Confessions of a VR addict.

Black Friday was a bit of a bust this year. A lot of things on sale, unfortunately not much that I really wanted or needed. Maybe that is why I did the unthinkable in late 2018 and jumped on the HTC Vive Pro full system (with Light House 2.0 base stations and controllers) when it’s price fell a paltry $200 CDN, or maybe I am just crazy.

Just to recap, the Vive Pro launched earlier this year but was immediately criticized for its high price relative to competitors. It also, at first glance, did not appear to really bring anything new or groundbreaking to the VR experience while simultaneously demanding the very highest of high-end hardware to run properly. In short, it came bearing all the ingredients of a sales flop. At the end of 2018, we also have rumours swirling of a Rift-S (Oculus’s apparent take on the “Pro” formula), the Pimax 5K+/8K and even a mysterious Valve HMD prototype potentially on the way in the new year so, just to get this out of the way, if you are wondering if this impression will end with a buy recommendation the answer is a resounding no.

That being said, I think the Vive Pro is terrific. Here is why.

SteamVR

Native SteamVR with a fully supported/integrated HMD oh how I have missed you! This is why I picked up another Vive after years living with an Oculus Rift and Samsung Odyssey (WMR) headsets.

Back in 2016, at the dawn of the modern VR era while my friends were still anxiously checking their inboxes for shipping notifications from Oculus, I was already unboxing and enjoying my original HTC Vive in SteamVR. A lot has changed since then (SteamVR is a lot less buggy for one thing and I am playing a lot less Hover Junkers) but it is certainly refreshing to be able to experience SteamVR without jumping through any of the extra steps accompanying using either an Oculus Rift or WMR headset.

On top of that, I am a bit of a game hoarder collector so being able to have (almost) all my neglected pancake games in the same place as my glorious VR collection is rather nice. As a long time Oculus user though, the majority of my VR purchases remain in Home, but since I feel like the vast majority of those titles were one time play-through type experiences which I have already enjoyed, I am not too upset about that.

It is amazing how the slightest bit of extra friction with regards to booting into VR can make such a profound difference in what we play. Over time, the convenience of dropping my Rift on my head and choosing from my Home native collection meant that I had unintentionally forsaken some SteamVR only games such as The Talos Principle, The Forest, Pavlov VR and Everspace. Games that in most cases provided exactly what I (and most VR fans) have been clamouring for big, full featured experiences. Even the big names that I went out of my way for such as Fallout 4 VR, Skyrim VR and Project Cars 2 always occupied a different tier of convenience in my mind when compared to Home native ones. Even though I could have played these games all along, I didn’t and if my own (and that the entirety of my VR friend list) experience is to be believed I am not alone in this.

The truth is, while there is no hard obstacle to enjoying VR games launched from Steam in another headset, whether they have OpenVR or Oculus SDK support. They can be added to Home or quick launched from the Windows MR Cliffhouse environment quite easily. Yet there is something about the storefront experience that guided my purchasing/playing hands as surely as a horse with blinders on. Some VR users are not as susceptible to this issue as the huge followings of ReVive and the frequent attestations of some Rift owners who buy their multi-headset titles on Steam to avoid platform lock-in proves. This message is to the VR fans who, perhaps over time, found themselves gravitating entirely to one storefront or the other, be it Home or Steam, even just for the sake of novelty try and breakout. In both cases, the grass IS greener on the other side.

[Side note on “Eco-Systems”:

It has always kind of bothered me about how the Oculus Rift receives plenty of praise for the smoothness of setup and use as it is a closed eco-system, meanwhile quite a few Rift and Windows Mixed Reality users pan Steam for being a bit more finicky. The fairer comparison would be to compare Oculus Home when used with a Rift and SteamVR when used with a Vive as well as Oculus Home when used with a Vive or Windows MR headset through ReVive and SteamVR when used with an Oculus Rift or Windows MR headset as this would provide the truest comparison regarding ease of use. The only exception would be that Steam does promise to support other VR headsets while both the Windows store and Oculus Home do not, but avoiding the difficulty of wide ranging support by choice is hardly a choice that should be praised.]

The Hardware Itself

The actual Vive Pro hardware is nice. The screens are nice and do provide a substantial bump up in detail compared to the original Vive and Oculus Rift no matter what people would have you believe elsewhere, although a lot of their attractiveness has been usurped by the Samsung Odyssey/Odyssey+ in the interim since it launched (see my own Odyssey+ impressions here). The Vive wands remain adequate and, now that it is clear that the fabled Valve Knuckles controllers will not launch this year, I think it is safe to say for Vive users the lack of a controller update is 2018’s biggest disappointment. I do, somewhat surprisingly, prefer them to the Windows Mixed Reality controllers because of their haptics and superior tracking but the Oculus Rift’s Touch controllers remain preferable.

Regarding comfort, this was a pleasant surprise (especially after wrangling with the Samsung Odyssey+ last month) but the Vive Pro is quite comfortable. I found it outdid even the PSVR in this regard as I could wear it basically indefinitely without issue. Meanwhile, the headphones reached down to my ears with ease and provided full and convenience coverage. It really is just the little things that make all the difference.

Finally, enough has been said online about SteamVR’s tracking and how it compares to its contemporaries so I will not dive too deep here. I will however say that coming out of VR and never knowing which direction I will be facing almost always bring a smile to my face and only the Vive/Vive Pro have ever delivered that level of immersion to my experiences.

[Side note: I am extremely excited to try out the wireless adapter! They were out of stock when I ordered so I will be looking at picking that up in the new year.]

Impressions Relative to the Current State of VR

It’s the end of the year and all eyes have turned towards the future. Pimax reviews are coming out little by little as the headsets find their way into new owners hands. Valve have tipped their hand that something new is, at the very least, being worked on. Even Oculus had to (apparently) finally relent on their super ambitious and long way out CV2 plans and replace it with plans to launch something sooner rather than later. All of this casts a large shadow over the Vive Pro.

It was just over a year ago that HTC teased us with this image:

A year ago my expectations upon seeing this were in danger or running absolutely wild. Nearly a full year on, I can now conclude that HTC delivered almost exactly what I wanted and expected coming into 2018 with an overabundance of hope, expectation and anticipation for VR’s progress. A solid generation 1.5 refresh.

Unfortunately they did it at a price so laughably high that I did not even consider picking one up until the end of the year, which ultimately is just too late.

But there is a new year about to start so here’s to 2019 and all the hope, expectations and anticipation for VR’s progress all over again!