The VR Headset Catch-all thread

I didn’t see anything here, but as it looks like VR is going to really take off in 2016, it seems like a good time to take stock of the situation. It looks like the prime contenders are:

Oculus Rift (due in 2016)
HTC Vive/Steam VR (delayed until??? from Spr ‘15)
Samsung VR (requires recent samsung phone)
Sony’ Project Morpheus
Other off brand VR

(did I miss any major players?)

Here’s an overview article I found - [URL=“http://nimblechapps.com/top-5-every-week/the-top-five-vr-headsets-of-2015/”]the top 5 VR headsets of 2015:

The virtual reality world is just becoming real in the real world. With the influx of VR headsets developed by several technology companies, the virtual world is soon expected to make headway in every sphere, be it marketing, gaming or any other. Here are the five top VR headsets that are expected to render a perfect virtual reality experience…

AS best I can tell, only the Samsung Gear has been officially released.

so who out there is doing VR gaming thus far and what are you using? I know there have to be some Oculus Rift Dev kits out there, and I expect a few people have the Samsung Gear…

I’d guess Rift is the go-to headset right now. Well, it’s not out yet, but Rift devkit 1 & 2 have sold quite well so far, and plenty of people got it for shits & giggles despite there not being an official market yet. The devkit isn’t that expensive - even indies can easily afford one. And many have done so.

I know some studios who are also experimenting around with Vive right now. The thing itself is really impressive and I’ve written some impressions in the corresponding thread in the games forum, but Valve and HTC still have to work on its availability. I wasn’t really surprised that they postponed the launch given how few people had a devkit at that time.

Project Morpheus has been renamed as Playstation VR, so if you’re looking for info that might turn up better results. Sadly, of what I consider the big three (with Oculus and Vive) it’s the only one I haven’t tried out. The games shown at Playstation Experience this weekend look good though – I think Eagle Flight could end up being the Wii Bowling of VR. No release date for this one yet, though games are listing 2016 availability.

Of the two I’ve been lucky enough to try, the HTC Vive experience was much more immersive than Oculus, though I attribute that in part to using the Razer motion controller. My big concern is that the combination of price for the full setup, space requirements (15 foot room), and lack of name recognition is going to hold it back.

How about Google Cardboard? I’ve never used it so I don’t know what kind of potential it has in the mobile market, but it seems to have quite a following already.

There is no headstrap allowed on Cardboard compatible devices, so they are still more like lowest-common-denominator 3D viewers and full-on VR headsets.

It’s £80 in the UK, which isn’t quite such an impulse buy. And given that I mainly want VR for Elite and driving games, I’m not sure I want an Android based headset. But it is tempting.

My wife brought one home from work, and it was nifty. If nothing else, it convinced me that the ultimate cinematic home experience was no longer going to be a room-eating 60" tv, but a simple VR headset with your friends avatars sitting in the virtual theatre next to you. And this opinion brought to you by a simple youtube viewer. But yeah, blacked out room, giant screen sitting in 3D space, I instantly felt like I was at the movies, albeit without assholes on their glowing phones, although I’m guessing someone will code an app to add them in there if you’ve been raised with them and need the distraction to make it feel real.

But no, wouldn’t really call the cardboard a contender, unless they make a comfortable eyepiece, it’s, you know… cardboard.

I’m really jonesing for an occulus to play driving and flight sim games, but I’m weary of being a first gen adopter. My funds these days are somewhat tight, and knowing I’ll need to get a cutting edge upgrade, and knowing there will probably be a 4k oculus just a year later, probably, gets me fretting. My last desktop lasted (rather, is lasting) me going on 7 years.

I have a CastAR on the way, which isn’t pure VR out of the box, but does have an attachment.

HTC Vive costs $800.

Huh. If they sell it for €800 in Europe, that would be only €60 more than the Rift which comes without the fancy Lighthouse stuff and the controllers.

As a minimum you have to add taxes, so it will be more expensive. But it could be they will have a cheaper shipping system.

So everyone is jumping on the bandwagon now - for example, from the same trade show where the Vive price was announced we learn that LG is making a VR headset for their phones that weighs just 117 grams. And, uh, has a lot of light bleedthrough, and isn’t very comfortable, and has disorienting motion blur because it doesn’t have a low persistence display. But it least it will be cheap!

I wonder whether the “at least it’s cheap!” knockoffs will poison the well for better VR - people saying, “Well I tried this cheap knockoff for a couple of hours and it wasn’t very good, why would I spend hundreds of dollars for the expensive thing?”

The form also makes me think it will have a comparatively low fov.

There’s quite a number of consumer products where companies simply sell them at the same amount of euros though, e.g. all recent consoles, most smartphones etc.

Two-three years ago it was like that, but usually not anymore with the weaker Euro. For example the new Nexus were more expensive than the original-price-but-in-euros.

edit: now with graphics!

(that pointing bully dude from the Simpsons pic)

Ha! Hah!

I guess it all feels terribly a bit like that no?

Feeling pretty good about my Oculus Rift purchase given that Vive price. It’s gonna have to be markedly better.

And I can’t think of a less appealing bundle title than “Job Simulator.” I don’t know what that is, but even though I love my day job, I can’t think of a title I’m less interested in even reading a description of much less playing. :)

Well that price is pretty much the definition of “buzzkill”.

Considering it ships with the motion controllers and room tracking, that’s about the price I expected. Still a hard sell, and I’ll personally be waiting until at least this fall to pick up either one of these or a PSVR. If Sony can come in at under $400 they’ve got a good shot at driving adoption.

I’m not in the market for either of them because I haven’t seen a real killer app yet that would make me spend that kind of money AND get a new PC. Having said that, IF I was in the market for a headset, I’d definitely spend $200 more and get the Vive. (I also expect that the price difference will be smaller in Europe.) The controllers and the Lighthouse tracking really make a difference when it comes to awareness and possibilities. Vive lets you do pretty much everything Rift does, but not vice versa. And the Rift controllers which will be released later on won’t close that gap - and they won’t come for cheap.