anbello262 :
I have read in several places that the rift HMD itself is a bit better. Can anyone comment?
REPEAT: The HMD ONLY. Screens, comfort, weight. NOT the controls nor the games/software.
If this is really the case, having the rift come to parity in terms of roomscale VR and controllers would actually make it quite attractive (since you would also be able to play both platform's games)
Better is in the eye of the beholder. It is natural to defend whatever hardware you purchase with arguments that are valid and ones that are not so valid.
The Rift is a bit lighter and most say a bit more comfortable. I personally have no issues wearing the Vive for long periods.
The displays are basically the same and the differing lens systems have their own pros and cons. They use different reprojection methods to deal with sub 90 frame rates with the Rift probably having the better one but with a decent PC framerates should always stay high enough anyway.
We have yet to see how the Oculus room scale works and so far it looks like the Touch controllers will be as good or better than the Vive ones. The thing is the Vive has these features now and the Rift will not be caught up for awhile yet. The Vive plays most of the Oculus titles just fine and some of them already work well as a standing experience so moving to room scale should not be much of an issue when the hardware arrives.
The good news is that when the Rift people get their hardware, developers can make titles with proper controls and room scale features that both the Vive and Rift users can enjoy. There will still be some sit down traditional controller titles that people will want to play like Elite Dangerous and Chronos but at least developers will not feel forced to limit themselves anymore. Good news for all VR imo no matter what hardware you use.