[VR Question]

I want to purchase some virtual reality equipment but haven't really tested any out yet. What should I be looking for when purchasing it? What's a good reputable manufacture to go with?

[KermEd]

There are a lot of directions to go. HTC Vive allows for room scale, which is cool, you can walk around your entire room. Oculus is more "sit" or "stand" and play with an Xbox remote - its better for closed environments. There is an open source alternative called OSVR which is about half the price but very early in development. And there are a slew of upcoming Android solutions (Deepoon, Android VR systems, Gear VR, Google Cardboard, Nibiru and GameFaceLabs) all with varying price points. The andorid ones tend ot be wireless (yay) but underpowered and ... not as easy to work with
Lloyd Summers | Cofounder of RedIronLabs.com | Immersive Dark Videogames (VR/Horror) | @kerm_ed

[badelhas]

I decided to go for the best experience and the developer I have more faith in: Valve / HTC Vive. It´s more expensive but it´s the real deal. If you can spend it it´s worth it. The rest seems like a half baked VR experience, imo.

[krisguy]

Quick follow up to this.

Vive units are on display at most Microsoft stores. Oculus Rift units are available for trial at many Best Buy stores.

Posted via the VRHeads App for Android

[Matty]

There are a lot of directions to go. HTC Vive allows for room scale, which is cool, you can walk around your entire room. Oculus is more "sit" or "stand" and play with an Xbox remote - its better for closed environments. There is an open source alternative called OSVR which is about half the price but very early in development. And there are a slew of upcoming Android solutions (Deepoon, Android VR systems, Gear VR, Google Cardboard, Nibiru and GameFaceLabs) all with varying price points. The andorid ones tend ot be wireless (yay) but underpowered and ... not as easy to work with
Lloyd Summers | Cofounder of RedIronLabs.com | Immersive Dark Videogames (VR/Horror) | @kerm_ed

are there any specs we need to look out for? Things that we can compare against others?
For example when comparing battery size we look at mAh. So for VR is there a Screen resolution? or a Processor speed ect?

[KermEd]

are there any specs we need to look out for? Things that we can compare against others?
For example when comparing battery size we look at mAh. So for VR is there a Screen resolution? or a Processor speed ect?

Oh man, great question.

So, there is a TON to consider. However, I'd put forward the following:

How do you want to play?
Oculus uses Xbox Gamepads at the moment, but will have some controls soon
Vive uses a full room control system, needs a lot of space, but you can walk around
Mobile uses "look to select" so you can play it anywhere
PSVR allows both VR and non-VR. This means less VR focused games, but a flexible experience.

Right now, with the exception of PSVR, the VR market is dominated by indie-games. So, think about where you like to get your games from. For example, getting games from Steam? Vive is the best bet.

Look at budget too, low budget (Go mobile cardboard, vrbox, gearVR and add your phone), medium budget (go OSVR, Deepoon, Nibiru), high budget (go Oculus or Vive)

Screen resolution matters BUT it is also kind of a faux standard. Reality is, the higher quality VR, the higher spec the PC needs to be (for example, we just moved to the GTX 1070, ~600 dollar video card). But the biggest two problems in VR are arguably the screen-door effect (some of them have a strange look when you are that close to pixels), which isn't measured anywhere. And nausea, which is caused by latency in the hardware OR bad game design, which is difficult to obtain.

Also, some headsets such as Nibiru, Deepoon and Gameface Labs are "wireless" mobile headsets. So a stripped down modified Android phone is inside the visor already.

I know, it is mostly rambling, such is the life of VR these days ...

[Dean Liensdorf]

This is helpful to me. I haven't gotten into VR gear yet and have a quick question. Are the VR headsets cross platform? Like if you buy a HTC vive and then switch from an HTC phone to say the Pixel. I definitely need to learn more.

[Dean Liensdorf]

So are there device limitations? Like if you don't have a 5.5 inch device do you need a different VR headset. Or is it one size fits all?

[Munyuk81]

The only ones I see beung sold out here are, cardboard (of course), gear VR (from what I gather, are very under powered), and thelast one I see is Playstation VR (which cost so mush more than the others, $500 excluding the playstation itself, excluding controller also I think)
Are PS VR that good to justify the price they are putting on.

[vmrgav]

Samsung?