Just, like, my opinions man.
I really enjoyed my Vive but moving to the Rift w/ Touch has been a profound improvement in every way.
The touch controllers are dramatically better than the Vive. The thumbsticks are the reason I moved in the first place for the game I primarily play and I hate touchpads. The extra buttons and touch sensitive buttons are flat out more natural.
The lenses are far clearer and feel like a huge upgrade. There is more glaring but I'll take that over the rings of the Vive any day.
Much lighter HMD. More comfortable (and I had the deluxe audio strap). I like that there is an elastic element to the headstrap so you can pull the front of the HMD off your face and up onto your forehead with one hand easily. I am able to wear this for longer periods of time easily without noticing it as much as the Vive.
Access to the Oculus store on top of Steam is a bonus and I can hang out in my Oculus home instead of Steam Home if I want. I bought a second house.
There are cons. Valve's tracking system is superior but was jammed by having my remote controlled space heater in the room (the IR plate on the heater interfered with the Vive signals). But otherwise it is more capable overall I think. And more suited to a permanent room setup.
The con to the Rift is the tracking systems USB connections. If you get the full Touch kit you need three USB 3.0 ports (one for HMD, 2 for camera towers), 4 if you want a third camera. The problem is that they really saturate the bus and overload the controllers, adds latency to the tracking. I have a three month old computer with a top tier motherboard so I haven't had an issue but if you need to get a USB card there are specific ones to get and they are pricey.
The other con is the cost of extending cable length. The cables are all pretty short, surprisingly so in the case of the HMD. I think that is because it was originally designed to be a seated desk operation, and it does that very well. So you have to factor the cost of using active USB cables for the cameras and a usb and HDMI exension for the HMD, which will only go another 6ft. But in contrast, the Vive needs stands/poles/mounts for the lighthouses which add up too. It only supports drilling out of the box and that is unacceptable to me.
Overall I love it, and totally glad I made the switch. Nothing against the Vive, it is very good. But if you're considering buying at full retail it is no contest. You cannot even consider the Vive without the deluxe audio strap, so it is $700 vs $400. Easy win for the Oculus.
I really enjoyed my Vive but moving to the Rift w/ Touch has been a profound improvement in every way.
The touch controllers are dramatically better than the Vive. The thumbsticks are the reason I moved in the first place for the game I primarily play and I hate touchpads. The extra buttons and touch sensitive buttons are flat out more natural.
The lenses are far clearer and feel like a huge upgrade. There is more glaring but I'll take that over the rings of the Vive any day.
Much lighter HMD. More comfortable (and I had the deluxe audio strap). I like that there is an elastic element to the headstrap so you can pull the front of the HMD off your face and up onto your forehead with one hand easily. I am able to wear this for longer periods of time easily without noticing it as much as the Vive.
Access to the Oculus store on top of Steam is a bonus and I can hang out in my Oculus home instead of Steam Home if I want. I bought a second house.
There are cons. Valve's tracking system is superior but was jammed by having my remote controlled space heater in the room (the IR plate on the heater interfered with the Vive signals). But otherwise it is more capable overall I think. And more suited to a permanent room setup.
The con to the Rift is the tracking systems USB connections. If you get the full Touch kit you need three USB 3.0 ports (one for HMD, 2 for camera towers), 4 if you want a third camera. The problem is that they really saturate the bus and overload the controllers, adds latency to the tracking. I have a three month old computer with a top tier motherboard so I haven't had an issue but if you need to get a USB card there are specific ones to get and they are pricey.
The other con is the cost of extending cable length. The cables are all pretty short, surprisingly so in the case of the HMD. I think that is because it was originally designed to be a seated desk operation, and it does that very well. So you have to factor the cost of using active USB cables for the cameras and a usb and HDMI exension for the HMD, which will only go another 6ft. But in contrast, the Vive needs stands/poles/mounts for the lighthouses which add up too. It only supports drilling out of the box and that is unacceptable to me.
Overall I love it, and totally glad I made the switch. Nothing against the Vive, it is very good. But if you're considering buying at full retail it is no contest. You cannot even consider the Vive without the deluxe audio strap, so it is $700 vs $400. Easy win for the Oculus.