Vive or Rift?

[Kyennamo]

I bought both today

Over the next few days i will be trying both with ED. If the rift is truely better for ED then i will keep both because i want room scale. But if the vive is as good or better i may return the rift.

The guy at gamestop who has both swore up and down that with the proper settings the vive is clearly superior for ED. I told him what i read online seems to dicatate otherwise. He said to call him if i had trouble because with his settings the vive is clearly superior. I guess i will see for myself soon enough

 

[paulkemp]

Indeed there are some very exciting news from CES:

https://blog.vive.com/us/2017/01/04/vive-ces-2017/

https://unlocked.newegg.com/article...upgrade-tracker-peripherals-and-more-ces-2017



I also think we can expect "VR wars" like good times of "ATI vs NVidia" gpu wars (yes, ATI, not AMD ). Usually consumers benefit from them, time will tell

Great find on those artciles! Had not read them. Epix thanks. o7

On the note of HTC not wanting to fragmenting their use base. What I read into this, is that the audio strap, tpcast and tracker, will be capable with Vive 2.0. As will the controllers. Vive 2.0 will just be a lighter, higher rez verion of just the HMD. Higher resolution will not fragment the use base.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

On the note of HTC not wanting to fragmenting their use base. What I read into this, is that the audio strap, tpcast and tracker, will be capable with Vive 2.0. As will the controllers. Vive 2.0 will just be a lighter, higher rez verion of just the HMD. Higher resolution will not fragment the use base.

There is no news of Vive 2.0 as of yet. I was delaying purchase waiting for CES news. When htc VP said they're focusing on the ecosystem (as in no vive2 in corpo-lingo) I was very disappointed that I didn't go with black friday sale. Luckily there was boxing day sale after christmas Too bad my vive broke 2.5 weeks after purchase and its now a month in RMA... Make sure you purchase from a store, not online from HTC. More warranty options...

High res will fragment the ecosystem because you'd then have to prepare assets for two headset versions, which cost money, and VR isn't exactly profitable now for big game developers. I find the current Vive resolution good enough, and also there isn't that much gpu horsepower out there in the market to even think about higher res VR. Or to be precise, developers are being spoiled by the gpu manufacturers and don't want to waste money on "pointless" optimisations. When foveated rendering and dynamic resolution rendering will become the norm, then we will be ready for higher resolution.

 

[Kyennamo]

I set up my rift on friday and my vive last night.

I have only played the training missions so far but here are my initial impressions of both HMD for ED only. But....please bear in mind i have only spent a couple hrs inside each HMD

The rift-is a sleeker lighter package. Its lighter on your head and FAR less cumbersome. The detail is quite clear but the god rays are terrible. Fortunately they only bother me if i focus on them or in menus. That said, if you loom for them they are g horrible.

The Vive- at first, looked like dog s(poo).
Visual fidelity in the vive (for ED at least) seems far more dependant on getting the settings right. Once i got the settings right it looked ALMOST as good as the rift (but not quite) with slightly better color and a DEFINITE field of view advantage. Text is definitely less clear when compared to the rift but it is legible. Also, the "sweet spot" people talk about is a very real thing. Anything not directly in front of your eyes tends to be slightly out of focus on the vive. And....while it doesnt exibit the god rays....the concentric circles caused by lense flare may actually be worse than god rays

Bottom line (so far) the rift DEFINITELY looks better if you can ignore the god rays.(but its hard)Looking at objects while sitting still looks FAR better in the rift regardless of graphical settings on either device. HOWEVER, I felt like once the game was actually in motion none of that mattered and the vive performed equally well (if not better) minus a little (more than a little) graphical fidelity.

I will update in a day or 2 after i spend a little more time inside each HMD.

 

[bitstorm]

any Vive owners who don't wear glasses try this to increase your FOV and drastically reduce edge blur.


https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4gezog/8_sleep_mask_mod_worked_better_than_expected_and/

I would estimate its added 10-20 degrees to mine, IMO its feels a lot like the DK1's FOV now and feels less weighty at the front too.

Or if you want something off the shelf, nab a 6mm facepad : https://vrcover.com/product/htc-vive-foam-replacement-6mm/

My FOV went +10 degrees (measured) sweet spot size increased.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Or if you want something off the shelf, nab a 6mm facepad : https://vrcover.com/product/htc-vive-foam-replacement-6mm/

My FOV went +10 degrees (measured) sweet spot size increased.

I would be extremely careful with those, as it seems the face foam is paramount to protect the Vive from sweat. All those horror stories of HTC refusing repair because of "liquid damage" while folks claiming it was never near any water to begin with. See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABCGqYzMDyw .

 

[bitstorm]

nm diffeerent poster

 

[Kyennamo]

Or if you want something off the shelf, nab a 6mm facepad : https://vrcover.com/product/htc-vive-foam-replacement-6mm/

My FOV went +10 degrees (measured) sweet spot size increased.

Im not sure it can get any closer to my eyes/face. I already have it pressed in so far i can feel the plastic on my face. I dont see a thinner gasket helping.

 

[shadragon]

You seem well versed in both. I have plans for roomscale but that is honestly an afterthought. ED is my primary goal here. I am probably going to pick up my vive tomorrow unless you tell me something that will change my mind.

Missed this reply, sorry. I only own the Vive (And the FOVE which is untested). If all you want is E: D I can't see getting anything other than a Rift. No need for controllers at all.

If you want room scale stuff and E: D the Vive is the way to go. The two VR systems are very close with more similarities than differences. I went through the same process as you looking at both products. I chose the Vive, but I do have 15 VR games I play in addition to E: D and the wife LOVES Kittypocolypse.

The Vive isn't as good of a resolution as a hi-def monitor, but the sense of being IN a space ship is unbeatable and worth it. This is also first gen tech so the future looks bright.

Try them both out, if you can, and make up your own mind.

 

[Kyennamo]

Missed this reply, sorry. I only own the Vive (And the FOVE which is untested). If all you want is E: D I can't see getting anything other than a Rift. No need for controllers at all.

If you want room scale stuff and E: D the Vive is the way to go. The two VR systems are very close with more similarities than differences. I went through the same process as you looking at both products. I chose the Vive, but I do have 15 VR games I play in addition to E: D and the wife LOVES Kittypocolypse.

The Vive isn't as good of a resolution as a hi-def monitor, but the sense of being IN a space ship is unbeatable and worth it. This is also first gen tech so the future looks bright.

Try them both out, if you can, and make up your own mind.

I did try them both in the store. Both were fun but honestly...it was a very poor test for how they perform in ED.

I ended up getting both. I may or may not return the vive because the rift is clearly superior for ED(impression so far).....but......the vive is just so much fun with other stuff. Cutting an arc into the ground in front of me with a light sabre like a Samurai-Jedi Badass is almost too cool to give up even if was only a 5 minute demo lol

I probably wont play ED again for another day or so. I need to build my 1:1 setup to hold my hotas and pedals in the right positions first. I found my hands and feet not being inside my pilots body kinda disorienting. I figure proper pedal and hotas placement will go a long way towards making things feel more natural. Im even considering trying to use my old lg g2 (or a usb number pad) as the touch screen next to the stick and even making a keyboard mount on the left side.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

I may or may not return the vive because the rift is clearly superior for ED(impression so far).....but......the vive is just so much fun with other stuff. Cutting an arc into the ground in front of me with a light sabre like a Samurai-Jedi Badass is almost too cool to give up even if was only a 5 minute demo lol

It is a software issue. As for link to a thread with does bring Elite graphics quality up to "Rift speed" see my lenghty post a few pages ago. However if you were able to afford both, use the rift for ED and Vive for anything else, win-win. That said, there are now touch controllers available for the rift, so you wouldn't be missing that jedi experience. However in my opinion the rift roomscale setup is a bit more cumbersome and less future-proof and there should be a plethora of accessories + wireless for the vive in 2017.

 

[Kyennamo]

It is a software issue. As for link to a thread with does bring Elite graphics quality up to "Rift speed" see my lenghty post a few pages ago. However if you were able to afford both, use the rift for ED and Vive for anything else, win-win. That said, there are now touch controllers available for the rift, so you wouldn't be missing that jedi experience. However in my opinion the rift roomscale setup is a bit more cumbersome and less future-proof and there should be a plethora of accessories + wireless for yhe vive in 2017.

I had actually read that post prior to trying either HMD. Now that i own both i can say your post is pretty accurate.

 

[shadragon]

I ended up getting both.

That's a viable option as well.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

It is a software issue. As for link to a thread with does bring Elite graphics quality up to "Rift speed" see my lenghty post a few pages ago. However if you were able to afford both, use the rift for ED and Vive for anything else, win-win. That said, there are now touch controllers available for the rift, so you wouldn't be missing that jedi experience. However in my opinion the rift roomscale setup is a bit more cumbersome and less future-proof and there should be a plethora of accessories + wireless for the vive in 2017.

Hi

out of curiosity once you get ED running well visually in the vive, how is performance compared to on the rift? (I have no dog in this race really, my decision is already made and my wife would cut my manbit off if I got another VR HMD this generation... I am just curious.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

out of curiosity once you get ED running well visually in the vive, how is performance compared to on the rift?

Heh, I also don't have a dog in this race (TIL new idiom, thx ), especially given my "beef" with HTC support and a broken HMD in repair for almost a month now Not that Rift's support is any better, mind you, they're both horrible for such expensive product, which is odd, but I digress.

TL; DR: on the "right" settings, Vive game is smooth on an i5 3570k stock clock + GTX 1070 + 8GB RAM (Elite on HDD, not SSD).

It's hard to say because my Rift experience was very brief and on a 1080 paired with an i7 if memory serves me well, and I have 1070 and i5 3570k. That said, E station performance tanked in VR in both Rift and Vive on that powerful machine also. Alas, I don't remember the exact VR settings used, because I had limited time and a few games to check on Touch besides Elite. As for me if I remember correctly recently added Asynchronous Time Warp is saving my 1070's and Vive's sorry behind, and FPS stay above 45 which ensures fluid motion and almost no judder. There was a very slight judder when looking at the throttle and hands, when I get my Vive back from RMA I'll see if I can pinpoint the cause (may be something external to the game just tipping the point). I can't check now but I think I have VR high with OpenVR rendering multiplier to 1.2, Elite's Supersampling at 1.0 and HMD quality at 1.25 and the game is running smoothly except that weird judder mentioned when looking at SRV panel.

My personal guess is, Rift's runtime is probably doing something behind the scenes, and doing it much more efficient than Elite's native code. I was initially convinced that the quality is due to somehow better optics, but having set the vive up to the same quality level I think its the runtime or drivers doing very efficient low level quality optimisations.

PS: Once you see E on the Rift, you can't unsee it. I wouldn't be able to get back to the initial Vive jagginess which I have to say out of the box is horrible compared to Rift's clarity. That said, you can get it to the same quality levels as mentioned, and I find godrays more distracting than vive's lens flares.

 

[dogbite]

However if you were able to afford both, use the rift for ED and Vive for anything else, win-win. .

What, so all other games look and play better on the Vive? doubt that

 

[Gadroc]

What, so all other games look and play better on the Vive? doubt that

I have both, and 99% of the time I prefer the visuals on the Vive. The Vive display is noticeable brighter and more vibrant. The crushed blacks / banding and black smear on the rift are HORRIBLE and I can barely stand using it anymore. The only time I consider hooking up the rift anymore is flight sims, for the sole reason that the async reproduction is "smoother" on the rift. Usually when I do hook up the rift I end up switching back due to the black smear and horrible colors on the rift.

Rift = More comfortable. Slightly better performance. This is not raw FPS performance, but smoother transitions between reprojection so things have less stutter. This pretty much only matters in certain games or those that have marginal performance (read simulations Elite, DCS, FSX, etc..)
Vive = Better displays, with less distracting god rays. More usable room scale space to real space ratio.

Otherwise they are pretty much the same now days Rift Touch and Async Reprojection in SteamVR leveled the playing field for other things. I suspect the new audio head strap from HTC will remove the comfort difference.

As always some of this is subjective and depends on your A) Hardware, B) Tolerance for different artifacts (banding vs stutter, etc).

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I wonder if there are some rifts with better screens than others (ie ropy quality control) i read all sorts of issues with red tint etc and i just do not see it.

Image quality on my rift apart from god rays is outstanding imo when conaidering ita limitations in resolution

 

[VR StarLightPL]

considering its limitations in resolution

When you think about it for a moment you will realise that this is still better than FullHD 1080p, just closer to the eyes, which brings out flaws not visible on a monitor from a few meters away on a TV or on a smaller monitor even when close. And 1080p is actually pretty good. I don't get the 4k fetish, unless someone views the screen with a magnifying glass ;-)

 

[vic]

I wonder if there are some rifts with better screens than others (ie ropy quality control) i read all sorts of issues with red tint etc and i just do not see it.

Image quality on my rift apart from god rays is outstanding imo when conaidering ita limitations in resolution

I beleive it has to do with rift display factory calibration. I had loaned rift for a weekend about 6months ago and found the awful black smearing (that I also had in the DK2) was also there in the the rift CV1, but only on one eye!! Proving to me it has to do with the display calibration of the 2 separate displays not being matched and/or not being optimised for dark scenes the same in all displays in all rifts.
I think some people would be lucky in having properly calibrated displays whereas others not so lucky. In the end I stayed with my DK2 since I wasn't going to pay almost a grand for it and still be stuck with that smearing.
Maybe oculus should release some kind of display calibration for oculus customers to use. If they did I may be swayed into buying a CV1.