Considering buy a VR headset, what to go for?

Michael Davies said:
my vive is on top of my wardrobe gathering dust lol.
.....
rift is easier to wear too in my humble opinion
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I agree that the Rift has an easier fit and is more comfortable than the vive over short periods. I haven't played the rift for any extended sessions, but I know that after a while, I don't notice the Vive now that I've got good at setting it up.

You should consider selling your Vive if you're not using it. The price is already starting to drop.
 
LordFeste said:
I agree that the Rift has an easier fit and is more comfortable than the vive over short periods. I haven't played the rift for any extended sessions, but I know that after a while, I don't notice the Vive now that I've got good at setting it up.

You should consider selling your Vive if you're not using it. The price is already starting to drop.
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I like to own both lol
 
LordFeste said:
Why though? If it's just gathering dust? Or is it just that you'll go back to it at some point? Seems a shame to leave tech that's still very much in-date on the shelf. You'd get £500 for it, easy I reckon.
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Yea true, tempting, ive also got a dk2 ive hardley used (missing a lost camera mount) id like to sell.
Ive got a few steam games in my library that are only for the vive.
I may have another play with it over the w/e then decide :)
 
The-Hoff said:
Having owned both.......the Rift is better by far in my opinion.
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Screenshots or it didn't happen ;-)


The SteamVR and Vive combination is what to look at I think. The amount of peripherals and extra stuff coming out of HTC Vive makes it a clear winner in my book. That and sales for the Vive are closing in on double the Rift's.... suggests that, at least on a consumer footing, the smart money is on the Vive....
 
LordFeste said:
Screenshots or it didn't happen ;-)


The SteamVR and Vive combination is what to look at I think. The amount of peripherals and extra stuff coming out of HTC Vive makes it a clear winner in my book. That and sales for the Vive are closing in on double the Rift's.... suggests that, at least on a consumer footing, the smart money is on the Vive....
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That's only an estimation though and only until the end of last year, up until the touch controllers came out the Vive was the most recommended headset. Room scale sold so many units.

But now that the Rift has got proper room scale and a big price reduction it's going to become the more popular purchase.

And since the Rift can run most of the VR games and apps on Steam, I am not sure that's an advantage for the Vive either.

Vive still holds the advantage for people who have large play areas.
 
The perception of Vive as the premium product still drives plenty sales. Also the dislike of Facebook is another negative. SteamVR already has new headsets from different vendors: e.g. the LG SteamVR. As mighty as Facebook's PR machine will be, it will struggle against the open standards of SteamVR. Perhaps it doesn't mind, but the price drop suggests they are not hedging their bets on being the Apple of VR Headsets...
 
Perception as premium product? Still driving sales? Any links to back those statements up? Just looking around forums, when people ask for advice on which to buy the Vive was always the one most recommended but lately the Rift is the headset people are been advised to buy.

And why would different headsets been released for steamVR mean that the Vive is the better purchase? The Rift works perfectly on Steam VR.
 
Positioning on price and marketing. HTC have addressed the pricing issue by bundling the device with premier hardware, by offering credit options, but they haven't dropped the price permanently. Facebook has deep pockets, and HTC is in financial difficulty, so there is that too. Facebook can only throw money at the problem. OpenVR has the advantage of cultivating a different culture.

Different headsets mean that incremental change is possible. The new LG SteamVR headset is a higher resolution than both the Vive and Facebook device.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-prod...release-date-uk-price-features-specs-3655938/

1440x1280 for each eye, both of which refresh at a rate of 90Hz. The PPI is 540

The Oculus Rift headset uses an OLED panel for each eye, each having a resolution of 1080×1200 with 461ppi, which I think is the same as the Vive? I'm running out of time to research this, but iirc, the screen specs of rift and vive are identical.

Vive now has a lighter model than it launched with; a different cable; a new "deluxe" head-harness thing with integrated earphones; a cheaper lighthouse is on the cards.

The open nature of the SteamVR ecosystem ensures such innovation. Look at the new tracker pucks for example, and again the innovation with the lighter, cheaper, lighthouses.

You're looking at a difference in marketing strategy here. Long-term, SteamVR will win the majority market share. Whether it's with the Vive, LG or a.n. other. Facebook's closed, privacy invading approach in the face of other competition will see it wither, no matter how buoyant it is just now. That's why the Vive (or the LG) is currently the better purchase. It's VHS v Betamax, and the Facebook VR machine is Betamax. Technically adept, but ultimately losing out to a more popular standard.
 
LordFeste said:
Positioning on price and marketing. HTC have addressed the pricing issue by bundling the device with premier hardware, by offering credit options, but they haven't dropped the price permanently. Facebook has deep pockets, and HTC is in financial difficulty, so there is that too. Facebook can only throw money at the problem. OpenVR has the advantage of cultivating a different culture.

Different headsets mean that incremental change is possible. The new LG SteamVR headset is a higher resolution than both the Vive and Facebook device.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-prod...release-date-uk-price-features-specs-3655938/

1440x1280 for each eye, both of which refresh at a rate of 90Hz. The PPI is 540

The Oculus Rift headset uses an OLED panel for each eye, each having a resolution of 1080×1200 with 461ppi, which I think is the same as the Vive? I'm running out of time to research this, but iirc, the screen specs of rift and vive are identical.

Vive now has a lighter model than it launched with; a different cable; a new "deluxe" head-harness thing with integrated earphones; a cheaper lighthouse is on the cards.

The open nature of the SteamVR ecosystem ensures such innovation. Look at the new tracker pucks for example, and again the innovation with the lighter, cheaper, lighthouses.

You're looking at a difference in marketing strategy here. Long-term, SteamVR will win the majority market share. Whether it's with the Vive, LG or a.n. other. Facebook's closed, privacy invading approach in the face of other competition will see it wither, no matter how buoyant it is just now. That's why the Vive (or the LG) is currently the better purchase. It's VHS v Betamax, and the Facebook VR machine is Betamax. Technically adept, but ultimately losing out to a more popular standard.
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First of all, show me proof that that people think the Vive is a premium product and not the Rift? They are both premium products in my eyes. If you take room scale out of the equation both headsets are very good, with the Rift been slightly better.

And I don't understand what the hell you mean by the rest of your post. The vive is going to be the better seller because Steam VR ensures innovation? LOL you are all over the place.

I will repeat it again in capital letters so you might finally read it. THE RIFT WORKS PERFECTLY IN STEAM VR!! You have already said it in your posts, other headsets are able to use STEAM VR, you even pointed out the LG. So please tell me how has anything you said means that the Vive will sell better?

In fact your argument makes no sense, Your words - Steam VR is open, allowing other headsets to connect, and promoting innovation and because of that Vive will sell more and the Rift will die.

I don't get it, one of the headsets that SteamVR allows to connect is the Rift. You can even go to the store page and search for games that work with the Rift. How is that going to kill off the rift? Doesn't that mean that the Vive will sell worse?

Innovation? You are talking about lighter headsets and integrated headphones like that's great innovation for the Vive, what about the Rift who has had those things since the beginning. And both companies are bringing out accessories. What about the RockBand VR connector bundled with the Oculus touch or the Oculus gloves that are coming and they are also working on a way for foot tracking too. So both companies are working hard to bring out more features. Vive will hopefully get the Wireless headset working right. Or better still some of the major players will get inside out tracking working perfectly.

And you are also forgetting about the Oculus Touch controllers. They are so much nicer to use than the Vive wands. I don't think any would argue that the Touch controllers are much better. And of course, you get Roborecall for free with them as well as the Rockband VR connector.

Nope, sorry, there is no way that the Vive is a better purchase right now, unless you are in a large play area. Not with the price of the Rift at the moment.

Betamax and VHS? this is nothing like that at all.
 
I'm stating that by Facebook dropping the price of the rift, they have immediately lowered their perceived value in comparison to the Vive. If Facebook are willing to give me some money, I'll gladly go and do some research. None exists, and as you cannot prove my statement as incorrect, we'll have to agree to disagree. What does exist is decades of marketing strategy that states when you place two similarly spec'd items at differing values, the more expensive will be more desirable. We've been conditioned.

There are two places that Facebook are winning that can't be put down to personal preference and subjectivity: 1) Software titles through paid-for exclusives. 2) Price.

That's all about Facebook's money. The only reason that I reference the platform battle between Facebook and SteamVR and liken it to VHS and Betamax is through Facebook's behaviour and hypocrisy.

Look at the direction that Facebook are taking their ecosystem. They've already had to backtrack from locking out Vive users, and then go on a heavy PR drive to rewrite their history. It's not the same thing as SteamVR. Facebook are pushing closed standards, forcing devs to remove openVR standards before they can be published in the Facebook store.

If I buy a lighthouse, it will work with all SteamVR headsets. If someone creates a new lighthouse based on the open standards that have been release, I can choose different lighthouses. I then get a choice of upgraded, higher-resolution headsets in the future.

So you're not locked in to a single vendor the same way you are with Facebook.

Maybe a better analogy would be PC and Mac circa 80s-90s... but Apple charges the higher price, and uses price to set itself as a premium product even today (despite its CPU being Intel).

I'm not sure what Facebook are doing, but it smacks of desperation. Maybe they'll get a good mix at the moment, but they will fall even further behind as more hardware companies adopt SteamVR's open platform.
 
For play spaces less than 3x3m, I recommend the Rift. According to steam survey that equates to a very small percentage of people i would recommend Vive too.
In my opinion it is more comfortable, it has built in headphones which is a huge plus for me. The picture is slightly better. Touch controls are far better for me. Better games (can use steam and has its own exclusives). Not to mention cheaper.
The Vive excels at a larger 3x3+ playspace. The advantages of the lighthouses start to pull it ahead of the Rift.

Having said that, when i first looked into headsets. I chose rift because i wasn't attracted to motion controls. Thought it would be a little like the Wii all those years ago. Touch came and i was blown away. NOW i could see what all the Vive owners had been experiencing most of the year. However, since having a room scale setup. I have found it to be a little gimmicky. Not the motion controls, but the room scale. Every good game i play i can play standing in the middle of the room with enough room to swing my arms and take a step or two. There is no game that needs anything bigger. I guess its because, even the large vive play areas are still to small in reality of the places you want to explore in a game. So although i have mine setup at 3x3 i only ever use approx 2x2 max.

So in respect to sales, until December the Vive was the better package. SImply because of the wands. But now i think the Rift is the recommended set due to reasons i set above.
 
A few things that haven't been covered here yet:

  • The rift has slightly less FoV than the Vive. Your peripheral vision is weighted highly by your brain in figuring out how you're moving, so is relatively important. It plays a decent role in seated experiences (Dirt Rally/Elite/etc) and for roomscale games.
  • The Vive's tracking is easier to set up, more robust and more accurate than the rift tracking. Vive's tracking really shines when you start occluding it. Don't get me wrong though, the rift tracking is good.

I'd probably buy the Rift today due to the price, but the Vive's tracking and FoV makes it the more desirable system for me.

2nd gen is going to be incredible, where I'm backing the 2nd Vive to be the better product purely due to superior tracking... Well, tracking and tweaks to comfort and some fancy new controllers :)
 
My thoughts:

Both are very expensive "investments" (or as I see it, tech junk that'll devalue fast and you'll probably discard and/or replace within 3-5 years, if not sooner).

With that in mind, if I had £700 to burn I'd still go for the Vive as it has the most legs going forward - wireless tether, improved headstrap, new prototype controllers (OK, that's more Valve than HTC), and now even an eye-tracking add-on being touted. Hopefully all these improvements will be incorporated into the next version instead of being expensive $200-a-pop add-ons...if HTC don't over-extend themselves and go completely bust (but at least we'll have LG picking up the slack).

Now Oculus/FB. I must admit I haven't seen or heard so much as a fart as to what they're releasing next to enhance the CV1 - it's all been social networking and mobile VR announcements with some distant "it might be ready in 5 years" R&D announcements, which makes me think that Facebook are totally done with the hardware development cycle of the CV1. I'm even starting to suspect there might not be a CV2 release, with FB focusing instead on their VR social networking platform leaving the PC VR hardware to Microsoft and its vendors instead. The fact that Oculus/FB doesn't have an E3 booth this year is especially concerning.

One thing's for sure: there are some interesting times ahead for VR. :cool:
 
Facebook dropped the price of the Rift because they are losing money on it hand over fist. Was on the BBC News site not so long ago about sales/expected sales being poor on VR. Latest rumour news is the next version of the Rift will be wireless and wont need a PC!
Mark Zuckerberg speaking at Facebook F8-
Which is why Facebook is working hard to make its PC-free, wireless, high-quality headset. Mark Zuckerberg brought that subject up again in his opening keynote, but didn’t elaborate. I’d hoped he might surprise everyone by showing it to us at the end of the keynote, but no such luck.
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LordFeste said:
I hate Facebook, evil bloodsucking company!! Therefore Vive is going to sell better
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I summed up your post, I understand your argument now.

I do especially like the bit where you make up stuff "The perception of Vive as the premium product still drives plenty sales" Without one shred of evidence to back that statement up. When I question you on it, your response was basically since there is no research on it you cannot disprove my statement.

How can I argue against something you just made up? Well, since that's the logic you are using, I say that the Rift is outselling the Vive right now. I have no evidence to support that, but you can't show otherwise, so it's true.

oh, I also like the bit where you state that the Vive has premier hardware as if the Rift does not. You claim innovation and forward thinking for the Vive with introducing lighter headsets and integrated headphones, while completely ignoring that the Rift has had those since launch.

Basically you have also completely ignored everything that I have said in my last two posts.

At the moment VR is a loss making enterprise. Both companies are losing money on their headsets. You would be a fool to think that there is any money in VR right now. It's a long term gain. You would also be a fool if you think that Oculus dropped the price of the Rift because they are losing money. The single biggest complaint against VR was the cost of the headsets.

And lastly, I'm hoping that Gen2 headsets will be a lot more advanced. That the constellation/lighthouse tracking of today will be replaced. They have already showed demos of self tracking headsets. Those are the future.
 
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