HTC Vive has Overtaken Oculus Rift According to Steam

The Oculus Rift has seemed to be synonymous with VR ever since the beginning of the current gaming revolution. The company, which began life as a Kickstart

[Mystogan]

hard to believe with that price point

[OoglyBoogly]

$100 more than a product that's already $600 isn't asking THAT much, especially considering what you're getting for that extra $100. So no, it's not hard to believe. If you have $600 to drop on something like a VR headset you probably have $700 to drop on a nicer one.

[Mystogan]

its $800 tho...

[Cyb3r]

Im from the Europe and last week I went to the HTC Vive order page to see how much it costs in Euros and when I got to the checkout it cost over €1000 the price they show on their website does not include tax or delivery charges to non US buyers until you get to the final order webpage. Its the same for the Oculus Rift CV1 it costs €700 to buyers in Europe.

[DemonChicken]

@ Mystogan

PC gamers who have expensive rigs, i.e. go for the best parts and upgrades alot are no stranger to expensive upgrades especially when it's the item which performs the best with the best hardware

So it'saa no surprise to me that most pc gamers will go for the vive instead of the rift

[shuvam09]

For that extra price, you get arguably the best VR headset on the market...
Besides, the motion controllers are also packed in, which definitely will cost upward $100...
Then there is that extra camera required for the controllers too, adding to the cost...
Had the Rift been bundled with those touch controllers, it would have cost as much as Vive...

[Mystogan]

I'm not saying that its not worth it. I know the Vive is the best VR headset out there. But at that price I don't expect it to outsell the Oculus.

[shuvam09]

@Mystogan
Just waiting for that HL3, Portal 3 & L4D3 bomb to drop...

[Errorist76]

Even if I had the money I'd refuse to pay so much for a screen with a screen door effect. Next generation is surely gonna fix that.

[Gazda]

not really sure what screen door effect is but i was immersed in it completely. you have to nitpick to point out flaws imo :/

[Errorist76]

One can see the borders between the pixels. Just slightly but it's noticeable. Rift has the same problem. PSVR is going to fix it being the first with a screen with 3 RGB subpixels per pixel. I'm sure it's going to be what everybody will be doing next gen next year, assuming Sony doesn't own the patent. I'd be disturbed by this. I have 200% vision capability (extremely sharp eyesight?!) or however you call it in English (Not kidding)

Edit: no idea why I got the disagrees for just stating facts?! Ask my optician..

[TankCrossing]

We don't say "I have 200% vision capability", we say "I see dead people". And usually there is a big twist and it turns out YOU are a dead person.

[Lionsguard]

How can people not see the screen door effect? I tried it at the Microsoft store and it's literally like looking through a metal mesh screen. It was extremely noticeable. Maybe they didn't have a retail version.

[The Great Melon]

@ Errorist76

The PSVR is using a single 1080p screen in the RGB arrangement (960x1080 pixels per eye), whereas the Vive and Rift both use 2 1920x1200 screens in the pentile arrangement. Factoring in the subpixels the Rift and Vive have 9,216,000 subpixels whereas PS VR has only 6,220,800 subpixels. There is a reason why Oculus's and HTC's offerings cost more.

Having an RGB arrangement isn't a silver bullet that fixes pixel fill. It will just make the screen door be aligned horizontally and vertically in comparison to the diagonal arrangement that happens with pentile displays. Most likely the screen door will be more apparent on PS VR due to the lower number of subpixels. It will be hard to beat Oculus' pixel density without making the the field-of-view of PSVR tiny.

Regardless of its weaker specs I am still looking forward PSVR. It will be interesting to see how much Sony can squeeze out of the PS4 due to the heavier rendering requirements of VR.

[The Great Melon]

@kydrice

I assume you tried the Vive if it was at a Microsoft store. The Vive spreads its pixels out a bit more than the Rift and lacks a sort of blur filter that the Rift uses to mitigate the screen door. You might try going to a Best Buy and looking at Oculus' offering.

Currently, I don't see any screen door in my Oculus, but that is due to me not wearing my glasses. (biological blur filter =P) I looking forward to seeing what the screen looks like once my VR lenses finally ship and the GTX 1080 actually are in stock somewhere to buy. There is no way I am paying the Nvidia tax for the Founder's edition.

[Errorist76]

@the green lemon

Sorry but once you try the PSVR you'll see how stupid that statement was. It's true, the overall resolution is slightly less but you're assumption it's 1920*1200 per eye is wrong. It's 1080*1200 per eye! So only slightly more! Still on the PSVR the picture looks much cleaner, not even talking about the possibility to run at 120 Hz.

[Psychotica]

I have had a Vive for about 5 days and haven't seen anything like that at all

[warriorcase]

Had mine for 2 months now and no notice of it. Sounds like it wasn't set to your eyes correctly. You have to adjust the head strap and the eye gauge on the side for each person

Edit: It Varies on game implementation as well. I have been in some games where its a scary level of reality walking around in these rooms.

[uth11]

Seems like the Vive has more hype lately.

[Ace_Pheonix]

I love mine, I can't wait to see more Valve software for it because The Lab is unbelievably great and teases what they're working on.

[Psychotica]

I love the HTC Vive it's been a lot of fun. I had originally ordered a Rift but was turned off by the shipping delays, the fact you have to install everything on the C drive and reviews that said it was scratching peoples glasses. Surprisingly though it seems like the Rift has a better selection of games right now, I would have thought with native Steam support there would have been more full games for the Vive. I am sure the games are coming though..

[Mystogan]

one question tho. Am I wrong if I say you don't need to wear glasses when wearing a VR headset? Since you can see things better when they're up close? The screens are close to your eyes so why do you still need to wear glasses?

[Psychotica]

Well it depends, some people can read without glasses but cannot see things that are off in the distance without them. Now I can play "The Climb" without my glasses and it's fine, though things are not as sharp. If I want to change to a different game, reading the Steam menu is a little blurry.

[Kingdomcome247]

How is The Climb? It looks really awesome to me. I don't have a PC that's capable of running VR. So if I dip my toe in the VR pool it will be with PSVR. If I decide to ever build a PC I will go with the Vive.

[Valkron1]

I've had my Vive for a few months now and got my Oculus last week. I love them both! Each has their strong points and weaknesses so I'd reccomend people try them first. I think I'll use my Oculus most, room scale VR is great but tiring. Oculus is more comfortable and lighter but it is tighter and I haven't even tried using my glasses in it

[hsark]

supply and demand I feel even with the delays from both, HTC knows how to ship hardware ....think Sony as a hardware manufacturer will also ship quite a few units....Oculus is still new to the mass distribution game

[GrimmyReaper]

Well, for a higher price and having tried both, Vive is the better VR headset

[ShadowKnight]

Must be a lot of PC gamers out there 😊😊

[mochachino]

Vive at least comes with VR controllers. Taking that into account, it's not much more than Rift.

[medman]

And rightfully so...it's clearly superior tech.