HTC Vive Will Cost $799, Gets Last-Minute Hardware Updates

[Realist9]

As a gamer, my concerns are:

1. $800 for something that works with almost no games (Elite Dangerous...and?). I've seen their "12 games" list. ED is the only actual game listed.
2. How long can you wear something like that before your face falls off? Seriously.
3. We'll have to see, but I don't think a 980ti is going to cut it. A Pascal is going to be needed...we all know about "recommended" specs, works with graphics options turned to Low/Off. Minimum just means it will function.
4. How long before more games support VR? I'm guessing 2 yrs.

To me, it seems like this will be a better purchase in 2017 or 2018.

 

[kinney]

I'm in for one Vive. I've been waiting years for this, and yes, I've been saving. Building this rig or very similar to it once the top-end Pascal gets here. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7nbJjX

My new rig + Vive + my Google Fiber should be an excellent holy trinity. Can't wait. Not even considering Rift because I want roomscale VR or bust.

 

[RealBboy360]

At least 75% of VR purchases will come from the phone. Most people having a Samsung, Oculus is going to benefit from that. I don't know if it's easy to make things for 2 VR platforms or not, but I'm sure most of the focus will be on Rift.

 

[computerguy72]

I tested both headsets at the various shows and most recently the pre and cv1 at CES. They are both great and no doubt most people will be happy with either. The OVR touch controllers make a huge difference so I would certainly recommend them when they are released at some point after the O. As for the graphics quality they are similar but I could see a little more SDE on the pre. I am ordering both but if I had to pick one that would be difficult. I have a DK2 and there are tons of apps for it on the oculus store so they certainly have a big head start on the support. The John Carmack wizardry and a fair amount of other rock stars are at OVR too so that should probably be a consideration. The room scale stuff the vive has is truly awesome however so if that part is a big deal then in the early days if that is important to you then that should be factored in too.

 

[holyneo]

I am getting both, from the posts I see, fanboys calm yourselves, Things will be different before we know it from developers example,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnlCGw-0R8g

Here's a fair comparison, without the hype and bias media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snudv1dG9Gw

 

[computerguy72]

The VIVE is the superior VR hardware, they completely eliminated the motion sickness caused by the input lag that the Rift has. Also that head strap looks much more comfy and isntead of having an M$ xbone controller forced on you here you have the excellent controllers they had at all the demos.

Tested them both multiple times. Not sure how you think the Vive is superior hardware as they are both very, very similar. Input lag also almost exactly the same. The Vive controllers ARE a very cool thing and are far better than plain XB1 controllers. I liked the ovr touch controllers a lot however and when those are released they would be my choice.

 

[Dunzaus]

alright... is this like the Nintendo Virtual boy ?

You are 3 years late with your not funny joke.

 

[lun471k]

They better give us free shipping at that price, that's roughly $1300.00 CAD.
Hell, that's the same price as my license registration fees for my superbike motorcycle.

 

[tridon]

I hope they release a version later this year without the controllers and sensors since I won't be needing those for my use. Hopefully such a version would be slightly cheaper and make it more realistic to buy a set

 

[DbD2]

Speaking as someone who has used a rift, galaxy gear and the carboard google VR kit...
1) motion sickness has not gone, it's not just the lag but they way the displays work. Nvidia have been discussing some solution due in a few years, no idea if it will work. You will get sicker then you did with 3D.
2) yes they are too heavy, doesn't help that the weight is all out the front (not balanced) so yes you will get neck strain after a while.
3) wires are a big issue, they are bulky, they get in the way, they are easy to catch on something and break (remember you can't see them).
4) no you can't really walk around - please go into your sitting room, close your eyes and walk around waving your hands in front of you. See how long the contents of your room last then...

Imo if you want a gadget to play with and own a galaxy s6, get a galaxy gear - that was easily the slickest and most responsive of the lot. It's a lot more limited in what it can do, but it does what it can do better (no wires, boxes, expensive pc required, internal tracking from phone so low lag, etc), although it's even heavier (as you have a phone hanging off the front of your head).

 

[kcarbotte]

As a gamer, my concerns are:

1. $800 for something that works with almost no games (Elite Dangerous...and?). I've seen their "12 games" list. ED is the only actual game listed.
2. How long can you wear something like that before your face falls off? Seriously.
3. We'll have to see, but I don't think a 980ti is going to cut it. A Pascal is going to be needed...we all know about "recommended" specs, works with graphics options turned to Low/Off. Minimum just means it will function.
4. How long before more games support VR? I'm guessing 2 yrs.

To me, it seems like this will be a better purchase in 2017 or 2018.

1. - The 12 games that we were shown at the Valve content showcase are far from the only games that work on the Vive. They were just a small selection of some of the stuff that Valve wanted to highlight.
Elite Dangerous works with Vive, but from my experience with it, It's not ideal. You need a much more powerfull rig to play the game. It was the only one not designed for VR from the start at the showcase, and it was the only one that dipped below 90fps, and the only game at the showcase that anyone reported getting motion sickness.

It may have been the only classic Triple A game, but it you are way off if you think that it's the only "actual game" that was shown.
The Gallery: Call of the Starseed is a full game.
Hover Junkers is a multiplayer shooter that will offer countless hours of fun.

Some of the games are more casual, but its about the experience. Job Simulator doesn't seem that impressive when you read about it or watch a video. My opinion flipped 180-degrees after trying the game.

2. Talk to some of the people working with the hardware already. Developers have spent hours and hours at a time in these headsets. I met a researcher at the Immersed Conference that said he works in VR upwards of 8 hours a day. Wearing a VR headset is no different then wearing a helmet. It's really much more comfortable than most people imagine.

3. Developers aren't stupid. They know that the higher the required graphics card, the lower the install base. Every game is being optimized to work on the lowest hardware without issues. The last thing anyone wants is for gamers to have a bad experience in VR. The first experience has to be great, and everyone working in the industry understands that.

A 980ti will defintely help, but you will be surprised by the games that come out in the first year if you're worried about playing games at low settings. VR is resetting the industry. You won't see 10 million dollar budget games with incredibly high fidelity graphics for some time in VR. There's no way big companies can recoup.
VR is going to have a lot of games that are forcused on the fun and performance. High end graphics will come later.
Take a look at screenshots from Budget Cuts, The Gallery and Hover Junkers to get a feel for what the graphics will look like for most games. There's no need to dial anything back.

Pascal and Polaris will certainly be a big jump in performance, but Nvidia and AMD want VR to succeed. They know that performance at the level of GTX 970 and R9 390 has to come down in price in a big way for the masses to afford the jump into VR. Pascal and Polaris will help bring that barrier of entry lower by making a cheaper GPU with higher performance.

4. Keep in mind develper kits for VR have been out for 3 years now. There's hundreds of developers that have been working on VR games for years. We'll see plenty of announcements this year.
Any new platform will have a small launch title list. Look at the launch titles for any new console. Maybe a dozen games on launch and then they start to trickle out. Expect to see many announcements this year.
There's no way it will be 2 years. The platform won't survive if it takes that long.

 

[kcarbotte]

Speaking as someone who has used a rift, galaxy gear and the carboard google VR kit...
1) motion sickness has not gone, it's not just the lag but they way the displays work. Nvidia have been discussing some solution due in a few years, no idea if it will work. You will get sicker then you did with 3D.
2) yes they are too heavy, doesn't help that the weight is all out the front (not balanced) so yes you will get neck strain after a while.
3) wires are a big issue, they are bulky, they get in the way, they are easy to catch on something and break (remember you can't see them).
4) no you can't really walk around - please go into your sitting room, close your eyes and walk around waving your hands in front of you. See how long the contents of your room last then...

Imo if you want a gadget to play with and own a galaxy s6, get a galaxy gear - that was easily the slickest and most responsive of the lot. It's a lot more limited in what it can do, but it does what it can do better (no wires, boxes, expensive pc required, internal tracking from phone so low lag, etc), although it's even heavier (as you have a phone hanging off the front of your head).

1)Sounds like you used a Rift DK2 - probably with a demo that is made poorly. Possibly with a GPU lower than recomended.

The retail Rift, and the Vive, when paired with proper graphics hardware have essentially solved the problem of motion sickness. At this point its all about the software. People from Oculus, AMD and several developers have publicly said as much.

2) Again, sounds like you haven't tried to most recent models. The retail Oculs Rift is super light. Like surprisingly light. It does not create neck strain easily.

The Vive Pre is also very comfortable. The new strap wraps around the lower part of the back of your skull which balances the weight very well. It's not perfect, but honestly, after 6 hours of 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off at the Valve showcase and I felt no indication of it being balanced poorly.

3) It's not that hard to become accustomed to the wires. Also it won't snag on anything because you shouldn't have anything in the space where you play with it. You need an open area without obstuctions to walk aroud like your coffee table or chairs.
It's not ideal, but we're YEARS away from being able to have somethign like the Vive wirelessly. It makes no logical sense to halt any kind of advancements and software development because the cable is too bulky.

4) Yes you can walk around. There is a camera on the front of the unit that scans the room as you are walking. When you first set it up you set barriers to where you can move. When you hit those barriers, a digital wall called the Chaperone pops up in front of your indicating you are at the edge of your play space. This barrier should be a foot from the walls or other objects like a book shelf or anything else.
You aren't waiving around completely blindly.

Also, you can double tap a button on the conroller that brings up a wireframe version of your surroundings. You can make out people, pets, objects and the cables in this mode, so if you need to navigate to somethign in the real world, like transitioning to your chair, or reaching for your keyboard, you can easily do so.


GearVR by far the best experience you can get for mobile, but it pails in comparison to the Rift and the Vive. It's an excellent way to get people excited about VR, but the real excitement is with the PC connected devices.

 

[Dunzaus]

Speaking as someone who has used a rift, galaxy gear and the carboard google VR kit...
1) motion sickness has not gone, it's not just the lag but they way the displays work. Nvidia have been discussing some solution due in a few years, no idea if it will work. You will get sicker then you did with 3D.
2) yes they are too heavy, doesn't help that the weight is all out the front (not balanced) so yes you will get neck strain after a while.
3) wires are a big issue, they are bulky, they get in the way, they are easy to catch on something and break (remember you can't see them).
4) no you can't really walk around - please go into your sitting room, close your eyes and walk around waving your hands in front of you. See how long the contents of your room last then...

Imo if you want a gadget to play with and own a galaxy s6, get a galaxy gear - that was easily the slickest and most responsive of the lot. It's a lot more limited in what it can do, but it does what it can do better (no wires, boxes, expensive pc required, internal tracking from phone so low lag, etc), although it's even heavier (as you have a phone hanging off the front of your head).

1)Sounds like you used a Rift DK2 - probably with a demo that is made poorly. Possibly with a GPU lower than recomended.

The retail Rift, and the Vive, when paired with proper graphics hardware have essentially solved the problem of motion sickness. At this point its all about the hardware. People from Oculus, AMD and several developers have publicly said as much.

2) Again, sounds like you haven't tried to most recent models. The retail Oculs Rift is super light. Like surprisingly light. It does not create neck strain easily.

The Vive Pre is also very comfortable. The new strap wraps around the lower part of the back of your skull which balances the weight very well. It's not perfect, but honestly, after 6 hours of 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off at the Valve showcase and I felt no indication of it being balanced poorly.

3) It's not that hard to become accustomed to the wires. Also it won't snag on anything because you shouldn't have anything in the space where you play with it. You need an open area without obstuctions to walk aroud like your coffee table or chairs.
It's not ideal, but we're YEARS away from being able to have somethign like the Vive wirelessly. It makes no logical sense to halt any kind of advancements and software development because the cable is too bulky.

4) Yes you can walk around. There is a camera on the front of the unit that scans the room as you are walking. When you first set it up you set barriers to where you can move. When you hit those barriers, a digital wall called the Chaperone pops up in front of your indicating you are at the edge of your play space. This barrier should be a foot from the walls or other objects like a book shelf or anything else.
You aren't waiving around completely blindly.

Also, you can double tap a button on the conroller that brings up a wireframe version of your surroundings. You can make out people, pets, objects and the cables in this mode, so if you need to navigate to somethign in the real world, like transitioning to your chair, or reaching for your keyboard, you can easily do so.

God bless you Capt. Logic :,) *Salutes*

 

[Realist9]

As a gamer, my concerns are:

1. $800 for something that works with almost no games (Elite Dangerous...and?). I've seen their "12 games" list. ED is the only actual game listed.
2. How long can you wear something like that before your face falls off? Seriously.
3. We'll have to see, but I don't think a 980ti is going to cut it. A Pascal is going to be needed...we all know about "recommended" specs, works with graphics options turned to Low/Off. Minimum just means it will function.
4. How long before more games support VR? I'm guessing 2 yrs.

To me, it seems like this will be a better purchase in 2017 or 2018.

1. - The 12 games that we were shown at the Valve content showcase are far from the only games that work on the Vive. They were just a small selection of some of the stuff that Valve wanted to highlight.
Elite Dangerous works with Vive, but from my experience with it, It's not ideal. You need a much more powerfull rig to play the game. It was the only one not designed for VR from the start at the showcase, and it was the only one that dipped below 90fps, and the only game at the showcase that anyone reported getting motion sickness.

It may have been the only classic Triple A game, but it you are way off if you think that it's the only "actual game" that was shown.
The Gallery: Call of the Starseed is a full game.
Hover Junkers is a multiplayer shooter that will offer countless hours of fun.

Some of the games are more casual, but its about the experience. Job Simulator doesn't seem that impressive when you read about it or watch a video. My opinion flipped 180-degrees after trying the game.

2. Talk to some of the people working with the hardware already. Developers have spent hours and hours at a time in these headsets. I met a researcher at the Immersed Conference that said he works in VR upwards of 8 hours a day. Wearing a VR headset is no different then wearing a helmet. It's really much more comfortable than most people imagine.

3. Developers aren't stupid. They know that the higher the required graphics card, the lower the install base. Every game is being optimized to work on the lowest hardware without issues. The last thing anyone wants is for gamers to have a bad experience in VR. The first experience has to be great, and everyone working in the industry understands that.

A 980ti will defintely help, but you will be surprised by the games that come out in the first year if you're worried about playing games at low settings. VR is resetting the industry. You won't see 10 million dollar budget games with incredibly high fidelity graphics for some time in VR. There's no way big companies can recoup.
VR is going to have a lot of games that are forcused on the fun and performance. High end graphics will come later.
Take a look at screenshots from Budget Cuts, The Gallery and Hover Junkers to get a feel for what the graphics will look like for most games. There's no need to dial anything back.

Pascal and Polaris will certainly be a big jump in performance, but Nvidia and AMD want VR to succeed. They know that performance at the level of GTX 970 and R9 390 has to come down in price in a big way for the masses to afford the jump into VR. Pascal and Polaris will help bring that barrier of entry lower by making a cheaper GPU with higher performance.

4. Keep in mind develper kits for VR have been out for 3 years now. There's hundreds of developers that have been working on VR games for years. We'll see plenty of announcements this year.
Any new platform will have a small launch title list. Look at the launch titles for any new console. Maybe a dozen games on launch and then they start to trickle out. Expect to see many announcements this year.
There's no way it will be 2 years. The platform won't survive if it takes that long.

Thank you for the reply and info K!

Very helpful, and I'll include it when thinking about a Vive purchase.

 

[kcarbotte]

better for what? Better at wii like gaming? sure, Better at sitting at your desk doing VR? nah not even close

Oculus is a full pound lighter, has integrated headphones.

When asked, most preferred the Oculus for Simulators, Star Citizen, Indie games, euro truck etc.., while others preferred the vive in the open room (on your feet) gameplay.

Until they get rid of the Trio of thick heavy wires, walking around the room with one is cumbersome. all of the demo's show the user picking is legs up every 30 seconds to keep from tripping over the wires.

Oculus is probably the better buy this generation, and vive might be the real winner 2-3 years down the road. just not today.

EDIT: I dont think the oculus touch controllers will be any higher than $150.. Even $150 is high for a controller. So i doubt vive will be cheaper, as the dev's have already said it wont be

The retail Rift is lighter than the Vive Pre (by how much, I don't know) but I neither one of them is uncomfortably heavy. I've never been in one for longer than 15 minutes at a time, but I was able to move around quick briskly and it never felt cumbersome on my head. In my opinion the weight is a moot argument.

As for the cables, yes, it is a bit of a nuisance, but hardly one worth writing off the experience all together. Room scale VR is way too good to wait for untethered devices to try it.
I've never fallen from tripping (it certainly could happen) but I have stepped on the cable and unplugged it a couple times. Its not ideal, but again, not that bad.
You get used to the cable being there and it becomes a subconscious thing after a little while.

I wouldn't count on the Touch controllers being cheap. There's a lot of intricate tech inside them, and you also need a second base unit for them, so it's controllers and a base station. Low end i'd say $100, but I wouldn't be surpised to see them come in at $200.

 

[jasonelmore]

I am getting both, from the posts I see, fanboys calm yourselves, Things will be different before we know it from developers example,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnlCGw-0R8g

Here's a fair comparison, without the hype and bias media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snudv1dG9Gw

Yep, but the steam fanboi's are strong on this thread, and will downvote anything that refelcts negativity towards the VIVE.

Oculus started this whole VR revolution, and everyone is just mad because facebook bought them. They have been working on this a full 2 years more than Valve or HTC, so naturally they have a advantage.

Watched both videos and came away with the impression that for today, the Oculus is the better buy.. The VIVE may very well be better 2-3 years down the road, but i doubt oculus will just stand buy and be content with their system. They will also continually improve, and they could even release different tracking stations for different use cases to supplement the HMD.

 

[TallestJon96]

I'm just hoping that htc and Oculous are making a good margin on this, so that even if they dont sell much they can make some money. They better not be counting on these things to fly off the shelf. 2 years from now, when there are lots of games, a new revision comes out that is better and only $500-$700, and PC hardware has moved up a step, then more people will adopt it. Its a scary situtation where no games means no adoption, and no adoption means no games. But if it works, we could see some truely interesting new games, with the bigest technological change in games since real time 3-d rendering. Im cautiously optimistic despite the prices. Better to provide a kick ass experience at a high price now then to sell them for $300 and have it fade away 2 years from now. *fingers crossed*

 

[DbD2]

The retail Rift, and the Vive, when paired with proper graphics hardware have essentially solved the problem of motion sickness. At this point its all about the software. People from Oculus, AMD and several developers have publicly said as much.

Obviously they have, I didn't hear many devs complaining about 3D motion sickness either but in the real world it has put a lot of people off. It's not just input lag (which is a lot less then it was, but still exists), there's issues with depth of field as well, e.g this sort of tech is talked about: http://vrworld.com/2016/01/27/nvidia-light-field-stereoscopy-vr-tech-unveiled/ . There may well be other issues beyond that no one is discussing yet because there are no solutions...

As for lag, well 90fps is basically as little as they could get away with, but you really want more, and there's still more lag from motion detection pickup->calculations->showing the next frame then is ideal. The resolution is also too low right now - an effective resolution of 1080*1200 (remember both eyes see the same thing pretty well like 3D) filling your field of view looks very blocky.

Give it 5 years, assuming the tech it doesn't die, then when we get 4k @ 144fps with second or 3rd gen of that nvidia light field tech, better motion detection, wireless (various short range high speed bluetooth replacements in development), much more light weight, and probably a bunch of other improvements. Combine that with VR being in next gen consoles (probably @ 2k) hence games being properly developed with advanced VR dev kits and games engines. Then we'll be talking.

 

[kcarbotte]

I am getting both, from the posts I see, fanboys calm yourselves, Things will be different before we know it from developers example,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnlCGw-0R8g

Here's a fair comparison, without the hype and bias media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snudv1dG9Gw

Yep, but the steam fanboi's are strong on this thread, and will downvote anything that refelcts negativity towards the VIVE.

Oculus started this whole VR revolution, and everyone is just mad because facebook bought them. They have been working on this a full 2 years more than Valve or HTC, so naturally they have a advantage.

Watched both videos and came away with the impression that for today, the Oculus is the better buy.. The VIVE may very well be better 2-3 years down the road, but i doubt oculus will just stand buy and be content with their system. They will also continually improve, and they could even release different tracking stations for different use cases to supplement the HMD.

The video in question is comparting the old Vive dev kit. The Pre has significant image quality improvements.

Also, it should be known that Oculus is not nearly as far ahead as you think. Valve was working on VR long before the Rift was ever announced. Why do you think Oculus snatched up Micheal Abrash from Valve? He was working on VR over there.
They had roomscale VR long before it was ever shown publicly.

 

[kcarbotte]

The retail Rift, and the Vive, when paired with proper graphics hardware have essentially solved the problem of motion sickness. At this point its all about the software. People from Oculus, AMD and several developers have publicly said as much.

Obviously they have, I didn't hear many devs complaining about 3D motion sickness either but in the real world it has put a lot of people off. It's not just input lag (which is a lot less then it was, but still exists), there's issues with depth of field as well, e.g this sort of tech is talked about: http://vrworld.com/2016/01/27/nvidia-light-field-stereoscopy-vr-tech-unveiled/ . There may well be other issues beyond that no one is discussing yet because there are no solutions...

As for lag, well 90fps is basically as little as they could get away with, but you really want more, and there's still more lag from motion detection pickup->calculations->showing the next frame then is ideal. The resolution is also too low right now - an effective resolution of 1080*1200 (remember both eyes see the same thing pretty well like 3D) filling your field of view looks very blocky.

Give it 5 years, assuming the tech it doesn't die, then when we get 4k @ 144fps with second or 3rd gen of that nvidia light field tech, better motion detection, wireless (various short range high speed bluetooth replacements in development), much more light weight, and probably a bunch of other improvements. Combine that with VR being in next gen consoles (probably @ 2k) hence games being properly developed with advanced VR dev kits and games engines. Then we'll be talking.

The current headsets don't "look blocky" at all.
Everone keeps going back to the resolution, but frankly that's not true. Will higher resolution be better? Sure, of course it would!
Do you need it to be that high to enjoy the experience? Absolutely not!

The stuff coming in the future will only actually come out if people buy the current crop of hardware. If everyone takes your stance, then VR will die for sure. Thankfully, there's plenty of people who are ready to jump in now. And those people aren't going to be dissapointed.

 

[kcarbotte]

I hope they release a version later this year without the controllers and sensors since I won't be needing those for my use. Hopefully such a version would be slightly cheaper and make it more realistic to buy a set

Hate to break it to you, but that won't be happening. HTC and Valve are approaching this from the direction that you get everything you need out of the box. You won't have to buy anything else.
Vive is the whole package.

You may not need the controllers, but you absolutely need the lighthouse emiters (they are not sensors, they emit laser light. The headset and controllers have the sensors). The headset doesn't have head tracking without them, which will lead to major motion sickness.
As for the controllers, with the exception of Elite Dangerous, all of the games I've tried witht he Vive require those controllers. Developers know that everyone with a Vive will have them, so they are making use of them heavily.
No one making games for Vive from the ground up, that I know of, is making anything that doesn't use those controllers. Likely only sim games, like racing and space will deviate from that model.

If all you want is seated experiences without wand controllers, then get yourself a Rift. The whole point of a Vive over the Rift is the added benefits of the controllers and tracking.

 

[Joe Black]

better for what? Better at wii like gaming? sure, Better at sitting at your desk doing VR? nah not even close

Oculus is a full pound lighter, has integrated headphones.

When asked, most preferred the Oculus for Simulators, Star Citizen, Indie games, euro truck etc.., while others preferred the vive in the open room (on your feet) gameplay.

Until they get rid of the Trio of thick heavy wires, walking around the room with one is cumbersome. all of the demo's show the user picking is legs up every 30 seconds to keep from tripping over the wires.

Oculus is probably the better buy this generation, and vive might be the real winner 2-3 years down the road. just not today.

EDIT: I dont think the oculus touch controllers will be any higher than $150.. Even $150 is high for a controller. So i doubt vive will be cheaper, as the dev's have already said it wont be

The cables are not a problem. You mount a swivelling hook to your ceiling in the middle of your room and you let the cable run over it.

 

[kcarbotte]

better for what? Better at wii like gaming? sure, Better at sitting at your desk doing VR? nah not even close

Oculus is a full pound lighter, has integrated headphones.

When asked, most preferred the Oculus for Simulators, Star Citizen, Indie games, euro truck etc.., while others preferred the vive in the open room (on your feet) gameplay.

Until they get rid of the Trio of thick heavy wires, walking around the room with one is cumbersome. all of the demo's show the user picking is legs up every 30 seconds to keep from tripping over the wires.

Oculus is probably the better buy this generation, and vive might be the real winner 2-3 years down the road. just not today.

EDIT: I dont think the oculus touch controllers will be any higher than $150.. Even $150 is high for a controller. So i doubt vive will be cheaper, as the dev's have already said it wont be

The cables are not a problem. You mount a swivelling hook to your ceiling in the middle of your room and you let the cable run over it.

Virtuix just announced a boom that will hold the cables up too, though it might get in the way for roomscale movement.

https://twitter.com/VirtuixOmni/status/701906146915844096

 

[RealBboy360]

Kinect proved people don't like walking around around much playing games. Porn drives most tech industries anyway. I don't many people are going to be getting their freak on while running around their room. Rift will win.

 

[kcarbotte]

Kinect proved people don't like walking around around much playing games. Porn drives most tech industries anyway. I don't many people are going to be getting their freak on while running around their room. Rift will win.

Kinect didn't prove that at all.
Kinect proved that people don't like walking around thier room for something that is not very compelling. Moving around while keeping your gaze on a stationary screen.
walking around in VR is VERY VERY different. It doesn't take long after being in VR with a Rift before you want to reach into the world. Explore it more.

The Rift is awesome. The Vive is awesome.
Neither one of them have a clear path to winning the VR race. They both offer very different experiences, that are both amazing. People will buy them both.