Not gonna lie, I'm starting to lean pretty heavily towards the Vive.
For me it all comes down to the Touch launch and how well Rift + Touch does room scale. If I can put my Rift cameras in opposing room corners and have it perform at least 90% as good as VIVE Lighthouses at room scale, that's good enough for me. I'd wish I had the Vive's front facing camera and easier sensor setup, but that'd be plenty enough room scale capability for my needs. If I get my Touch and second camera and it turns out the Rift really is terrible at room scale, well then I'll have to think hard about whether or not to switch to Vive.
I agree with the people saying its a big misstep by Oculus not having Touch available for the Rift launch, though. It's creating a huge opening for HTC/Valve, and they're being exploiting the opening flawlessly.
You don't need the camera for chaperon, Valve is going to try and implement it for the Rift as well. I think it's built into the Steam UI, so it won't work on games in the Oculus store. Oculus hasn't said anything about a solution they're working on. I don't think they ever intended to do roomscale and are playing catchup.
We won't know the impact of this possible Rift misstep till next year. If their controller finally comes out and it is noticeably better for gaming than the Vive, it was probably a good call. If it's only a minor upgrade or none, I believe they really screwed up not going all in at the beginning with room scale and proper VR controllers.
if they could magically finish the Rift Touch controllers for release I'm sure they would.
Delaying the headset would be ridiculous, and sometimes shit just ain't finished.
I mean the guy is totally breaking NDA but I think this is information Oculus should have put out a long time ago. It's sort of crazypants that they haven't since basically all of the info in the AMA that hasn't been revealed before is good news for the Rift. For the naysayers, he does confirm that they use a two tracker opposing setup in a 4m x 4m space and the tracking quality is fantastic on both. From what he can tell the actual FOV between the two systems is about the same BUT the Lighthouse's range is significantly better. Shouldn't be a concern for most customers though, I imagine.
Neat read, he also goes into speculation he's heard around the office (but obviously can't confirm) about Touch delays and Vive/Oculus Store integration. I mean take that all with a grain of salt but it's cool to hear some of this stuff from a dev with access to it all.
The fact is, if I had got a Rift it would quickly sit around collecting dust because sit-down gamepad VR experiences are bullshit. I want to play VR games that are inherently fun, not just fun because they are in VR. The Vive right now is the best way to experience things that are unique to VR.
I may get a Rift for my second headset someday down the line, I'm sure the next version will be even better than what they have today.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Some interesting tidbits from that for those who don't wish to read the whole thing
Your headset of choice? I like and dislike different things about all of them. No favourite.
Better optics? Rift > Vive > PSVR
Preffered FOV? Vive > Rift > PSVR
SDE difference between all 3? Rift > PSVR > Vive
Have you tried touch? Did you like it or found any things that annoyed you? (such as tracking problems). I'm not too experienced with Touch. We don't have a Touch in OUR office since our project doesn't utilize motion control but I had a couple of opportunities to try it out and was very happy with how well the tracking works. There were a couple of issues with finger recognition and rumor has it that's the reason why they delayed it.
How are the added headphones on the rift? IMO the most important difference between the three. The headphones provide an even target across all users for devs and add so much comfort.
Ergonomics on which one are better? The Rift and PSVR are equally comfortable IMO. Vive is a bit lacking in terms of ergonomics.
What software seems better for the consumer? or consumers the Oculus software is way ahead at the moment. It's completely plug and play in our experience and feels like a polished console UI, even in its current beta state. My personal preference is the Steam VR interface though simply because it supports voice chat and that's what we use to communicate between our VR room and office.
aren't you breaking NDA right now? How come you are "allowed" or willing to spill the beans? not that I don't appreciate it though. Im not allowed to. I just think it doesn't matter so close to launch and Oculus' communication with the community hasn't been the best.
How does the SDE and FOV compare on Rift and Vive? Less SDE on the Rift. To the point where I don't notice it at all if I'm not trying hard to stare at it. The Vive still has noticeable but improved SDE (from VDK1) with an oval FOV which I prefer over the Rift's rectangular one.
Explain the differences between Rift/Vive SDE and FoV in detail. Rift's screen looks like a continuous surface with a subtle pattern while the Vive's SDE looks like on Gear VR but with thinner lines.
Note or S6? S6
What's with the rumor of a dispute between oculus and valve / htc that caused Oculus to drop Vive support for their store? Well there is that drop-down in the oculus software's devices tab with the ability to add additional headsets. The Rift is the only headset listed right now but it looks like they plan to add more. I don't know valve well enough to know theír reasons but the last thing I heard was that they would only support it through a Steam VR layer on top of the Oculus SDK which Oculus didn't like.
Exactly which Rift engineering sample do you have?
(It will say on the front, and lets us know whether you have an early or recent model) The one we use at my office is ES08.
Yep, that's one of the most recent ones.
Which do you like better and why? I don't really play favourites. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. From a comfort standpoint I like PlayStation VR the most, for the quality of the headset alone I like Rift the most and for the most compelling out of the box experience the Vive.
Do you feel that the "most compelling experience" aspect will be pretty similar between Rift and Vive once the Touch controllers launch and people have multiple sensors? Absolutely. If I look purely at the comfort and quality of the headsets alone I would give it to the Rift but the ability to reach out and "touch" the virtual world is what makes the Vive so magical for me.
You say they each have their strengths and weaknesses, what do you think is the Rifts weak point, or what if anything don't you like about it? I don't like having to wait for tracked controllers. If I would buy a headset for myself right now it would probably be the Vive because it's a complete VR package for what I want to do in VR while the Rift is a slightly superior, much more ergonomic headset but is also making me wait for touch for half a year.
The tracking is also, hands down, more robust on VIVE. So if you are into roomscale I think it would be churlish to bank on Rift just because of a slightly more comfy (and to some, not to me, better looking HMD). The SDE benefit I'll forgoe for the more natural Vive FOV because I believe it's more important (SDE was on my DK2 but my two annoyances with that were lack of proper input and no contact with outside world) - then it was FOV > RES > SDE (Sde was last for me). Not in my experience. The Vive works great once it's set up but the process of actually setting it up was not that userfriendly. Tracking is just as good on the Rift and the setup is less of a hassle.
What is the focal length of the consumer Rift? If you tell me how I can measure that I'll let you know on monday. Whatever it is it doesn't make a difference between the three. At least I never thought about it until now.
Can you compare the audio quality between Rift's over-ear headphones and Vive's IEMs? I ask because Oculus is supposed to have gone all out with their audio solution whereas with the Vive I'm not sure how customised the audio stack is. The rifts on-ear headphones sound great and offer us as devs the luxury of being able to target a single device that will sound exactly like envisioned across all Rift users.
That's technically still true for the Vive but the fact that they're IEMs will stop many people from using them. At least that's what happened in our office. Out of 10+ people here only one can actually stand IEMs and that's me. They sound pretty good. They're just off the shelf HTC IEMs. Slightly tuned for the beats generation with a lot of low end but not bad at all.
Thanks for the reply. I gather from your post that Rift headphones are more user friendly, but I'd like if you could also confirm the quality of the audio from Rift's headphones. I've seen them compared to $100+ headphones, such as the ATH-M50. I'll probably get stabbed by a Grado fan if I compare them with the SR225e I use at home but they're really competitive with over ears of that price segment. I would love to know who's manufacturing the driver in those.
The fact is, if I had got a Rift it would quickly sit around collecting dust because sit-down gamepad VR experiences are bullshit. I want to play VR games that are inherently fun, not just fun because they are in VR. The Vive right now is the best way to experience things that are unique to VR.
I may get a Rift for my second headset someday down the line, I'm sure the next version will be even better than what they have today.
That's fine that you prefer standing/room scale experiences but there's some of us that would disagree with you. There are a lot of experiences that don't work at "room scale" that a lot of us are excited about. Hands down the launch lineup for the Rift is way more appealing to me than the Vive's. It doesn't mean they're not good games, but hey, opinions! Calling gamepad VR experiences bullshit or not fun is pretty ridiculous.
Neither of the launch lineups have anything particularly compelling. The only one I'd have been interested playing for more than a couple of hours would have been Elite, but I'm played out on that already. It's why I'm perfectly content to wait till the end of the year.
At this point I am just incredibly disappointed in there being not a single mech VR simulation game (to my knowledge, at least).
Yes.
Someone hack together a game that uses a VR headset and the Steel Battalion controller, so that I can combine them together into some sort of poor life choices Voltron.
Neither of the launch lineups have anything particularly compelling. The only one I'd have been interested playing for more than a couple of hours would have been Elite, but I'm played out on that already. It's why I'm perfectly content to wait till the end of the year.
I think you're underselling Luckey's Tale, from all reports.
Neither of the launch lineups have anything particularly compelling. The only one I'd have been interested playing for more than a couple of hours would have been Elite, but I'm played out on that already. It's why I'm perfectly content to wait till the end of the year.
I think you're underselling Luckey's Tale, from all reports.
I know I am. I keep hearing that it's a fantastic launch game but I just can't get excited about it. It just looks so very different from what I'm antsy to do in VR, but then again that is the reason they have it as a launch title.
I'll definitely give it a solid try, though. Hopefully I'll be very pleasantly surprised by how much I like it.
Neither of the launch lineups have anything particularly compelling. The only one I'd have been interested playing for more than a couple of hours would have been Elite, but I'm played out on that already. It's why I'm perfectly content to wait till the end of the year.
I think you're underselling Luckey's Tale, from all reports.
I hear good things, I'm definitely gonna give it a shot. I'm actually kind of excited about Chronos too. The fixed camera thing wasn't super appealing to me at first but I'm really digging the style and by all accounts you get some cool views of everything.
The fact is, if I had got a Rift it would quickly sit around collecting dust because sit-down gamepad VR experiences are bullshit. I want to play VR games that are inherently fun, not just fun because they are in VR. The Vive right now is the best way to experience things that are unique to VR.
I may get a Rift for my second headset someday down the line, I'm sure the next version will be even better than what they have today.
That's fine that you prefer standing/room scale experiences but there's some of us that would disagree with you. There are a lot of experiences that don't work at "room scale" that a lot of us are excited about. Hands down the launch lineup for the Rift is way more appealing to me than the Vive's. It doesn't mean they're not good games, but hey, opinions! Calling gamepad VR experiences bullshit or not fun is pretty ridiculous.
Sure, there's VR experiences that don't work at room scale that could work fine on the Rift.
But what about the experiences that DO work amazing in room scale? Are you just going to miss out on those in order to be an early adopter of the Oculus Rift? Not worth it.
Gamepad VR experiences may not seem like bullshit now, but when the novelty of VR wears off and the industry has innovated game design for VR they certainly will be.
Neither of the launch lineups have anything particularly compelling. The only one I'd have been interested playing for more than a couple of hours would have been Elite, but I'm played out on that already. It's why I'm perfectly content to wait till the end of the year.
I think you're underselling Luckey's Tale, from all reports.
The fox platformer? The videos I've seen seem real underwhelming, what am I missing?
The fact is, if I had got a Rift it would quickly sit around collecting dust because sit-down gamepad VR experiences are bullshit. I want to play VR games that are inherently fun, not just fun because they are in VR. The Vive right now is the best way to experience things that are unique to VR.
I may get a Rift for my second headset someday down the line, I'm sure the next version will be even better than what they have today.
That's fine that you prefer standing/room scale experiences but there's some of us that would disagree with you. There are a lot of experiences that don't work at "room scale" that a lot of us are excited about. Hands down the launch lineup for the Rift is way more appealing to me than the Vive's. It doesn't mean they're not good games, but hey, opinions! Calling gamepad VR experiences bullshit or not fun is pretty ridiculous.
Sure, there's VR experiences that don't work at room scale that could work fine on the Rift.
But what about the experiences that DO work amazing in room scale? Are you just going to miss out on those in order to be an early adopter of the Oculus Rift? Not worth it.
Gamepad VR experiences may not seem like bullshit now, but when the novelty of VR wears off and the industry has innovated game design for VR they certainly will be.
Rift buyers aren't going to miss out on Roomscale. Jesus.
Once the Touch controllers come out later this year (And probably before PSVR comes out anyway), the differences between the Vive and Rift will be basically negligible. So Rift buyers won't be doing Roomscale for a few months, but since I'm only buying one HMD, I'll buy the one that seems like it'll have the quality edge.
Honestly, based on what devs are saying, and what testers are saying, any of the three big HMDs are going to be stellar experiences.
There is literally no need for the rancor.
+2
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Neither of the launch lineups have anything particularly compelling. The only one I'd have been interested playing for more than a couple of hours would have been Elite, but I'm played out on that already. It's why I'm perfectly content to wait till the end of the year.
I think you're underselling Luckey's Tale, from all reports.
The fox platformer? The videos I've seen seem real underwhelming, what am I missing?
The fact that you've only seen videos is what you're missing.
Every playtest review I've seen has been glowing about how amazing the game feels when you're in VR. Small touches, like leaning in to look closely at Luckey, and he locks eyes with you and waves and smiles.
I guess it all depends on how much you care about being late to the party.
I wouldn't want to spend money on the Rift just to watch everyone else having amazing room scale experiences, there's not even a guarantee that Touch won't be delayed again.
To me a true VR platformer would be something similar to picking up your character like an action figure and running him around in a huge playset-like level that you have to walk around in room scale. Not really sure how it would work, but when it does it would be awesome.
Savge on
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
To me a true VR platformer would be something similar to picking up your character like an action figure and running him around in a huge playset-like level that you have to walk around in room scale. Not really sure how it would work, but when it does it would be awesome.
That would be pretty cool too. There's room for both types of experiences. There's no need to stifle creativity, your crusade is unnecessary.
At this point I am just incredibly disappointed in there being not a single mech VR simulation game (to my knowledge, at least).
Yes.
Someone hack together a game that uses a VR headset and the Steel Battalion controller, so that I can combine them together into some sort of poor life choices Voltron.
This would make me actually care about owning a VR headset.
I guess it all depends on how much you care about being late to the party.
I wouldn't want to spend money on the Rift just to watch everyone else having amazing room scale experiences, there's not even a guarantee that Touch won't be delayed again.
Truth is, regardless of which platform you go with at launch you're going to be missing out on certain games. Before the end of the year I'm hoping that it won't really matter which HMD you have and the vast majority of experiences will be on both. Yeah, even now when I see cool motion controlled experiences I feel a little bit jealous, sure, but then if I went Vive I'd be jealous of people getting some games on the Rift. When it comes down to it it's all about preferences, what's more important to me right now. I can definitely wait on Job Simulator and the like. They seem awesome, but not the full game experiences that I would prefer. I think eventually we'll see more and better room scale games, but by then I'm pretty confident the Touch will be either out or very close to out.
My issue with your post is that you're assuming that motion controlled games always beat non-motion controlled games. That's really not the case. There's room for different genres in VR and I hope that as many as possible are represented. I also hope room scale and motion controllers are used effectively, and not just forced in because they're the cool thing to do. They can definitely enhance experiences, but not all. You're more than allowed to have your preference, all I'm saying is don't shit all over someone else's.
So, yesterday I had my first taste of VR. It was a Gear VR and it was the most boring application ever: a still picture of a Swiss tunnel that's in the process of being built (it was part of some little exhibition about a huge tunnel project that's currently running). The pic was flat, uninteresting and pixellated, so the whole thing barely felt more exciting than a somewhat advanced ViewMaster.
I wish there'd been someone ten feet to the side of this exhibition, giving people a one-minute pop at Elite: Dangerous in VR for a dollar...
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
So, yesterday I had my first taste of VR. It was a Gear VR and it was the most boring application ever: a still picture of a Swiss tunnel that's in the process of being built (it was part of some little exhibition about a huge tunnel project that's currently running). The pic was flat, uninteresting and pixellated, so the whole thing barely felt more exciting than a somewhat advanced ViewMaster.
I wish there'd been someone ten feet to the side of this exhibition, giving people a one-minute pop at Elite: Dangerous in VR for a dollar...
Yeah, the 360 videos and photos in the GearVR do a very poor imitation of VR. There's no depth.
I guess it all depends on how much you care about being late to the party.
I wouldn't want to spend money on the Rift just to watch everyone else having amazing room scale experiences, there's not even a guarantee that Touch won't be delayed again.
Truth is, regardless of which platform you go with at launch you're going to be missing out on certain games. Before the end of the year I'm hoping that it won't really matter which HMD you have and the vast majority of experiences will be on both. Yeah, even now when I see cool motion controlled experiences I feel a little bit jealous, sure, but then if I went Vive I'd be jealous of people getting some games on the Rift. When it comes down to it it's all about preferences, what's more important to me right now. I can definitely wait on Job Simulator and the like. They seem awesome, but not the full game experiences that I would prefer. I think eventually we'll see more and better room scale games, but by then I'm pretty confident the Touch will be either out or very close to out.
My issue with your post is that you're assuming that motion controlled games always beat non-motion controlled games. That's really not the case. There's room for different genres in VR and I hope that as many as possible are represented. I also hope room scale and motion controllers are used effectively, and not just forced in because they're the cool thing to do. They can definitely enhance experiences, but not all. You're more than allowed to have your preference, all I'm saying is don't shit all over someone else's.
Except there's no reason vive can't do non motion controlled games, except exclusives to the oculus store. And as someone who shits on other's preferences I don't see him doing that.
I will though. Purchasing the rift is giving money in support of practices such as exclusivity, information obfuscation, and blind trust in a business(re:touch). People buying the rift are straight up bad consumers and are doing as much damage to vr as Sony with thier underpowered tech.
Why do choice have to be so hard. I hate choosing between two things that seems to have both advantages and disadvantages. At this point I'm thinking about ordering a Vive just because I like steam and I trust Valve but then again VorpX looks pretty good and it's just on the Rift right now...
The 3D cinema screen thing VorpX does seems pretty awesome for games like GTA5 etc. But thanks to the last years design trends with open livingrooms in Sweden I have so much space for roomscale.
I'm starting to really get excited now about PSVR and it's still like
Seven months away
At first I didn't care about the cinematic mode to play normal PS4 games but now I'm thinking "oh hey that'll be a cool way I can play The Division if the boyfriend wants to watch something shitty like Gotham"
I guess it all depends on how much you care about being late to the party.
I wouldn't want to spend money on the Rift just to watch everyone else having amazing room scale experiences, there's not even a guarantee that Touch won't be delayed again.
Truth is, regardless of which platform you go with at launch you're going to be missing out on certain games. Before the end of the year I'm hoping that it won't really matter which HMD you have and the vast majority of experiences will be on both. Yeah, even now when I see cool motion controlled experiences I feel a little bit jealous, sure, but then if I went Vive I'd be jealous of people getting some games on the Rift. When it comes down to it it's all about preferences, what's more important to me right now. I can definitely wait on Job Simulator and the like. They seem awesome, but not the full game experiences that I would prefer. I think eventually we'll see more and better room scale games, but by then I'm pretty confident the Touch will be either out or very close to out.
My issue with your post is that you're assuming that motion controlled games always beat non-motion controlled games. That's really not the case. There's room for different genres in VR and I hope that as many as possible are represented. I also hope room scale and motion controllers are used effectively, and not just forced in because they're the cool thing to do. They can definitely enhance experiences, but not all. You're more than allowed to have your preference, all I'm saying is don't shit all over someone else's.
Except there's no reason vive can't do non motion controlled games, except exclusives to the oculus store. And as someone who shits on other's preferences I don't see him doing that.
I will though. Purchasing the rift is giving money in support of practices such as exclusivity, information obfuscation, and blind trust in a business(re:touch). People buying the rift are straight up bad consumers and are doing as much damage to vr as Sony with thier underpowered tech.
Why do you do this?
Rift is not practising "exclusivity" - nothing is platform locked.
There is an NDA. Whilst it might be a poor choice from a marketing standpoint, that is not "obfuscation". In any event, all will be revealed in about 2 weeks... Hard to trick a hands on impression. Hell, since I am getting a Kickstarter edition, I will happily do a long write up once I get hands on with it. Feel free to make your mind up prior to that point however.
Also, hard to put "blind" trust in the touch when there have been numerous write ups from third parties including reviewers and developers, all saying the Touch appears to be a great peripheral.
Your post is not based on facts, and is inflammatory for what appears to be no other reason than to get a rise out of people. Is that really what you want?
Neither of the launch lineups have anything particularly compelling. The only one I'd have been interested playing for more than a couple of hours would have been Elite, but I'm played out on that already. It's why I'm perfectly content to wait till the end of the year.
I think you're underselling Luckey's Tale, from all reports.
The fox platformer? The videos I've seen seem real underwhelming, what am I missing?
The fact that you've only seen videos is what you're missing.
Every playtest review I've seen has been glowing about how amazing the game feels when you're in VR. Small touches, like leaning in to look closely at Luckey, and he locks eyes with you and waves and smiles.
Yeah, I'm totally uninterested in VR experiences like that. Platformers don't interest me to begin with, and stuff like that sounds kitchy instead of immersive (again, to me). I'm really looking for stuff that makes me feel like I'm inside the game (ETS2/Elite sort of things), and driving a cartoon fox around in third person seems like the opposite thereof (I can do that now in 2d).
Also, hard to put "blind" trust in the touch when there have been numerous write ups from third parties including reviewers and developers, all saying the Touch appears to be a great peripheral.
Until it's in the hands of the general public, yeah, it's blind trust. We're all eagerly awaiting the March Rift shipments to find out if reality matches the hype.
I think that it seems pretty conclusive now that the Rift and Vive are, by the end of the year, going to be similar enough as to be pointless to argue over which is better. There's pros and cons for each, so looking at those and weighing them against your own preference is fine, rationalising it with the input of others in this thread is fine, too. PSVR seems to be slightly lower down the order in terms of capabilities, but still nowhere near 'a bad choice' for your VR requirements. It's a cheaper, easier entry, and hell that's why I spent the last many years playing everything on an Xbox rather than a PC. It's a perfectly good choice.
Can I ask, though, just as someone who reads this thread and finds the discussion useful and exciting when new information comes out, that we not get rude about it? Definitions of what a 'true' VR experience is, backhanded remarks and sniping about the decisions other people are making, basically name-calling and smug insults because you disagree with someone else's choice? I get that it's a lot of money, it's an expensive purchase, but that's no justification for not acting like a civilised human and treating someone else with a bit of respect.
+5
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I'm totally uninterested in VR experiences like that. Platformers don't interest me to begin with, and stuff like that sounds kitchy instead of immersive (again, to me). I'm really looking for stuff that makes me feel like I'm inside the game (ETS2/Elite sort of things), and driving a cartoon fox around in third person seems like the opposite thereof (I can do that now in 2d).
That's the point though. You do feel inside of the game. Like you're a benevolent god looking over a tiny world. I haven't played Lucky's Tale, but I've played some platformer tech demo type stuff on my DK1 and it was great.
VR is still too fresh and too different to be cynical. Forget what you think you know you want, and try every bit of VR you can find. You might surprise yourself.
Some interesting tidbits from that for those who don't wish to read the whole thing
Your headset of choice? I like and dislike different things about all of them. No favourite.
Better optics? Rift > Vive > PSVR
Preffered FOV? Vive > Rift > PSVR
SDE difference between all 3? Rift > PSVR > Vive
Have you tried touch? Did you like it or found any things that annoyed you? (such as tracking problems). I'm not too experienced with Touch. We don't have a Touch in OUR office since our project doesn't utilize motion control but I had a couple of opportunities to try it out and was very happy with how well the tracking works. There were a couple of issues with finger recognition and rumor has it that's the reason why they delayed it.
How are the added headphones on the rift? IMO the most important difference between the three. The headphones provide an even target across all users for devs and add so much comfort.
Ergonomics on which one are better? The Rift and PSVR are equally comfortable IMO. Vive is a bit lacking in terms of ergonomics.
What software seems better for the consumer? or consumers the Oculus software is way ahead at the moment. It's completely plug and play in our experience and feels like a polished console UI, even in its current beta state. My personal preference is the Steam VR interface though simply because it supports voice chat and that's what we use to communicate between our VR room and office.
This one sticks out to me the most, particularly because it agrees with the other hands on experiences I've been reading. I've been leaning Vive the last few days as well, and it saddens me that the tradeoff right now for touch controls at launch and the most roomscale support is the overall quality of the headset. I can pay the extra $200, but it starts getting weird when the headset is going to look and feel worse than its competitor.
All of this virtual desktop and virtual theater stuff looks awesome, and I wonder what the relative experience on the Vive will really be. I think I'm at the point now where I'm willing to trade the Rift exclusives for the Vive's more immediate roomscale support, but I don't want to sacrifice a significant amount of image quality or comfort. I reaaaallly need to find a place to demo the Vive before the May shipping comes around....
Posts
And that GameStop starts taking preorders Tuesday
I'll for sure be there Tuesday afternoon to put my $100 down
For me it all comes down to the Touch launch and how well Rift + Touch does room scale. If I can put my Rift cameras in opposing room corners and have it perform at least 90% as good as VIVE Lighthouses at room scale, that's good enough for me. I'd wish I had the Vive's front facing camera and easier sensor setup, but that'd be plenty enough room scale capability for my needs. If I get my Touch and second camera and it turns out the Rift really is terrible at room scale, well then I'll have to think hard about whether or not to switch to Vive.
I agree with the people saying its a big misstep by Oculus not having Touch available for the Rift launch, though. It's creating a huge opening for HTC/Valve, and they're being exploiting the opening flawlessly.
Ready for some bean spillage? I work closely with the three major players and use a consumer Rift & Vive daily. AMA
if they could magically finish the Rift Touch controllers for release I'm sure they would.
Delaying the headset would be ridiculous, and sometimes shit just ain't finished.
I mean the guy is totally breaking NDA but I think this is information Oculus should have put out a long time ago. It's sort of crazypants that they haven't since basically all of the info in the AMA that hasn't been revealed before is good news for the Rift. For the naysayers, he does confirm that they use a two tracker opposing setup in a 4m x 4m space and the tracking quality is fantastic on both. From what he can tell the actual FOV between the two systems is about the same BUT the Lighthouse's range is significantly better. Shouldn't be a concern for most customers though, I imagine.
Neat read, he also goes into speculation he's heard around the office (but obviously can't confirm) about Touch delays and Vive/Oculus Store integration. I mean take that all with a grain of salt but it's cool to hear some of this stuff from a dev with access to it all.
The fact is, if I had got a Rift it would quickly sit around collecting dust because sit-down gamepad VR experiences are bullshit. I want to play VR games that are inherently fun, not just fun because they are in VR. The Vive right now is the best way to experience things that are unique to VR.
I may get a Rift for my second headset someday down the line, I'm sure the next version will be even better than what they have today.
That's fine that you prefer standing/room scale experiences but there's some of us that would disagree with you. There are a lot of experiences that don't work at "room scale" that a lot of us are excited about. Hands down the launch lineup for the Rift is way more appealing to me than the Vive's. It doesn't mean they're not good games, but hey, opinions! Calling gamepad VR experiences bullshit or not fun is pretty ridiculous.
Yes.
Someone hack together a game that uses a VR headset and the Steel Battalion controller, so that I can combine them together into some sort of poor life choices Voltron.
Vox Machinae for the Rift.
I think you're underselling Luckey's Tale, from all reports.
Seems too arcade-y for my taste but a step in the right direction.
I know I am. I keep hearing that it's a fantastic launch game but I just can't get excited about it. It just looks so very different from what I'm antsy to do in VR, but then again that is the reason they have it as a launch title.
I'll definitely give it a solid try, though. Hopefully I'll be very pleasantly surprised by how much I like it.
I hear good things, I'm definitely gonna give it a shot. I'm actually kind of excited about Chronos too. The fixed camera thing wasn't super appealing to me at first but I'm really digging the style and by all accounts you get some cool views of everything.
Sure, there's VR experiences that don't work at room scale that could work fine on the Rift.
But what about the experiences that DO work amazing in room scale? Are you just going to miss out on those in order to be an early adopter of the Oculus Rift? Not worth it.
Gamepad VR experiences may not seem like bullshit now, but when the novelty of VR wears off and the industry has innovated game design for VR they certainly will be.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Rift buyers aren't going to miss out on Roomscale. Jesus.
Once the Touch controllers come out later this year (And probably before PSVR comes out anyway), the differences between the Vive and Rift will be basically negligible. So Rift buyers won't be doing Roomscale for a few months, but since I'm only buying one HMD, I'll buy the one that seems like it'll have the quality edge.
Honestly, based on what devs are saying, and what testers are saying, any of the three big HMDs are going to be stellar experiences.
There is literally no need for the rancor.
The fact that you've only seen videos is what you're missing.
Every playtest review I've seen has been glowing about how amazing the game feels when you're in VR. Small touches, like leaning in to look closely at Luckey, and he locks eyes with you and waves and smiles.
I wouldn't want to spend money on the Rift just to watch everyone else having amazing room scale experiences, there's not even a guarantee that Touch won't be delayed again.
That would be pretty cool too. There's room for both types of experiences. There's no need to stifle creativity, your crusade is unnecessary.
Truth is, regardless of which platform you go with at launch you're going to be missing out on certain games. Before the end of the year I'm hoping that it won't really matter which HMD you have and the vast majority of experiences will be on both. Yeah, even now when I see cool motion controlled experiences I feel a little bit jealous, sure, but then if I went Vive I'd be jealous of people getting some games on the Rift. When it comes down to it it's all about preferences, what's more important to me right now. I can definitely wait on Job Simulator and the like. They seem awesome, but not the full game experiences that I would prefer. I think eventually we'll see more and better room scale games, but by then I'm pretty confident the Touch will be either out or very close to out.
My issue with your post is that you're assuming that motion controlled games always beat non-motion controlled games. That's really not the case. There's room for different genres in VR and I hope that as many as possible are represented. I also hope room scale and motion controllers are used effectively, and not just forced in because they're the cool thing to do. They can definitely enhance experiences, but not all. You're more than allowed to have your preference, all I'm saying is don't shit all over someone else's.
Some great stuff in that AMA!
Looks like differential between units is very small, though PSVR is less advanced (understandably so considering its positioning)
Super glad to hear the headphones on the rift do stack up!
I wish there'd been someone ten feet to the side of this exhibition, giving people a one-minute pop at Elite: Dangerous in VR for a dollar...
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Yeah, the 360 videos and photos in the GearVR do a very poor imitation of VR. There's no depth.
I will though. Purchasing the rift is giving money in support of practices such as exclusivity, information obfuscation, and blind trust in a business(re:touch). People buying the rift are straight up bad consumers and are doing as much damage to vr as Sony with thier underpowered tech.
The 3D cinema screen thing VorpX does seems pretty awesome for games like GTA5 etc. But thanks to the last years design trends with open livingrooms in Sweden I have so much space for roomscale.
I'm starting to really get excited now about PSVR and it's still like
Seven months away
At first I didn't care about the cinematic mode to play normal PS4 games but now I'm thinking "oh hey that'll be a cool way I can play The Division if the boyfriend wants to watch something shitty like Gotham"
Why do you do this?
Rift is not practising "exclusivity" - nothing is platform locked.
There is an NDA. Whilst it might be a poor choice from a marketing standpoint, that is not "obfuscation". In any event, all will be revealed in about 2 weeks... Hard to trick a hands on impression. Hell, since I am getting a Kickstarter edition, I will happily do a long write up once I get hands on with it. Feel free to make your mind up prior to that point however.
Also, hard to put "blind" trust in the touch when there have been numerous write ups from third parties including reviewers and developers, all saying the Touch appears to be a great peripheral.
Your post is not based on facts, and is inflammatory for what appears to be no other reason than to get a rise out of people. Is that really what you want?
Until it's in the hands of the general public, yeah, it's blind trust. We're all eagerly awaiting the March Rift shipments to find out if reality matches the hype.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Can I ask, though, just as someone who reads this thread and finds the discussion useful and exciting when new information comes out, that we not get rude about it? Definitions of what a 'true' VR experience is, backhanded remarks and sniping about the decisions other people are making, basically name-calling and smug insults because you disagree with someone else's choice? I get that it's a lot of money, it's an expensive purchase, but that's no justification for not acting like a civilised human and treating someone else with a bit of respect.
That's the point though. You do feel inside of the game. Like you're a benevolent god looking over a tiny world. I haven't played Lucky's Tale, but I've played some platformer tech demo type stuff on my DK1 and it was great.
VR is still too fresh and too different to be cynical. Forget what you think you know you want, and try every bit of VR you can find. You might surprise yourself.
http://uploadvr.com/luckys-tale-gold-standard-for-third-person-vr-video-games/
This one sticks out to me the most, particularly because it agrees with the other hands on experiences I've been reading. I've been leaning Vive the last few days as well, and it saddens me that the tradeoff right now for touch controls at launch and the most roomscale support is the overall quality of the headset. I can pay the extra $200, but it starts getting weird when the headset is going to look and feel worse than its competitor.
All of this virtual desktop and virtual theater stuff looks awesome, and I wonder what the relative experience on the Vive will really be. I think I'm at the point now where I'm willing to trade the Rift exclusives for the Vive's more immediate roomscale support, but I don't want to sacrifice a significant amount of image quality or comfort. I reaaaallly need to find a place to demo the Vive before the May shipping comes around....