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HTC Vive (Steam VR) is now available for pre-order
- nilkn 11y agoGames/experiences like Budget Cuts, Hover Junkers, Tiltbrush, Modbox, and Fantastic Contraptions are what sold me on the Vive. These are fundamentally new approaches to gaming that just can't be replicated without everything the Vive is offering, including the tracked controllers.
- drewrv 11y agoSeriously! Room scale is the difference between a fancy monitor strapped to your face and a whole new medium.
- strictnein 11y agoFor those trying to order one: If you get an "Out of Stock" message, try starting your order over in a new browser. Not sure if there was some weird session issue, or maybe they released more preorder slots, but that did the trick for me.
- interdrift 11y ago899 Euro. Oculus wins the price point!
- cmcnally 11y agoI'm seeing $799.00 in the states. $829.00 shipped.
- foenix 11y agoPlus tax for a lot of places.
- hutattedonmyarm 11y agoHe's talking about the price in Euro, which is 899€ (~$985, that would include about 23% VAT over the $799)
- aplummer 11y agoI still ordered the vive, the promise of valve software + the controllers sold me.
- metafex 11y agoWe'll see about that when the Oculus controller comes out. The Vive already ships with special controllers for VR (and how those compare, etc). Until then, it's hard to compare (only price-wise).
- soylentcola 11y agoIt's Treo vs PocketPC all over again! (only half joking) I remember the back and forth comparisons and debates over price, feature set, compatibility, the companies behind them, form factor and all sorts of details. Regardless, they were some of the first "good enough" smartphones the average consumer could purchase even if their bulk and higher price kept them mostly in the realm of professionals, enthusiasts, and early adopters. Then 5 or 6 years later we had an industry that was already becoming dominated by Apple and Google rather than Palm and Microsoft. Devices were much faster, more capable, and more accessible. Now you can buy one for $150 and get something that's actually somewhat decent.
- 11y ago
- malka 11y agoI prefer to let other than me use the 1st generation of any new technology. This way, I benefit from the improvment, and a lower price point.
- metafex 11y agoThe other side is the excitement of being one of the first experiencing this new technology. It's always a tradeoff. E.g.: Would you rather go to space now, or wait until it's easy and comfy? For me, curiosity wins.
- malka 11y agoIt depends. From the point of view of a consumer ? easy and comfy wins. I would not pay to go in space now.
- Zombieball 11y agoI'm not sure what this means? Even early adopters are "consumers". Just a different customer segment. One that places more value on the excitement of a new technology than comfort and cost.
- malka 11y agoI meant that if I intented to work with VR, I would act differently, as I would see it as an investment, rather than a simple consumer item. As a consumer, I'd rather wait for the current gen to age a little, and buy it cheaper and with less bugs.
- return0 11y agoIn 2016, going to space is no longer a novelty. Now, if you asked me if i want to be the first to hook my brain to a computer ...
- majewsky 11y agoAnd be the first person in history to actually catch a computer virus? ;)
- coalescence 11y agoWe've had a dev kit at work for a while and it's the first headset that I've not wanted to take off. The ability to move around a scene and the wand make the interaction really intuitive and rewarding. As for the social implications of 'VR lockin', it'll be interesting to watch.
- VikingCoder 11y agoFrankly your opinion is only interesting if you've tried the Oculus Rift CV1.
- starshadowx2 11y agoI'd assume that if @coalescence works somewhere with a Vive devkit, they would most likely have tried a CV1 as comparison.
- VikingCoder 11y agoSo I get downvotes, because you're all assuming rather than directly asking, like I did. Thanks, HN.
- mwfunk 11y agoYou didn't ask. You told him his opinions were meaningless because you assumed he hadn't tried the Rift. I mean, maybe that's not what you were trying to communicate, but that is 100% what you communicated.
- starshadowx2 11y agoYeah, you're in the wrong here pretty obviously. you didn't "directly ask", you pretty much just shot down what they said and borderline insulted them. Really, just reason it out. How many places just have a Vive devkit laying around? You'd specifically need to get one which means they're most likely working on a VR game or software. When you're working on something using new and innovative hardware you're going to check out all the options and competition to make sure you're using the best or most accessible. I'd say you should take a step back and look over what you've said and consider if it really conveys your meaning well.
- Sir_Cmpwn 11y agoDoes anyone have the word on Linux support?
- teach 11y agoSince Valve's SteamOS is Linux-based, then SURELY the Vive will work on Linux machines out of the box. The lack of a Linux version of their VR Compatibility tool has made me a little nervous, though.
- dogma1138 11y agoSteamOS currently doesn't support SteamVR there were (unconfirmed AFAIK) plans for "day-one support" but last time I've checked (maybe a month ago) there isn't support for SteamVR-Vive (driver and software) yet in the beta version of SteamOS. There were also some comments from HTC last year that most of the SteamOS based Steam Machines could not support SteamVR in their current state so they will be focusing on the "core gamer" demographics initially. However it needs to be mentioned that even if Vive will support SteamOS it doesn't mean that it will have Linux support, all the binary parts of SteamOS including Steam, it's various components, drivers etc. are closed source.
- haydenlee 11y agoSteamVR doesn't support Linux yet AFAIK. Here are the min requirements: http://store.steampowered.com/app/323910/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/323910/
- dogma1138 11y agoThe SteamVR API works on the OSX and Linux versions of Steam (it's some what missing from SteamOS oddly enough). It's not enabled by default and seem to be buggy as hell but no Vive software support has been implemented, you can use (older versions before the support was dropped) Oculus with SteamVR on Linux but it won't be pretty.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- leventyalcin 11y agoHTC Vive is £746.60 and VW Beetle is £795. https://www.gumtree.com/p/volkswagen/volkswagen-beetle-2.0-3dr/1157280746 https://www.gumtree.com/p/volkswagen/volkswagen-beetle-2.0-3... lol
- hollander 11y agoI think the Beetle gives a much more realistic 3D experience. No seriously... About 10 years ago I was at a conference, and there was going to be a discussion about something. This conference was organized by the people behind a discussion website - the subject is not relevant. The website forum had moderators. Now this girl who was leading the discussion was explaining to us that the discussion was just like an online discussion, except without keyboard and screen. She would act as moderator, just like online, and guide the whole thing. I was amazed that she explained it like it was a complete new concept, to have a discussion in a theatre hall, with people present, talking to and interupting eachother. Anyway, how long will it be that someone proposes to make a drive in a real beetle, just like one in VR?
- strictnein 11y agoIt's actually kind of an interesting question: How many kids born today (or in the next 5 years?) will experience driving cars only in VR?
- hippich 11y agoI am pretty sure HTC Vive will cost significantly less after 16 years and 90k miles :)
- Roritharr 11y ago959.69 € with Tax and Shipping to me in Germany. Not something of an impulse buy for me.
- mlvljr 11y agooh c'mon :)
- concernedctzn 11y agoIt seems like the Vive should be able to play all the oculus launch games from a technical standpoint, but not vice versa because every Vive game really takes advantage of the finely tracked hand controllers and ability to wander through a room. Being able to intuitively grab and throw things in games like Job Simulator and budget cuts was a really eye opening and amazingly fun experience.
- drzaiusapelord 11y agoAnyone know how well this works on lower-tier video cards? I have an Nvidia 950 and I'm tempted to buy the Vive. The problem is that the suggested specs are a 970 minimum, which easily has 30% more performance than my 950.
- NegatioN 11y agoThere's a benchmarking tool available on Steam, which will give you an idea. I would assume you could play VR games with reduced texture quality and/or other gfx settings.
- bryanlarsen 11y agoI have a 660, which is a very similar level of performance. It seems strange to be willing to drop $800 on a headset and not spend $400 on a video card. However, the next generation of video cards is the generation that finally gets off the 28nm node, so I'm expecting a huge performance bump. It would be nice to be able to wait for that. HTC claims their 16nm process is 65% faster than 28nm, takes 1/2 the area, and 1/3 the power. For a video card, doubling the # of transistors basically translates into double the performance, and even the lower power requirements enable faster cards because high end cards are often power limited. Throw in a bit of performance improvement from architectural improvements, and it's certainly possible that the next gen of video cards will have 3X the performance of current cards.
- drzaiusapelord 11y agoI'm okay with another $350 for the card, but I want to avoid a situation where I spend almost $1200 today only to be told I'll need a new card tomorrow. I don't want a $350 card just as a 6-8 month stop-gap measure. I'd prefer to limp by with my 950 if possible. Seems like that might not work out considering the performance demands of VR.
- bryanlarsen 11y agoAgreed. There are some blogs out there claiming that nVidia Pascal will be 10x faster than Maxwell[1]. It's been partially debunked, but there's no doubt that it's going to be a big improvement. Fast video cards are important enough to VR that if that kind of power is available, it's going to be used. A 970 may be enough now, but I don't think it's going to be enough for long. 1: http://wccftech.com/nvidia-pascal-gpu-gtc-2015/ http://wccftech.com/nvidia-pascal-gpu-gtc-2015/
- rl3 11y agoI like how Vive is shipping with purpose-built VR controllers instead of an Xbox One controller (ala Oculus Rift). That said, having the option to forego controllers entirely would be preferable, and a nice way to reduce cost. Both have a 2160x1200 display. I'm curious which headset will be a) more comfortable and b) offer superior stationary head tracking. The room-scale tracking on the Vive is nice, but I'm thinking most people will prefer whichever has superior stationary tracking. Supposedly the integrated headphones on the Rift will approach audiophile-grade quality. The Vive is shipping with earbuds, so presumably less fidelity there. Personally I wish both would ship without any audio equipment at all since I'm just going to use my existing headphones and microphone.
- zardo 11y ago>That said, having the option to forego controllers entirely would be preferable It's not good for HTC if it means splitting up the control schemes for the platform, which forces developers to avoid games that only work with motion controls.
- matxip 11y agoYes, exactly. I've stalked around VR communities for a long time, and control fragmentation is a serious and persistent concern. There's also a perception that a lot of people with a $1000 gaming rig will have gotten a gamepad at some point -- part of why the "XBone" controller was seen as a joke when announced (but also because it was the same event they reeled in Oculus Touch launch time frame expectation).
- dogma1138 11y agoThe community is already split, if you look at this from another perspective it allows developers to focus on the visual game play related aspects of VR and perfecting them while deferring tackling with motion controls. This reduces the gap that game developers have to breach, and also allows you to add easy VR support for games which will not be dedicated to VR platforms. So far motion controls were nothing more than a niche, Wii included.
- TrevorJ 11y ago
- ElijahLynn 11y agoThat is definitely a badass promo video. Makes me want to scrounge up some dollars and plop down $800 for one. I am in no position to do that but it makes me want too! So exciting, 2016, year of consumer VR/AR!
- taurath 11y agoI'm very suspicious of HTC's staying power in the market right now - their phones sales are tanking and I'm not sure how long they'll be able to stay up - their market value is lower than their cash on hand. If HTC folds expect zero hardware support in the future regardless of how well this device does.
- simonhughes22 11y agoThere are rumors that they will spin off a separate company for the VR headset to isolate it from the HTC death spiral
- simonhughes22 11y agoI just pre-ordered. Despite the clearly better quality of the Vive according to every review I've read (specifically around the full body tracking) I am worried the Oculus has much better brand awareness and will leave this in the dust. Hoping I am wrong, as those $800 will go to waste. Anyone interested in PS VR, also ?
- dogma1138 11y agoVive doesn't do full body tracking, I think you mean room scale tracking, if so I hope you have a dedicated 15x15 room for that :)
- orwhat 11y agoJust about the best comparison you'll be able to find: http://www.tested.com/tech/564110-should-you-pre-order-oculus-rift-or-htc-vive/ http://www.tested.com/tech/564110-should-you-pre-order-oculu...