BY CHRISTIAN GUYTONVR has come a long way. Some would argue it’s not quite there yet (some members of the
Maximum PC team, in particular), but it’s hard to deny that the platform has made leaps
and bounds in the past few years. Since Palmer Luckey broke the mold with the original
Oculus Rift, several competitors have emerged, most prominently HTC’s Vive and the more
recent Valve Index. Oculus hasn’t been resting on its laurels, though, and tethered VR clearly
isn’t dead—but which model out right now is the best for you? Let’s break it down....Oculus Rift S vs. HTC Vive
Cosmos vs. Valve Index
Controllers
All three VR platforms come with
excellent, high-quality controllers.
All have proper motion controls and
similar button layouts, and the Rift S
and Cosmos both utilize “inside-out”
tracking systems that use cameras
mounted on the headset itself to track
the controllers. Full finger-tracking
is a feature touted by the Valve Index,
the only one to have controllers that
properly wrap around the hand.
The controllers on the Oculus Rift S
are particularly nice, using touch
sensors on the buttons to simulate
proper finger-tracking to reasonable
effect. The number of games that use
finger-tracking is relatively small,
though, so it’s unclear if this really
gives the Index an edge. A few titles
(such as Valve’s Aperture Hand Labs
tech demo) show it off nicely, to be fair.
In practice, we favor the Rift S
controllers. The Cosmos controllers
are very similar in design, but don’t
sit as comfortably in the hand, and are
a bit heavier. The Rift S controllers
are the lightest, but the buttons and
triggers still feel firm and responsive.
The Vive and Rift controllers both look
a lot nicer than the weird, jagged Index
knuckle controllers, too. Another win
for Oculus, then.Winner: Oculus Rift SValue
Despite its ludicrous $999 price, the
Index sold out incredibly fast. Valve
restocked, of course, but with Half-
Life: Alyx looming on the horizon, it
sold out again. The price has dropped
somewhat since then, though, bringing
it more in line with the $699 Vive
Cosmos. The Rift S, though, clocks in
at $399, feeling almost ridiculously
cheap in comparison.
That significantly lower price doesn’t
come with any huge drawbacks either.
Yes, the Rift S is the oldest of these
three headsets, and it has a slightly
lower resolution, but it still performs
perfectly well when paired with a good
VR-ready PC. The Rift S also has the
lowest refresh rate of the trio, but only
by a small margin. In a sense, you get
what you pay for when it comes to VR,
but the Rift S is undeniably good value.
That’s not to say that the others
are poor value for money, but paying
more than 500 bucks for a VR solution
in a market where all the big players
are broadly comparable isn’t a great
proposition. Both the Index and the
Cosmos were criticized on release for
being overly expensive, and as long as
there are eminently affordable options
(such as Sony’s best-selling PSVR),
those criticisms will remain valid.Winner: Oculus Rift SDesign
When we say “design,” we’re not just
talking about aesthetics here. If we
were, the winner would be the Rift S
again; the Valve Index is pretty fugly
compared to the other two, with the
Rift S looking sleek and smooth in
black, while HTC’s latest headset is a
truly sci-fi piece of hardware.
The Index might look weird and
chunky, but the design extends beyond
mere aesthetic value; in fact, given that
you’ll be strapping your chosen headset
over your face, we would go so far as
to say that appearance is irrelevant.
Design extends to extraneous features
like earphones; the Index is equipped
with a pair of near-field speakers
that are strapped to the headband,
hanging just out of reach of your ears.
It’s a great design choice; zero contact
means that extended sessions won’t
get uncomfortable, and the directional
audio quality is phenomenal without
cutting off all outside sound altogether.
The Cosmos headphones press
against the ear, potentially making
for sweaty lobes, while the Rift S has
tiny built-in speakers that don’t really
measure up. Add in the high build
quality of the Index (the cushioning is
excellent, and the entire headset feels
durable) and it’s a clear win for Valve.Winner: Valve IndexROUND 1 ROUND 2 ROUND 3
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20 MAXIMUMPC MAR 2020 maximumpc.com