April 28, 2016 at 22:06Oculus Rift vs HTC Vive: a comparison of the two leading virtual reality helmets
Recently, we compared two of the latest versions of the virtual reality helmets known on the market and competing with each other. These were the Oculus Rift CV1 and HTC Vive PRE. The review will be interesting to those who are now deciding which of these gadgets to buy. And for those who just want to get acquainted for their own interest, what are these two helmets. The video shows a detailed analysis of both helmets and content for them, and under the cutter in brief about all this in text form.
Specifications:
As we can see, devices are very similar. The oculus wins in price and weight, but both of these victories are worth little. Why? We look at the following points.
Ease of use:
Here we share subjective feelings, since everyone has different perceptions. In some reviews, I read that Oculus sits more comfortably on its head, that as a result of its lighter weight, the neck gets less tired and that the air conductivity in it is better, and the spots on the face are smaller than that of a wive. So, subjectively, HTC Vive sits much more conveniently and nicely on its head. It is, so to speak, softer, more flexible and comfortable. As for the spots on the face, they are inevitable in all VR devices.
By the way, an important point, do you wear glasses? During the filming, I tried on both helmets with glasses and it was convenient only in Vive. And later on fb there was an interesting feedback on this topic from the user of both helmets:
“For example, I practically could not use Rift with glasses. Due to the fact that, unlike Vive, it is impossible to adjust the distance to the lenses, I spent a lot of time on fitting, constantly afraid to scratch the lenses.
At the same time, another person with a different face shape and other glasses did not have such problems at all, and in full used the Rift advantage in the form of putting on / taking off in the style of a baseball cap.
And the Vive hack with peeling off the soft pads to increase FOV and sweetspot worked fine for me, but I'm not sure that this will be for everyone . ”
And since I touched my eyes, I’ll also mention my ears. The Oculus Rift has built-in headphones, and the HTC Vive is removable. The Vive headphones themselves are rubbish, but if I want to turn on my cool ears when immersed in VR, then Vive wins. If you use the native ears of the systems, then the Oculus wins.
Controllers:
That's why the HTC Vive costs $ 200 more. Because it comes with cool, intuitive virtual reality controllers, while Oculus comes with an Xbox controller. In the future, the Oculus promised to release its Oculus Touch VR controllers. They will have to be bought for the same 200 bucks, which now make up the difference in the price of two devices.
Necessary platform for use:
Oculus can and should be used while sitting in a chair, but HTC Vive provides for movement in space. It is necessary in the apartment to highlight a certain area free of furniture, at the corners of which in direct visibility it is necessary to fix the Lighthouse stations that are included in the scope of delivery of the helmet. By the way, more about the HTC Vive delivery set can be found in my other geektimes article . Zone sizes: from 1.5x2 to 4x5 meters.
This is an important difference between the two systems. On the one hand, all content for Vive is cooler due to the fact that you really move around the virtual space, moving the body in real. On the other hand, many simply do not have the necessary space at home, but what can I say - some have less kitchen !!! Well, in addition, after 20-30 minutes of play, an unusual person in Vive gets tired of constant movement.
Content:
According to subjective feelings, games in Vive that require movement and use controllers are much cooler than games in Oculus with an Xbox joystick. That's true, shooting from onions or chopping katana with vegetables, at certain moments I caught a complete immersion and forgot that I was in a room with a plastic in my hands and that my sword didn’t even smell here.
Conclusions:
In the text of the article I gave very brief extracts from what was said on the camera. But I will give the conclusions in full. So:
Opinion 1: "The Oculus is a great helmet, it sits well on the head. But there is a small clearance below, there is a problem in that the built-in headphones are not always needed if, for example, I want to use mine. My choice is Vive, because you can move around the room with it, you can see the walls, you can shoot from a bow, you can do many things that you can’t do through the oculus. But the oculus is also good for an apartment, a room when you need to sit in an armchair. Of the games under the oculus, I liked the game Lucky's Tale, a third-person platformer. This is what I think is needed for VR at this stage. Under vive, I really liked The Lab - this is a game from Valve, official as a demo with all the features and all the settings most popular for virtual reality. It’s great to shoot a bow, stroke a dog in virtual reality - these are generally indescribable feelings".
Opinion 2: " For all the impressions that the helmet brings, I liked HTC Vive the most. However, you need a room, you need a platform in order to play it. And not always enough space at home. Therefore, I will buy myself Oculus. Although of course I liked both the impression of the games and the impressions of putting on my head, it was HTC Vive . "
Opinion 3: "If you are looking at the helmet from the point of view of the buyer, then you probably have to wait a bit. Because now we have compared helmets, but we don’t have a helmet from Sony. And also Vive turned out to be a little quicker and he has hands, but the oculus now has no hands. But this is a completely unfair comparison. When hands are a completely different level of immersion. Well, if you are a game developer and want to develop your game for virtual reality, you do something good for the helmet that you have, or which you like, or if you don’t have one, then do it under mobile VR, because you can say a lot of interesting things in development, and now you have in your hands what first VR experience will be for any of the players who have not yet encountered virtual reality. If it is good, high-quality and you do it with your soul, then you will do a good deed."
Specifications:
As we can see, devices are very similar. The oculus wins in price and weight, but both of these victories are worth little. Why? We look at the following points.
Ease of use:
Here we share subjective feelings, since everyone has different perceptions. In some reviews, I read that Oculus sits more comfortably on its head, that as a result of its lighter weight, the neck gets less tired and that the air conductivity in it is better, and the spots on the face are smaller than that of a wive. So, subjectively, HTC Vive sits much more conveniently and nicely on its head. It is, so to speak, softer, more flexible and comfortable. As for the spots on the face, they are inevitable in all VR devices.
By the way, an important point, do you wear glasses? During the filming, I tried on both helmets with glasses and it was convenient only in Vive. And later on fb there was an interesting feedback on this topic from the user of both helmets:
“For example, I practically could not use Rift with glasses. Due to the fact that, unlike Vive, it is impossible to adjust the distance to the lenses, I spent a lot of time on fitting, constantly afraid to scratch the lenses.
At the same time, another person with a different face shape and other glasses did not have such problems at all, and in full used the Rift advantage in the form of putting on / taking off in the style of a baseball cap.
And the Vive hack with peeling off the soft pads to increase FOV and sweetspot worked fine for me, but I'm not sure that this will be for everyone . ”
And since I touched my eyes, I’ll also mention my ears. The Oculus Rift has built-in headphones, and the HTC Vive is removable. The Vive headphones themselves are rubbish, but if I want to turn on my cool ears when immersed in VR, then Vive wins. If you use the native ears of the systems, then the Oculus wins.
Controllers:
That's why the HTC Vive costs $ 200 more. Because it comes with cool, intuitive virtual reality controllers, while Oculus comes with an Xbox controller. In the future, the Oculus promised to release its Oculus Touch VR controllers. They will have to be bought for the same 200 bucks, which now make up the difference in the price of two devices.
Necessary platform for use:
Oculus can and should be used while sitting in a chair, but HTC Vive provides for movement in space. It is necessary in the apartment to highlight a certain area free of furniture, at the corners of which in direct visibility it is necessary to fix the Lighthouse stations that are included in the scope of delivery of the helmet. By the way, more about the HTC Vive delivery set can be found in my other geektimes article . Zone sizes: from 1.5x2 to 4x5 meters.
This is an important difference between the two systems. On the one hand, all content for Vive is cooler due to the fact that you really move around the virtual space, moving the body in real. On the other hand, many simply do not have the necessary space at home, but what can I say - some have less kitchen !!! Well, in addition, after 20-30 minutes of play, an unusual person in Vive gets tired of constant movement.
Content:
According to subjective feelings, games in Vive that require movement and use controllers are much cooler than games in Oculus with an Xbox joystick. That's true, shooting from onions or chopping katana with vegetables, at certain moments I caught a complete immersion and forgot that I was in a room with a plastic in my hands and that my sword didn’t even smell here.
Conclusions:
In the text of the article I gave very brief extracts from what was said on the camera. But I will give the conclusions in full. So:
Opinion 1: "The Oculus is a great helmet, it sits well on the head. But there is a small clearance below, there is a problem in that the built-in headphones are not always needed if, for example, I want to use mine. My choice is Vive, because you can move around the room with it, you can see the walls, you can shoot from a bow, you can do many things that you can’t do through the oculus. But the oculus is also good for an apartment, a room when you need to sit in an armchair. Of the games under the oculus, I liked the game Lucky's Tale, a third-person platformer. This is what I think is needed for VR at this stage. Under vive, I really liked The Lab - this is a game from Valve, official as a demo with all the features and all the settings most popular for virtual reality. It’s great to shoot a bow, stroke a dog in virtual reality - these are generally indescribable feelings".
Opinion 2: " For all the impressions that the helmet brings, I liked HTC Vive the most. However, you need a room, you need a platform in order to play it. And not always enough space at home. Therefore, I will buy myself Oculus. Although of course I liked both the impression of the games and the impressions of putting on my head, it was HTC Vive . "
Opinion 3: "If you are looking at the helmet from the point of view of the buyer, then you probably have to wait a bit. Because now we have compared helmets, but we don’t have a helmet from Sony. And also Vive turned out to be a little quicker and he has hands, but the oculus now has no hands. But this is a completely unfair comparison. When hands are a completely different level of immersion. Well, if you are a game developer and want to develop your game for virtual reality, you do something good for the helmet that you have, or which you like, or if you don’t have one, then do it under mobile VR, because you can say a lot of interesting things in development, and now you have in your hands what first VR experience will be for any of the players who have not yet encountered virtual reality. If it is good, high-quality and you do it with your soul, then you will do a good deed."