Which headset?

[Shelster]

Am seriously contemplating getting a vr headset and not know g much about each am wonderi g which one to go for

Will be powered by a 1070 card and have i7 cpu

Mainly play EVE, Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen, but am also looking to get back into project cars in the near future

Any suggestions or opinions?

 

[melmac]

erm, either headset would be fine. And since you are mainly sitting down, I would recommend you just get the Rift, simply because it's cheaper.

You should get the touch controllers too, even if you don't think you will use them. The free software that comes with them is worth it.

 

[danoliver1]

For those games get a rift plus it's cheaper.

 

[kration]

I agree with the above recommendations for the Rift for those games, particularly on price.

I have a Vive and the room scale stuff is something you pay up front for but which I have never used - I just enjoy playing ED.

The one other thing I'd mention is if you wear glasses (as I do) the Vive may be more comfortable.

 

[Shelster]

Cheers for the replies

Was contemplating the vive for the full room for later on down the line......do not have the glasses thing to deal with either

 

[melmac]

Cheers for the replies

Was contemplating the vive for the full room for later on down the line......do not have the glasses thing to deal with either

The Rift does Roomscale too. The glasses thing, really depends on your head. For me it's a pain with my glasses, but my brother has no problem wearing the Rift with glasses. You can also buy VR frames and these can be used with any headset.

Is there anywhere you can try both headsets?

 

[Shelster]

Trying would be ideal....nit sure where I could do that down this way (plymouth)

What extra bits do you need for full room on the rift?

 

[melmac]

Well, just get the Rift and the Touch controllers for starters. That will give you two sensors. You can try out room scale and see if you like it. If you do, just buy another sensor at a later date. £598 for the Rift with touch and £60 for the extra sensor. You do get Robo Recall, Quill, Medium and Dead Buried with the Oculus Touch.

 

[Housey]

When will these devices be wire free do you think?

 

[Rasseru]

When will these devices be wire free do you think?

not sure - both have got a solution on the way, theres been prototypes.

Also one should consider inside out vs outside in, I think valve have a slightly better solution https://www.wareable.com/vr/inside-out-vs-outside-in-vr-tracking-343

 

[RoyMi6]

Another vote for the Rift. I have both. Both are very capable.

But, today, the Rift has the better screen and a software solution that deals with dips in framerate below 90fps much better than the Vive.

It's still cutting edge tech though. Things are changing daily. The Vive is definitely coming out as the more flexible solution and they're iterating on all of it. From the cable, to the headset straps, to the tracking solution. But in turn, it does mean fragmentation in some respects and drives up costs if you try and keep up with all the updates.

Oculus seem to be taking a much more steady and planned pace to development, but this might mean that when the Rift 2 comes out you'll be paying the same price again for a completely new and different setup.

Oh, and get Touch. Tracking your hands in VR is just a really compelling experience and you shouldn't miss out on.

 

[Rasseru]

But, today, the Rift has the better screen and a software solution that deals with dips in framerate below 90fps much better than the Vive.

Valve have asynchronous reprojection, and the screen thing is very very subjective. I hear the other 50% liking the vive more. I think it has more to do with head shape than anything - my housemate cant wear my vive easily because he has a funny shaped head.

I would try both out if possible to see which you prefer

 

[RoyMi6]

Valve have asynchronous reprojection

Async Reprojection is the same as Oculus' Asyc Timewarp (https://developer3.oculus.com/blog/asynchronous-timewarp-on-oculus-rift/). Async Spacewarp (https://developer.oculus.com/blog/asynchronous-spacewarp/) hasn't yet be implemented/copied on the Vive.

I don't see how the screen thing is very subjective. Side by side, same game, same settings, I'm able to make out finer detail with the Oculus headset.

Combined together the better screen and Async Spacewarp makes DCS (digital combat simulator) playable on the Rift due the small font size used on realistically sized dials in the cockpit actually being readable and the massive performance issues (regardless of being playing in VR) are smoothed out with Async Spacewarp (which flatly doesn't exist with the Vive).

I should say, the difference in screen quality isn't night and day. Technically I'm almost certain they actually have the exact same resolution screen. Comparing them when you don't have them side by side can be hard. However, I was reminded that it IS a noticeable difference when I tried H3VR with the Oculus after using it exclusively over the last year with the Vive - due to the room scale tracking working so much better with the Vive.

Quite simply, the first time I tried it with the Rift I was immediately noticed that holding out a pistol at arms length I could actually make out front iron sight with little effort. I love both headsets, both have their strengths - but side by side, with literally everything I've tried, the Rift has a demonstrably better screen.

I'm obviously fortunate enough to have a normal shaped head, so I can wear both for extended periods of time and have little issue, but if your friends head doesn't fit the Vive with its soft padding, I'm almost certain someone like that would have a hard time wearing the Rift. The "padding" is more like a stiff rubber and the hard headstraps do mean your head has to be roughly round shaped

 

[Rasseru]

I don't see how the screen thing is very subjective. Side by side, same game, same settings, I'm able to make out finer detail with the Oculus headset.

I dont have the luxury of trying both, went from a DK2 to a Vive (got a big front room!) but my point was for every person that says one is better, there seems to be another that says the other is better, some suffer from god rays worse (they are more of a dealbreaker to me than better res perhaps) SDE, focal point comfort <this is one my housemate struggles with.. etc etc



if one can try out both, then do that is the best option

 

[ArmitageShanks]

They both have the same resolution. The difference is the Rift has slightly smaller displays with higher pixel density, and doesn't get too excessive with the FOV. The Vive has slightly better FOV and larger panels (lower PPI), but warps them over the FOV little further than perhaps is comfortable for clarity purposes. Upping the supersampling factor on the Vive alleviates this to a degree, but it comes at the cost of performance of course.

Hopefully one day soon we'll get higher-resolution OLED panels with eye-tracking and foveated rendering, at which point we'll be wondering how we ever put up with these utterly awful HMDs

 

[kration]

Hopefully one day soon we'll get higher-resolution OLED panels with eye-tracking and foveated rendering, at which point we'll be wondering how we ever put up with these utterly awful HMDs

I'm glad I got into VR now, but it still feels like prototype technology. I'm really looking forward to the next generation when hopefully the tech will have improved and they'll have a lot more experience of how people use it.

 

[ArmitageShanks]

I'm glad I got into VR now, but it still feels like prototype technology.

I keep hearing that, but I look at my very old z800 headset and I have to disagree. By comparison, that had two 800x600 OLED-on-a-chip displays refreshed from a single alternating-frame 60Hz VGA feed (i.e. 30fps per eye), a 40-degree FOV, and only 3-DoF gyroscopic head tracking. At over $650 (before it doubled in price being sold to the military), that was as good as it got back then.

 

[kration]

I agree that the current generation of VR is light years ahead of previous iterations. I was probably a bit uncharitable describing it as a 'prototype' but it still doesn't feel like a full consumer version yet. The set up is still clunky, its awkward and heavy to wear, the wires get in the way, its expensive, needs a mega system to run it and the software support is still pretty poor (again, a lot of the software still feels like a tech demo - with some notable exceptions). All of these things seem to be rapidly improving, but I hope the next generation of VR will address most of tbose issues.

There's a saying in the RAF - "Never fly the Mk 1 of anything" i.e. it may be past the prototype phase but the aircraft still has 'issues'. There's a distinct feeling of the 'Mk 1' about the current generation of VR. I still massively enjoy it though...