The HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift are two of the most noteworthy virtual reality headsets so far, and they are about to hit the shelves in a few months' time. Before they do, it's a good idea to read up and find out what they have in store to determine which one is the perfect gear for you.
Hardware Specifications
Each device sports an OLED display with a 2,160 x 1,200 resolution, which translates to 1,080 x 1,200 per eye, at a 90 Hz refresh rate, sharing the same 110-degree field of view.
Also, they both have a built-in mic, but for the integrated headphones, only the Oculus Rift is sure at this point. HTC promises that the Vive will be fitted with it too, though.
The difference lies in the tracking area, as the Oculus Rift measures at 5 x 11 feet while the HTC Vive at 15 x 15. Of course, they also have their own platforms: the Oculus Home for the former and the SteamVR for the latter.
System Requirements
This front is arguably the most important factor to consider because people will be able to determine whether or not their rigs can handle the virtual reality headset in question according to it.
They pretty much have the same requirements, where they both need at least an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or an AMD Radeon R9 290 and an Intel i5-4590 processor, but the HTC Vive also supports AMD FX 8350 or greater.
While the Oculus Rift demands 8 GB of RAM or more, the HTC Vive only needs 4 GB of RAM to work. Now, here's where it gets a little heavy on the demands: the former requires four USB ports, three of which should be USB 3.0, whereas the latter needs only one USB 2.0.
The HTC Vive requires at least an HDMI 1.4 or a DisplayPort 1.2 video output, while the Oculus Rift needs an HDMI 1.3. The two devices will only work with a Windows 7 SP1 or newer, where the Oculus Rift needs the 64-bit version of the compatible operating systems.
On that note, Oculus rolled out a compatibility tool to let Windows users check whether their computers can handle the Rift.
What's In The Box?
To start things off, the HTC Vive includes a head-mounted display equipped with front-facing cameras, two 360-degree tracking and movement sensors and two position-tracking controllers. It'll come with two games for a limited time: Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption.
On the other hand, the Oculus Rift will come with the headset itself, an Xbox One controller, an Oculus Remote and a desktop IR LED-tracking sensor. Just like the Vive, it'll arrive with two games as well: Eve: Valkyrie when it's preordered and Lucky's Tale.
It's also worth mentioning that the Oculus Touch controllers won't hit the shelves until mid-2016. That kind of limits the whole virtual reality experience for a while.
Apps Support
Despite the SteamVR platform, the HTC Vive pales in comparison to the Oculus Rift when it comes to games – during the first several months, at least. However, it'll become available alongside Google-developed Tilt Brush, Audioshield, Space Pirate Trainer and Hover Junkies. HTC also says there will be health and educational content and more productivity apps in the future.
The Rift will have Adrift to launch at the same time, and according to Oculus, there will be over 100 games before 2017 starts, including Minecraft, Rock Band VR, Chronos and The Climb, to name a few.
Features
In a way, the HTC Vive is more tech-forward than the Oculus Rift, as it brings Vive Phone Services to the table, allowing users to answer or decline calls and read and reply text messages while in the virtual reality world. On top of that, the SteamVR will work like the PC version of the platform, keeping content coordinated on both ends.
Now, the Oculus Rift gives users access to a community, allowing them to interact with other virtual reality enthusiasts.
Pricing And Availability
The Oculus Rift is already up for preorder with a price tag of $599 and an expected shipping date of July 2016. The company is also offering what it calls Oculus Ready bundles, where their prices range from $1,499 to over $3,000. They're also available for preorder now.
The HTC Vive can be preordered starting on Feb. 29 for a heftier cost of $799 and is believed to ship out in early April 2016.
Bottom Line
The Oculus Rift is clearly the more affordable choice between the two, and it seems that it'll have more games moving forward. However, each one of them has their own features to offer, making them both good picks for an immersive virtual reality experience.
Long story short, there's no apparent winner as of right now, but users will likely be able to make their choices with the current outlined details.
