Initial Oculus CV1 and HTC Vive Impressions

May 9th 2016

I’ve had my Oculus CV1 and HTC Vive for a couple weeks now and wanted to give my initial impressions. Both are great headsets and a good start in this new wave of VR gear. However both have their own strengths and weaknesses. I’ll start with setup.

Setup
I had some issues with setting up both systems but for the more general consumer the Oculus CV1 is going to be way easier to setup.

Oculus does have some problems with their install like the setup.exe can’t be in the download folder and it will fail installation if Visual Studio 2015 Redistributables are already installed. I had to move my setup exe to the deskop and uninstall all 2015 Redistributables. That took a while to figure out and in the beginning weeks there weren’t that many posts on the subject as everyone was still figuring it out. However, assuming Oculus will fix those issues, all you need to do is plug the unit in and follow their setup. Plug in the camera, the HMD HDMI and USB, and the Xbox controller, and you’re ready to go. The Oculus Home setup is very intuitive and easy to use. The setup issues at the beginning however won’t be solvable by most end users other than the tech savy.

The HTC Vive has a whole lot more gear with the room scale tracking and the hand controllers but this requires a lot more setup as well. You’ll need to mount the laser base stations to the wall or on tripods. This is probably beyond the general consumer. Once the hardware is plugged in you’ll need to go through the HTC Vive setup which guides you step by step. I had issues getting through the room setup and even had a laser base station blow up while I’ll was trying to map the room. Vive claims 25 minute setup but count on an hour or more. No one new to VR is going to have an easy time with setting up the Vive.

Install Software
If growing the VR user base to include new users is the goal, both systems are too complicated still. Especially if you’re going to have hiccups in the software install. Once past that install, Oculus Home seems a lot cleaner than HTC Vive. You can definitely see the Gear VR cues in Oculus Home. They’ve done a nice job there. For HTC Vive you have Steam, SteamVR, and their Vive launcher. It’s a bit more fragmented than Oculus.

Oculus Home and the games/apps available also seem more stable than Steam/Vive. I’ve had a lot of software crashes and hang ups with HTC Vive software and none so far with Oculus Home. I’ve been using VR gear for a long time so debugging is not a big deal for me but it will be for new users. Oculus Home just seems more polished.

Display
Both displays on each HMD look good but there is far far more lens flare in the Oculus CV1 than HTC Vive. You really notice it even more if you use the Vive and then switch back to the CV1. The Vive also seems a bit sharper. You can sometimes see the rings on the lenses of the Vive but it’s never distracted me while playing. I do find myself constantly fidgeting with both headsets when I’m using them to try to keep everything in focus. I fidget less with CV1 than Vive.

Comfort
The Oculus CV1 is lighter and more comfortable to wear than the HTC Vive. The Vive is a bit heavier and so you notice it sooner than the CV1. Both are pretty good compared to some other HMDs I’ve worn. I think both camps have made significant efforts to try to keep them light and comfortable.

Other Hardware
The Oculus CV1 is a really nice HMD and there is some significant tech bundled into it. The head tracking is top notch and even with a single camera you have about a 5’x5′ play area. The audio sounds great. There is an IPD adjustment on the bottom which works well and the straps to configure the HMD are good. Oculus really needs it’s touch controllers though. Headtracking and 3D is amazing in a VR headset but being tethered to the keyboard, mouse, and an XBox controller just doesn’t seem right after experiencing HTC Vive.

HTC Vive is just flat out amazing with room tracking and hand controllers. It really is the next level of VR. It’s hard to explain and something you probably just have to experience but walking around in VR and having your hands tracked is a must next step for consumer VR. Stereo 3D and headtracking takes gaming to a new level in VR. Room tracking and hand/controller tracking takes it to another level. The presense and how immersive it feels is probably like nothing most people have experienced. Quite amazing.

Games
Games are interesting. It doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of top notch games or applications for either platform yet. However, I think Oculus is currently winning. ADRIFT is quite good but will probably make some people queezy. Some of the Oculus demos are really good. Lucky’s Tale performance wise is awesome but I don’t care for the third person view. The movies are really good. Oculus has done a nice job with the titles they have but it seems lacking for some reason. That may be my perspective that VR should be first person. Developers are avoiding first person for the most part or crippling it by not letting you walk around like you would expect.

HTC Vive has some good demos but they all feel like demos. The Lab is really interesting and my daughter loves Job Simulator. However most of the games seem like demos and it certainly feels like people are still trying to figure out what to do with room tracking. I’ve also had a few of the games crash in use which can be quite jarring when the tracking goes haywire. I’ve even got dizzy a few times.

Exiting Thoughts
I’m impressed with both systems. VR has come a long way in the last couple years from the stagnent stretch from late 1990’s to now. I think these systems are delivering what VR users were promised in the late 1990’s. Content is now the key and hopefully developers keeps pushing forward. Hand tracking tech will be a key piece of that to bring VR to that next immersive level. Including full body tracking would also be a big step. Every person I have try both systems immediately puts out their hand to try to touch something. There’s plenty more work to do for sure but the start is pretty good. I have had the realization however that the general public is not ready for Oculus or HTC Vive. The setup is still too complicated for someone like my sister to try to pick up and install. The price tags are still out of reach as well. I think the perfect entry to VR is the GearVR, assuming they already have the phone. Google Cardboard is another route but I still think it poisons the well because most of it is bad VR.

For hardcore VR enthusists, the Oculus CV1 and HTC Vive are more than enough to satisfy. If you’re not tech savy though you probably will have a hard time setting up. Maybe Sony will be able to push VR to the masses with a simple plug and play setup with PS4. Time will tell.

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