HTC Vive Owners Thread

Strap is back in stock on Microsoft and Bhphotovideo. I think that they stopped production to replace the foam on the units which explains the lack of availability. I got mine last week.

Also, I suspect htc will include the strap before they do a price discount.
 
There is a very good chance the price drop on the Rift is due to more mature manufacturing, either for it or some of the components. I doubt FaceBook is willing to sell below cost, but it would not surprise me if they make sure to pass on any cost reductions on to the consumer. They can keep their margins super slim on the Rift hardware since they will make it back on Oculus Store purchases for most users. HTC doesn't get any cash from Valve so far as I know so all of their profit is purely from the hardware sales. Console model vs. PC model.

Right now I think Oculus is a better deal for new users as you can get a Rift + Touch for a lot less than the Vive. You can even add a camera or two for better roomscale support and still be cheaper, especially if you include the price of the new strap. My Rift with 3 cameras is functionally the same as my Vive.

They're both very close right now though, so no reason to switch if you already have one. Rift has a bit better ergonomics, Vive is bit easier to set up for roomscale.
 
I dont buy anything from the Oculus store because you cant manage how you view what you purchase.
And you cannot remove demos etc.
Most annoying.
 
So the vive DAS is very comfortable and the headphones are as good as the hyperx cloud that it replaced. Really loving it. It's much easier to put it on and take it off now.

On a side note, just saw this today. It's an interesting idea but I wish it was built into the headset rather than sticking it ontop. Thoughts?

Their indiegogo page is here.
 
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On a side note, just saw this today. It's an interesting idea but I wish it was built into the headset rather than sticking it ontop. Thoughts?

That's really interesting. I don't use my Vive during the summer very often since I don't have A/C. Once my face starts to sweat, the lenses fog, it stops being fun and I just want to get the thing off my head.

Ok, I caved. $27 to be able to use my Vive whenever I want during summer is money well spent if it works.
 
That's really interesting. I don't use my Vive during the summer very often since I don't have A/C. Once my face starts to sweat, the lenses fog, it stops being fun and I just want to get the thing off my head.

Ok, I caved. $27 to be able to use my Vive whenever I want during summer is money well spent if it works.
I signed up as well. I always sweat inside the headset...
 
New foam for the D.A.S did they just wash them (not fuzzy) or are they new (still fuzzy) ?
 
New foam for the D.A.S did they just wash them (not fuzzy) or are they new (still fuzzy) ?

It feels to me like the foam used in the included face covers though the foam in the DAS is a bit darker in color, I wouldn't call it fuzzy at all. I kind of wondered when I heard about this problem why HTC didn't use the same foam in the strap from the face covers as the face covers obviously hold to sweat. After a few hours with the DAS now and some sweating the foam seems to be holding up fine.
 
TPcast... might be a nice birthday present to myself. $250 ontop of the $800 Vive, $3000 PC, pfff pennies.

Good point in Gen II Vive maybe having it. Anyone have any idea when that might happen?
 
TPcast... might be a nice birthday present to myself. $250 ontop of the $800 Vive, $3000 PC, pfff pennies.

Good point in Gen II Vive maybe having it. Anyone have any idea when that might happen?

There may be gen 1.5 stuff soon-ish, but I don't think real gen 2 (eye tracking, 4k per eye, wireless) will be until late 2018 or early 2019
 
Personally I don't think we'll see gen 2 till 2020. The next thing for Vive I think will be the Knuckles controller upgrade and then official wireless from HTC. The new headset with higher resolution and eye tracking will be much later. I think many VR companies are working at cost reduction for the current units first before they put out a new "high end" system. That way they can cover more bases like a $300-$500 low end model which would be like the current vive, then a $600-$800+ high end model that would have the new stuff. Right now what VR needs is more users and AAA like games that take advantage of the immersion. The high end system will require video cards that just don't exist yet IMHO. Yeah you can do scaling, but that really is just a temporary stop gap. I definitely wouldn't pay for a high end Gen 2 VR setup if my hardware couldn't render at native resolution. It's like buying a 1080p only capable PC but then splurging for a 4K monitor. Yeah it can work if you upscale but for me it wouldn't justify the price of buying the 4k monitor.
 
Personally I don't think we'll see gen 2 till 2020. The next thing for Vive I think will be the Knuckles controller upgrade and then official wireless from HTC. The new headset with higher resolution and eye tracking will be much later. I think many VR companies are working at cost reduction for the current units first before they put out a new "high end" system. That way they can cover more bases like a $300-$500 low end model which would be like the current vive, then a $600-$800+ high end model that would have the new stuff. Right now what VR needs is more users and AAA like games that take advantage of the immersion. The high end system will require video cards that just don't exist yet IMHO. Yeah you can do scaling, but that really is just a temporary stop gap. I definitely wouldn't pay for a high end Gen 2 VR setup if my hardware couldn't render at native resolution. It's like buying a 1080p only capable PC but then splurging for a 4K monitor. Yeah it can work if you upscale but for me it wouldn't justify the price of buying the 4k monitor.

I might jump on that wireless thing then. Kids always get tied up in the wire and my son spins in circles for some reason.

Do realize I render at 2722x3024 per eye (I need to check this to be honest) with a 1080 right now and downscale.... we're not that far off. But yeah, we're not mainstream. That is 16MP which is 2x 4k screens in pixels.

I didn't even realize this but there's a super scaling slider under the developer tab for the Vive.

There's also room overview which has this nifty screen.

rs.png
 
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So a friend said he bought a Chinese VR headset called Pimax(sp?) With 2k resolution per eye. He said that it has no screen door effect And works just fine. That to me is priceless. He said he got it because it was driving him nuts not being able to see very far in games and that this resolved it for him. I admit it would make sniping in onward a lot more fun.

I'd be surprised if HTC doesn't come out with something better soon with all these upgrades in the pipeline. No, I'm not buying anything other than HTC.

PS - I hope I'm wrong though because I'm tempted to buy the wireless attachment too.
 
So a friend said he bought a Chinese VR headset called Pimax(sp?) With 2k resolution per eye. He said that it has no screen door effect And works just fine. That to me is priceless. He said he got it because it was driving him nuts not being able to see very far in games and that this resolved it for him. I admit it would make sniping in onward a lot more fun.

I'd be surprised if HTC doesn't come out with something better soon with all these upgrades in the pipeline. No, I'm not buying anything other than HTC.

PS - I hope I'm wrong though because I'm tempted to buy the wireless attachment too.

Yeah 2k per an eye would be easy. Vive just needs a little boost... I'm rendering the same pixels as 4k per eye ffs so I don't think graphics cards are really the issue.
 
I signed up as well. I always sweat inside the headset...

I jumped on this train too. Have to wait for September to get one though but it should be nice. I've also got the DAS on order, and using those built-in headphones in place of my full cans should keep the head much cooler by itself. With both of these things I hope sweat will be minimal.
 
I have a friend in Shenzhen, China who is buying a TPCast for me today. It is costing 2000 yuan. That's around $300. The shipping cost is $35 for DHL, which is very fast. I have received packages from him in as little as 2 days! He already owns one and thinks it is excellent.
I understand that reason it is not available in US, yet, is that the FCC approval has not been completed.
TPcast's website now has installation manuals and other information in English.

I already have the deluxe audio strap and the 3-in 1 cable at about $135. So $470 altogether for add-ons. I see many people think this makes the system too much. But considering the cost of the software you will buy it almost seems fairly reasonable. It is pretty easy to get over a thousand $ in software - a lot of which is just wasted money, for me. The whole VR thing is expensive. But if you already have a suitable computer it's not a fortune, I guess. If I think of all the computer "upgrades" I have made, over the years, just to stay current or for a few meaningless fps, this seems pretty cheap. It is also new and completely different and I like it and think it is worth it. Is it perfect, no, and neither is my $$$$ computer, even now.

I was able to get a super cheap deal on a slightly used Rift ($215) with touch controllers , I had to buy an xtra tracking sensor for $60 - (Amazon). , recently. I have been using both my Vive and the Rift for about a month. My conclusion is that I prefer the Vive.
I see many Vive and Rift forsale quite cheap on Craigs List. I found a Vive ($475) for a friend that was virtually un-used. People try the demo at MC and Fry's and buy one for their kids and find that their computer is completely lacking or just don't have the knowledge to hook the thing up. The Rift I bought came from a person who didn't know what HDMI or USB even meant. Never even tried to assemble it.
If you are looking for a good buy you might try searching C'list for Vive, Rift or just VR.

I will post my thoughts on the TPcast when I get it up and running.
 
What is the consensus on the Vive DAS? Everything I read indicates its a must have. I have $100 Giftcard for Amazon, so its either the DAS, or saving for upgrading from a z170 to z270 motherboard (not really thrilled with current mobo, I know feature differences are low).
 
What is the consensus on the Vive DAS? Everything I read indicates its a must have. I have $100 Giftcard for Amazon, so its either the DAS, or saving for upgrading from a z170 to z270 motherboard (not really thrilled with current mobo, I know feature differences are low).

Its good BUT it depends on your headshape / size, and ears. For me my ears are in the road, they are either bent down by the side bridge or being pressed under it. Yes its much easier to adjust but I haven't found a comfortable position yet. I also can't get the headphones as close to my ears as I would like. At present for me it wasn't worth the 119€, I will keep trying for a bit longer before giving up and trying to sell it (can't return it having opened the package - bought in a shop)
 
I'm trying to decide if I'm going to upgrade my GTX 970 for a GTX 1080ti for use with my Vive, or wait for the Volta boards. I do struggle with performance on various games (Everspace, Raw Data) which I would like to address, plus using Super Sampling to improve text quality (Elite Dangerous).
 
I'm trying to decide if I'm going to upgrade my GTX 970 for a GTX 1080ti for use with my Vive, or wait for the Volta boards. I do struggle with performance on various games (Everspace, Raw Data) which I would like to address, plus using Super Sampling to improve text quality (Elite Dangerous).
At this point I recommend you wait. Volta is around the corner and the prices are stupidly high right now for most GPUs. You also want to get something that is capable of rendering at 2k per eye with everything turned on so you can future proof it since new headsets are also around the corner. The 1080Ti still struggles to keep 90fps at 4k.
 
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Volta will be end of year or next year.
NVidia claim its not cost effective to release sooner, they are in a comfortable position without releasing due to lack of competition so...
No word on which card(s) will be first.
 
Couldn't find a thread for this game, and didn't really care to make one, so putting this here.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew is 50% off - $24.99

 
Bridge Crew is somewhat interesting looking, just wondering how much replay ability there is. I'd prefer a VR X-Wing personally, but I'm not buying PSVR just for that one VR mission in SWBF
 
From the reviews I read Bridge Crew is a bit of fun at first but becomes samey after not long.
There are no away missions, its a simple concept.
It seems to be more of a multiplayer VR demo, a bit expensive.
 
From the reviews I read Bridge Crew is a bit of fun at first but becomes samey after not long.
There are no away missions, its a simple concept.
It seems to be more of a multiplayer VR demo, a bit expensive.
Thanks for the small review. That is kind of what I read also. Even for 25 I don't think it seems worth it.
 
I picked it up...haven't tried it yet but I will give my impressions once I do.
 
So the vive DAS is very comfortable and the headphones are as good as the hyperx cloud that it replaced. Really loving it. It's much easier to put it on and take it off now.

On a side note, just saw this today. It's an interesting idea but I wish it was built into the headset rather than sticking it ontop. Thoughts?

Their indiegogo page is here.

So this arrived in the mail. It came in a yellow envelope with anti static bubble mailer inside with a zip tie and a piece of Velcro. It looked like something you'd get from China (it came from San Jose).
It was pretty loud (imagine putting fans from a 1U server right above your face) and it was sending vibrations through the deluxe headset into the headphones as well. In games I could still hear it constantly just less. It did help cool a bit but not that much for me (I use the pleather face pad). They should have gone with bigger fans that push more air and are less noisy. I give it a 2.5 / 5. I'll probably use it on and off but I don't recommend getting this. There has to be something better out there than this.
 
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Thanks for the review...I was skeptical that it could really work that well.
 
I use an air conditioner in the room and chill things out. It works perfectly especially if I set it to like 60F (lowest setting) , work as hard as you want in the VR - no sweat. :cyclops:
 
I've been playing Gorn lately...game is pretty fun.

Also continuing to play H3VR since the updates just keep coming.
 
Very interesting thing, VR games don't like Threadripper (Rawdata, H3VR, Operation Warcade). Everything is a stuttering mess. Though interestingly enough, once I use process lasso to force the games to use only a max of 8 threads it works fine again. It is just a bit of a pain in the ass to do manually for each game. I am guessing a lot of games are going to have this issue with a 16c/32t chip. On the plus side is you can pretty much do anything else in the background with no loss in performance so long as it isn't hitting the same HD. Encode a video and play a game at the same time no problem.
 
I'm sure not many gaming companies optimize to a server chip but who knows going forward with more cores/threads becoming the norm.
 
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I have a TP Cast and I cannot tell any difference in resolution from wired, on my Vive.
 
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