12 ms·

HTC's Vive will cost $799, ship in early April

44 points by Roritharr 11y ago

yoodenvranx 11y ago
Does anyone have information about compatibility? Do all these VR things use the same API or must a game support each product seperately?
- iLoch 11y ago
  There are indeed competing standards but Valve has introduced OpenVR which is what Steam games will use, which is sure to be an important factor for VR studios. I suspect OpenVR will be the common choice going forward.
- haydenlee 11y ago
  As far as platform support goes: - Oculus Home works with the Rift. - SteamVR works with the Rift and Vive. It gets a little trickier with which games support which types of controllers though.
- nilkn 11y ago
  The sad truth is that Oculus is striking a lot of exclusivity deals. The good news is that the Vive has a lot of unique content just by virtue of its (presently) superior tracking. Long story short: right now, there's a wealth of content for each system that the other will not be able to play. It stands to reason that Oculus exclusives will eventually "time out" and get ported, but it is not known whether the Rift + Touch will ever really support room-scale tracking or not.
anindyabd 11y ago
Will there be "Vive ready" PCs for sale too?
- corysama 11y ago
  Probably. But in the end, HTC's recommended specs are pretty much identical to Oculus's. I think the only difference is Oculus wants "3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port" http://i.imgur.com/AtpFAbk.png http://i.imgur.com/AtpFAbk.png
- _pius 11y ago
  Yep. http://www.htcvive.com/us/product-optimized/ http://www.htcvive.com/us/product-optimized/
haydenlee 11y ago
Context for people not following VR religiously: the Vive is $200 more than the Oculus Rift however it includes hand controllers and an extra tracking device. Both come bundled with 2 games if you pre-order. The Rift also has integrated headphones that are attached to the strap whereas Vive has a headphone jack on the headset. They both have integrated microphones. Edit: Rift also includes an Xbox controller in the $599 bundle and Oculus will be selling their own hand controllers (called Touch) in H2 2016.
- tmikaeld 11y ago
  I was just looking for how to get sound from the headset, thanks!
  - haydenlee 11y ago
    No problem! As a VR developer I'm pretty bummed that Vive isn't including integrated headphones. It's such a pain to put on headphones and the headset at the same time.
    - gcb0 11y ago
      but that convenience will surely backfire if the included headsets are not super-ultra-hi-def-audiophile-yada-yada
      - haydenlee 11y ago
        Having tried the CV1 multiple times I can say the headphones are surprisingly incredible. Every time I use them I'm impressed. I doubt I will ever use other headphones with the Rift.
      - eghad 11y ago
        That, and at the price point of this gear, it's safe to assume they'll have their own preferred headset/earbuds. It's an additional wire, but really not a huge deal.
- 11y ago
CydeWeys 11y ago
I hope this isn't the VirtualBoy all over again. I really love the idea of VR gaming but I'm not yet convinced that these platforms will succeed. I'm certainly not willing to shell out $800 on it knowing what I know now.
- evv 11y ago
  > knowing what I know now. What are you referring to?
  - CydeWeys 11y ago
    Let me elaborate: It doesn't seem that compelling to me yet. I haven't seen any must-have launch games for the system, and I'm concerned that I might end up with an expensive system that I don't use much at all. It's firmly in the "wait and see" territory for me, which I suspect it is for lots of other people. That's unfortunate, because if most people don't find it compelling, and decide to wait on the sidelines like me, then it won't sell much at launch, it won't justify investment by lots of gaming companies, and it's much more likely to fail.
    - haydenlee 11y ago
      For interest's sake, what's the latest VR HMD you've tried?
      - CydeWeys 11y ago
        I've tried both Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard. I'm wondering what your thoughts are here too.
        haydenlee 11y ago
        Consumer Rift? It's worlds better than the DKs. My opinion is that the consumer headsets launching this year already offer too good of an experience for VR to 'fail' this time around. Virtual boy was a miserable experience from what I've heard (I never got to try one). The CV1 changes people's perception of whats possible with computers. Obviously we are in the early adopter phase of VR where the utility is not obvious to many people but that's always how great technologies start. Gaming will provide enough momentum to keep the industry alive even if a killer non-gaming application isn't found in the short term. We are in the Apple II phase of VR for sure. In 5 years once there are portable all-in-one headsets that give better-than-current-desktop quality experiences for <$500 and with applications built from the ground up for VR... I can absolutely see every other house in america owning a kit.
dogma1138 11y ago
I don't understand how people claim that Vive is currently "superior" to Oculus. The approach that Oculus took on virtually every aspect is better than what HTC/Valve went with. It will launch at 600$ which is 200$ and while it comes with a traditional controller (more on what it's a good thing below) it doesn't matter as much as the pricing does getting more stuff only works when the prices are equal when they aren't the cheaper device wins. It launches with a traditional controller which is the most important aspect of this as it comes with a control scheme that both gamers and developers are familiar with which will help to bridge the gap while developers work on good motion / acceleration control scheme for their games. If we take the Wii for example then allot of the early games came out with traditional controls and through out it's life span even 1st party games from Nintendo continued ship with traditional controls only for titles that motion controls didn't made much sense for e.g. Smash Bro's. The OR Xbox 360 style game pad is something that everyone is used to and knows how it works, it means that developers can focus on utilizing the VR aspects of OR instead of trying to work extra hard on making a more complicated control scheme work. Traditional gamepads are also considerably more easy to implement for seated gameplay which is how most consumers will end up using it any how. Sure a whole AR/VR room size experience might be cool for 15-30min ala Lazer Tag but no one will have that at home. On a side note playing with both Vive's and OR's touch controllers OR wins here too, the Vive one isn't as comfortable especially for mixed control schemes which is what even the best motion controlled games eventually opt for. Now tracking, people say that the Vive tracking is superior it's not really, you can stack multiple (upto 50 in the SDK iirc) OR cameras to track multiple players across a large room, from talking to people that were interested in large scale installations (5+ players in a single room) OR is pretty much the only way to currently go because the camera setup can correctly directly track multiple players without any interference. And it's not like room scale VR is going to be viable both are still tethered headsets in all of the demo's I've been through there was a guy behind each player which was pretty much holding the tether ensuring that it won't tangle or snap off and that the player wont end up on the ground or with the tether around their neck. The installation of a single frontal camera is easier than installing the lighthouses as far as a home setting go, people are used to the Kinect and the Sony Eye cam, the OR camera could also be used for additional full body tracking and object recognition. Overall as far as build quality and comfort goes the OR is more comfortable (subjective) the rift is considerably lighter and the weight is much better distributed meaning it sticks in it's place better I had issues with the Vive wobbling which can cause major issues for people who suffer from borderline VR/Motion sickness, the OR also comes with great built-in headphones which are definitely of high quality the sound quality from the demos I've experienced as well as the overall noise isolation is about the same level as my Shure premium earphones, the Vive took the bring your own headphones approach which doesn't work well as it puts limit on the size, shape and strap of the headphones and even in the demos it didn't seem like they've managed to find a perfect fit. On the software side Oculus also has a big advantage they were first and they've scored most developer deals atm, since Oculus is also what drives Samsung VR (which I actually own and even it is superior to Vive as far as comfort and many other things go) and they also plan to licence their software and hardware IP to other companies it looks like Oculus will have the better support out there. Sorry Valve but Vive atm seems more like a me-too product than a true innovator and industry leader, their bet to go with HTC is also problematic for the long term aspects of the Vive since HTC is in quite a bit of financial trouble.

44 points by Roritharr 11y ago

Does anyone have information about compatibility? Do all these VR things use the same API or must a game support each product seperately?

iLoch 11y ago
There are indeed competing standards but Valve has introduced OpenVR which is what Steam games will use, which is sure to be an important factor for VR studios. I suspect OpenVR will be the common choice going forward.
haydenlee 11y ago
As far as platform support goes: - Oculus Home works with the Rift. - SteamVR works with the Rift and Vive. It gets a little trickier with which games support which types of controllers though.
nilkn 11y ago
The sad truth is that Oculus is striking a lot of exclusivity deals. The good news is that the Vive has a lot of unique content just by virtue of its (presently) superior tracking. Long story short: right now, there's a wealth of content for each system that the other will not be able to play. It stands to reason that Oculus exclusives will eventually "time out" and get ported, but it is not known whether the Rift + Touch will ever really support room-scale tracking or not.

anindyabd 11y ago

Will there be "Vive ready" PCs for sale too?

corysama 11y ago
Probably. But in the end, HTC's recommended specs are pretty much identical to Oculus's. I think the only difference is Oculus wants "3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port" http://i.imgur.com/AtpFAbk.png http://i.imgur.com/AtpFAbk.png
_pius 11y ago
Yep. http://www.htcvive.com/us/product-optimized/ http://www.htcvive.com/us/product-optimized/

haydenlee 11y ago

Context for people not following VR religiously: the Vive is $200 more than the Oculus Rift however it includes hand controllers and an extra tracking device. Both come bundled with 2 games if you pre-order. The Rift also has integrated headphones that are attached to the strap whereas Vive has a headphone jack on the headset. They both have integrated microphones. Edit: Rift also includes an Xbox controller in the $599 bundle and Oculus will be selling their own hand controllers (called Touch) in H2 2016.

tmikaeld 11y ago
I was just looking for how to get sound from the headset, thanks!
- haydenlee 11y ago
  No problem! As a VR developer I'm pretty bummed that Vive isn't including integrated headphones. It's such a pain to put on headphones and the headset at the same time.
  - gcb0 11y ago
    but that convenience will surely backfire if the included headsets are not super-ultra-hi-def-audiophile-yada-yada
    - haydenlee 11y ago
      Having tried the CV1 multiple times I can say the headphones are surprisingly incredible. Every time I use them I'm impressed. I doubt I will ever use other headphones with the Rift.
    - eghad 11y ago
      That, and at the price point of this gear, it's safe to assume they'll have their own preferred headset/earbuds. It's an additional wire, but really not a huge deal.
11y ago

CydeWeys 11y ago

I hope this isn't the VirtualBoy all over again. I really love the idea of VR gaming but I'm not yet convinced that these platforms will succeed. I'm certainly not willing to shell out $800 on it knowing what I know now.

evv 11y ago
> knowing what I know now. What are you referring to?
- CydeWeys 11y ago
  Let me elaborate: It doesn't seem that compelling to me yet. I haven't seen any must-have launch games for the system, and I'm concerned that I might end up with an expensive system that I don't use much at all. It's firmly in the "wait and see" territory for me, which I suspect it is for lots of other people. That's unfortunate, because if most people don't find it compelling, and decide to wait on the sidelines like me, then it won't sell much at launch, it won't justify investment by lots of gaming companies, and it's much more likely to fail.
  - haydenlee 11y ago
    For interest's sake, what's the latest VR HMD you've tried?
    - CydeWeys 11y ago
      I've tried both Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard. I'm wondering what your thoughts are here too.
      - haydenlee 11y ago
        Consumer Rift? It's worlds better than the DKs. My opinion is that the consumer headsets launching this year already offer too good of an experience for VR to 'fail' this time around. Virtual boy was a miserable experience from what I've heard (I never got to try one). The CV1 changes people's perception of whats possible with computers. Obviously we are in the early adopter phase of VR where the utility is not obvious to many people but that's always how great technologies start. Gaming will provide enough momentum to keep the industry alive even if a killer non-gaming application isn't found in the short term. We are in the Apple II phase of VR for sure. In 5 years once there are portable all-in-one headsets that give better-than-current-desktop quality experiences for <$500 and with applications built from the ground up for VR... I can absolutely see every other house in america owning a kit.

dogma1138 11y ago

I don't understand how people claim that Vive is currently "superior" to Oculus. The approach that Oculus took on virtually every aspect is better than what HTC/Valve went with. It will launch at 600$ which is 200$ and while it comes with a traditional controller (more on what it's a good thing below) it doesn't matter as much as the pricing does getting more stuff only works when the prices are equal when they aren't the cheaper device wins. It launches with a traditional controller which is the most important aspect of this as it comes with a control scheme that both gamers and developers are familiar with which will help to bridge the gap while developers work on good motion / acceleration control scheme for their games. If we take the Wii for example then allot of the early games came out with traditional controls and through out it's life span even 1st party games from Nintendo continued ship with traditional controls only for titles that motion controls didn't made much sense for e.g. Smash Bro's. The OR Xbox 360 style game pad is something that everyone is used to and knows how it works, it means that developers can focus on utilizing the VR aspects of OR instead of trying to work extra hard on making a more complicated control scheme work. Traditional gamepads are also considerably more easy to implement for seated gameplay which is how most consumers will end up using it any how. Sure a whole AR/VR room size experience might be cool for 15-30min ala Lazer Tag but no one will have that at home. On a side note playing with both Vive's and OR's touch controllers OR wins here too, the Vive one isn't as comfortable especially for mixed control schemes which is what even the best motion controlled games eventually opt for. Now tracking, people say that the Vive tracking is superior it's not really, you can stack multiple (upto 50 in the SDK iirc) OR cameras to track multiple players across a large room, from talking to people that were interested in large scale installations (5+ players in a single room) OR is pretty much the only way to currently go because the camera setup can correctly directly track multiple players without any interference. And it's not like room scale VR is going to be viable both are still tethered headsets in all of the demo's I've been through there was a guy behind each player which was pretty much holding the tether ensuring that it won't tangle or snap off and that the player wont end up on the ground or with the tether around their neck. The installation of a single frontal camera is easier than installing the lighthouses as far as a home setting go, people are used to the Kinect and the Sony Eye cam, the OR camera could also be used for additional full body tracking and object recognition. Overall as far as build quality and comfort goes the OR is more comfortable (subjective) the rift is considerably lighter and the weight is much better distributed meaning it sticks in it's place better I had issues with the Vive wobbling which can cause major issues for people who suffer from borderline VR/Motion sickness, the OR also comes with great built-in headphones which are definitely of high quality the sound quality from the demos I've experienced as well as the overall noise isolation is about the same level as my Shure premium earphones, the Vive took the bring your own headphones approach which doesn't work well as it puts limit on the size, shape and strap of the headphones and even in the demos it didn't seem like they've managed to find a perfect fit. On the software side Oculus also has a big advantage they were first and they've scored most developer deals atm, since Oculus is also what drives Samsung VR (which I actually own and even it is superior to Vive as far as comfort and many other things go) and they also plan to licence their software and hardware IP to other companies it looks like Oculus will have the better support out there. Sorry Valve but Vive atm seems more like a me-too product than a true innovator and industry leader, their bet to go with HTC is also problematic for the long term aspects of the Vive since HTC is in quite a bit of financial trouble.