dk2 use normal lenses so it is heavy but less optical defects than both the vive and the cv1.

 

[Kraven42]

Im not actually entirely convinced the Rift CV 1 is much more comfortable than the Vive.
The CV is about 100g lighter and I think that's really its only advantage, however the foam padding is thinner and not as push as the Vive's. Also if you have glasses the CV1 is much more annoying to put on.

I reckon if you can add securely attach a counterweight to the back strap of both comfort would be better on both.

I probably need to do a long back to back sessions with both to really make my mind up.

 

[Slopey]

Im not actually entirely convinced the Rift CV 1 is much more comfortable than the Vive.

Really? For me it's night and day. The Rift is way way more comfortable than the Vive. For me the Vive is heavy, and the way the straps work just don't hold it right (with the back strap too high on the head imho).

The Rift I can pop on and off like a cap, and it's comfortable for extended sessions. The Vive is a pest to get seated as comfortably as possible, tends to get sweaty around the padding (although that's largely due to Space Pirate Trainer), and feels so much heavier.

 

[vic]

I tried the CV1 but own the DK2. My main gripe with the CV1 is that is got alot hotter than my DK2.
Anybody else found this to be true or was it just an isolated CV1 problem?

 

[Spam]

I tried the CV1 but own the DK2. My main gripe with the CV1 is that is got alot hotter than my DK2.
Anybody else found this to be true or was it just an isolated CV1 problem?

I would say my CV1 is a bit warmer rather than a lot hotter. Comfort in the CV1 is a lot better than the DK2.
The foam in the CV1 is harder, but now i've used it for a while it's softened off some and is rather a nice fit on my face.

The flip side of the CV1 running slightly warmer is the initial fogging stage on initial fit is considerably less in the CV1.

 

[Kraven42]

Really? For me it's night and day. The Rift is way way more comfortable than the Vive. For me the Vive is heavy, and the way the straps work just don't hold it right (with the back strap too high on the head imho).

The Rift I can pop on and off like a cap, and it's comfortable for extended sessions. The Vive is a pest to get seated as comfortably as possible, tends to get sweaty around the padding (although that's largely due to Space Pirate Trainer), and feels so much heavier.

Im a bit on the fence, if you don't wear glasses the rift is an easier choice. If you look at the vive it has 2 channels on the edges of the foam padding; these are for glasses wearers, the rift has no such thing. It takes me about 3 seconds to put the vive on and 10-15 for the rift because they didn't add these channels.

I find the padding rift padding to be more irritating after a while as well.

I think the vive relies a bit on the cable weight to balance the thing. Weight isn't really the problem; balance is. My motocycle helmet is 1kg heavier than both but its much less noticeable when turning your head because its CofG is in the centre of my head and not at my eyes.

I just put both on the kitchen scales, its totally accurate because im partially supporting the cables but the vive is 603g and the rift is 483g. So say 20% heavier but its still only 120g.

For my the first 10 mins the Rift is noticeable more comfortable but after 30 they are about the same really. It might just be the games but I can't say I've ever had a moment where I just totally forget im wearing a headset with the Rift but I have the vive.

These are just personal observations however, your mileage may vary.

 

[Soda Popinski]

Im not actually entirely convinced the Rift CV 1 is much more comfortable than the Vive.
The CV is about 100g lighter and I think that's really its only advantage, however the foam padding is thinner and not as push as the Vive's. Also if you have glasses the CV1 is much more annoying to put on.

I reckon if you can add securely attach a counterweight to the back strap of both comfort would be better on both.

I probably need to do a long back to back sessions with both to really make my mind up.

I had to "unlearn" having the CV1 straps so tight. I've had a DK2, and still have a Vive. With both of those, you need to have some tension squishing your face a bit to keep the HMD in place. With the CV1, I've found I can have it relatively lose, with little to no pressure on my face, wearing it like a hat.

Also, the weight distribution feels better with the CV1.

 

[dementia]

Im not actually entirely convinced the Rift CV 1 is much more comfortable than the Vive.
The CV is about 100g lighter and I think that's really its only advantage, however the foam padding is thinner and not as push as the Vive's. Also if you have glasses the CV1 is much more annoying to put on.

With you on this one bud. I own both the Vive and CV1 and find the Vive much more comfortable on the face than the CV1 for long periods. Just a pity Elite tanks when using the Vive compared to the CV1 and I can force use SLI with the CV1 but cannot with the Vive.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

imo CV1 comfort is hugely tied to the size of your head.
I have a bigger than average bonce and I have to have the CV1 at its loosest possible setting. even then it is a little too tight (its ok, luckily, but right on the edge)

anyone with a smaller head than I I would say would barely feel the CV1 when worn. Anyone with a bigger head than me I can imagine the CV1 would be pretty uncomfy.

 

[BostromNZ]

Just a pity Elite tanks when using the Vive compared to the CV1 and I can force use SLI with the CV1 but cannot with the Vive.

Can you elaborate on this? I'm a long time DK2 user with a Vive ordered but am having second doubts about the Vive now as ATW really is a god send. I don't really care about comfort that much and roomscale would be nice but who am I kidding, I play Elite more than anything closely followed by other sims iRacing, AC etc.

What GFX card do you have? What settings do you have to use to get smooth gameplay on the Vive?