Wireless won't be easy, there is no enough bandwidth right now.

Can someone explain to me what's going on in this topic?

Much as I'm interested in the potential for VR - we've just got a Rift at work which I'm hoping to borrow over the Easter weekend - this seems nothing other than a repository of copied and pasted articles (much of it without attribution) with an overwhelming bias towards one particular product - or vice versa.


I'm completely on the fence, simply because neither manufacturer has revealed confirmed final specification or released date. I'm a huge fan of Steam (and certainly not one of Facebook) so may lean towards Vive, but I won't be making any sort of decision until these things are available commercially and reviews are in.


If you don't mind me asking Sentinal, what's your agenda?

Waiting is the best option.

Pros and Cons so far.

Neither the Vive or Oculus Crescent Bay appear to be making people sick

The headsets appear to be on par, with maybe the Vive laser tracking being slightly better, but not enough to be noticeable, just as the better Oculus displays aren't noticeable .

The Vive has shown some decent input devices, but nothing so far from Oculus other than the purchase of a Haptic company, and other input companies.

Oculus should have a large lead in the software department, as it supports, and funds many more small and large software creators.

Vive may release a headset sooner, but sales will depend on the amount and quality of the software that will run on it, and if Oculus announces a headset with better specs, and more available software, at a lower pricepoint.

Its impossible to say at this point which will have a larger market share.

Both will release headsets with better specs than the current latest prototypes. When Oculus released the Crescent Bay prototype over six months ago, they were already working on a better prototype.

Personally I'm currently leaning toward the Oculus because of the flight sim developers currently supporting it, and the fact I don't need input devices. That said I will buy the consumer version of the one that best suits my needs.

I won't buy either unless they support a wider range of IPD's. No word yet on the IPD threshold of the Vive or Oculus units, although it appears no one has had to adjust the IPD with Vive or Crescent Bay which could be because of the dual displays, and wider lenses.

I am using a 75 hz LCD panel in my DIY rift i have very little nausea once i tweaked all the parameters correctly (FOV, IPD etc) also teweaking the lens distortion is really important, no problem with chromatic aberration not correctly set but uncompensated distortion is bad.
I also noitced that that fidelty of the head tracking ratio has differnt effects depending on the environment.

with 60HZ also nusea is bearable as long as the interaction between head position/movement and what is seen is kept under 1 FPS.
in theory since 1/100 second is the time the average human brain refreshes the information,
to be on the safe side 200hz (twice the brain "refresh" treshold) should resolve all the problems (120Hz should suffice but I applied the same theory that is used to eliminate aliasing i even is not the same case).

HTC Vive prototype will be free to developers this spring, regular users probably won't qualify.

There have been no reports of motion sickness with the Crescent Bay prototype. Even a top exec of Oculus who was susceptible to motion sickness within seconds of putting on the DK1, and DK2 prototypes says he no longer experiences motion sickness with the Crescent Bay. There hasn't been a large enough sample size to be sure. There will probably be people that will get motion sick no matter how good the hardware is.

That said, Carmack is right to do everything possible to avoid motions sickness in their first consumer version. Its not just the hardware that causes motion sickness, even users of the best current hardware will experience motion sickness with poorly written VR software, or software that is not particularly suited to VR.

Vive and the Crescent Bay have only been demoed on a few sample software's, for very short periods of time so we have no idea if infact either unit is optimal in avoiding motion sickness. That said, neither of the current Vive or Oculus prototypes are consumer versions.

Very smart move on Valves part.

1. The feedback from devs helps with product development of Vive

2. It means that ground will RAPIDLY be made up on the software support side

3. Devs are more likely to show praise, and shy away from criticism, of a product they're gifted, as opposed to paying $350 for.

4. It would have been understandable if little kick-starter funded Oculus was having to charge for headsets, but when you're owned by a behemoth like facebook, you quickly run out of excuses.

5. Sounds like ordinary users can't get their hands on a prototype; but that arguably serves to build anticipation for the launch date later this year.



That said, if I were running OR, I'd hold back. Rather than try to compete with the Vive, I'd let it go first into the market, and borrow a page from apples book:

Apple didn't make the first smartphone, they made the first smartphone people cared about.

Oculus would be wise to try to position the OR as the iPhone of VR headsets; a premium, well sorted product that comes to market once the early adopters have absorbed the first wave of devices, flaws and all.

Put another way, I'd admit that Vive has won the 2015-16 battle. But the VR war has just begun...

As much as some people would like to see it, Oculus hasn't blown anything. You can be fairly certain the major software developers never paid for the Oculus headsets, and all the developers currently interested in developing VR software already have the Oculus prototypes. Valve is trying to catch up by giving their prototypes away, which is a good idea. It will be "very difficult" for Valve supporters to have the necessary content ready for the end of the year. If in fact developers receive their free units this spring as it only gives them six months to adapt their software, or create new software for the Vive units. That's almost impossible.

Rudimentary support for VR can be completed in a month, but software that actually done right for VR that won't make people sick is another thing altogether.

Valve/Steam definitely sells a lot of games, but that doesn't mean the developers of those games will automatically support Valve headsets. It doesn't matter who sells the game, what matters is which headset is the best solution for their game, so the product sells itself.

Not sure why the constant negativity for anything Oculus. Most people are happy there is more than one VR headset to choose from.

A company spinning out of Lockheed Martin will be announcing a VR Kickstarter April 6. 150 FOV. Details to come.https://twitter.com/VR_BHart/status/581293769858768896

O honestly do not think that oculus blew it. Il lives on hype and it tid a spectacular job on that.

Yes I do, in the gaming market. They blew it because they took too long to get a product out. Perhaps they will catch up, but for now they are behind and that should never have happened with all their resources and their massive head start.

Your speculation might have been true "IF" both Vive and Oculus were dispatching their prototypes at the same time, and Oculus hadn't given their prototypes away to lead developers. VIVE giving their prototypes away "NOW" has absolutely no effect on Oculus, as "ALL" the developers have had Oculus prototypes and writing software for Oculus prototypes for a couple of years.

If you actually read the reviews they don't prefer one headset over the other, its the combination of the headset, inputs, and greater movement that makes their experience feel more immersive. The new Vive headset is the equal of a six/eight month old Oculus headset. For your assertion of Vive being best, we would have to assume that Oculus has done nothing in the last eight months to improve their headset. Not to mention the millions Oculus has invested in input and movement R&D. No sane person would right off the efforts and potential of the Oculus development.

Luckily for us billions of dollars are being invested in VR, and most of the hardware will be sold barely over cost, with most hardware/software developers hoping to recoup their costs on the software side.

Sentinal do you work for Valve. You have been irrationally negative to anything Oculus for two years.

I have been very positive about VR from day one, and think it will make flight sims popular again. It just happened that all the major news, and working prototypes were coming from Oculus, and now I couldn't be happier that Vive has become a real contender. That's good for all of us. From the start you've been negative about Oculus, and VR in general, but since the announcement from Vive you've cherry picked any negative comment about Oculus you could find in Vive reviews. Usually out of context of the overall review, and even some reviews that compared the Vive against the DK2, which makes those completely irrelevant. Your agenda is way too obvious, but I suppose there will always be those that can't or don't want to see thru it.

I've got an Oculus DK2 (had it for 7 months now) and have been wowed every time I've fired up DCS or Prepar3d, it's so good, but right now it's looking like my money will go the Vive. In any case, for anyone who hasn't yet tried a flight sim with a good VR HMD: a new flight sim golden age is just about to begin - there's no word to express how awesome sims become in VR and I can't wait to see how things will evolve in the next few years.

I'm very interested in the Vive headset aswell, but I will wait until atleast the end of the year before making any kind of decision. We should see major improvements to features, and form factors of these units, by the end of this year, or early next year.

I agree with you Chivas. When it comes to purchasing a consumer product, I'll probably refrain from (pre-)ordering on day one and will wait for reviews and in depth comparisons before I choose. As much as the Vive sounds great on the paper and as a prototype, it will have to make it to becoming a product, and Valve seems to have struggled a bit with their controller, so who knows how things will go with the Vive (although this time, their hardware partner is HTC, so things might move faster that with the controller). I'm curious to see what Oculus will come up with both in terms of timing and specs for their CV1.
Meanwhile someone is starting to sound like a lonely broken record in this thread...

Honestly Sentinal,
thank you for your constant work.

Just- its a barrage. A constant creeping barrage- it's shell shocking me out of buying the Vive.
Stahp. Please. Thank you but stop...

Just keep adding the news to ONE post, not like this.
Please.

Honest. *tips hat*