I was talking to some friends of mine about VR. I must say I was really intrigued with how far we came with the technology that I started reading into it! It is clear there are two main players in the industry. But how do they differ? Which one should I choose?

Facebook's Oculus Rift or HTC's Vive?     

Reading many articles and watching so many youtube videos I created a comparison that I will propose to you in this post.

I want to immediately clarify... there isn't a winner! 

Today, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are the best in circulation as a set - and not only headset - virtual.

Does it means that Oculus Rift and Vive are equal?

Not really! Each one has characteristics that make their use preferable according to the requirements. 

Price and minimum requirements

In America you can get an Oculus Rift for 599 $. In Italy, with all fees included, the price becomes 742 Euro. With a delivery time of more than 60 days from the order. The competing product by Valve and HTC will cost Italian buyers 940 Euros (899 $ in US) and the delivery time is about 2 months.

The set prices, already beyond the reach of any portfolio, must be added to sufficiently high performance computers: for optimum operation you need Nvidia Gtx 970 or AMD R9 290 or higher models. The hardware required must, at least, have the power of an Intel i5-4590 or an AMD FX 8350, running with Windows 7 or a later operating system and - Vive - at least 4 GB of RAM available (for Facebook usage,  half of it is sufficient).

Translated in a nutshell, it is appropriate to say that the virtual afterlife ticket costs about 2,000 euros, no matter what helmet you choose.

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Between Oculus Rift and Vive there is more than 200 Euro’s in price difference. It is not a marginal difference, but justified by the lack of motion controller, which is included in the set of Oculus. At the moment, the cost of Oculus Touch has not been made official, it is therefore possible that the full Facebook system, available later this year, will be more expensive than Vive.

Installation

No doubt, in this regard the Palmer Luckey device is better. Not only will you look through one and only one eye, but you can do so from a 40cm. It is lightweight and easy to mount the pedestal (preferably in front of you and slightly raised - USB cable length permitting).

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The connection requires free ports (3 USB 3.0 and an HDMI 1.3, instead of a single USB 2.0 and an HDMI 1.4, required to Vive) and requires a special software download of about 1 GB. It also requires the account activation and the necessary calibrations. In 40 minutes Oculus provides the first trip into virtual reality, as opposed to the 25 minutes promised by Vive.

The biggest advantage of the Valve System is the possibility to transform the rather large play area in a virtual arena as well as interaction with two motion controllers (included) similar to those of Wii or Playstation, as well as the ability to simulate digital hands in the VR.

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The two laser cameras are wireless and can be placed up to 5 meters apart. The area can possibly be reduced up to a rectangle of 2 meters, by 1.5 meters. Those who did not have much space, can reduce it further and exploit the interaction stationary or sitting.

True, it's worth it: HTC Vive's tracking and scanning are formidable. The accuracy in intercepting the controller motion and 70 total sensors (37 only in front of the mask) is added to the possibility of contour objects on the edge of the playing area, avoiding the risk of crashing during a battle against an alien army, or a zombie’s invasion.

 Oculus Rift 1 – Vive 0 

Ergonomics

First of all, and the most important: the VR sickness, sense of nausea and vomit that comes even without staying too long, has been sensibly reduced thanks to, in the Oculus case, the Asynchronous TimeWarp - a software that is able to reduce the latency of sync between head and visualised image. On the other hand, even the possibility to move the equally good precision of the motion tracking, Vive has always suffered less in this matter. Its version of motion sickness is a subjective manner, even in the case of the optimisation of the software, definition of the image and progress of the used lenses.

It's not a singular case that this problem was the most worrying, even for someone like John "Doom" Carmack, a legendary person of the tout-court programming, today leading the Oculus VR. To judge improvements against the development kit, it's understandable to think the final solution for every headset will come very soon in the following months.

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Differences between Oculus and Vive are quite sensible when it comes to comfort: less weight from Oculus at 470 g against 555g of Vive which includes a semi-rigid belt system making it able to face-fit the mask while redistributing the weight perfectly. Both viewers have the option to modify the distance between pupils. Vive ranges from 60.2 to 74.5 mm, and the other from 58 to 72. The quality of the "wearability" of the Oculus applies a better focus, without the adjustments that its opponent would need. Also, it has a sensor inside capable of disabling audio and video when in standby, evading overheating or damages. 

Regarding audio, both sets come with headphones and microphone integrated, with the option of being removed. The Oculus also has 3D directional audio, while the Vive uses a generic jack for generic headphones (and earphones included).

 Oculus 2 – Vive 0 

Welcome

Oculus Home is wonderful. It welcomes you with the shine of a fireplace on your left and dark stone in mid-air. Under you, a carpet follows on a stretched staircase on the right. In front of you, a hot menu with the e-store contests divided by the differentiated by types and access on the personal account. You can interact with the surroundings using a remote the size of a Zippo. At the same time it is intuitive and has half the weight of the Xbox one joy-pad. The main impression is that you feel yourself in a giant rich apartment with a Japanese taste, with peach trees in the spring seen through from the main window , compared to the other "Oculus Home" things that fly around. 

Apparently, this looks like a manifesto of what Luckey and Zuckerberg were promising since its conception: to make a comfortable migration to virtual reality. These objectives however have only been partially reached. Without added software like Virtual Desktop or BigScreen, Oculus rift splits your PC from your desk. A metaphor of the most serious problem of the virtual reality "first version": the sensation to be isolated like if you were in a golden cage.

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A limit that Vive brilliantly fixed, allows an intuitive and immediate interaction with any other platform - from the computer to the browser to compatible applications. As for the software interface, this might be a bit more sketchy and messy compared to the Oculus Home, but with Vive you can look up the time, write, browse or call without removing your helmet. Everything via your motion controller, with integrated touch-pad, or pressing on the left button of the mask.

 Oculus Rift 2 – Vive 1 

Performance 

From the point of view of the aspect, the quality of the headset is excellent and almost equal. Excellent, because, even if there is a pixelation and screendoor effect perceivable, efficiency to bring in the "fake side" is so deep that you forget about being on that side. With a resolution of 1080x1200 pixels for each eye, with a view of 110* on the diagonal, and a update frequency of 90 Hz, in other words, 233 million pixels generated every second, screens respectively Oled and Amoled from Oculus rift and HTC Vive guarantee a true total immersion for any previous experience - even Playstation VR. 

Similarly, since Vive colors are more warm, and the black borders of the view size of the Oculus are more noticeable and, since the Facebook Headset has harder times to manage crepuscular lights, creating a light occlusion but in the presence of high contrast is horrific. 

The impossibility to do a manual interaction with the synthetic world is more stressful seeing how deep the experience efficiency is. Even if it's totally convincing, today the virtual reality with the Oculus rift is, strictly, shorted out. Vive can only triumph for it. 

 Oculus Rift 2 – Vive 2 

 Support and software 

Better organisation of the Oculus hits for the diversity and richness of contents. Supported by the giant of Steam, the Facebook visor will be extended to about 100 titles, before March 2017, and with the partnership with 20 Century Fox, to a vast cinematic gallery.

Even today, I have never seen driving simulations so realistic. Titles like Project cars, Eve: Valkyrie (in bundle), Elite: dangerous or even the prototype of the Italian Assetto Corsa - Oculus stays on a side of games like Lucky's Tale, Airmech, Command or Chromosome, Platform and Adventure in third view, suggesting new genres that needs no introduction.

Or titles like Adr1ft and The Climb, set the first in a destroyed space station which you have to return live and, the second on vertical walls to dominate in free climbing. After all, true experiences of synthetic metempsychosis indicating the most ambitious prospects of technology, outline narrative and sensory horizons never before so compelling and, who knows, adaptable to different needs and purposes.

Oculus Rift 3 – Vive 3

Conclusions

We wrote before that there is no winner or loser.

From my point of view, Vive is the preferred option; however, I am still waiting for improvements from Oculus. Since the complete set of the Oculus is yet to appear, we will have to wait and see what they can bring to the industry.

For both these systems we’d be looking at around 2000 Euros each, which includes a powerful laptop/computer and complete set. This is still too pricey for most consumers and hopefully this would become more affordable in the future.

Oculus Rift 3 – Vive 4

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