[Firegold21]

So this past weekend I finally got to try out the Oculus Rift at Best Buy. Had to fly across country to do it ... Okay, no, not really. ;-)

I had a vacation planned with my family back in Washington State and I've been wanting to check out the Rift, but the only place here in Michigan was way too long a drive for me to justify just for that. However, the Best Buy near the airport in Washington had the Rift, so I made an appointment there for the demo, figuring I could try to hit it while out on vacation. It worked out and I was suitably impressed, though a little bummed at how short the demo was.

I actually got there early and the guy was surprised because he thought he didn't have anyone scheduled for the first time slot. After double checking and getting set up, it got underway. I liked the leaning in to the toy city and over the edge parts of the demo the most, I think; next came the game. I chose The Climb and ended up falling off the cliff at one point because I was told to use the "jump button," which hadn't been shown to me; I was trying to figure it out and my stamina gave out and the poor character fell screaming to his (presumed) death. Got one more go at navigating past that point, then the demo timed out.

Now I've tried every major offering out there: the Vive, the Rift and the Playstation VR (which I tried again right after the Rift, as I discovered they had it there that day also). Of the three, I like the Vive best for the room scale and controllers, but the Rift impressed me the most with the headset. Much lighter and less bulky than the Vive's and much clearer lenses as well. I believe they're both fresnel lenses, but I couldn't see any of the rings in the Rift. In the Vive, I could--not to a distracting level, but I could. The other thing that I loved about the Rift is personal to me and maybe others who also wear a BAHA (bone-anchored hearing aid). The Vive and the PS VR were not very adjustable to work around my Oticon Ponto, while the Rift was. That alone is a huge point in its favor, as I plan to get the upgrade to my device soon which will allow me to use it as a regular headphone as well as a hearing aid.

Of course, all this shopping and testing is moot if I'm not able to get the graphics card upgrade I need ...

[pkcable]

Get it! You know you want too!

[Firegold21]

Get it! You know you want too!

I do, believe me. Just have to wait till I can afford it.

Posted via the VRHeads App for Android

[VirtuaTyKing]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I would still go for the vive if I had room for a proper setup. As it stands Rift would probably suit my room situation best. I can't afford either yet so it's not really a dilemma for me though.

[undefinederror]

Cool!
I'll have to see if there are any demos near me.

Thanks!

[Firegold21]

You're welcome. Go get as many demos as you can! Only way to decide which is best for you is to try them all, right? ;-)

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[genvarev]

I envy you

[MainFragger]

I find the lenses in the HTC Vive VERY distracting. The edges blur too much, and light reflects off of the bottom part of the concentric rings. It looks fine in dark or muted scenes, but the moment something is bright, I feel like something is blocking part of my view. The weirdest example I ran into it with last night, was the realization that I was watching a "Movie Screen" in desktop mode, while playing DragonAge Inquisition, and the virtual track lighting that was above and a little behind me was reflecting off of the lens.. I CAN switch the environment to a black border, and that reduces how often I run into things like that..BUT sometimes the lighting reflections still comes from the game itself. And I don't feel like I should really have to do that. I don't wear prescription glasses, but I wonder if HTC is willing to make custom lenses or let people replace the existing lenses with Rift lenses..

The interesting thing I've noticed is that actual VR apps seem to take the edge blurring into effect and counter it with an appropriate amount of distortion or adjustment of some kind. So, in actual VR apps, you don't notice it that much, if at all. But play something that is not full on VR or something off of your computer desktop...And you lose about 10% of your visibility to blur on each side.

I only checked out the Rift for a few minutes, but I remember it being mostly clearer than what I am noticing on the Vive..BUT, in all fairness, I have to say that I only played a very brief VR demo..and didn't really get to take it for an extended test spin. But as I said before, I kind of would like to try Rift lenses in the Vive headset and see if its any better.

[egernant]

This makes me really excited for what the future of VR offers. Not sure I'm going to be an early adopter given how many competing platforms there are, but it's great to see a childhood fantasy becoming a (virtual) reality.

[Mustaffa q]

The htc vive is the overall best option if you looking for a great VR but the oculis rift and psvr are great for the price and are bugdet friendly.

[lemonlaurie]

I would love to the the HTC vive,it sounds great.

[MrHades17]

Enjoyed reading your quick impression of the Rift. It's the only VR headset I've had the chance to demo myself and agree with your points. I need to get myself to a Best Buy and try PSVR. Which I think I'll get seeing as it is the only one of the three within my budget.

[Mixalisnaf]

hello!!can someone tell me about the price?i m coming to US for a weekly journey,so i m thinking of bying a set!thank you!

[rafanos]

Amazing! thanks for this review men. and if you could just tell how much did you get it ? thanks again

[GustavMahler]

I may be a little late for the party, but did you test the Rift with the touch controllers by any chance? And was the head tracking with the Vive also better?

[Firegold21]

I may be a little late for the party, but did you test the Rift with the touch controllers by any chance? And was the head tracking with the Vive also better?

I haven't had a chance to test out the touch controllers yet, though I'd love to. The head tracking seemed about the same for both, though I wasn't really looking at that at the time.