Virtual Reality Arcade is a pretty expensive hobby. If you’re into extreme gaming or if you are in need of what virtual reality brings to your business, then you have to purchase the best.
This is a brief about the best VR headsets in the market. But when you’re investing all that money in a headset, you need more than just a brief. You need a detailed study of the features of these headsets. In fact, you need a comparison method to see which features you necessarily need and which ones you can compromise on. In this blog post, we’re going to be dealing with two VR headsets of the high-end category. Oculus Rift vs HTC Vive.
This is a brief about the best VR headsets in the market. But when you’re investing all that money in a headset, you need more than just a brief. You need a detailed study of the features of these headsets. In fact, you need a comparison method to see which features you necessarily need and which ones you can compromise on. In this blog post, we’re going to be dealing with two VR headsets of the high-end category. Oculus Rift vs HTC Vive.
HTC Vive VS Oculus Rift - Detailed Comparison
Design Looks
So we go from the outer surface and then dive into the inner working of the headsets. The two headsets aren’t radically different when it comes to their appearance. They both look heavy but are lightweight. Although the Vive is slightly heavier than the Rift. They both have adjustable Velcro straps to wear around the head. They both use HDMI or USB cables to connect to the PC and they both have room for glasses. The Rift has a fine fabric finish off, more space for glasses, an adjustable dial to change the distance between the eyes for different users whenever required, and a centered weight distribution. The Vive on the other hand, has a matte finish with an array of sensors and a front-facing camera in the front. It is more friendly to users’ glasses as compared to the Rift. Coming to audio, the Rift has built in headphones but can be replaced with other headphones if desired whereas, the Vive has an audio jack to which any headphones can be plugged in and used.
Screen Display
The HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift battle becomes tight with very similar approaches to the display aspect of the headsets. Both use OLED display, have a total resolution of 2160 x 1200 and a refresh rate of 90 Hz which is about 233 million pixels per second. Just enough to prevent motion sickness (known here as VR sickness). Both have a field of view of 110 degrees. The Vive, however, offers a longer or taller field of view since its screen ratio is 9:5. The Vive can map a total area of 15 x 15 feet. It uses built-in gyroscopes and accelerometers just like the Rift. The Rift, however, is mainly used for only sitting and standing experiences and isn’t as versatile as the Vive in terms of tracking. One display feature that differentiates the two headsets is that on the click of a button, the Vive lets you see real world objects i.e. the objects in front of you, while you are still in the virtual world. It also has a Chaperone system which keeps you within the safe boundaries of your real world arena.
VR Controllers
Here’s where the two headsets differ. The Oculus Rift controllers have a whole joystick-button setup thing going on. They use a low latency technology to map gestures and to determine the relative position of the headset. With a half-moon structure holding the joystick together, it functions more like a real hand with internal tracking sensors and haptic feedback that send the processed information about various impacts and translate them to the real hands. They, however, aren’t sold along with the headset as of now and cost $200.
On the other side of the court is The HTC Vive with controllers that fit well in hand. They sport circular pads that are touch sensitive, have trigger buttons for selection purposes and also, grip buttons on the side for various gaming mechanics. It has two lighthouse sensors to judge the room scale and the relative position of the user.
Game Tracking
The Oculus Rift vs HTC Vive war gets intense at this point. The plus point for Vive is that you can move around the room while using it. This means that you can jump, duck, spin, whatever’s required to clear that level in the game. This means that it must have a proper tracking mechanism. The Vive fulfills that requirement with its laser-based Lighthouse tracking system by using about 70 sensors. The Oculus Rift has a Constellation camera tracking system which uses a positional tracking sensor and infrared LEDs since it is mostly used only sitting and standing positions, and cannot be used to move around much.
Setup Requirements
Here’s where you’ll find a huge difference between the Rift and the Vive. The PC requirements are similar. They both need an Intel i5-4590 processor and a NVIDIA GTX 970/AMD R9 290 graphics card. However, setting up the sensors is a whole other thing. For the Rift, it"s simple. Since you do not require much space to use the Oculus Rift, all you need to do is clear the space on your desk to place the positional tracking sensor and then just plug everything in together i.e. the sensor, the headset and the Xbox One. But with the Vive, it"s lot more work. You’ll need the basic 15 x 15 feet area to be cleared, and you’ll probably have to end up drilling holes into the walls for your sensors which cannot be placed more than 15 ft apart. These sensors must be placed in such a way that remain stable since they vibrate when in use.
Price Comparison
Alright, so you’ll have to loosen up here a little bit. Like mentioned earlier, virtual reality is a slightly expensive hobby but the work and effort that went into making them so sophisticated makes it worth the money. So the Oculus Rift costs $600. This includes the headsets, the sensors, an Xbox controller and the required cables. And of course, two free games: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale. It does not, however, include the Touch controllers. The Vive is more expensive. It costs $800 but it includes the two Vive controllers, lighthouse base stations, the headset, and copies of the games Job Stimulator and Fantastic Corporation.
So the ultimate question. HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift. What’s better? Well, it really depends on the usage. They’re both good in their own ways. If you are a passionate gamer and you want to immerse yourself in the game, then you’d rather pick the Vive. If you don’t have a lot of room to spare and you just want a comfortable, laid-back experience you should go for the Rift.
Do I miss anything? What is on your mind, good information is like nutrition to our brain, share your thoughts with our readers here!
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