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Oculus Rift Review: Virtual Reality is Almost Here
In what can be seen as a major milestone in the nascent, but fast-evolving virtual reality technology space, Facebook-owned Oculus on Monday began shipping the commercial version of the Rift. Several technology publications have posted their reviews of the Oculus Rift. The Verge, for instance, says: The high cost of buying and running high-end VR headsets makes them inaccessible to many people, and the Rift in particular is relentlessly focused on gaming. Within these limitations, though, the Rift makes a good case for seated VR, and it lays a solid foundation for what's to come. The headset you can buy today is not Oculus' most ambitious vision for virtual reality -- but it's a vision that Oculus has successfully delivered on. The publication has given the Rift a score of 8 out of 10, noting that the retail price of the Rift, and the accompanying gaming PC, is a tad too expensive. It also found the lack of motion controls a weakness. Cnet writes: You simply must try the Oculus Rift. It's breathtaking. I just wouldn't buy one right now -- and there's no reason you should feel the need to, either (especially with its arch-rival, the HTC Vive, also just days away). The longer you wait to buy, the better it will get. This is just day one for Oculus -- and for the future of virtual reality.
I've been trying to figure out which to buy: The Oculus or the Vive. Note: I have no personal experience of either so this is all about info just gleaned from reviews ete. I really hope to try both before I place an order but I have a feeling it wontt be easy.
The Vive is about $100 more expensive but it seems well worth it for the difference, since it can also support standing up and moving around, and also comes with VR controllers. Yes I'm presuming the seated experience is as good as the Oculus, which is pretty important since I'm guessing that will actually be the most commonly used scenario, but having the option to stand up and move around would be nice.
The BIG decision factor for me is that Oculus is primarily targetting Windows only, with Linux support at best being an afterthought (they announced several months ago that they have put their Linux dev effort on hold)
Linux support remains a core goal to the Vive team.
That alone would be enough for me to STRONGLY favour the Vive over the Oculus.
My fear/expectation is that most windows game developers will stupidly only support oculus not vive, because they consider it the "de facto" VR headset, even if it it is more limited/not as good as the vive.