VR / AR Gaming Headset FAQ (Virtual Reality Gaming)

Madmick

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A poster asked about minimum require PC specifications required to run the Vive/Oculus in another thread, and in the process of answering him, I ended up building this post, and I figured it would be a great primer, so I decided to give it its own OP.

Resident poster @MusterX is a VR enthusiast, and has composed a wonderful post on the topic. I have copied that post to this thread. Here is a direct link to it:
MusterX > The HTC Vive, Lighthouses, and the 5 Best VR Experiences Currently Available

We have five major products competing in this market (not counting Google Cardboard). My initial focus was on the minimum required specifications to run the two PC-based products: HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Because explaining how to understand processing performance is a bit complicated I'll just recommend using UserBenchmark to verify where your critical PC components stand (your GPU is your video card, btw):
CPU rankings: http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/
For the CPU, I would suggest you rank by "Effective Speed" (or "QC Mixed Avg") to assess where your PC's processor stands. "MC Mixed Avg" is technically the most accurate measurement of a processor's overall power, but can be misleading if you don't understand what that conveys.

GPU rankings : http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/
For the GPU, "Effective 3D Speed" is your ranking metric.

@jefferz pointed out in another thread that Steam has an upcoming new benchmark to help you automatically if your PC is adequate to meet required specifications for smooth playback of a minimum spec scenario, or an optimally powered scenario:
Steam > VRMark Preview

This website appears to be the best growing resource devoted to the VR niche:
http://www.vrheads.com/
bGlRLIVV.jpg


IGN > Comparison Chart of Playstation VR vs. Oculus Rift vs. HTC Vive
Here's Amazon's latest comparison chart:
Q5f3r3L.png


Note that for "Field of View" specs I used the following reference, as it varies depending on your eyes' distance from the glasses, and not the official specs such as you would see on Wikipedia or the Amazon chart below that hold no context (ex. for all but mine you will see 110º quoted as the official spec for the HTC Vive). Another example of context is that for the GearVR these guys point out that larger phones will boast a wider field of view due to the sheer virtue of their larger physical dimension:
Field of view face-off: Rift vs Vive vs Gear VR vs PSVR
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Microsoft has announced plans for an upcoming Windows 10 VR Headset platform, including the minimum required specs, but they haven't released any final renders of the product's appearance or confirmed the final specifications for production. We do have some early takes from the usual suspects (Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc)
Acer
hZVURiDqU5cwdowPXukFNF-650-80.jpg



Dell
sejWQAKpR6k2Nhd3f5gYpF-650-80.jpg



HP
EWzbUYrnyyrw7doozdjY9G-650-80.jpg



Lenovo
DAfzZ3kqk6CQsPNhXUWWYE-650-80.jpg



Blubur S1
P7M4DzSh8Y6pomcsU6vK9G-650-80.jpg



HTC Vive (SteamVR)
http://www.vive.com/us/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/
pu5ifTlVkjJTmUnb.medium

  • MSRP = $799
  • VR Product Specifications:
    • 2 x 3.61" OLED, 2160 x 1200 [1080 x 1200 per eye]
    • 90Hz refresh rate
    • ~145º field of view (100º horizontal, 110º vertical)
    • Tracking Area: 15 x 15 feet (225 sq ft)
    • Lacks Built-in 3D Audio
  • Controller:
    • SteamVR Controller aka "Vive Wands" [x2 included]
    • Any PC-compatible Gamepad (ex. Steam Controller, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Dualshock 4, Dualshock 3, etc.)
  • Minimum recommended system specs:
    • CPU >>> Intel i5-4590 or AMD FX-8350 CPU
    • GPU >>> NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD R9 290
    • RAM >>> 4GB (DDR3-1333 recommended minimum speed)
    • Video >> HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2
    • USB >>> USB 2.0
    • OS >>>> Windows 7 (SP1+)
  • Software Platform:
    • SteamVR
  • A joint project between Valve and HTC with Valve probably focusing on the software development and HTC focusing on hardware design & manufacturing. Offers native Unity support. Epic Games also opened Unreal Engine 4 for development on the platform.
  • The tide of early reviews indicate this product is probably the hardware king of VR. Content, pricing, and marketing strategy will ultimately win this war, but the word is that it offers the best raw hardware capability & overall experience in demos.

Facebook Oculus Rift
https://www.oculus.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/
dk2-product.jpg

  • MSRP = $599
  • VR Product Specifications:
    • 2 x 3.54" OLED Displays, 2160 x 1200 [1080 x 1200 per eye]
    • 90Hz refresh rate
    • ~120º field of view (80º horizontal, 90º vertical)
    • Tracking Area: 5 x 11 feet (55 sq ft)
    • Built-in 3D Audio
  • Controller:
    • Oculus Touch
    • Microsoft Xbox One gamepad [x1 included]
  • Minimum Recommended System Specifications:
    • CPU >>> Intel i3-6100 or AMD FX-4350 CPU
    • GPU >>> NVIDIA GTX 960 or AMD R9 290
    • RAM >>> 8GB (DDR3-1333 recommended minimum speed)
    • Video >> HDMI 1.3
    • USB >>> 1 x USB 3.0 + 2 x USB 2.0
    • OS >>>> Windows 10 64-bit
    • Official Setup Checklist & Minimum Specs Reddit
  • Software Platform:
    • OculusVR
  • Not SLI/Crossfire compatible
  • I have seen a Reddit that indicates that Valve has opened up its own Vive Wand controller code to the Oculus and the rest of the VR world, and that all Oculus games should work with their controllers, but I am unable to verify if this is true, and if it is true how stable and reliable the experience is.
  • The original VR project that set the tech world ablaze, born from a Kickstarter campaign, that quickly drew the involvement of legendary game developer John Carmack before subsequently wooing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who initially offered investment capital, then later decided he liked the project so much that he bought it outright. Nevertheless, the project has also been beset by the political drama surrounding the antics of Palmer Luckey.

Sony Playstation VR
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/playstation-vr/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PSVR/
Poster @DoMeFavors started the official PSVR thread with more details here:

PlayStation VR, PSVR Official Launch Thread - PSVR, Games, Accessories, Discussion
PlayStation-VR-2.jpg

  • MSRP = $399
  • VR Production Specifications:
    • 5.7" OLED, 1920x1080 [960 x RGB x 1080 per eye]*
    • 120Hz (can also run @90Hz mode)
    • ~100º field of view
    • Tracking Area: 5.7 x 7.2 feet (41 sq ft)
    • Built-in 3D Audio
  • Controller:
    • Sony Playstation Move Controllers
    • Sony Dualshock 4
  • Minimum Recommended System Specifications:
    • Sony Playstation 4 (must include Playstation Camera)
  • Software Platform:
    • Playstation 4 OS
  • Sony has worked some software magic to enable a "Cinema Mode" which allows for VR simulation using the headset for movies and non-VR games. There are three simulated screen size settings:
    • 117"
    • 163"
    • 226"
  • You may also now view 360 degree photos via USB flash drives or media device.
  • Note: While it will run on the baseline version this product is intended for the Sony PS4 Pro 1TB ($399) console upgrade.
  • *The "RGB" is an indication that there are three sub-pixels for every pixel in the VR display. Sony claims this is why their display is crisper than the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift despite their headset sporting a lower resolution.


Samsung Gear VR
http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-vr/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GearVR/
gear-vr-virtual-reality-headset-e1459342345980.png


Google Daydream View VR
https://vr.google.com/daydream/
https://www.reddit.com/r/daydream/
google-daydream-view.jpg

  • MSRP = $79
  • VR Product Specifications:
    • 5.0" - 5.5* OLED, 2560 x 1440 [1280 x 1440 per eye]**
    • 60Hz refresh rate
    • ~90º field of view
  • Controller:
    • Daydream Controller [x1 included]
  • Daydream-Ready Smartphones:
  • Google's announced partners for future "Daydream-ready" phones:
    • HTC
    • LG
    • Xiaomi
    • ZTE
    • Alcatel
  • Software Platform:
    • Google Daydream VR (requires Android 7.0+)
  • All of the "Daydream-ready" phones announced so far run on Android 7.0+ and use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820+ chipset (Adreno 530 GPU).
  • Optimized for Google Pixel phones at launch which are the first "official" Daydream-ready phones.
  • Generally speaking, if it's not a 2016 Android flagship, then it probably won't meet minimum specifications required. There are reports that Google asked developers to begin development using the Huawei Nexus 6P, so users on phones with 2015's flagship Android chipset, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, might hold hope if their phones also get an Android Nougat 7.0 firmware upgrade. Other high-end ARM mobile chipset manufactures like Samsung (Exynos), Mediatek (Helio), and Huawei (HiSilicon Kirin) will probably see support trickle in over the coming year for their most powerful chipsets.
  • This product was announced just a few days ago on October 4th at their "Made by Google" event, and appears to be an upgraded approach to their barebones "Cardboard" vehicle for using the latest Android-powered flagship smartphones to power the VR experience. As such, it competes most directly with the GearVR.
  • **the display size varies depending on the phone being used; keep in mind this should also be true of the resolution, and also display type, since non-Samsung Android manufacturers also make IPS screens. I've seen some speculate that 4K is an intended target in the next year, but that seems extremely unlikely until the phones are significantly more powerful, and we're not getting there in a year.


A few pertinent articles from VRHead:
VRheads > HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift: Which should you buy?
VRheads > First Comparison: Google Daydream View vs. Samsung GearVR
 
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My personal concern with VR is wondering how prepared they are to generate content, or how much more cost-intensive it is to churn out. Garbage mobile gaming is already gobbling up so much developmental budgeting and talent. One article I read involved the new Batman Arkham VR, written by a journalist who was a huge fan of the series and intimately familiar with every title in it, and he said he came off disappointed because he thought more of the game's mechanics would be part of the demo, but it was clearly more of a movie-like presentation "experience". He also said that even Rocksteady was promising a campaign with 1 hour of content. Rocksteady CEO has said that players can unlock up to an additional 90min of gameplay-- let's assume it is fetch-grinding. Here was that article, via Polygon, from June:
What it's like being Batman in virtual reality

Additionally, there has been rumblings all year about the industry upping the MSRP on AAA games (which they've been itching to do for a long time) from $60 to as much as $100. Inflation is real and unrelenting, so they're always looking for the least tumultuous opportunity to kick up sales prices to keep stride. Make no mistake. They're going to do their damn best to use VR gaming as the pretense to facilitate this inflation.
 
giant bomb played almost 6 hours of psvr stuff the other day.
Jeff Gerstman got super sick from the batman thing, the tracking was real bad. Juddering, drifting mess.
Hopefully they just got a bunch of bad units, because that shit did not look fun.
Some of the games look good though.
http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/playstation-vr-pre-launch-special/2300-11623/

Oh, and they're doing another stream of all the games they didn't get their hands on pre-launch on the 13th.
It's not on their upcoming calendar thing yet, so don't know what time it starts.
 
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The Oculus dropped their specs

  • Nvidia 960 or greater (down from Nvidia GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater)
  • Intel i3-6100 / AMD FX4350 or greater (down from Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater)
  • 8GB+ RAM (same)
  • Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output (same)
  • 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 (change from 2x USB 3.0 ports)
  • Windows 8 or newer (change from Windows 7 SP1 or newer)
The new spec is thanks to a technology called Asynchronous Spacewarp, allowing systems to deliver a stable 45 frames per second, while the ASW technology effectively doubles that and fills in the gaps. That means smooth VR running on cheaper hardware. Here it is:

http://www.polygon.com/virtual-reality/2016/10/6/13189600/oculus-rift-minimum-spec
 
The Oculus dropped their specs

  • Nvidia 960 or greater (down from Nvidia GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater)
  • Intel i3-6100 / AMD FX4350 or greater (down from Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater)
  • 8GB+ RAM (same)
  • Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output (same)
  • 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 (change from 2x USB 3.0 ports)
  • Windows 8 or newer (change from Windows 7 SP1 or newer)
The new spec is thanks to a technology called Asynchronous Spacewarp, allowing systems to deliver a stable 45 frames per second, while the ASW technology effectively doubles that and fills in the gaps. That means smooth VR running on cheaper hardware. Here it is:

http://www.polygon.com/virtual-reality/2016/10/6/13189600/oculus-rift-minimum-spec
Ah, good catch. For a moment I thought you were talking about the bare minimum specs as listed on their official Reddit page when I'm trying to list the recommended minimum specs here. I had a tense moment where I hit the "back" button and thought I lost this whole post, but it just reverted to a few minutes earlier. I must have missed re-editing the Oculus after I'd used the Vive template to set up all the VR's below as I was composing it. That explains why the RAM only stood at 4GB. Double checked, and the RAM minimum is still listed as 8GB for the Oculus.
*Edit* Whoops, almost missed the OS difference, too. Oculus doesn't play well with Windows 7. :oops:

Fixed. I'll attach the official Reddit, too.
 
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Ah, good catch. For a moment I thought you were talking about the bare minimum specs as listed on their official Reddit page when I'm trying to list the recommended minimum specs here. I had a tense moment where I hit the "back" button and thought I lost this whole post, but it just reverted to a few minutes earlier. I must have missed re-editing the Oculus after I'd used the Vive template to set up all the VR's below as I was composing it. That explains why the RAM only stood at 4GB. Double checked, and the RAM minimum is still listed as 8GB for the Oculus.

Fixed. I'll attach the official Reddit, too.

They've got my interest now. I was at the lower end of the acceptable CPU's, a 3570k, but if this works as advertised I should be ok with what I have. I was waiting for the generation after Kaby or possibly Zen to get into VR, but I may take the dive now.
 
Very good demo I know a lot of people dislike facebook but Mark really loves VR and you can tell by the way he reacts to it. They are also working on a stand alone or wireless headset with considerable amounts of processing. They are also working on a competitor to Magic Leap headset and recently hired people away from a lab that had worked on Magic Leap technology to work on the new headset.

 
Great post. As someone who is thinking about getting into VR (and pc gaming in general), there's a lot of useful stuff here. I'll definitely be keeping tabs on it. Thanks for putting in the time here.
 
Thanks for the time and effort of putting all the info together, I've been thinking about buying one of these headsets.
 
I read yesterday that you can use the PlayStation vr as a monitor for Xbox.
 
What's this google cardboard thing? Is that a joke or is it real?

The Batman Arkham game is only an hour? Seriously?

A colleague of mine picked up PlayStation VR on Thursday. Said he puked after an hour of some game called Rigs
 
What's this google cardboard thing? Is that a joke or is it real?

The Batman Arkham game is only an hour? Seriously?

A colleague of mine picked up PlayStation VR on Thursday. Said he puked after an hour of some game called Rigs
Cardboard is real. It's the same as the headsets you slide your phone in except googles is made of cardboard.
Coding for vr is a lot more work than a normal game.
 
there is another thats no on there, i bet the StarVR will kill all

HTC seems still the best option
 
there is another thats no on there, i bet the StarVR will kill all

HTC seems still the best option


Oculus new controllers do a better job in VR then the HTC controllers. I have friends who develop for both platforms. The thing is its easier though to make HTC portable VS Oculus. Oculus is working on two things one is a wireless headset and high speed wireless communications. Other is two 2K displays and 110 degree FOV. They want to make the headsets wireless and add cameras on them to handle augmented reality via overlay of the outside world VS just transparently. They want to be able to realtime map the world and then convert it into a 3D representation in future versions.

SSP_876.0.jpg


Wireless headset current version. Big features inside out motion tracking using Hololens inside out world maping technology. It puts a decent high powered CPU and GPU and mount it on the back of the headset.


http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/6/13178960/oculus-midrange-standalone-vr-prototype
 
Oculus new controllers do a better job in VR then the HTC controllers. I have friends who develop for both platforms. The thing is its easier though to make HTC portable VS Oculus. Oculus is working on two things one is a wireless headset and high speed wireless communications. Other is two 2K displays and 110 degree FOV. They want to make the headsets wireless and add cameras on them to handle augmented reality via overlay of the outside world VS just transparently. They want to be able to realtime map the world and then convert it into a 3D representation in future versions.

SSP_876.0.jpg


Wireless headset current version. Big features inside out motion tracking using Hololens inside out world maping technology. It puts a decent high powered CPU and GPU and mount it on the back of the headset.


http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/6/13178960/oculus-midrange-standalone-vr-prototype


isn the HTC getting a new controller set as well? AKA a power glove
 
I pre-ordered the oculus touch controllers so we will see
 
I read yesterday that you can use the PlayStation vr as a monitor for Xbox.

It is possible, but you still need a PS4 sitting next to the xbox because the PSVR processing unit requires a USB connection to a PS4 that is turned on.

Basically the PSVR thinks it's connected to a PS4 but the HDMI input is coming from the Xbox instead of the PS4
 
Went to pick up my ps4 headset I had preordered and they don't have enough to cover their pre orders. SMH
 
isn the HTC getting a new controller set as well? AKA a power glove
Yeah, they showed off prototypes at the recent valve dev days. It looks real weird.
There are also open source project for various tracked objects starting to show up too. I imagine some third party will have knee and elbow tracking before long.
 
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