HTC is clearly using predictive
algorithms to take its best guess at
where your hands are should they
leave the camera’s field of view, and
those guesses aren’t always great.
When you’re playing sports games
like VR Baseball, you don’t really
want the controller to suddenly
disappear then reappear after the
ball has slid past home plate.
Where the less precise tracking
does work, however, is with games
that require your hands to be in
front of you. Space Pirate Trainer,
one of the original hits of HTC Vive,
plays absolutely fine on the Cosmos
with inside-out tracking, as does
Beat Saber. That’s because, while
your hand might occasionally drift
outside the camera’s field-of-view
in these games, they don’t require
pixel-perfect tracking.
Switching to the HTC Vive
Cosmos Elite is a significant
upgrade – especially in terms of
tracking. Like the original Vive,
the Cosmos Elite uses wall-
mountable base stations called
‘lighthouses’ that track the
controllers and the headset. This
allows for room-scale play with
more accurate tracking.
Games worked much better on
the Cosmos Elite than they did on
the base Cosmos, and look better
here than they do on the Oculus
Rift S. In fact, they’re pretty sharp
on the 3K screen. There’s limited
screen door effect – though it’s
there if you look for it – and at
90Hz, it’s fairly comfortable to play
for long periods. That said, how the
games perform in terms of latency,
ultimately, will depend on which
graphics card you’re using. You
should definitely try to stay within
the recommended specs if possible.A unique design that allows you
to upgrade, but even the Cosmos
Elite can’t beat the Valve Index.eyes left or right, you’ll see black
edges to the picture, which isn’t
great for immersion. However,
there’s almost no light leakage
around the nose, so it’s not all bad.
As for the headband itself, HTC
decided to use a traditional halo
design with a top velcro strap, and
a wheel at the back that tightens
and loosens the headset. The result
is very front-heavy and puts most
of the pressure on your forehead,
and can feel slightly unwieldy.
All the HMDs in the Cosmos
family can be lifted up to see the
world around you without having
to take the whole headset off.
Similarly, the headset’s two
front-facing cameras feature a
passthrough mode that can be
accessed in any game or app.
A set of connectors runs from a
connector box to your PC – the
Cosmos has to be tethered to your
PC, unless you buy a Vive Wireless
Adapter. On your PC you’ll need a
spare USB 3.0 port, plus a
Displayport for the headset. The
connector box also needs its own
power supply, so make sure you
have a plug bar handy.
Controllers
Compared to the original all-black
Vive Controllers, the Vive Cosmos
Controller has a light up ring that
encircles the face buttons and
gives the front of the controller a
bit of heft. The buttons include
the standard set from an Xbox
One gamepad, but also two
concave control sticks, a grip
button and both a bumper and
a trigger. It’s probably the most
complicated controller we’ve seen
in VR – at least in terms of total
buttons – and that can make it
tricky to handle.
You’ll need two AA batteries
for each controller, but the
Cosmos seems to optimise theamount of battery life it gets from
its power source, and seems to
last a few weeks without needing
new ones.Performance
Let’s talk about what the Cosmos
experience is like with the six-
camera inside-out tracking
faceplate. This is the one you get
with the headset if you buy the
base package, and the one you’ll
probably see most often in stores
and online. With the six-camera
tracking faceplate, the Vive Cosmos
can work in almost any room that
has enough light, without having to
hang tracking units on your wall.
If you’d expect it to be less-than-
flawless given the placement of the
cameras, however, you’d be right –“The result is very front-heavy, puts pressure on
your forehead, and can feel slightly unwieldy”
Upgrade
HTC Vive Cosmos and Elite
May 2020 | |^67
Recommended specs
What your PC will need
CPU Intel i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350
or greater
RAM 8GB
GPU Nvidia GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon
RX 480 or greater
OS Windows 10
Video output 1 x Displayport 1.2
Connections 1 x USB 3.0