Looking to get in to VR but sooo confused.....help

neil pettitt

neil pettitt

neil pettitt

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hi , just had some cash drop in my lap so i wanted to get in to vr. Now i thought i knew what i wanted but recently things have taken a turn so now i just dont know what to get...so this is what i thought i knew..from what i had read and seen up till about 1 month ago i thought hive was the way to go but not sure now so i need some help..
im not expecting the world and im on purist so i know there are pros and cons with both systems
i would be most gaming on it , ive got about 2 mtr x 2mtr room to move in , dont mind standing or sitting whilst playing ...so....
help me out fellas because i got 1 shot at this what ever system i get i will stick with.
most important thing is i want to have fun ...dont want to spend up to £400 and think that was a waste..
im open to both rift or vive so if you guys can explain which system would suit me better it would help..cheers guys
 
Okay firstly I have tried both the Rift and Vive and I like them both. If money was no option then I probably would have gone for The Vive as it may be a slight whisker better because of the Room Scale with the Laser motion trackers.
However, a few things made me pick the Oculus Rift.

1. The Cost - It's still £200 cheaper @ £399
2. Tracking - Despite what everyone says about the OR, its tracking is almost identical to the Vive with two sensors and probably as good as if you buy one extra. I havent noticed hardly any difference myself
3. The touch controllers are great and nicer than the Vive controllers. But that is not saying that the Vive controllers are bad, I just prefer the Oculus Touch. Just as I prefer the look of the new knuckles controllers coming out for the Vive in the near future.
4. The Size/Comfort - I couldn't believe how much smaller the Oculus is compared to the Vive and is lighter and more comfortable to wear
5. Both systems work really well and do VR justice for a 1st Gen product. It really is as good as it gets and it will get better with further generations. I didn't realise how scared of heights I was until I got the OR. I have had my fair share of stomach churning moments when i have been up high...like skyscraper high. ALso I didnt realise how freakin scary VR can be. All those times that I laughed at people playing the horror games....Believe me it's pretty convincing and my wife has been laughing at me for a fortnight (Her turn soon LOL).
6. The Vive isnt £200 better than the Rift...no way. You get the earphones built into the OR (Bonus! they are much better than I thought they would be), you gotta pay extra for the new audio strap on Vive.
7. I love that you can launch Steam VR from Oculus Home (With a bit of setting up - lots of tutorials on You tube)
8.I got mine 2nd hand for £290 (It was 3 months old)...even better saving and cheap enough to let me dip my toe into VR. I am glad I did.

I may stlll go with another make for Gen 2 (I really do like the look of those Knuckle controllers). A shame you cant mix and match the gear between systems...now there's an idea.

Things I don't like

1. The fact that both sides now seem to be going for exclusives...not good IMHO

Errrr that's it. Whatever system you get it will be fun and a learning curve along the way. Everyone helps each other on here and there is very little in the way of fanboi 'ism in this discussion area. I think we all want VR to succeed regardless of platform

Hope that helps a little.

:)
 
I have the rift and its the best £400 I have spent in a long time. It is truly next gen, everyone I show it too has there mind blown, So many good games. Oh and if adult movies are you thing,,, Oh my god !!!!
 
Can't go wrong with the Rift Bundle for £400. Having tried both, I went for the Rift as it was more comfortable.

What CPU and GPU are you using?
 
Tried both and bought the Rift.

My reasons on choosing the Rift is that it’s cheaper, and I much preferd Oculus Home over SteamVR, and Oculus Home is getting a face which looks incredible btw, and the Oculus Touch controllers are better than the Vive wands.

Out of the box, the Vive does room scalling better with its two sensors, for the oculus rift, if you want to play games where 360 degrees tracking is a must (most big non oculus funded games) then you you really could with buying an additional oculus rift camera (or two) which bumps the price up, but at £59 each buying two of them is still cheaper than the vive. I bought my Oculus Rift in the summer and I still only have 2 front facing cameras and I play games accordingly based on that, but I’m going to buy another camera soon so I can play Pavlov, Onward and BAM properly, and be able to physically lturn round rather than press a dam button..

If I was buying a VR headset now, I would still buy the Rift, unless you find a cheap Vive, even with the lack of out of the box 360 tracking with the two included cameras there’s more than enough great ‘front facing’ games to keep you busy until you get an additional camera (or two)
 
I had a little bit of drifting with the two sensors opposite of each other. 3rd sensor got rid of that drifting ... so yeah, your mileage may vary
 
I still back the Vive (mainly as that's what I bought and I need to justify my purchase :) ) but also the headset is really the only bit that HTC 'own'. The lighthouses can be reused with newer headsets (see the Pimax coming out soon) so this maybe useful in the future if I only need to splash out on newer headsets.

Having said that, the price of the Rift is aggressively good...
 
Guys.....so many reply ...I'm grateful to you all..
Right...first off. I've got a 980ti and I7 3770 K....so I hope I can run VR for a start.
Right these might be silly questions but some of you mentioned tracking....is it a big difference between the 2 systems.
Games....is there much difference in the quality of games...graphic wise ...also is there any major differences I would notice if I was to try each system...sorry for the noob questions but I just want to cover all my bases....
 
neil pettitt said:
Guys.....so many reply ...I'm grateful to you all..
Right...first off. I've got a 980ti and I7 3770 K....so I hope I can run VR for a start.
Right these might be silly questions but some of you mentioned tracking....is it a big difference between the 2 systems.
Games....is there much difference in the quality of games...graphic wise ...also is there any major differences I would notice if I was to try each system...sorry for the noob questions but I just want to cover all my bases....
Click to expand...
You will run VR fine, I only have a FX8350 and a r9-290..

Tracking - for the Rift to match the Vive in terms of tracking you really could do with getting a 3rd sensor, as said above you can do 360 room scalling with only 2 Rift sensors by placing them diagonally as you would do with the Vive, but it’s not as good, buying a 3rd oculus camera evens the playing field. Oculus supports upto 4 cameras.

Games - if you look on the Steams VR section on store and look through the list of games, you will see which games are officially supported for each headset, I say officially because even if I game isn’t listed as supported for the Oculus Rift, it will still work (the only instance as far as I know where a ‘game’ didn’t even start on an Oculus Rift was Google Earth, but that was quickly patched), but there may be an issue with the controls not mapping to the Oculus Touch, best check the games community discussion section on steam before buying for more informtion, I own 9 games on SteamVR not all are listed as ‘Oculus’ but they all work perfectly fine. If you owned a Vive and wanted to play Oculus funded games that are only available on Oculus Home, you will need a 3rd party program called revive, I tried it on Robo Recall, worked flawlessly. The quality of graphics and resolution are exactly the same.

Enjoy which ever you pick!
 
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Both Rift and Vive are amazing, and you won't regret getting either.

The Rift's tracking system seems to be a dead-end with most of the forthcoming headsets using Vive lighthouses, or inside out tracking. However, it works great for the Rift (providing you have enough USB ports and USB bandwidth), though I would say a third sensor is highly recommended.

I think there's better quality software out for the Rift as Oculus has been funding some amazing games. However these are playable using the Revive software on the Vive, so it's not too much of a problem if you get a vive.

The main thing is the Rift touch controllers are absolutely incredible. They're way better than the Vive wands, as they are smaller, lighter, more ergonomic, have thumbsticks rather than trackpads, and can detect basic finger gestures like pointing and thumbs up, and the grip button works very well, giving a very natural grip response. After a while using them you forget they are even there and it feels like you're using your actual hands in VR - often your VR hands and arms will be accurately mimicking what your real hands and arms are doing. (Lone Echo/Echo Arena is the best example of this).

The forthcoming Vive knuckle controllers look very interesting, as they can accurately track finger movements, but they are not out yet and it remains to be seen if they are as versatile as the touch controllers, plus of course they cost extra.

The Rift also has built-in headphones which is a big advantage The sound quality is great and it makes putting. You can get a deluxe audio strap with headphones for the Vive, but this costs extra.

So I'd say Rift is probably better value for money, right now. But both headsets are great, and there is the possibility of using the vive lighthouses for other headsets in future (though more likely newer headsets would require the V2.0 lighthouses that are in development).
 
The way i see it:
Rift with 3 sensors is £150 cheaper than Vive with practically the same tracking for a space your size 2x2. I use 2.5x2.5 and my tracking is perfect.
Rift comes with free games, as well as all the free ones already available to download in steam vr etc.
Rift headset is lighter, a god send to a hobbit like me. Less stiff neck the next day.
Rift has built in headphones at the price. These are really good. I have a headphone collection and thought i would be using them instead, but it really is so much more convenient to use the built in ones.
Rift has a slightly sharper screen. It is not night and day, but is noticeable. Both headsets could do with more clarity, but the vive really struggles more to the point if they use cockpit games they will choose rift as the dials are that slight bit easier to read. There are instances it is unreadable on vive, but just about readable on rift.
I much prefer the Rift controllers as they represent my hand, the vive controllers feel like my hands are spoons.
£150 saved could be put towards games, as i warn the games are pretty expensive for what they are.

Vive seems to have a more modular approach. If you like making incremental upgrades to your headset, eg upgraded headstrap... then vive will cater better for you.
Vive screen has slightly higher field of view. This is probably to do with why its not as sharp. Pixels per degree is less = less clarity but more fov. However the stereo overlap is very close between both.
Vive base stations could be used for headsets in the future.

About the optics:
Rift has more noticeable god rays.
Vive has a smaller sweet spot

So here there is a compromise with both and will depend on yourself which you prefer. With oculus in high contrast scenes you will have pretty intense god rays. Vives is a lot less intrusive, however the focal sweet spot is a lot smaller. In Rift you can keep your head still and see more of the scene in focus. With Vive you tend to move your head rather than your eyes more.

Software wise:
Steamvr has a lot more options than oculus home. However, Home is a lot smoother, less buggy experience. Games also seem to perform better. I think Oculus have been further ahead with their frame rate software eg asw. It is also getting a major revamp next month which may bring it past the Steam environment.

So, as you can see. Neither headset is perfect and both have compromise to add towards its strength.

When both headsets came out. Vive was the bigger choice because it had the motion controls. Rift was headset and pad.
Then last December, Touch came. It made the full Rift package £800. At this time when both headset were same price, the opinion started to change and reviewers couldn't give a clear recommendation. Although, some did start to change from vive to rift. Since then the Rift has come down to £400 being £200 cheaper than Vive. So I think in my opinion, make Rift the clear recommendation.
 
To quote myself from a similar thread:

If you want a decent consumer product right now, the Rift is the way to go. It's a fantastic piece of kit!
The presentation and build quality is decent, and the integrated headphones are very respectable. The touch controllers are second to none! You also have the best of both worlds with Oculus and SteamVR compatibility.

No HMD is without it's drawbacks, but the Rift offers the most complete experience, especially when you consider it's price point.
Click to expand...
 
Once again a big thank you to all who posted reply. After initially thinking I would get the vive I now think it will be the rift....just got to break the news to the Mrs. ....oh just another quick question..If you are struggling for usb ports is it possible to use an usb hub or is this not a good thing to do..
 
neil pettitt said:
Once again a big thank you to all who posted reply. After initially thinking I would get the vive I now think it will be the rift....just got to break the news to the Mrs. ....oh just another quick question..If you are struggling for usb ports is it possible to use an usb hub or is this not a good thing to do..
Click to expand...
Oculus recommends an inatech pcie adapter, get one of them.
 
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