PCGamer - The best VR headset.

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With some mistakes, no XBOX controller and I think HTC got out of its financial problems with the sale of its mobile division -
While both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are considered complete bundles, the Rift is ahead in terms of fit and finish. Oculus also announced that the Rift bundle (headset and Touch controllers) is now at an all time low of $399. This makes the Rift significantly more attractive than the Vive and with the uncertainty behind HTC, we can no longer suggest the Vive as a viable second option.

There is word in the industry that HTC is also about to bow out of the VR business and is looking for a buyer for its VR technology, so spending money on a new Vive right now isn't something we recommend—unless you can score one for an obscenely low price. But keep in mind that support might end up being nonexistent.

The real issue with VR however is content—and we haven't seen major breakthroughs yet this year. Gaming content has improved since a year ago, and there are some excellent titles to play with. Oculus also just launched its new dashboard, which allows interactive interface to the Windows desktop. The company is putting more resources into developing content and experience than any other company in the VR space, so we feel solid about an investment into a Rift headset.

Keep in mind, though, that the gaming ecosystem for VR is still in its infancy. Developers are still trying to learn best practices and more investment in content is required for VR to really take off. Despite this, Oculus is inspiring confident in its product by continuing to push R&D.

We can pretty much thank Oculus for making VR a reality. With Facebook snapping up the startup for $2 billion, Oculus has a huge war chest for pushing VR forward. They're investing in game development and research to help the present and future of VR thrive. The Rift headset is the most polished VR headset on the market today, and really demonstrates how far along we've come in bringing VR to the mainstream, but we're not quite there yet, and neither is Oculus.

NEED TO KNOW
Resolution:
2160x1200 (1080x1200 per eye)
Refresh rate: 90 Hz
Tracking: 360 degrees, full space
FOV: 110 degrees
Controller: Xbox One controller
Sensors: 3D head tracking sensor
Price: $399 with Touch controllers

Oculus's Touch controllers significantly improve the Rift's usability and sense of immersion. Oculus took a heaping long time to release the Touch controllers but when you use them, you immediately feel like they're a refined and well thought-out finished product. Compared to the clunkier Vive controllers, the Touch controllers are miles ahead in terms of comfort.

The Rift headset is the best example of a finished consumer product that we have, besting the HTC Vive in terms of finish. The Rift wears lighter than the Vive but is marred by a smaller face frame. It fits tighter around your eyes, and is a pain in the butt to use if you wear glasses.

Most games made for the Rift essentially limit you to a static position and expects that most of your VR experiences will be chair-bound. As if to drive that point home further, Oculus includes both an Xbox One controller as well as the Touch controllers when you order. With the included extra sensor (you can add a third), you're now able to do roomscale tracking, which was previously only done well on the Vive. This brings the overall Rift experience on par with the Vive, and with the new price drop from Oculus, it's hard to ignore.

Touch controllers are comfortable and natural.
The Touch controllers were more comfortable to hold and felt more natural in the hands than the Vive wands. Oculus now fully bundles the Touch controllers with the Rift headset for $399. You'll still need a third sensor though if you want proper rear tracking—for example if you turn around.

Wearing comfort is an area where the Rift has the Vive beat There have been more iterations of the Rift headset than there were of the Vive, and it shows. Fit and finish are top-notch, and you can comfortably strap yourself in for several hours.

In terms of content, Oculus has a major leg up on HTC with a bigger library of games and more coming. Although more games are on the way, big hitting titles are still in development. Despite delay however, Facebook's huge investments into developers only mean that the company is in VR for the long haul.

Price made all the difference

Right now there are two major players for VR headsets for the PC. No one else has demonstrated products that are consumer ready other than HTC and Oculus. There's Sony with its PSVR headset, but that isn't for the PC (at least until modders get their hands on it).

While both headsets previously held close positions in our hearts, Oculus made all the difference by bundling its headset with the Touch controllers and dropping the price significantly. This was the deciding factor in choosing the Rift as our new preferred headset. Circling news of HTC bailing out of the VR space also made recommending the Rift a no-brainer. Anyone who's buying a VR headset today should only buy a Rift.

Facebook is also definitely pushing more content for the Rift. There still aren't many compelling games available for either platform but with Facebook's massive war chest funding development of VR titles, the Rift gives us more confidence. We also expect that eventually, nearly all VR games will be made to work on both. If you're concerned about content, the safe bet is to spend your money on regular ol' PC games for the next few months and watch for more development on the content side.
Link - http://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-vr-headset/
 
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At this point both are so late in lifecycle that neither is a good choice.
If you want PC VR today, they are the only current choice. MS styled systems with poor controller tracking and a headset that throws a tantrum should you have a blank wall are around the corner and Pimax 5/8K which I see being a R&D item for at least the next 12 months. Is there something else?
 
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If you want PC VR today, they are the only current choice. MS styled systems with poor controller tracking and a headset that throws a tantrum should you have a blank wall are around the corner and Pimax 5/8K which I see being a R&D item for at least the next 12 months. Is there something else?

I own a vive and had a rift, I know they are the only option right now and I wouldn't be buying either today, thats my opinion and advice with which you are of course free to disagree.

The industry is gearing up for 2nd gen hence why oculus have had to drop the price nearly in half (remember they were saying they were selling basically at cost at $800!?)
 
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I own a vive and had a rift, I know they are the only option right now and I wouldn't be buying either today, thats my opinion and advice with which you are of course free to disagree.

The industry is gearing up for 2nd gen hence why oculus have had to drop the price nearly in half (remember they were saying they were selling basically at cost at $800!?)

I get what your saying but having got a 1080Ti 3 months ago, I wouldn't recommend that you don't buy one now because Volta is in the works. As far as price goes, Oculus have done the competative thing. I'd still buy a Rift over a MS MR system which look as though they will have similar pricing. I do fancy the Pimax 5/8k but feel its just so far away yet. I'll probably sell my Rift in 12months for £250 and move on to the Pimax if successful.
 
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I own a vive and had a rift, I know they are the only option right now and I wouldn't be buying either today, thats my opinion and advice with which you are of course free to disagree.

The industry is gearing up for 2nd gen hence why oculus have had to drop the price nearly in half (remember they were saying they were selling basically at cost at $800!?)
They dropped the price this time because of all the cheap AR sets that are due out this month which analysts predict will outsell both Rift and Vive.
 
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They dropped the price this time because of all the cheap AR sets that are due out this month which analysts predict will outsell both Rift and Vive.

I really hope they don't outsell the Rift and Vive as I feel they will do for VR gaming what consoles have already done to PC gaming.
 
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They dropped the price this time because of all the cheap AR sets that are due out this month which analysts predict will outsell both Rift and Vive.
Possibly something to do with it, but I'd also guess that they realised with that summer of Rift sale that they'd hit the perfect price point when they pretty much sold out their entire stock of the old double box bundle in under a week, when they thought it would take them six.
 
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Oculus said in 2016 that their main focus for 2017 will not be hardware, but pricing. They said they realised that 600-800 was high and that getting more people on board with vr was more important. So instead of releasing a newer updated rift at 600-800, they have been able to reduce the rift to 400. Getting many more into VR.
I believe once the masses are on board, and they realise its not so much of a gamble. More expensive sets eg 600-800, will sell a lot more in the future.
 
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I get what your saying but having got a 1080Ti 3 months ago, I wouldn't recommend that you don't buy one now because Volta is in the works.

The 1080ti is only 6-7 months old and likely 12-18 months to being replaced by another ti. The rift is 19 months old and just been halved in price. I dont see the two as being directly comparable as they are in drastically different points of their lifecycle.
 
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And yet you have oculus themselves saying earlier this year that the current rift would remain their flagship for at least 2 years... that puts a replacement around early to mid 2019... Things can change, sure, and perhaps competition will drive them to bring forward plans for an updated device but a point blank statement is about as definitive as it gets.

So I would suggest that the rift is in fact roughly 1.5 years into a 3 year life cycle right now. Certainly Abrash suggested that they want Rift 2 to be a leap forward rather than iterative, and that takes time to develop the required technologies at reasonable cost. There was a very interesting post from Abrash during OC4 last week about some of the stuff going on at oculus research - was a fascinating read and gives a little insight into all the work being poured into this field at the moment.

The competition won't hang around I'm sure, but the high end VR market is relatively small still - I think the vast majority of competition will be targeting the lower end (see MS mixed reality/google day dream etc) which oculus is currently focusing on with the Go and to a lesser extent the Santa Cruz.

HTC is (and has been for quite some time) in significant financial trouble, and I'm not sure pushing out a new high end VR headset will be high on their agenda. I would imagine instead they are more likely to be wanting to capitalise on the investment they've already made and continue to push other manufacturers into using their tracking system etc. They don't have the same benefit as oculus of making money from software sales and thus being able to take a hit on hardware which only makes it even more important to extract a good life cycle from a product to recoup development costs.

Given the recent price cuts on both Vive and Rift, I think it's a great time for someone to buy a headset if VR is something that is of interest. Any substantially improved device will be at a premium, and you could use the same argument as waiting for another Ti equivalent - you'd be waiting until half way through the life cycle for the price cut to be at a comparable level.

Pimax 8k could definitely be interesting, but there's a lot more to a good vr headset than high resolution screens. To truly take advantage of the high resolution at good frame rates also requires graphics cards that don't currently exist, or reliable and accurate foveated rendering (plus the software support for it)... I would certainly love to give it a go when it releases though.

I'm as keen as anyone for a higher resolution, higher FoV headset but I'm also perfectly happy to enjoy the rift for what it is now and wait another year and a half for a true revolutionary replacement rather than some sort of 1.5 version.
 
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And yet you have oculus themselves saying earlier this year that the current rift would remain their flagship for at least 2 years... that puts a replacement around early to mid 2019... Things can change, sure, and perhaps competition will drive them to bring forward plans for an updated device but a point blank statement is about as definitive as it gets.

So I would suggest that the rift is in fact roughly 1.5 years into a 3 year life cycle right now. Certainly Abrash suggested that they want Rift 2 to be a leap forward rather than iterative, and that takes time to develop the required technologies at reasonable cost. There was a very interesting post from Abrash during OC4 last week about some of the stuff going on at oculus research - was a fascinating read and gives a little insight into all the work being poured into this field at the moment.

The competition won't hang around I'm sure, but the high end VR market is relatively small still - I think the vast majority of competition will be targeting the lower end (see MS mixed reality/google day dream etc) which oculus is currently focusing on with the Go and to a lesser extent the Santa Cruz.

HTC is (and has been for quite some time) in significant financial trouble, and I'm not sure pushing out a new high end VR headset will be high on their agenda. I would imagine instead they are more likely to be wanting to capitalise on the investment they've already made and continue to push other manufacturers into using their tracking system etc. They don't have the same benefit as oculus of making money from software sales and thus being able to take a hit on hardware which only makes it even more important to extract a good life cycle from a product to recoup development costs.

Given the recent price cuts on both Vive and Rift, I think it's a great time for someone to buy a headset if VR is something that is of interest. Any substantially improved device will be at a premium, and you could use the same argument as waiting for another Ti equivalent - you'd be waiting until half way through the life cycle for the price cut to be at a comparable level.

Pimax 8k could definitely be interesting, but there's a lot more to a good vr headset than high resolution screens. To truly take advantage of the high resolution at good frame rates also requires graphics cards that don't currently exist, or reliable and accurate foveated rendering (plus the software support for it)... I would certainly love to give it a go when it releases though.

I'm as keen as anyone for a higher resolution, higher FoV headset but I'm also perfectly happy to enjoy the rift for what it is now and wait another year and a half for a true revolutionary replacement rather than some sort of 1.5 version.

Spot on :)
 
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I would atleast wait for reviews. If someone has already waited 19 months to get in to VR then I dont see what harm waiting a couple more months causes, unless you're a rabid oculus fanboy.
 
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At this point both are so late in lifecycle that neither is a good choice.

Well, why not wait for the next one, even better instead of wait for that one wait for the one after that because it will be even better, in fact just keep waiting then you never have to get anything and can just procrastinate about how much better oranges are than apples :rolleyes:
 
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Well, why not wait for the next one, even better instead of wait for that one wait for the one after that because it will be even better, in fact just keep waiting then you never have to get anything and can just procrastinate about how much better oranges are than apples :rolleyes:

Strawman. Waiting 2-3 months isnt the same as waiting 2+ years.

I've had both a rift and a vive and a year ago I would have said jump on in. Now is not remotely the same situation.
 
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Right now, I don't see the issue.
Quite clearly, the Rift and Vive are not perfect, but I don't think it's just a problem with the product itself.

Sure, we have the Pimax expected, but right now there's no graphics card really capable of powering the 4x no of pixels that the Rift/Vive have.
Then we have the new Oculus, which supposedly has some inbuilt GPU capability. Thing is that we don't know it's specs, expected price and does the inbuilt GPU mean that it looks worse than a Rift, as from what I've read, it'll be less capable than a 1080.

In short, whilst we're expecting better things, I've yet to see anything in the really near future that convinces me that it will necessarily be better.

What we need is a Pimax with eye tracking and fully working foveated rendering.
 
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I don’t see the point in waiting at all, what’s available is amazing, if you’ve got the funds go and buy a vr Rift or Vive. Yeah there’s probably a newer Rift being worked on, it unlikely going to see light for another 18+ months. I bought mine in the summer sale, even if a new generation comes out in January, it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest, it’s incredible
 
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The 1080ti is only 6-7 months old and likely 12-18 months to being replaced by another ti. The rift is 19 months old and just been halved in price. I dont see the two as being directly comparable as they are in drastically different points of their lifecycle.

I was thinking more of how the 1070 generally matched the 980Ti and how some feel the '1170' should replace the 1080Ti. It was also May 2016 (thanks google) that Nvidia launched Pascal, so the tech is getting on a bit ;)
 
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What we need is a Pimax with eye tracking and fully working foveated rendering.

I'm not suggesting anyone rush out and order one now, but at least that is a planned module for the pimax, getting a rift now you have no upgrade path.

I was thinking more of how the 1070 generally matched the 980Ti and how some feel the '1170' should replace the 1080Ti. It was also May 2016 (thanks google) that Nvidia launched Pascal, so the tech is getting on a bit ;)

it might be similar in power, but an 1170 isn't going to be an upgrade path for a 1080ti owner is it
it certainly isn't going to be 4x the power
 
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I'm not suggesting anyone rush out and order one now, but at least that is a planned module for the pimax, getting a rift now you have no upgrade path.

Planned it may be, but when, how much and how good will it be.
Bearing in mind how much hype we see nowadays, I'll believe it when I see it operational, for sale and at a confirmed price.
 
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