The OFFICIAL should I get a Rift or Vive thread!

[SethG911]

Just a heads up, Oculus does room scale just fine. Once the Touch controllers (which come with another camera) come out this summer it will be even more accurate, and they have plans on releasing a "Chaperon" system with Touch as well. See the video linked below for a CV1 demo of this. The whole "Vive can do room scale" angle is just buzzword marketing to swing people in these early days of VR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyNKR_-uKfs

[admin]

Seth, I don't believe that having an integrated solution available for purchase today is just a "buzzword." I'm hoping that Oculus Touch is wonderful, includes a fully functional chaperone system, and lives up to everyone's room-scale expectations, and there's a good chance it will Until then it's certainly not a certainty though. With complex technology (especially in cutting-edge products), deadlines are pushed back, features cut, and directions changed. It's entirely possible that Oculus will end up targeting a "standing" experience rather than room-scale, or delay many months polishing some feature or another.

I hope that both headsets end up having great room-scale support, and I expect that they will, but it's not at-all unfair to say that Vive is the room-scale solution today, and up until Oculus releases their own to the public.

[SethG911]

You watched the video though, right? Oculus does room scale detection and allows the user to walk around just as the Vive does. Location based hand controls are nice in Room scale applications but have nothing to do with calling it room scale VR. Frankly I don't know how people can even say that Oculus can't "do room scale", as it clearly does. Hence me calling it a buzzword. Even in its current state on Oculus, one could easily create a game where you could move around in a room scale environment.

[Louismg]

With the Rift I'm able to take advantage of the excellent asynchronous timewarp support in the Oculus Runtime

It's a bummer there is no such thing in the Vive given the amazing results it gives. Surely they have to be working on something like that? If you had not added that it's a "slight" disadvantage, plus all the extra info you have given on the awesome Reddit thread, it would have made me seriously reconsider my decision to go with the Vive.

Very nice balanced review, thanks for taking the time to do it!

[admin]

I watched the video, but camera tracking volume is pretty low on my concerns. We can quibble over terms, but when I say room-scale, I mean room-scale with tracked controllers. It's essential and what really makes the experience so amazing. I think when most people talk about room-scale, they are implying controllers too, it's all about being able to move around, and interact with the environment.

Could a developer create a room-scale-ish experience on Oculus right now? Yes, of course. It won't be very worthwhile without the controllers though, and even with those, it'll lose something without a chaperone-like system. It needs to be well-supported by Oculus, their corporate direction, and their APIs, so that enough developers feel comfortable jumping on-board. Let's hope they have all of it in a few months

[exploremore]

Great to see such a comparison and I hope other developers also let us know their impressions
I am sticking with Rift CV1 for now but next generation of device I will get what is best
Now that room tracking & chaperone exist for both Vive & Rift it evens the playing field
For some experiences though, I think a treadmill will be necessary for full immersion
In this field the two main players in the ring are Cyberith Virtualiser and Virtuix Omni

[Bruce_C]

I'm hoping to pair my headset with a treadmill in the future too, though I'll be happier when we're wire free which may be a while.

Can you imagine the Health and Safety warning that would come with that setup?

[Tony]

Bruce don't forget , hopefully this'll be available soon = http://www.immrobotics.com

Tony

[stewart]

i had my cv1 orderd but have canceled and gone with the vive. I love the rift but with all the reviews iv read the vive is as good as the rift but with way more functions like sinking your phone to the vive so you dont have to leave it, the system can track more than 1 headset at a time , there are already miti player games in steam, eg eg so i fell for a little extra you get the full package. I just hope it runs good with flyinside to as it does not use the timewap it has some other way of dealing with low fps. Should be all good tho my spc below

z170 pro game mother board
gtx890ti
6700k skylake cpu 4.8ghz
16gb high speed ram
water cooled

[Louismg]

After Dan's level headed comparison, Tested's comparison (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBieKwa2ID0) is the only other great comparison out there. It really rocked my opinion to the point of thinking, heck, I'll cancel both pre-orders and wait to see what the Rift's version of room scale will look like. Because that is their first conclusion: WAIT and try both with the controllers. They should have stopped the review there because then Jeremy makes the only mistake in this otherwise great review when he says: "if the Rift touch was available, then there would be much less favourability towards the Vive" which gives the impression the Oculus will "win" as soon as the controllers are out and that sort of implies that you can go ahead and buy it because, in the long term, comfort will be the only thing that matters. But that's a big IF to assume true because if the room scale was not as good as the Vive, the Rift would get harsh reviews as everyone agrees room scale is the big deal.

So, I would be really happy to hear Dan's reaction after having watched the review. Is the Vive really that uncomfortable when you compare it directly with the Vive? Have you had tracking issues with the Vive too? Other comments?

I can still cancel both pre-orders.

Ok, maybe I should stop there, but just like the tested guys, I'll add my 2 cents: I am still skeptical of the idea that the rift could do room scale as big and as well as the Vive. The reasons are: 1) I think there will be much more occlusion problems with cameras trying to track dots compared to on device sensors tracking a laser beam flash. 2) I think the camera resolution will become a factor which will degrade positioning precision of any device being tracked by the camera at the far end of the room. 3) it's difficult enough to setup dummy lighthouses in opposite corners of a room, setting up a second camera that needs to be connected with a long USB cable is going to be pretty hairy. 4) the lighthouses emit laser beams on a 110 degree field horizontally and vertically whereas the cameras have a smaller FOV which is also 4:3, so setting up a wide coverage area will be even more difficult.