I owned a Rift CV1 for quite a while and to be honest I was not that impressed, when it broke out of warranty I decided not to replace it. I always felt the SDE, god rays and low resolution made the entire expreience rather underwhelming. I am hooked on the VR experience, just felt that Rift wasn't good enough overall IMHO.
I recently purchased a Lenovo Explorer WMR-HMD and I did so even though it was more expensive than a new Rift. Here are my thoughts on it compared to Rift and I stress this is purely form a sit down non-roomscale perspective.
Setup on the Lenovo is extermely simple, it is plug and play. No need for sensor placement etc.
The sweetspot on the Lenovo feels smaller than on the Rift but I believe it is a combination of two factors.
1. The sweetspot is indeed slightly smaller
2. It is exaggerated by the fact the Lenovo (and ovbiously any WMR HMDs) have a more pronounced transition.
For example (green good to red worthless).
Rift lense transition
<
unreadable............ |
barely readable..................... | barely readable | .....................barely readable |
unreadable............ >
< ......................................................suffers from god rays accross entire lense........................................................... >
Lenovo lense transition
<
Blurry mess |
unreadable......... |
barely readable |
.....Easily readable.... |
barely readable |
unreadable........ |
blurry mess >
< .god rays......................... |
...................................NO GOD RAYS...................................|
...........................god rays. >
So I perceive the Lenovo to have a clearer, if slightly smaller sweet spot, yet it transitions to a worse state overall at the very edges. The CV1 for me never reaches a level of better than poor for IQ (SDE, resolution, god rays). On the Lenovo with the reduced SDE and increased resolution there is a noticeable improvment in clarity and IQ where it matters. Still not close to perfect but a definite step up over CV1.
The positives on Lenovo MR
- Lower SDE
- Better resolution
- Reduced God rays (only noticeable away from sweet spot)
- Much easier setup
- Improved comfort and ease of use due to better head-strap and flip up display. This is especially imporant for anyone who wears glasses.
Negatives are
- slightly smaller sweetspot.
- Controllers lose tracking when outside the camera sensors on the HMD
- LCD rather than OLED so black levels are not as good. Though I have noticed no issues and it is as good as any IPS or VA montor screen.
The inside out head tracking works perfectly for me. I have no problems with lag or drift at all. Overall I am happier with the Lenovo than I am with the Rift CV1.
FOV is pretty much identical, or to put it another way, you feel still like you are looking through a scuba mask.
Overall I am happier with the Lenovo but then again I am using mine in a purely sit down simming scenario and the improved clarity in the admitedly smaller sweetspot area is worth it.
