Oculus Rift + Touch Controller Bundle Priced at $499 Going Forward

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It appears that the Oculus Rift is getting a permanent price reduction: while the bundle is on sale now for $399, the price will only go up by $100 when that promotion is over. Included in the package is a Rift headset, two sensors, Touch controllers, cables, and six free titles. The headset originally debuted at $599, and the controllers started at $199.

The Summer of Rift sale has been a huge success, and we’ve seen tons of new people jump into Rift every day. Now, to continue getting the best VR experience into everyone’s hands, we’re permanently bundling Rift + Touch in the same package for $499, and available now for just $399 during our Summer of Rift sale—limited time only! That means everything you need to play this summer’s hottest VR titles like Robo Recall, Wilson’s Heart, Echo Arena and Star Trek: Bridge Crew is now available in one box.
 
I've only used development kits of the Oculus Rift. How does this version compare to the Vive? The $399 price sounds pretty tempting...
 
I jumped on the 399 rift+touch bundle, got 7 free games, and picked up a few more on steam. Got a 3rd sensor for smooth room scale mounted in the top corners of my computer room.

It's so good/smooth/easy that I'm not even upset I missed the Amazon bundle that was 399 for the bundle with a $100 gift card on top.
 
Worth the 400. There is screen door, yes, but you learn to deal with it because for only 400 bucks, you'll be able to afford the upgraded non screen door model whenever it shows up.
 
Conspicuously absent and not mentioned at all when Oculus was on sale for $300~$400 during Amazon's Prime Day sale here at [H]. Would have helped to promote VR sales.
 
It's a similar price over here in Germany at the moment too, once you take tax into account (it's about the equivalent of USD416 with current exhange rate). Might have to jump on in...
 
Randall Stephens said:
Worth the 400. There is screen door, yes, but you learn to deal with it because for only 400 bucks, you'll be able to afford the upgraded non screen door model whenever it shows up.
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Yea it's a good price for a product that's not perfect and will need replacing soon-ish (well we don't really know when, actually). Ordered one :)
 
steakman1971 said:
I've only used development kits of the Oculus Rift. How does this version compare to the Vive? The $399 price sounds pretty tempting...
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The resolution is now high enough where you dont really notice the screendoor effect even if you tried. Once you're gaming you wouldnt even think of it at all. The headset is lighter than the vive and easier to adorn since the headphones are integrated. The overall setup is also simpler since instead of mounting sensors to the walls you just place them neatly on your desk next to your monitor. They look kinda like webcams so they blend well. The overall appearance of the rift is just cleaner and seems more refined.

With 2 sensors you can still stand up and walk around some. With a 3rd sensor you can walk around all you want just like the vive. Truth be told you probably wont really do much walking around in the first place. If you watch vive users who have entire empty rooms established they barely move around at all, usually remaining mostly stationary and just turning their bodies to look at things. The rift does this well so I dont think you would feel deprived of any particular experience.
 
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steakman1971 said:
I've only used development kits of the Oculus Rift. How does this version compare to the Vive? The $399 price sounds pretty tempting...
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I've tried both in demos at the mall now so I'll give you my comparison:

- Tracking is better on the vive but only slightly, the rift is just about as good just more complicated to setup. You need 3 sensors with USB cables and lots of USB ports on your pc for the rift vs the vive which only needs 1 USB port and 1 plug in. While not as nice for half the price the rift is way better value

- screen is cleaner in the rift but the vive has a wider fov, they have the same resolution screens but for the vive to achieve it's bigger fov the screen door is more prominent and it's harder to read text in games. Rift has the better looking display and is way more suited for games that require reading and small object viewing found in sims.

- rift out of the box is more comfy, the straps on the vive are not as well made. You can buy the delux audio strap for the vive which fixes this but it will cost you another $100

- touch controller is nicer and more comfy than the vive wands. While the vive wands do their job well the rift touch controller fits your hands much better and feel nicer to hold for longer periods. Vive is coming out with a new "knuckles" controller that will probably address this but again it's... MORE MONEY! lol

- The rift is fully compatable with SteamVR giving you access to both oculus and vive libraries, where as the vive needs a 3rd party wrapper to give the access to the oculus store.

- oculus has ASW which dramitcly improves performance and slower hardware and has allowed for a great drop in hardware requirements. Vive is working on this but does not have a 1:1 equivalent yet that I know of (they have something similar but doesn't work quite as well). This is only a plus if your like me who has older hardware

Tdlr the vive is nicer for room scale games but a 100% price increase isn't worth a 5% performance increase. Honestly the vive is the apple of VR at this point, sleeker design at a much higher price point.
 
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Question on the Rift with room scale, what's the best way to position the sensors. With the Vive I have the light houses in the corners of my play area positioned diagonally from each other. For the Rift, would I do the same with two cameras and would the 3rd go in another corner or on side? Also, what would be the longest run for a USB cable from the cameras to the PC? TIA.
 
Ragenrok said:
- Tracking is better on the vive but only slightly, the rift is just about as good just more complicated to setup. You need 3 sensors with USB cables and lots of USB ports on your pc for the rift vs the vive which only needs 1 USB port and 1 plug in. While not as nice for half the price the rift is way better value

- screen is cleaner in the rift but the vive has a wider fov, they have the same resolution screens but for the vive to achieve it's bigger fov the screen door is more prominent and it's harder to read text in games. Rift has the better looking display and is way more suited for games that require reading and small object viewing found in sims.
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I see the requirement of additional USB ports as a positive to be honest. They reduce the amount of wires going to the headset which in turn reduces weight/tension. The rift has a single very thin cable that wraps easily, the Vive has a cluster of cables coming out of the headset to process video + tracking. Also the only FOV difference the Vive has is vertical, which should be unnoticeable since our eyes are not really all that vertically aligned generally speaking.

I also prefer the USB sensor setup rather than Lighthouse because for the Lighthouses to work you have to plug them into a power outlet, which means you may have sub-optimal cable routing if you like clean setups. Since the Rift sensors are all USB that means you can expect all the cables to run back to your PC which may result in a cleaner cable management setup.
 
nysmo said:
I see the requirement of additional USB ports as a positive to be honest. They reduce the amount of wires going to the headset which in turn reduces weight/tension. The rift has a single very thin cable that wraps easily, the Vive has a cluster of cables coming out of the headset to process video + tracking. Also the only FOV difference the Vive has is vertical, which should be unnoticeable since our eyes are not really all that vertically aligned generally speaking.

I also prefer the USB sensor setup rather than Lighthouse because for the Lighthouses to work you have to plug them into a power outlet, which means you may have sub-optimal cable routing if you like clean setups. Since the Rift sensors are all USB that means you can expect all the cables to run back to your PC which may result in a cleaner cable management setup.
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I think the issue with the USB cabling for the Rift is that all the cameras have plug into the PC so for room scale that's four USB cables that all have to run from the sensors and HMD where with the Vive only the headset needs to be plug into the PC and you just connect the lighthouses to the nearest plug. That's lot easier and less cabling that has to be run especially for larger areas.

I probably will pick up the Rift in the next week or two, just trying to figure out exactly where and how I'm going to set it up.
 
heatlesssun said:
Question on the Rift with room scale, what's the best way to position the sensors. With the Vive I have the light houses in the corners of my play area positioned diagonally from each other. For the Rift, would I do the same with two cameras and would the 3rd go in another corner or on side? Also, what would be the longest run for a USB cable from the cameras to the PC? TIA.
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This is my layout, the dimensions given by Oculus is a 10ftx10ft play area with 3 sensors but people have reported that 13-15ft square works fine. For 3 cameras you basicaly just want them in the corners but as high up as you can so they are looking down, helps eliminate occlusion. As for extension cables buying the 3rd sensor come with a 15ft USB 2 extension cable. I also purchased a 10ft USB 3 extension cable for the sensor on the right corner of my room.
rift layout.jpg

Blue circles = Sensors on the wall just below ceiling
Yellow lines are where the cameras are aiming
 
Ragenrok said:
This is my layout, the dimensions given by Oculus is a 10ftx10ft play area with 3 sensors but people have reported that 13-15ft square works fine. For 3 cameras you basicaly just want them in the corners but as high up as you can so they are looking down, helps eliminate occlusion. As for extension cables buying the 3rd sensor come with a 15ft USB 2 extension cable. I also purchased a 10ft USB 3 extension cable for the sensor on the right corner of my room.
View attachment 30749

Blue circles = Sensors on the wall just below ceiling
Yellow lines are where the cameras are aiming
Click to expand...
Have you ever tried roomscale with 2 sensors?
 
nysmo said:
Have you ever tried roomscale with 2 sensors?
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I dont actually have mine yet, its in the mail and on its way lol. All my knowledge is from just scouring the oculus/hard forums and reddit. As for your question I have heard that standing 360 will work with 2 sensors and roomscale will work in an area of 3ftx3ft but nay larger than that and you risk bad tracking. It may work but its not guaranteed and you will probably run into issues
 
nysmo said:
Have you ever tried roomscale with 2 sensors?
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2 sensors is still experimental for room scale while 3 is officically supported and from what I've read 3 is pretty much a requirement for anything close to a room size room scale to work well though I'm guessing 2 sensors will eventually get official support at some time.
 
Ragenrok said:
This is my layout, the dimensions given by Oculus is a 10ftx10ft play area with 3 sensors but people have reported that 13-15ft square works fine. For 3 cameras you basicaly just want them in the corners but as high up as you can so they are looking down, helps eliminate occlusion. As for extension cables buying the 3rd sensor come with a 15ft USB 2 extension cable. I also purchased a 10ft USB 3 extension cable for the sensor on the right corner of my room.
View attachment 30749

Blue circles = Sensors on the wall just below ceiling
Yellow lines are where the cameras are aiming
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch! I've got to run about 30' of cable for one of my sensors to wrap around the room from the other side of a door from my PC. I'm thinking that's the one I wouldn't want to be USB 2. Do you know if it matters which sensor is connected to USB 2 relative to their positions? I've not seen anything that would indicate that it does. Good luck with it and thanks again!
 
nysmo said:
The resolution is now high enough where you dont really notice the screendoor effect even if you tried.
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Bull shit. That's the first thing I've noticed trying one on. Yes, you can forget about it if you are engaged in something, but as soon as you try to look at anything in the distance, it's pretty obvious.
 
nysmo said:
I also prefer the USB sensor setup rather than Lighthouse because for the Lighthouses to work you have to plug them into a power outlet, which means you may have sub-optimal cable routing if you like clean setups. Since the Rift sensors are all USB that means you can expect all the cables to run back to your PC which may result in a cleaner cable management setup.
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lol. running this 25' USB cable may totally result in a cleaner setup than a 8' power cable.
 
tetris42 said:
Bull shit. That's the first thing I've noticed trying one on. Yes, you can forget about it if you are engaged in something, but as soon as you try to look at anything in the distance, it's pretty obvious.
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Sure it's something that's there but how pronounced or noticeable it is will depend on the game. I just started playing Arizona Sunshine and there's a lot of distance in that game but the graphics I think tend to minimize screen door.

I think as with all issues with VR the experience is what drives it for those that enjoy it, not the flaws that aren't always obvious or a problem anyway.
 
heatlesssun said:
Thanks a bunch! I've got to run about 30' of cable for one of my sensors to wrap around the room from the other side of a door from my PC. I'm thinking that's the one I wouldn't want to be USB 2. Do you know if it matters which sensor is connected to USB 2 relative to their positions? I've not seen anything that would indicate that it does. Good luck with it and thanks again!
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter. Just make sure you're using active extensions if your runs get longer than a couple of meters. Oculus ships the third sensor with a 16 foot Monoprice active USB 2.0 extension.

As far as the screen door goes... Once you're in game, who cares? Yes I want higher resolution, but once I get in game it really stops mattering.

I've only had my Rift a couple of days, the touch controllers and the 200 gram weight loss both compare very favorably to the Vive. Tracking, I haven't noticed an issue unless I literally hide the controllers from the sensors in that fourth corner where I don't have a sensor. In game I've not run into it being a problem.

There are people doing room scale with two sensors, but three gives you a bigger area to play in. You don't want to ever be more than ten feet or so from a sensor.

The Oculus blog goes into more detail - https://www.oculus.com/blog/oculus-roomscale-tips-for-setting-up-a-killer-vr-room/
 
Price is awesome! I love my HTC Vive, but I don't thing it is $300 better.
 
heatlesssun said:
Sure it's something that's there but how pronounced or noticeable it is will depend on the game. I just started playing Arizona Sunshine and there's a lot of distance in that game but the graphics I think tend to minimize screen door.

I think as with all issues with VR the experience is what drives it for those that enjoy it, not the flaws that aren't always obvious or a problem anyway.
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Oh I know, it really varies on the content too. For things that are close up, there's not much to complain about, but if you're trying to read smaller text or look off in the distance, that's where it becomes a problem. I'll be very happy when one of the models can get a resolution bump (and doesn't have a bunch of other defects like the Pimax). I was responding more to the "can't notice the effect even if you tried" as being a patently false statement.
 
Lizard Testes said:
lol. running this 25' USB cable may totally result in a cleaner setup than a 8' power cable.
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When I had my vive I mounted the lighthouses to the ceiling as recommended. The result was ugly black wires going straight down my nice white walls into the nearest power outlet. It just looked tacky, especially since I dont have a gaming room or anything but rather a computer nook type area. With the rift the single sensor was placed on my desk directly left of my monitor. You wouldnt even notice it among my headphones and other neatly placed "desk clutter". It just looked like part of a regular PC setup. I never tried dual 3 sensors, so im not quite sure how I would mount the rear one without a desk of sorts to put it on. People keep recommending you place the Rift sensors on the ceiling too, and this might be great for "optimal coverage", but I had no problems with occlusion sitting in my chair with the sensor aimed at my face. I think you could probably get away just fine placing sensors at torso level and not on the ceilings, which means you could run the cable neatly along the baseboard to your pc.

I tried placing the Vive lighthouses at torso level and they didnt work right at all. Their FOV is too narrow or something.
 
I have been tempted to buy one just for the hell of it. At this reduced price might just have to.
 
nysmo said:
I tried placing the Vive lighthouses at torso level and they didnt work right at all. Their FOV is too narrow or something.
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The Vive lighthouses have to maintain a direct line of sight with themselves, headset and controllers at all times so that's not going to work at that height and for optimum room scale the recommendation is for the Rift cameras to be higher up as well.
 
tetris42 said:
Bull shit. That's the first thing I've noticed trying one on. Yes, you can forget about it if you are engaged in something, but as soon as you try to look at anything in the distance, it's pretty obvious.
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No need to respond in that way - he was giving his opinion, so just give yours without the attitude.
 
focbde said:
No need to respond in that way - he was giving his opinion, so just give yours without the attitude.
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It's such a bold statement, it's not an opinion is the thing. Unless your eyesight is compromised, what he said is not true.

Saying the screendoor effect is not that bad is an opinion. Saying it's barely noticeable is an opinion. Saying you can't see it even if you are looking for it is a very demonstrable claim, one that happens to not be true. I can see the screendoor effect. Pretty much everyone who owns a Rift or Vive can see the screendoor effect if they're looking for it. What he said is a false statement, not an opinion.

Yes, I could have been nicer about it, but I don't have a lot of tolerance for people saying things that are not true beyond a shadow of a doubt. If I said you will NEVER drop below 60fps on 4k using a Geforce 1070 in any game, would you call that my opinion?
 
nysmo said:
I see the requirement of additional USB ports as a positive to be honest. They reduce the amount of wires going to the headset which in turn reduces weight/tension. The rift has a single very thin cable that wraps easily, the Vive has a cluster of cables coming out of the headset to process video + tracking. Also the only FOV difference the Vive has is vertical, which should be unnoticeable since our eyes are not really all that vertically aligned generally speaking.

I also prefer the USB sensor setup rather than Lighthouse because for the Lighthouses to work you have to plug them into a power outlet, which means you may have sub-optimal cable routing if you like clean setups. Since the Rift sensors are all USB that means you can expect all the cables to run back to your PC which may result in a cleaner cable management setup.
Click to expand...
I agree USB is nicer to run back to the pc than USB, but that isnt the problem. The problem is the amount of USB ports and bandwidth required for a 3 sensor setup, from what I can read you cant seems to have all 3 sensors on 1 controller due to bandwidth limitations so to get proper roomscale you either need to have a motherboard with multiple USB controllers or buy an external USB card. While this isnt a big problem for some people, others wont know this and just assume its just a shit product/design because their 3 sensors arn't working.
 
tetris42 said:
It's such a bold statement, it's not an opinion is the thing. Unless your eyesight is compromised, what he said is not true.

Saying the screendoor effect is not that bad is an opinion. Saying it's barely noticeable is an opinion. Saying you can't see it even if you are looking for it is a very demonstrable claim, one that happens to not be true. I can see the screendoor effect. Pretty much everyone who owns a Rift or Vive can see the screendoor effect if they're looking for it. What he said is a false statement, not an opinion.

Yes, I could have been nicer about it, but I don't have a lot of tolerance for people saying things that are not true beyond a shadow of a doubt. If I said you will NEVER drop below 60fps on 4k using a Geforce 1070 in any game, would you call that my opinion?
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I've had people in the past saying they can't see the 'rainbow' effect on Plasma TVs when I clearly can and can't understand on earth how they can't see it - perhaps he really can't see the screen door effect? Levels of eyesight vary wildly from person to person, and I know people who complain about screen door effect with projectors and others who can't see it at all, possibly because their eyesight is worse. But someone who has better eyesight and says 'Bullshit, it's definitely there' is no better than someone who can't see it and says it definitely isn't... just my $0.02.
 
tetris42 said:
Yes, I could have been nicer about it, but I don't have a lot of tolerance for people saying things that are not true beyond a shadow of a doubt. If I said you will NEVER drop below 60fps on 4k using a Geforce 1070 in any game, would you call that my opinion?
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Sorry I just try to dismiss pointing out scerendoor effect these days as I no longer feel it is a relevant flaw worth mentioning. It's like whining about 8x over 16xx AA. I have 20/20 vision and yes I can see the pixels if I go out of my way to focus on them, but it's nothing like it was on the DK1 where you felt you were working around the quality and just trying to enjoy the experience.
 
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