Ease of Use
As much as we like the Valve Index, it
isn’t going to win this section. Oculus
and HTC have been in the VR game for
a while now, and they’ve learned from
their mistakes; in this case, it’s the
introduction of inside-out tracking
that really leaves the Index in the dust.
You’ve still got to set up base stations
around your room, and enter the floor
height of the room you’re playing in,
then use the controllers to mark the
four corners of the room, then have
Steam on your PC calculate a usable
play area.... It’s a convoluted process
that feels outdated and clunky.
The Rift S, however, simply shows
you a spooky gray-tinted video feed
of your surroundings using the
external cameras, and has you paint
out a play area using one of the
controllers. It takes seconds, and the
boundaries fade in unobtrusively if you
get too close to the edges.
The Vive Cosmos is almost as good,
automatically mapping out walls and
corners in your play area to use as
markers. It takes even less time
than the Rift S, but it’s not infallible;
if the exterior cameras lose track of
the controllers, it takes frustratingly
long to reorient them, and low lighting
conditions can prove ruinous.Winner: Oculus Rift SPerformance
It’s difficult to benchmark tethered
VR headsets, as they rely on a PC to
power the games. Were we comparing
standalone headsets, like the Oculus
Quest, which use a headset-integrated
processor, this category would likely
be easier. As it stands, we’re going to
have to look at some other elements.
Eye display resolution first: The
Oculus Rift S loses out straight away,
with 1280x1440 per eye (or 2560x1440
total), while the Index and Vive Cosmos
have 1440x1600 and 1440x1700 per eye
respectively. The shift in resolution is
noticeable between the Rift S and the
other two, but the Index and Cosmos
are pretty much indistinguishable.
The Index’s two displays also have
a leg up over the competition in two
important areas: refresh rate and field
of view. While the Rift S and Cosmos
sit at 80Hz and 90Hz respectively, the
Index packs a mighty 120Hz refresh
rate, with an experimental 144Hz
mode for some games. It can make a
notable difference, although broadly
speaking, as long as it remains above
80Hz, it shouldn’t interrupt gameplay
immersion. Lastly, the Index has
an effective maximum FOV of 130
degrees—significantly more than the
other headsets, which are around 110.Winner: Valve IndexWe have to hand it to Facebook,
it knew what it was doing when it
bought Oculus in 2014. The VR giant
has come a long way since the original
Kickstarter campaign for the first Rift
prototype, constantly at the forefront
of what makes VR great.
It’s true, the Rift S might be the
least powerful piece of hardware on
show here, but it’s not enough for a
VR headset to simply have the latest
eye displays. It has to be affordable,
and it has to have the support of
developers. Oculus was the first on
the scene to modern VR, garnering it
a decent chunk of the market right off
the bat, and the company has kept as
much of that as it could.
Yes, the Valve Index is the high-end
VR headset right now. The quality of
the headset itself is undeniable, and
anyone who says that Half-Life: Alyx
will be best experienced on a different
platform is kidding themselves. But
the Rift S is far better value, much
easier to use, and when it comes
down to it, the VR experience is much
the same regardless of your choice of
headset. All we’d advise is getting a
good pair of earphones.And the
Winner Is...
ROUND 4 ROUND 5
From left to right: The Oculus Rift S
is the ultimate evolution of the
groundbreaking original Rift.
HTC’s latest headset can be fitted
with a wireless adapter.
The Valve Index is the newest here.©^
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maximumpc.com MAR 2020 MAXIMUMPC 21