Oculus Rift Vs. HTC Vive Vs. PlayStation VR

[alex davies]

The Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive are now available and later this year, Sony's Playstation VR is coming out. This guide offers a comparison between the three and will help you device which VR system is right for you.

Oculus Rift Vs. HTC Vive Vs. PlayStation VR : Read more

 

[nitrium]

Apparently the PSVR has already been hacked to work on PCs (and Sony is considering official PC support after launch) - I wonder if it might be the best headset to get IF you have a PC, given that from this article at least the number one issue with PSVR is the PS4 it's being attached to.

 

[problematiq]

I feel the PSVR got a bit over hyped in this article, in all fairness though it's not released yet so not a lot to go on. As an owner of the HTC Vive I can say "Yes your face will get warm/sweaty if you are in a warm room". I keep a fan blowing tword the center of the room to fix that problem, plus it makes me feel like I'm feeling the wind in VR. o.o All in all was the best purchase I've made in sometime. My wife who does not really like to play games enjoys it A LOT. It is also just a really hard experience to describe other than "Awesome". I don't know how I would feel without the full room scale and motion controllers, I think it would feel novel like playing games in 3D, sure it's cool but not practical and after a while your glasses sit there gathering dust. The ability to reach over and more or less grab and object, play around with it and even toss it, I'm just not sure how I could take off the HMD and put on the Rift and have an experience as good as that of the Vive. All of the HMD's are heading twords the same goal in the end though and it's evident.

 

[Jeff Fx]

>and they don't have low refresh rate displays

I think you wrote "low" when you meant "high."

 

[Zapin]

So comparing one currently non-existant HMD to two others (one of which is still an incomplete experience) that run on a totally separate platform? Makes sense to me.

 

[picture_perfect]

Wait for Polaris / Pascal cards later this month which will be 2X faster in VR apps. Well that is the Nvidia claim. Other VR specifics mentioned like (ray trace audio, specialized projection ect.). These are the first "VR cards".

 

[Sven Viking]

The C:-drive-only issue was fixed a while ago, by the way, though (for now at least) you still need to choose one drive and stick to it rather than being able to split games between drives.

For international pricing, don't forget to take high shipping costs and (for Vive to AU/NZ at least) customs fees into account.

 

[problematiq]

Wait for Polaris / Pascal cards later this month which will be 2X faster in VR apps. Well that is the Nvidia claim. Other VR specifics mentioned like (ray trace audio, specialized projection ect.). These are the first "VR cards".

I run a 980 TI with the Vive and my load barely see's 30% I'm not sure what you are gaining for waiting on a "VR Card"

 

[Deric_]

How can PSVR do roomscale with only a single camera?
Your controllers will get occluded everytime your body is between them and the camera.
If you have to face a single direction to play, then it is not room scale.

 

[alex davies]

Apparently the PSVR has already been hacked to work on PCs (and Sony is considering official PC support after launch) - I wonder if it might be the best headset to get IF you have a PC, given that from this article at least the number one issue with PSVR is the PS4 it's being attached to.

A PC-compatible PSVR would only be the best VR headset from a price perspective. Yes, having a PC power it would improve the fidelity of the in-game graphics, but despite being the most ergonomic, it's still a step below both the Rift and Vive technically. Well, Rift + Touch, because as the moment the lack of tracked controllers handicaps the Rift.

 

[alex davies]

>and they don't have low refresh rate displays

I think you wrote "low" when you meant "high."

Fixed, thanks!

 

[alex davies]

So comparing one currently non-existant HMD to two others (one of which is still an incomplete experience) that run on a totally separate platform? Makes sense to me.

If you read the content of the article, you will see that I address this numerous times and only compare what is currently known about all three headsets, based the Rift and Vive we own and our usage of PlayStation VR at various press events. For example, in the software section, we don't talk about PSVR as much because there are still a lot of unknowns.

 

[alex davies]

The C:-drive-only issue was fixed a while ago, by the way, though (for now at least) you still need to choose one drive and stick to it rather than being able to split games between drives.

For international pricing, don't forget to take high shipping costs and (for Vive to AU/NZ at least) customs fees into account.

Unfortunately, with the time it took to write and edit such a detailed article, there were some facts that are now out of date, such as the Oculus installation drive issue, and it's good to know that it has been fixed. That still doesn't change the fact that Oculus Home is still significantly behind SteamVR's UX, and Valve keeps adding new features almost every week.

As for shipping and customs information for international pricing, that would have simply been too much info to include in that table.

 

[DotNetMaster777]

price/quality comparison ???

 

[alex davies]

How can PSVR do roomscale with only a single camera?
Your controllers will get occluded everytime your body is between them and the camera.
If you have to face a single direction to play, then it is not room scale.

I mention that in the article: "For PSVR room-scale VR, the single point of tracking along with the single tracking camera means there is likely to be some occlusion." Because the HMD can be tracked 360° room-scale is still possible, but, yes, the experience will not be optimal as on the Vive.

 

[darth_adversor]

Amazing that some people can afford a 980ti and HTC Vive, but can't spell "toward."

 

[Brandon_29]

Amazing that some people can afford a 980ti and HTC Vive, but can't spell "toward."

It is amazing that retards still bother to spell-check comments. Also, it is quite obvious that this was a typo and not a spelling mistake. Maybe if you put your efforts towards something useful you could afford a nice setup as well.

Now to play with you a bit. Proper English for your response would be.

"
It is amazing that some people can afford to buy a 980ti and a HTC Vive, but cannot spell "toward".
"

You made several mistakes in your own sentence so who are you to judge?

 

[darth_adversor]

Amazing that some people can afford a 980ti and HTC Vive, but can't spell "toward."

It is amazing that retards still bother to spell-check comments. Also, it is quite obvious that this was a typo and not a spelling mistake. Maybe if you put your efforts towards something useful you could afford a nice setup as well.

Now to play with you a bit. Proper English for your response would be.

"
It is amazing that some people can afford to buy a 980ti and a HTC Vive, but cannot spell "toward".
"

You made several mistakes in your own sentence so who are you to judge?

It would be "an HTC Vive," not "a HTC Vive."

My "setup" is VR-ready, thank you very much. I'm merely waiting for prices to drop before I jump in.

 

[ravnoscc]

Excellent comparison with the information you had available. As each of these platform VR experiences matures I hope we'll see a revisit of this article?

 

[Badelhas]

This was a GREAT GREAT article, Congrats to the editor!

One question though: any indication about availability in other countries, like Portugal?

Cheers

 

[Peter_136]

Thank you for this *excellent* article! Very even-handed and fair, highlighting the pros and cons of each headset. Having tried in-store demos of both currently-available units, I can vouch for the differences in ergonomics and interactivity. The Rift looks and feels better, but it cannot be understated how much room-scale tracking and motion controls add to the overall experience.

I just cancelled my shipping-in-June Rift pre-order due to the uncertainty currently surrounding Touch, but once that's resolved I fully intend to pick up either a CV1 or a Vive.

 

[Blas]

Here's a Spain store's page for the PlayStation's HMD:

http://www.pccomponentes.com/sony_playstation_vr_gafas_realidad_virtual.html?from=UpSell&vt_campaign=1001668&vt_content=10002040

Priced at €400, available as from October the 21st 2016. Of course price may change until then, but it's an indication...

 

[Dean_23]

Nice info site http://virtualrealityonline.net/

 

[problematiq]

Great article. By far PSVR is the best compromise, in fact it's what will save high-end VR.

The Oculus at 700€ (as to be shipped) was a disappointment, although it's the lightest and lest tethered and has built-in spatial headset, as a low FOV but most importantly almost no content.

The Vive at 900€, was a mess, it has the room-tracking, chaperone and controller but the set-up (11 fucking cables with a gigantic box), the lousy Steam software you have to update, install, and run, and the inexactitude of tracking is annoying. Then there's lots of shit content, and few worthy room-scale experience.

More importanly, they both require a very recent and expensive PC, which means you have to use Wincrap and all it's mess and problems (15 millions user base according to Nvidia), and you tied to you desktop environnement.

PSVR on the other is 500€, as the best design and confort (because of the quick remove slide), is multiplayer and social, has spatial audio, and seem to have the best experiences available for it. But most importantly it's cheap and available on a cheap but optimised and straight-forward system (50 millions user base by release).

I feel as though your comment is based without use of any VR headset.
the Vive's 11 cables you have to plug in really equate to making sure you have power to your two base stations and that your HMD is plugged in. you have a cable running to it but it is a siamese cable it really feels like just a single cable. Your comment read's like the PSVR doesn't have any cables, It does.
With Nvidia's release of the pascal series, and soon AMD's release of the 400 series, you will be able to buy a VR ready box for around 500$ (using a 1070 most likely will start you out at 600$) so around the same price as a PS 4 VR ready bundle (500$) Thats without the HMD of course.
As far as cost for the HMD's PSVR is a lot cheaper.. in more than one way. You get what you pay for with the HMD's I've tried both Oculus and Vive.
If you already have a PS4 thats great..but a whole lot of people already have a PC. to meet the requirements add a 200-300$ GPU upgrade (if you dont already have one)
Content.. there is no PSVR content so I'm not sure what your are going on about. also with the use of Steam you have quite a lot to pick from and I suspect by the end of the year it will further explode.
Windows.. ok you have a full OS with the ability to do whatever you wish. don't like windows? use Linux.
ALL SOFTWARE REQUIRES UPDATES! your PS4 requires updates too AGAIN not sure what you are even referring to.
Desktop environment, Both Oculus and Vive have a custom environment with which you launch games from.. while wearing the VR HMD, much like your console for PS4.