
Oculus Rift or HTC Vive – Which Should I Get? - jweimann
https://unity3d.college/2017/07/11/rift-vs-vive-which-should-you-get/
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dpkonofa
I think the author of this article needs to update everything on here. I
realize that the article is dated as today and that he reports the latest
price drop for the Oculus but none of the rest of the article is really up-to-
date.

For starters, he complains about the comfort of the Vive vs. Oculus due to the
weight of the Vive. He’s clearly using a 1st rev Vive, though, whereas the
latest rev, which you can order today (and I don’t think I’m wrong in assuming
that the target audience is those buying a new one) is actually _lighter_ than
the Rift.

As someone who has used both the 1st rev Vive and the latest and who also owns
a Rift with 3 cameras, the Oculus Rift really only wins out for me in 2 areas:

1\. The controllers are awesome but they’re not better than the new knuckles
controllers. I even agree with his point that some experiences are actually
better with the large, unwieldy Vive controllers.

2\. The price. The Vive really needs to come down in price to be a worthwhile
recommendation, especially now.

Other than that, the Vive wins for me. You can choose whichever audio/band
style you prefer, the ease of setup for the lighthouses is light years better,
and the experience for most people when done 1-to-1 is better (for all the
people I’ve demo’d them to). I typically show people AZ Sunshine, the Blu, Job
Sim, and some seated games on both and then show off Lucky’s Tale for the Rift
(awesome game) and The Lab for the Vive. Without fail, everyone has preferred
the Vive with a few people mentioning that the Oculus did have less
distracting visuals in some areas.

Even for the price, though, I would recommend new users wait for the newer
Vive when the knuckles come out. Especially with the Facebook fear-mongering,
the Rift is just not where it needs to be to compete. There are too many
places where it takes you out of the presence that VR absolutely needs to be
compelling.

------
posguy
I've rather enjoyed the HTC Vive, the room scale experience, breadth and depth
of games available for it coalesce to make it a solid product.

I doubt I'd ever buy anything from Facebook, but then again I'm an oddball in
that my FB account has been unused for many years. Last time I logged in it
was a rotting cesspool of shitposts by people I had long stopped dealing with,
not very enticing to go read.

------
agar
The bottom line is that both products are excellent, and you can't go wrong
choosing either.

There are a few key deciding factors: people with (1) VR rooms > 4m^2
(~12'x12'), (2) large glasses, or (3) staunch anti-Facebook beliefs. If you
fall into one or more of those camps, Vive is your best choice.

Otherwise, at $399 (vs. Vive's sale price of $699) the value of the Rift
simply overwhelms all other factors. With ceiling mounted sensors, Rift's room
scale tracking is within a percent or two of Vive's, though in a smaller range
(as above, about 12'x12'). It also includes more software that adds to the
value.

Note that a full apples-to-apples comparison adds the following costs to Rift:
a 3rd sensor, a USB card, mounting brackets, and extension cables. Total:
about $130 (note that the article misstates the price of a third sensor as
$99; it is $59). This remains $170 less than Vive's $700 sale price, excluding
software value.

Note that an equivalent comparison could also add costs to the Vive: A deluxe
audio strap (for similar comfort and integrated audio), and potentially the
upcoming Knuckles controllers. Total: between $200 and $250 (assuming a cost
of $100 to $150 for the controllers, which seems conservative given a single
replacement controller is $129 from HTC), getting back to the similar price
advantage of the Rift.

------
eropple
IMO: Rift has _way_ better controllers, but head-tracking and room-scale is so
much better in Vive-land. Edge for me goes to the Vive, but you can make an
argument for either.

~~~
ratinacage
Valve's new Knuckles controllers look very promising and will offer far better
hand presence than the Touch controllers.

[https://www.vrheads.com/valve-knuckles-
controllers](https://www.vrheads.com/valve-knuckles-controllers)

~~~
eropple
True! I'm excited to see them, but I haven't spent time with them so can't
really rely on them with a recommendation. Right now, the Vive controllers are
a step back.

~~~
dkonofalski
I'm a dev that's used the knuckles controllers. You're in for a treat.

------
sayurichick
the rift controllers are nicer, at least until Vive releases their new ones.

Tracking is less of a hassle on the vive. Fewer cables, easier.

rift has their own ecosystem which can also play almost every game on the
steam library.

vive primarily has steam, but with some hackery (revive), you can play some
rift games.

Hardware-wise, they're practically the same. Comfort-wise, Rift takes it.

Development-wise? tough, but I think Rift takes it as well. You get a free
license for unity or unreal4 i forget which. And they've improved the
developer documentation greatly recently.

The good thing is most multiplayer games support both.

~~~
dkonofalski
Why do you say that the Rift takes it comfort-wise?I'm only curious because I
take issue with the OP for exactly this reason. The latest Vive release ways
less than the Rift (according to their specs) for which the hardware has
changed very little. They were so focused on the controllers that they haven't
bothered to update the main hardware and I think their win with the
controllers will be short-lived.

~~~
agar
As I understand it, the Rift's weight includes the weight of the integrated
headphones.

Also, the actual HMD (excluding strap, headphones, cable hooks, etc.) of the
Vive is still about 40% heavier than Rift's, so there's still more "face tug"
and fatigue over longer sessions.

Again, I have not directly tested this, but it makes sense as there's
substantially more plastic in the Rift's strap system (i.e., back of the head)
than Vive's.

~~~
dkonofalski
Where are you getting that info? According to the specs on both sites, the
Vive is lighter than the Rift (although you're probably correct that this
includes the weight of headphones whereas the Vive only comes with the in-ear
buds). That to me makes it seem like the HMD hardware has gotten lighter
because I can't imagine that they would make the straps _less_ sturdy to shed
weight. I could be wrong, but that doesn't make sense to me.

Edit: It seems the initial Vive release _was_ heavier than the Rift but the
latest release is lighter.

~~~
agar
According to Palmer Luckey[1], the Rift strap assembly (including back of head
counterweight and earphones) is about 150g. That puts the HMD portion at about
320g.

The new Vives weigh about 468g. According to Amazon, a replacement back strap
weighs 1.8 ounces (51g)[2]. The Vive HMD w/out strap would be - at the least -
about 417g.

Even at a 417g weight, that's about 30% heavier than Rift's strapless weight.
Since the 1.8g may include packaging, the HMD may weigh a bit more, bringing
the % up to 40% or so.

[1]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/47rb3m/the_rift_cv1...](https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/47rb3m/the_rift_cv1_is_66_heavier_than_the_dk2_470g_vs/d0f5y8j/)

[2] [http://a.co/6PUVw7v](http://a.co/6PUVw7v): "Package Dimensions 4.2 x 3.9
x 3.9 inches; 1.8 ounces" (so 1.8 ounces may include packaging).

