Virtual Reality Headsets

[Dilligaf]

Yeah, I'm thinking of jumping into that pond. I'm looking for opinions on these units. Are the $500 - $700 units really that much better than the $40 - $50 units? If so, why? Seems to me that 3D is 3D. Is it the features, build quality, game compatibility, platform/PC, or all of the above? Do you have to be careful of game compatibility? I'm looking to use it mainly with iRacing and possibility a few others. You guys n gals usually give an honest and varied opinion on things.

Thanks in advance

[Mugwump]

All of the above I'd say, plus comfort and nausea factor. On PC, I heard the HTC Vive is the best, but I've read the Playstation set is even better. Then again on PC, bonus is you can play Quake in VR! DP has this feature, not sure about the other engines.

[DeathMaster]

If you want it with more advanced graphics and games, I'd say go for PlayStation, but the Vive has mobile support and Valve will most definitely be implementing new games and updating older ones with it, so it's more of an investment rather than a spur of the moment type thing. Do you want the best now, or later?

[Focalor]

I'm looking to use it mainly with iRacing and possibility a few others.

A few... OTHER... things, huh?

[DeathMaster]

Hey man, don't diss VR porn. Soon we will no longer need the physical restrictions of "the catch", if you catch my cold.

[Focalor]

Oh absolutely not. I'm a huge fan of porn. In my opinion, there are two kinds of porn: midget, and non-midget. Both are good I guess, but the midget porn is way funnier when you set the playback speed to 2x and 4x.

[Julius]

It really depends on what you have already. If you have a smartphone with a 1080p 5"-6" screen and a gyro etc. Definitely try the cardboard version but do some research on the headset first. If fact for a first impression the real cardboard google cardboard are good as they are cheap and well tested, contrary to some of the Chinese plastic crap you can buy.

If you have a Samsung GearVr compatible phone that's even better (but the platform vendor locks you), or maybe you want to buy a new high end smartphone anyways? In that case look for one that is daydream ready.

I hear the playstationVR is also good value for money if you already own a PS4.

If all of that doesn't apply, and you are willing to make an investment, go for a HTC Vive as that one seems to have good games support. Although if you are more interested in tinkering, the Razer OSVR HDK2 is also interesting and has the best leapmotion hand recognition support build in.

The occulus rift is probably also not bad, but similar to the gearvr it tries quite a bit to vendor lock you, which sucks. Also Facebook... no need to say more.

Edit: or you could wait for the new Qualcomm based stand alone mobile systems expected to arrive sometimes in 2017. IMHO from a technical (and overall cost) perspective these are the most interesting, but of course no one knows yet how the support for these will develop.

Edit2: To answer your initial question, technically the main difference of the more expensive systems is that they have head or even room-scale tracking, meaning that you can get a much more true to life movement in which not only the rotation but also lateral movements of the head etc are taken into account. This mainly makes a difference for games, as VR videos have a fixed camera. The more expensive headsets also have some sort of hand/controller tracking that really makes a big difference for input. There is also a big difference in the selection of games (on Steam or the Occulus store), as the mobile offerings (especially for cardboard, less so for GearVR or Daydream) are still rather limited.
Cardboard is a good entry point though, and there are a few good games for it (including Quake).

[nahuel]

IMO VR is shit

Thanks for reading

[Mugwump]

Well thank you Nahuel, that was very constructive...

[ArrrCee]

I think Julius gave some really good info here to think about if you're interested in VR. I've had the chance to use some of the VR headsets available (Oculus, Vive and phone with cardboard), and I have to say that the best experience I had was with the Vive.

Having said that, I would wait on buying anything too expensive right now because it's a big risk to invest a lot of money into something that hasn't really been adopted yet.

You can go cardboard because it's much cheaper, if you just want to play around with it. But as it stands, the price to entry is too expensive right now, at least for me.

However, if money is no object and you think you're really going to be into it, I think the Vive is the way to go. I didn't get motion sickness using it, it controls easier and feels more natural for me. Just keep in mind that you will need a super beefy computer to run this.

[DeathMaster]

Just remember that no matter what decision you make, Papa Carmack at Oculus is always watching. ALWAYS. WATCHING.

[nahuel]

Well thank you Nahuel, that was very constructive...

you are welcome

[Dutch]

IMO VR is shit

Thanks for reading