What's the best vr headset to get?

[Garygator]

Hi, Jimmy here,

I've been really interested in VR and have been using them and interacting since Oculus was still 720p

Recently I've been wanting to get back in the loop after being gone for so long but I'm really torn on what to get. I have how ever narrowed it down to three. The Vive, The Oculus, and Samsung's Odyseey+. Can I get some help choosing?

I like the Vive because of room scale and tracking, but the controllers are eh and screen door effect exists, also 500 dollars

I like the Oculus becuase they have the best controllers, and are really comfortable to wear + decent built in headphones. But, really bad room scale, and screen door effect.

I like Samsung's becuase it has the best resolution out of Pimax, and has almost 0 screen door effect, its easy to set up, and the controllers are pretty alright. Plus really good built in headphones. But, has the least support, 500 dollars, and the worst tracking out of them all, atleast for the controllers.

I can get some honest unbiased advice on what to get? With some reasons why I should choose it?

Thank you for your time.

[Infinite_Darkness]

I would just go with the Pimax. The FOV is 170 degrees horizontal whereas the other headsets are only 110 degrees. The FOV is the biggest game changer for me for Playing games in VR. That reason alone makes all current Gen 1 headsets obsolete.

The SDE in the 5K plus is not bad at all in the Pimax, like you will notice it only if you are looking for it, and honestly I would put up with way more SDE just for the FOV. The other headsets feel like looking through binoculars. The Pimax feels like you are in the world naturally.

https://pimaxvr.com/products/pimax-5k-series?variant=19912548122683

Here is a writeup (not mine) that sums up my experience with it.
https://forum.pimaxvr.com/t/got-my-5k-its-the-real-deal/13396

5K plus is also better than 8K which I find too blurry and the 5K BE which uses OLED panels has bad SDE effect and although the colors and blacks are slightly better, totally not worth it.

Good SDE comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgdF2EXYdvA

For now, in my opinion, Pimax blows all Gen 1 Headsets out of the water.

[Despiser]

Keep in mind you need a top of the line rig to utilize primax 5k features like full 170 fov. Of course these can be reduced in settings for lesser rigs.

[FerretFinG]

wireless beats everything wired in vr in my experience, I'd go Vive (or pro if you can afford it) & wireless kit.

[Skidrow]

Infinite_Darkness others are 95-100 horizontal 110 is diagonally.

[IanL]

Try and find somewhere where you demo as many as you can, then make your own decision. Ensure the tracking is acurate and reliable though, in whatever choice you end up making, as that's essential for a good VR experience. I would recommend wireless too.

[tarcobom]

I have the Samsung Odyssey (not plus). Has the resolution of the Vive Pro for the price of the OG Vive. They might actually have the same screen because evidently the Vive Pro one is made by Samsung. The Odyssey is $500 msrp like you said, but is sometimes on sale for about $300. The resolution for me is the most important quality, and I could not go back comfortably to using an OG Vive or Oculus in store demos after using the Odyssey.

The 'plus' or '+' version has some added Anti-SDE tech, inbuilt bluetooth, changed ergonomics and maybe some other stuff. Not everyone prefers it though, because it reduces SDE at the cost of some blurriness and has a wider nose area. That's just what I've read though, I never tried it. Definitely try one on somewhere if you can find a place.

Odyssey and other WMR headsets have the inside out tracking instead of lighthouse tracking. It's way easier to setup but somewhat lower quality tracking. Some people don't like it but I've never noticed the difference honestly. You can read long disputes about that online elsewhere. Long story short for me is I only ever notice it if I

a) put the controller right next to my face, which virtually never happens, especially because now that I have a stock for fps games, or
b) if you put your hands behind your head for more than a few seconds, which also almost never happens (it works for a few seconds because of an in built gyroscope that can track brief movement outside the camera range, like for drawing an arrow say, or throwing a grenade).

The convenience of the inside out tracking put-on-and-play, by comparison with the pain of re-adjusting and calibrating cameras, far outweighs the hardly noticeable difference in tracking quality imo.

Unless you have an absolute beast of a rig I would not recommend the Pimax. I've got a gtx 1070 and even the Samsung Odyssey runs it at like 99% all the time. Looks great though.

As for support, honestly I don't have any issues with using steam games from the windows vr house thing. It works fine, plus has the cool flashlight feature where you can see the room around you. Tales of incompatibility are mostly from 1 year+ ago.

You can also pickup the lower end WMR headsets, like a lenovo explorer, for closer to $200, and they are still pretty good.

[Infinite_Darkness]

Originally posted by Schweetness101:

Unless you have an absolute beast of a rig I would not recommend the Pimax. I've got a gtx 1070 and even the Samsung Odyssey runs it at like 99% all the time. Looks great though.

Ya I guess I should have asked his PC specs but they are working on tech to allow for good performance on a 1070.

https://forum.pimaxvr.com/t/brainwarp-1-0-featuring-smart-smoothing-is-now-in-beta-testing/12332

My specs
CPU - Intel Core i9-7920X (OC to 4.5GHz)
MB - ASUS Rampage VI Apex
RAM - Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3600MHz C16
SSD - Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 2TB
GPU - 2 x AORUS GeForce RTX 2080 Ti XTREME WATERFORCE in NVLink (OC)
https://www.aorus.com/GV-N208TAORUSX-W-11GC
PSU - Corsair AX1600i Digital ATX Power Supply 1600 W

[kasperhviid]

Originally posted by Garygator:

Oculus [...] really bad room scale

Seems fine on my Rift CV1. Where did you get that from? I think I heard it before somewhere.

[[Host] Gill]

Rift, it just works.

[JeQ]

I upgraded from original Vive to wireless Vive Pro here. Huge difference in picture quality made me play VR games after half year away from VR. I was too impressed about pimax 5k+ but i don't want to go wired again and losíng resolution at center of eye is not good for games i like to play (FPS and simulators). I have used lot of money on VR with no regrets at all so that's why choose Vive. But i am constantly waiting for better alternatives, i have some hopes for Vive Pro Eye to make picture quality overpowered. Vive Cosmos other hand might not be my cup of tea because i don't think 6dof tracking can beat stationary game room tracking

[grooovy_gunnar]

I just started with VR and got the regular vive. I'm quite happy for the most part but the controllers are far from optimized for Skyrim. I've gotten used to them now and general movement does feel pretty good but there are serious limitations and the touchpads do not like skyrims menus.
I don't actually know if the oculus controlls are better but I'm guessing they are so for Skyrim in particular I think Oculus would be better than Vive.

[ShocksVR #AirLink]

Oculus .....But, really bad room scale, and screen door effect.

That's utter garbage. Please don't state such things without even owning a VR headset.

1. Room-scale is just fancy pants talk for 360 tracking (less than 1% of VR games have REAL Room-scale as a requirement)
2. Rift can do Room-scale and it's officially supported since Jan 2017 (over 2+ years). I have a 3 sensor Rift setup with a 10x10 ft playspace and floor-to-ceiling tracking.
3. Rift room-scale tracking is the more difficult to setup (since sensors have to be mounted - perhaps this is what you heard?).
4. Rift is the most used headset on steam. That alone speaks volumes of it's price point and how well it works.
5. Actually OG Vive has the worst screen door effect. The Vive has slightly larger fov with the same screen size and resolution as Rift. To accomplish that, they stretched the panel, thus giving it slightly more SDE. This is easily verified on Youtube.

Lastly, if you go Pimax that's fine, but be aware Pimax is still in the "Tech Demo/Kickstarter" phase of their business. Expect bugs, things breaking, support issues, delays in getting your hardware, and a very high price point - these are all verified online.

I don't actually know if the oculus controlls are better but I'm guessing they are so for Skyrim in particular I think Oculus would be better than Vive.

Touch are better than the Vive wands; this is the universally accepted viewpoint across VR gamers and the VR industry. That's why Valve has redesigned their controllers and will be releasing their very own Valve Knuckles (which are pretty sweet). They bring parity to Oculus Touch (capacitive finger tracking, hand presence, and THUMBSTICKS), along with improvements like force/pressure haptic feedback (which Touch does not have). Point being, Touch and Knuckles are more alike, than Touch and Vive wands.

[Oh Heck]

I think folks have to be careful referring to inside/ out tracking as worse or low quality. There is a reason both oculus and vives next generation will be supporting this method of tracking.

I have the odyssey plus. The head tracking has been flawless. The controllers track perfectly within the range of the inside /out tracking. The range of motion is a known limitation, and if you don't mind folks not being able to tell if you are scratching your backside with your controller, you'll be fine. Doesn't bother me as I'm concerned with what is in front of me. The higher resolution and no SDE is a huge plus for me. It looks great.

My decision to go with the odyssey over the two big players in the vr space is the newer tech as far as the display and anti SDE, inside out tracking and ease of setting it up.

It should hold me over till we all see what the newer generation of hmds from oculus and vive give us.

Also, please don't use skyrim vr as a standard by which to make a decision on a headset. :)

[Garygator]

Originally posted by Shocks #VR-Club:

Oculus .....But, really bad room scale, and screen door effect.

That's utter garbage. Please don't state such things without even owning a VR headset.

1. Room-scale is just fancy pants talk for 360 tracking (less than 1% of VR games have REAL Room-scale as a requirement)
2. Rift can do Room-scale and it's officially supported since Jan 2017 (over 2+ years). I have a 3 sensor Rift setup with a 10x10 ft playspace and floor-to-ceiling tracking.
3. Rift room-scale tracking is the more difficult to setup (since sensors have to be mounted - perhaps this is what you heard?).
4. Rift is the most used headset on steam. That alone speaks volumes of it's price point and how well it works.
5. Actually OG Vive has the worst screen door effect. The Vive has slightly larger fov with the same screen size and resolution as Rift. To accomplish that, they stretched the panel, thus giving it slightly more SDE. This is easily verified on Youtube.

Lastly, if you go Pimax that's fine, but be aware Pimax is still in the "Tech Demo/Kickstarter" phase of their business. Expect bugs, things breaking, support issues, delays in getting your hardware, and a very high price point - these are all verified online.

I don't actually know if the oculus controlls are better but I'm guessing they are so for Skyrim in particular I think Oculus would be better than Vive.

Touch are better than the Vive wands; this is the universally accepted viewpoint across VR gamers and the VR industry. That's why Valve has redesigned their controllers and will be releasing their very own Valve Knuckles (which are pretty sweet). They bring parity to Oculus Touch (capacitive finger tracking, hand presence, and THUMBSTICKS), along with improvements like force/pressure haptic feedback (which Touch does not have). Point being, Touch and Knuckles are more alike, than Touch and Vive wands.

I was trying to offend. I've personally used all the ones I mentioned except the pimax. I just feel like there is a fair amount of SDE on both Vive and Oculus. And they even say on the site they recommend at most a 5x6 area with the sensors they provide. Vive can do 15x15 out the gate. Like I said I've been using them and even got the OG Oculus back in the day, I was just saying that that is a slight con. My apologies if I upset you, thats just what I thought. However, I do appreciate the information and its very helpful. And thank you to anyone who has given info so far. Waiting for a sale, but I really like the tips, thank you guys much love <3

[𒉭 Kisses4Grandpa 𒉭]

the oculus vive and mixed reality all have the same resolution the vive pro is said to be a LITTLE better but not enough for the price tag.if youre that worried i just wouldnt get one right now. wait 2 years when the next gen of headsets come out.