• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Gamespot: HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift (CES 2016)

With the cable thing, I don't see why they can't chuck a big ass battery on the back of the headset. If they get the balance right it should work well. Failing that they could do something that straps to your waist or something.
The problem isn't power, it's the latency of sending the video signal wirelessly. Latency is VR's enemy, if you turn your head the display has to update what you are seeing within 1/90 of a second, and no consumer device has ever sent wireless video that quickly. There's a company working on it that claims they'll have a wireless VR solution later this year, though.
 
No, people have seen it and tried it out. Until now whenever Oculus has shown off Touch it has done so with a room-scale multiplayer demo called the Toybox.

http://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-room-scale-tracking-volume-e3-2015-oculus-touch/

My mistake, I hadn't seen that.

Toybox official presentation was not room-scale focused.

It looked like they were just two people standing up of each other with the minimal movement one camera allows.

https://youtu.be/iFEMiyGMa58
 
  • expensive
  • screen door effect
  • limited FoV
  • headsets also made for walking experiences but tethered to computers
  • controllers that are good for one type of experience but not others (basically we need hand and finger recognition)

Nice to meet you VR, see you in a few generations
 
Screen door effect is a huuuge turnoff for me. Much more than FOV limitations.
 
Don't be fooled into thinking a joystick would fix any problems with in-game movement.

Locomotion and VR is one of the biggest hurdles. Actually walking in the real world to reach somewhere in the game world is the current gold standard. (Search for "locomotion problem vr" to find out details and developers talking about it.)

yeah,but a completely empty room it's not the "standard" fro gaming rooms in the real world :P

i get it's more immersive,but i could barely use my kinect in my home...so moving that much around in the virtual world is impossible
 
This video kind of reminded me of the fact that i don't want to walk around and swing my arms at stuff but am instead looking for a seated VR experience...

Does this mean VR is not for me or can i still get a great VR experience while seated?
 
The problem isn't power, it's the latency of sending the video signal wirelessly. Latency is VR's enemy, if you turn your head the display has to update what you are seeing within 1/90 of a second, and no consumer device has ever sent wireless video that quickly. There's a company working on it that claims they'll have a wireless VR solution later this year, though.

Yeah it kinda occurred to me that latency might be an issue. Anyone know how far off they are with the current tech that is out there?
 
Technical differences are one thing, content is another. Right now Rift is looking a lot better in that department as HTC/Valve has yet to talk about it.

This video kind of reminded me of the fact that i don't want to walk around and swing my arms at stuff but am instead looking for a seated VR experience...

Does this mean VR is not for me or can i still get a great VR experience while seated?

Oculus is mainly targeting seated experiences.
 
That is terrible. I thought your were not able to see the 'edge' of the screen.

Don't conflate VR FoV limitations with say HoloLens' problems. In VR the image is being manipulated through the lenses to match your spherical eye so it fills most of your vision, but it can be like wearing swimming goggles or particularly thick rimmed glasses.
 
That kind of prediction strikes me as the exact kind of thing we heard when Kinect was announced. It won't be the norm, it can't be the norm, it's too impractical.
Kinect looked terrible (glitchy as hell) from the very beginning, and couldn't justify itself in any way. And even if it worked flawlessly, it wasn't enough of a new thing - you're still simply interacting with your TV.

Whereas there is a compelling case to create a dedicated VR space if that's where it truly feels like 'The Matrix'.

It's difficult to compare a bad motion controller with a new medium, but from purely a practical standpoint, you're still having to rearrange your shit, so I see what you're saying. I admit it is hard to imagine dedicated VR spaces in homes because it's a whole new thing, like it would've been hard to imagine people crowding round a TV before TV was a thing.
 
  • expensive
  • screen door effect
  • limited FoV
  • headsets also made for walking experiences but tethered to computers
  • controllers that are good for one type of experience but not others (basically we need hand and finger recognition)

Nice to meet you VR, see you in a few generations

I suppose this applies to pretty much any new tech as seen with cars, phones, Iphones. A car can't do everything a horse can. Phones were rather expensive in the beginning and Iphones had amazing limitations. So I don't think it's a bad idea to wait for the successors, like I waited for Ipad 3 before buying it. It will nevertheless be interesting to follow the reactions and see what future iterations will bring to the table. I don't expect VR to become mainstream instantly, but I also don't agree with people who think it'll fail just because it has some drawbacks in the beginning.

Edit: My first post ever after eons of lurking. Almost feels like being a celebrity. Almost.
 
VR is not here to replace couch gaming. The very best immersion comes from performing actions exactly the same way as you do in reality, so seated games only really make sense if it feels like you should be seated in the virtual world. Cockpit games are sorted. But for everything else, physically moving around a virtual space is the most compelling solution. Chet Faliszek has predicted that what you've described as 'rubbish' will be the norm in three years.

Or developers make more cockpit games seems to be the way forward.

Not everybody has 12 ft square living rooms to dedicate to a Kinect or VR experience - this concept is dead to many consumers.
 
Funny they mention their doubts about the cable when walking around, I immediately thought about it when the first image of the guy following the player with it appeared at the beginning of the video.

I tried the Vive and yes, the cable is a problem.
I had to get the cable with one of my hands so I didnt trip over it. Of course halfawy of tryingt he protal demo I forgot I had the cable on my hand, but its still there and you are afraid of tripping with it.

But it was a wonderful experience I hope I can get at home someday in the future.
 
Room scale is a nice feature, and it can sway purchase decisions, but I don't think it can demand price if you are selling to in-home markets as most customers wont have that much free room available.
 
I'm interested to know what they mean with "limited" regarding FOV. If it's just a bit smaller than Vive but better than DK2, I won't be concerned at all.
 
For me, that walking around shit isn't going to work

That 3x3 area for the Rift they mentioned is about what I have available in my office. Plus my wife isn't going to follow me around holding the cable for me every time I want to play a game

I think the Vive has maybe a better experience "in absolute optimal conditions" but I am not going to be able to replicate that at home, and screen door effect is a terrible thing


It sounds like the Vive will get better support/integration with steam which is the only thing a pc gamer should care about.

Software is more important than hardware. But lets wait for the end of january when valve will show off some content for the vive. I expect many cancelled oculus pre-orders after that.

Personally i will wait until all VR´s are on the market, reviewed, software is out and Nvidia pascal cards are out.

There is exclusive software to the rift

I'm fairly certain valve has said they won't be doing anything like that on the vive.

Good for them on the "morality play" but I'd rather have more stuff than less stuff
 
I'm wondering how they managed to have the screen door effect at such a high resolution. Is the Vive using pentile OLED?

Edit: Just did a little bit of googling, and I thought the Rift and Vive were higher res than 2160x1200.
 
So I'm anxious about a screen door effect, and the cable. The latter I figure can be solved to an extent with a simple hook in the ceiling to run the cable over. The former I would have to see. Having never experienced VR in any form before it is absolutely something I would like to demo before jumping into for 600-800.

VR can't survive on cockpit games alone.

I agree. And I absolutely don't want that to be the way we move forward. I feel like that kind of mentality holds back game creation and creativity.
 
I'm interested to know what they mean with "limited" regarding FOV. If it's just a bit smaller than Vive but better than DK2, I won't be concerned at all.

Apparently it is wider than even DK1 horizontally but slightly less than vertically.
 
...And it doesn't even have 3G!

It sounds like the Vive will get better support/integration with steam which is the only thing a pc gamer should care about.

Software is more important than hardware. But lets wait for the end of january when valve will show off some content for the vive. I expect many cancelled oculus pre-orders after that.

Personally i will wait until all VR´s are on the market, reviewed, software is out and Nvidia pascal cards are out.

That's the smartest option. Now, if we just got street dates for Vive and the <16nm graphics cards.
 
I don't understand the limited FOV thing if that image is to be believed.

2d3660f0c2.png

If you lined up just the Vive and the CB EVK7 the loss of vertical FOV is arguably negligible and you gain more horizontal FOV.
 
VR can't survive on cockpit games alone.

Why not, remember outside of USA and big homes many gamers had issues with creating a few feet square for Kinect.

VR has to survive mainly on cockpit games, as only the 1 % of the 1 % enthusiast is going to dedicate a whole room to the 1:1 room space whatever. Ok maybe I am laying it on thick but I really cant see room space VR taking off, I just cant, its a NICHE part of VR thats Niche in itself.

Cockpit and seatted games are the only ones I will personally consider, but my seat can have a jet pack or wheels or a plane, car, robot etc, thats more than enough.
 
As long as they made the fov wider than dk2 I'm happy, it was so damn narrow. Really killed the effect, and it was noticibly worse than dk1. Main reason I sold it so soon.
 
Do you guys know that PSVR also has screen door effect ? It's because of the resolution.

From your tests, or reviews, or you just guessing ? All I have read is


yantraVR: "PSVR is extremely close to being on par with Vive and the Rift w/ a gtx970 based on the tests I've done. The team from Epic (Nick & Tom) have also stated the same in at least one of their VR Twitch streams. If your app runs at 90Hz on a PC with a gtx970 then you should be very close to 60 on the ps4. And with the 120Hz reprojection applied it's glassy smooth."
 
So I'm anxious about a screen door effect, and the cable. The latter I figure can be solved to an extent with a simple hook in the ceiling to run the cable over. The former I would have to see. Having never experienced VR in any form before it is absolutely something I would like to demo before jumping into for 600-800.



I agree. And I absolutely don't want that to be the way we move forward. I feel like that kind of mentality holds back game creation and creativity.

15' X 15' space/rooms, hooks in ceiling (or a spotter) to hold the cable, boundary cameras everywhere, just so you can walk around instead of just sitting down? I applaud their attempts to create the first home "holo-deck", but this just simply isn't feasible for most of us and our current homes. It's like those people on Youtube who build replica home cockpits in their basements so they can play flight sims. We all think it's cool, but how many us have the space or are actually going to dedicate that space (and money) to set something up like that so we can play a game?
 
Limited FOV with Oculus seems like kind of a bummer though.

There seem to be some conflicting information about this. I have been reading some impressions saying that the FOV on CV1 is pretty great (better than DK2) and some have said the Vive Pre still has the scuba mask feel.

Hopefully Norm from Tested to give his impressions and comparisons of CV1 and Vive Pre soon.
 
Honestly after using a Rift DK2 the screendoor effect just doesn't bother me that much, if I had to choose between a bigger FOV and worse screendoor, or better screendoor but worse FOV, I'd probably go with the bigger FOV.

I've had this impression for a while but it seems like Vive is a much better bet at this point over the Rift.
 
OR: limited FOV
Vive: screendoor effect

yikes

These things will have more issues than most expect for the first 3-4 years. Everyone rushing into buying these first kits will be disappointed when they realize they are beta testers.
 
I'm wondering how they managed to have the screen door effect at such a high resolution. Is the Vive using pentile OLED?

Edit: Just did a little bit of googling, and I thought the Rift and Vive were higher res than 2160x1200.

If I'm not remembering incorrectly, Abrash said in a talk that 8k or 12k is needed for the screendoor effect to completely go away.
 
Do you guys know that PSVR also has screen door effect ? It's because of the resolution.
PSVR uses a full RGB subpixel arrangement rather than pentile style arrangement that VIVE is presumably still using (rift used to use pentile but I can't find anything that says whether they still do). That should make the screen door effect less noticeable than you would expect if you were to just look as resolution.

I've not used the CV1, VIVE or PS VR though (just DK1 and DK2), so I'm just going off journalist impressions atm.
 
If I'm not remembering incorrectly, Abrash said in a talk that 8k or 12k is needed for the screendoor effect to completely go away.

Unsurprising because of how close the display is to your eye. We'll just see a steady reduction as higher pixel density displays become cheaper to manufacture. Based on my time with DK1 and 2, the drop in the effect is definitely noticeable, even if it is still there.
 
I'm a pleb: what's the screen-door effect?
 
VR can't survive on cockpit games alone.

I don't see the problem, just make it like Rigs, you inside a mech, controlling the mech with controller.
You in a mech, go to ancient ruins and fight bad guys, VR uncharted
You in a mech, slash and dodge dark creatures in castle, VR souls
You in a mech, kicking ball into a goal, VR FIFA.
 
With both PC VR headsets being pretty much final form at this point it's nice to get a direct comparison again. 5min video: http://www.gamespot.com/videos/htc-vive-vs-oculus-rift-at-ces-2016/2300-6428847/

They talk a lot about how great it is to walk around with the Vive, which is all credit to HTC/valve for great demos and focusing on that unique selling point - but I don't know how practical it is for most real users. Great for demos in controlled environments with a dedicated demo person carefully holding your cable. I'm also a little surprised how much the tech press is falling for it. I suppose they are more likely to have space available in their offices to play like that, but it don't see it being very representative of the real world.



Also the camera doesn't stop people sneaking up on you. You have to press a button to get the pass through image to appear, or it can automatically fade in when you reach the edges of your calibrated space (where before you'd have simple grid walls). That part is using the lighthouses to figure out you've hit a wall, no camera sensing going on. Nice feature but not killer. PSVR has a flip up visor so you can easily check something/grab a drink. Not sure if OR has anything like that, looks like you have to take it off.
 
I'm sort-of glad I'm in the June window to have my OR preorder delivered so that I can compare the two once they're released before really making a decision.
 
I don't see the problem, just make it like Rigs, you inside a mech, controlling the mech with controller.
You in a mech, go to ancient ruins and fight bad guys, VR uncharted
You in a mech, slash and dodge dark creatures in castle, VR souls
You in a mech, kicking ball into a goal, VR FIFA.

lol
 
Top Bottom