Big Year for VR in 2016 but which one to wait for?

[Brendan Little]

Hey guys,

So I'm going to take the plunge this year and buy a VR unit once they are released. had it in my head last year it would be the Oculus Rift consumer unit but now I'm not sure with the release of others. The HTC Steam one looks like the one to go for if you read online reviews but there is others coming out that might work well. Being that I play a wide variety of games and mostly use Steam as my UI I would think the HTC one is possibly the one to go for but interested in opinions of what you guys think. Main games are things like AC, flight sims etc. but as will anything like these purchases, you get excited and don't see the wood from the trees so second, third and forth opinions are always good to see what you guys are thinking or waiting for.

Thanks
Brendan

 

[Scrambles]

I was more than happy with the price of the DK2, despite the expensive import tax to ship into Australia, but the consumer version will end up costing me about double Too much for my budget
I guess I'm waiting another 12 months or so until prices come down or there's an alternative VR unit.

Time to dig out Alien Isolation for my DK2, grow some balls and actually finish the game without chickening out this time

 

[Jari Vinnari]

I was consider buying Rift for about 450€ but 740€ is way too much. Now I wait till the price drops and see which if any VR system will be successfull.

I feel sorry for the game developers who has invested heavily for developing VR software because I dont see Rift selling enough with this price to justify the cost of development.

 

[xnorb]

Fun how it's 700€ when TotalBiscuit said in his recent video that it costs 600$...

The pre-order contains an XBox controller, the headphones and the "remote".
Remove those things from the package and price drops significantly.

So just let the first wave ship out and wait for a retailer close to you to sell
the barebone Rift without all the junk bundled in and without shipping costs.


But i don't think it's worth buying in now.
* You need a PC that costs at least 1000€ to run games on medium settings
to guarantee never dropping below 90 FPS, 120 are preferred, tho.
* Hardware isn't there yet. Once the wow-effect wears off everybody tells you
that the resolution of the displays is too low.
* Wait for the other VR sets to come out and have economic laws kick in.

But just like 4K is out for years without it even remotely being seen as standard,
i don't see VR kicking in so early. Maybe 2017.

Our advantage is that we're simracing - a genre which works great with the Rift
but the major genres: FPS, Mobas, RTS will not benefit a lot from the Rift, so it
will be really interesting to see how this will turn out.

VR is here to stay, that's for sure, but will require combined strengths of
Microsoft, VR set developers and game developers.
And in a hostile industry like the video game industry .... let's hope.

For commercial use the VR will kick in roaring.

 

[Dennis]

I feel sorry for the game developers who has invested heavily for developing VR software because I dont see Rift selling enough with this price to justify the cost of development.

It will not be a mass market product, but considering the pre-order shipping date has already moved to June (from March initially) I think they will sell enough units to make it worth for sim racing games.

The pre-order contains an XBox controller, the headphones and the "remote".
Remove those things from the package and price drops significantly.

Nah not really. The price increase comes from the new tech like the display, lenses and so on and not from the peripherals.

Hardware isn't there yet. Once the wow-effect wears off everybody tells you
that the resolution of the displays is too low.

That's why they went for higher quality hardware instead of low price point. Don't know why so many people seem to think that CV1 is just a DK2 with an increased price tag.

I wouldn't hold your breath if you are looking for a cheaper VR device any time soon (unless you are willing to significantly sacrifice on things like resolution and go for a used DK2 for example).

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

As with all expensive innovations, ill wait a few years before buying in when the price is lower

 

[Colin Knowles]

I wouldn't hold your breath if you are looking for a cheaper VR device any time soon (unless you are willing to significantly sacrifice on things like resolution and go for a used DK2 for example).

PS VR will be considerably cheaper to the cash strapped masses with more developers on board to boot.

 

[xnorb]

That's why they went for higher quality hardware instead of low price point. Don't know why so many people seem to think that CV1 is just a DK2 with an increased price tag.

The higher resolution of the CV1 displays will stress the hardware even more.
I sincerely doubt that the ~10% increase in pixels will significantly improve the image quality.
But then again, that's why i don't buy wave 1

I really want the Rift to be the VR system i wait for since the 90s:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...l_progressive,q_80,w_800/19gsjc3no11ekjpg.jpg

But i highly doubt we're there yet.
PC-wise and VR-headset-wise.

 

[pixeljetstream]

The CPU is the limiting factor for probably 99% of the games (Edit: when using a Rift)

My comment was more about the generations afterwards that have higher resolutions, which to me is really needed for using VR longer. Very high quality anti-aliasing is also even more important with such "big pixels".
The CPU issues will be improved quickly imo. Gpu vendors providing sdks...

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Fun how it's 700€ when TotalBiscuit said in his recent video that it costs 600$...

After all shipping and the state takes their amount, 700EUR + isn't wrong at all for some countries.

But i don't think it's worth buying in now.
* You need a PC that costs at least 1000€ to run games on medium settings
to guarantee never dropping below 90 FPS, 120 are preferred, tho.

I spent close to 2500EUR on this PC back when I had work, and wasn't a student, for this reason, to be ready for 3 screens or Rift. I decided against 3 screens due to the price vs the Rift after I tried it in Italy. Now I regret that.

Oh well, I guess I'll earn some money again in the future

 

[Pär Öqvist]

I believe beside PS VR which may not even work on PC? Rift will be the cheapest option this side of 2016 at least. I also don´t recon it will go down in price even stripped from the poopy headphones, the xbox controller they suggest they got for cheap or that tiny remote. It don´t add up much to the cost and you may actually be better off getting the gamepad and sell it. I have two already so I will probably sell one before the market is flooded

Media had managed to make us expect it to be half the price pretty much but will see I rather pay for something that works then something that has potential. If it works it´s dead cheap

I did preorder with the idea going cheap the first run. In a year or two there will for sure be VR headsets that appear to be much better. It all hangs in the software support. Occulus has a head start but Valve should have fundings to compete with buying support also I guess.

 

[Paul Bennett]

The cost is always high for new tech, for the first few years you are just paying off the development costs.

 

[RichardHessels]

I had the DK2 for a while. The thing that irritated me the most was the extreme low resolution.
Now the consumer version 1 is a bit better but not even that much.
Going from 960x1080 to 1080x1200 is not that of a big step.
Was totally impossible to read any brakemarker in DK2, now with this little resolution bump it will be a little bit better. Still it's not even close to a normal HD screen.
While currently i play my racing games at 5760x1200, that's quite a step back in sharpness.
I would wait till there are enough reviews to see what is the best deal..
As a simmer also don't need the controllers, just the glasses would be enough.
They might offer that later, when they find out hardly anybody is willing to spend € 700,- or more.

 

[Turk]

I think people expecting a cheaper price for the vive will be in for a shock. I wasn't really surprised with the rift price, I just couldn't believe the expected prices of €400. Oculus didn't do themselves any favours putting that price out there before they had any idea what the final unit would be like and then not correcting it when they knew better.

I think the rift is enough for sim racing, the vives setup is a bit of overkill for sitting in a sim rig. I could see the vive turning into a good comercial unit, where you go somewhere to play it with friends under a bit of supervision.

 

[Blkout]

I had an Oculus Rift DK2 for about 2 weeks before I sold. It was a "neat" toy but I can't say I enjoyed it. The headset got uncomfortable very quickly and the cabling was a mess. It was always a pain to get apps and games running. Yea I know development kit, it I'm betting there are still lots of growing pains with the retail kit too. I did not preorder a retail VR kit and I will likely wait a while until it actually works seemlesly and is comfortable to wear for long periods. I do my racing on triple 30" monitors and occasionally on my 67" 3D TV. I'm actually a big fan of Nvidia 3D for games.