• Virtual Reality Headsets

    I pre-ordered the Vive, looking forward to it.

    From what I understand, currently at least:

    SteamVR/HTC Vive - 800 bucks. Doesn't include shipping either i discovered, boo. Most expensive. Includes its own custom controllers and these room sensors that scan your furniture and stuff so they can show it all virtually so you don't walk into your own furniture while in game. Allows for games that have you actually walking around. Also has a head camera so you can walk around normally and see w/out taking the headset off. Highest specs of the headsets too. Its valve's baby so will probably have valve exclusives (portal, half life, etc..). Steam has a proggy you can download and run to see if your machine is capable of running it. (i have a gtx 980ti and did well. my older gtx670 couldn't even run the thing). Will be able to play your non-vr games even, in a virtual room on a virtual 2d 200 inch monitor.

    Oculus Rift - roughly 600 bucks. But doesn't include their custom controllers as they aren't done yet. So comes w/an xbox controller instead. Will have to buy the later controllers when they come out, and they aren't included in the price. So not as much cheaper than the vive than it looks. No room sensors, not made w/walking around in mind. Dunno if it includes shipping in the price. The dev kits have been out for a couple years now so there are already some games for it. Dunno what kind of exclusives it may or may not have. Also lets you play your non-vr games through it on a virtual monitor. I think i heard it also has a thing you can d/l to run on your pc to see if your pc can handle it. Should be slightly less punishing in its requirements, but not by a lot.

    Playstation 4 - 400 bucks. The cheapest, but also the least powerfully specced. Uses the ps4 move controllers as their special controllers but don't come w/them. And works in conjuction w/some sort of ps4 camera thing, that also doesn't come w/it. They did this because a lot of people already have these things for non-VR purposes - and they don't want to have to pay more than 400 bucks for the VR headset only to also get duplicates of hardware they already own and don't need. So if you already have the controllers, the camera thing, and the ps4, its only 400 bucks. If you don't, it can get as expensive as the Vive. Will have ps4 exclusives. I presume its sandboxed to the console, but someone may jury rig a way to get it to work w/a pc some day, like ya can do w/a ps3 controller and such.

    google cardboard - free. can make yourself. or buy a kit. works w/your phone. funny. ghetto.

    Many pc games will support both the oculus and the vive, so its not quite like a vhs versus betamax kind of battle. There might be exclusives to consider though.
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Virtual Reality Headsets started by SmegInThePants View original post