What's the best for VR ?

[Dexter]

What's the best for VR?
Play now Assetto Corsa and Iracing.
What to choose between Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Vive Pro?

 

[Jeremy Ford]

I have a Vive, but if your aim is just racing then the Rift is the best choice as the it's the cheapest and matches the Vive's resolution. The Vive is best all round for it's superior hand tracking and room scale, but that's not needed for sim racing. If you plan to play other VR titles then the Vive is probably the way to go.

As for the Vive Pro, the bump in resolution equals higher graphic card requirements so unless you have a 1080 Ti performance will struggle badly. And in opinion the huge price premium isn't worth it, the extra resolution is good but HTC has severely overpriced it. I love my Vive I use it every day, but there's no way I'd pay £700 for just that headset that doesn't include sensors or controllers.

 

[Steve D]

As for the Vive Pro, the bump in resolution equals higher graphic card requirements so unless you have a 1080 Ti performance will struggle badly. And in opinion the huge price premium isn't worth it, the extra resolution is good but HTC has severely overpriced it. I love my Vive I use it every day, but there's no way I'd pay £700 for just that headset that doesn't include sensors or controllers.

I have an Oculus Rift and recently 'upgraded,' (or so I thought), to the Vive Pro, which I hoped would provide a noticeable visual boost over the Oculus, albeit I was under no illusions to expect anything dramatic. For info, my supporting GPU is a 1080ti and as I only use vr for sim racing, room scale set up wasn't important to me.

Bottom line, I returned the HTC kit after a week of disappointment and frustration and IMO, it's simply not worth the considerable extra expense over the Rift, (and probably Vive for that matter) and for a number of reasons.

1. Resolution / fidelity gains are minimal. There certainly wasn't a 'wow' moment. Text, in car detail and visuals in the very close vicinity, outside of the cockpit, are a little sharper but anything at a distance still remains fairly unclear. So no gains there. And with the recent advancements in SteamVR, (display resolution is automatically set for best performance based on GPU, albeit there is a manual override and application-level 'tweaking'), I'm convinced my Rift is now performing better than it ever has, in terms of resolution, image 'sharpness' and more consistent FPS. Indeed after a few side-by-side comparisons and some tweaking of various SteamVR settings, it actually became hard to tell the resolution differences between the two headsets and I actually found myself preferring the Rift anyway. That might not be the case outside of sim racing though, where the world does not pass by at such a pace and you don't have to focus as far ahead.

2. Had no end of issues with tracking. Firstly it has to be said that the Pro was quick and easy to set up. Devices were also simple to update to latest firmware, where required. With the light stations (x2) positioned correctly and both lights green, HMD tracking was successfully acknowledged in Steam VR. Games launched in to the headset without issue and ran smoothly. So far, so good. However without warning and usually within a few minutes of game play, I would experience a grey screen, which signified loss of tracking. No fun at all when at 'full chat' through Eau Rouge And this happened every single time I played and regardless of the title I was playing. Removed headset and light stations were still green but SteamVR was reporting a tracking issue and I couldn't get it working again without rebooting the application. Was then a case of 'rinse and repeat,' which was incredibly frustrating. Tried cable sync as well, with correct mode settings on the light stations and the same happened. Nothing reflective in the room to cause problems, all cables firmly in place, moved light stations to a variety of positions, (plus tried using one only), ensured Rift fully disconnected (not that this should matter) and all without success. So potentially an issue with the kit itself, SteamVR requiring an update to properly support the new model or a conflict with my PC? Who knows but FWIW I've never had a single tracking issue with the Rift.

3. The headset, very comfortable though it is, does feel heavier than the Rift but was, more importantly, a PITA when used in conjunction with a race seat. Reason being the adjustment knob sits right at the back of the headset and leaning back even slightly brought it in to contact with the seat. Was disconcerting and uncomfortable and so not ideal for me.

4. Audio was really, really poor! (Have since learnt that this was a known issue and has hopefully now been fixed)

So overall, I was really disappointed and felt the Pro plus peripherals simply wasn't worth the considerable expenditure based on my sim-racing requirements and in comparison to the much cheaper Rift. And I hadn't even set my expectations that high in terms of the improvements I was hoping to see compared to the Oculus.

You live and learn.

 

[jayk]

I have a DK2 and its been easy to use, no issues with it really. Not sure if its worth the upgrade to a CV1 :s

 

[Jeremy Ford]

I have an Oculus Rift and recently 'upgraded,' (or so I thought), to the Vive Pro, which I hoped would provide a noticeable visual boost over the Oculus, albeit I was under no illusions to expect anything dramatic. For info, my supporting GPU is a 1080ti and as I only use vr for sim racing, room scale set up wasn't important to me.

Bottom line, I returned the HTC kit after a week of disappointment and frustration and IMO, it's simply not worth the considerable extra expense over the Rift, (and possibly Vive for that matter) and for a number of reasons.

1. Resolution / fidelity gains are minimal. There certainly wasn't a 'wow' moment. Text, in car detail and visuals in the very close vicinity, outside of the cockpit, are a little sharper but anything at a distance still remains fairly unclear. So no gains there. And with the recent advancements in SteamVR, (display resolution is automatically set for best performance based on GPU, albeit there is a manual override and application-level 'tweaking'), I'm convinced my Rift is now performing better than it ever has, in terms of resolution, image 'sharpness' and more consistent FPS. Indeed after a few side-by-side comparisons and some tweaking of various SteamVR settings, it actually became hard to tell the resolution differences between the two headsets and I actually found myself preferring the Rift anyway. That might not be the case outside of sim racing though, where the world does not pass by at such a pace and you don't have to focus as far ahead.

2. Had no end of issues with tracking. Firstly it has to be said that the Pro was quick and easy to set up. Devices were also simple to update to latest firmware, where required. With the light stations (x2) positioned correctly and both lights green, HMD tracking was successfully acknowledged in Steam VR. Games launched in to the headset without issue and ran smoothly. So far, so good. However without warning and usually within a few minutes of game play, I would experience a grey screen, which signified loss of tracking. No fun at all when at 'full chat' through Eau Rouge And this happened every single time I played and regardless of the title I was playing. Removed headset and light stations were still green but SteamVR was reporting a tracking issue and I couldn't get it working again without rebooting SteamVR. And 'rinse and repeat,' which was incredibly frustrating. Tried cable sync as well, with correct mode settings on the light stations and the same happened. Nothing reflective in the room to cause problems, all cables firmly in place, moved light stations to a variety of positions, (plus tried using one only), ensured Rift fully disconnected (not that this should matter) and all without success. So potentially an issue with the kit itself, SteamVR requiring an update to properly support the new model or a conflict with my PC? Who knows but FWIW I've never had a single tracking issue with the Rift.

3. The headset, very comfortable though it is, does feel heavier than the Rift but was, more importantly, a PITA when used in conjunction with a race seat. Reason being the adjustment knob sits right at the back of the headset and leaning back even slightly brought it in to contact with the seat. Was disconcerting and uncomfortable and so not ideal for me.

4. Audio was really, really poor! (Have since learnt that this was a known issue and has hopefully now been fixed)

So overall, I was really disappointed and felt the Pro plus peripherals simply wasn't worth the considerable expenditure based on my sim-racing requirements and in comparison to the much cheaper Rift. And I hadn't even set my expectations that high in terms of the improvements I was hoping to see compared to the Oculus.

You live and learn.

Thanks for the input. The YouTube reviews I've watch we're pretty much summing up your view in regards to the resolution bump that it's noticeable but not really staggering. The screen turning off is a Vive Pro issue for some users, I believe that will be addressed with a firmware update.

I was initially quite interested in the Vive Pro HMD upgrade option before we knew the price. But HTC decided to punish their customers with a ridiculous price tag that decided my choice.

 

[Turk]

I'm not really all that interested in an upgraded headset just yet. The simple reason being I probably won't be able to run it without another hardware upgrade. That upgrade is going to have to include a new motherboard, new CPU and new RAM, and while I might not require a new graphics card (1070) it would probably be a bottle neck if I didn't.. So it's not going to be a cheap upgrade, it's basically a new PC. With PC hardware over priced with no end to that price hike in sight it will be a while before I'm buying any new components.

I'm probably not unique either and that's got to play on the mind of the companies developing the products. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they have the design for a headset that's twice as good and maybe even less expensive than the current headsets but they are afraid to put it into production because it could flop as there isn't enough people with the necessary hardware to run it and they're maybe 2-4 years off having that hardware.

 

[Boby Kim]

The best for VR = a lot of money

 

[thepharcyde]

I have a DK2 and its been easy to use, no issues with it really. Not sure if its worth the upgrade to a CV1 :s

Hey there, I've wondered the same as I can sometimes struggle to stay at the 75fps the unit is capable of so it caps out at 37.5fps; so unless I upgrade my rig or down game settings accordingly I'm wondering what eye candy I'm likely to see?

 

[Paul Bennett]

I want VR but on the fence with as wearing glasses, so would really to test before buying. The PC spec is Intel Xeon with GTX1060-6gb should be playable ? PC2 looks to be a none starter

 

[PurgerUK]

Best bet if you just sim race is the Samsung Odyssey, the same resolution as the Vive Pro but much cheaper and no setup required for tracking with the inside out tracking. There’s slightly more room for glasses than either the Rift or Vive though I did have to mod mine slightly where the nose-piece was pinching my nose (advantage is it doesn’t fog like the Rift). It isn’t sold in the UK but you can import via someone like Borderoo for 50 dollars plus shipping.

 

[Hor-hay]

I went with the Rift, after reading many posts and watching reviews. Rift is more comfortable, better touch controllers (not important for sim racing), well made and cheaper. If you want to improve your room scale experience you can buy and extra sensor. For me AC and iRacing just worked straight away, no messing about.