Gadgetory

what's up prizefighters this is the first ever virtual reality prize fight where the rules have changed and anything is possible this surprise five punch-out between oculus rift and the HTC vive your prize fight judges are senior editor Scott Stein senior editor Sean Hollister and you know who really guns Inc Tom we'll pick a winner each round in this five round showdown first round is immersion put on either riff survive and you're instantly taken away to new worlds and environments it's glorious now you'll never get VR until you actually get inside a VR experience they both look great and sound great but you won't really be able to call out any significant visual differences that favor one or the other what makes the vive more immersive right now is that you can freely walk around in VR by walking around your actual living room that's important the vibes current controllers allow you to interact more naturally in VR space with two Wiimote like wands that allow you to grab things compared to being tied down to the rifts Xbox one controller that really limits the impact and feels more like your plane and Xbox game with goggles the judges agree round one goes to the vibe next up is comfort if you're wearing a headset it needs to feel good and there are differences between these two contenders the oculus rift just feels better because it's lighter in weight you're tethered by a single cord and flip-down headphones are built into the design so it's a very self-contained piece the HTC vive is larger in size and awkwardly just front heavy it's not a deal-breaker but you can tell the difference when you're comparing the two the vibes three piece cable setup can also get more tangled and then putting on separate headphones on top of the headset plus battling those head straps means it just isn't as comfortable as the rift oculus takes around to next round is the interaction this one's pretty much a no-brainer it's the briefs Xbox game controller versus the vibes one light controlled that let you grab and interact with things instead of pressing buttons on a gamepad the vibe allows you to act more naturally and this is the biggest difference between these two platforms right now see oculus is working on something better with their touch controls it's a whole different ballgame I've used them and they're really as close to reality as you can get but they aren't available until the second half of 2016 the HTC vive takes around three next round is set up new groundbreaking experiences cost money now we're including set up because it really makes a difference and you need to know what to expect when you're jumping into VR now no matter what you'll need a PC that's capable of running either of these systems and you're talking about a minimum $1500 investment just for an entry-level oculus rift bundle that includes the $5.99 headset in that price and can easily hit over $3,000 for higher-end pcs now the ACC vive setup is sold for $7.99 that's $200 more than the rift so we're talking about a starting price with a PC around eighteen hundred dollars that can soar up to several thousand more depending on your PC now once we get pricing out of the way the set up is a completely different beast between rift and vive the oculus rift is one cable a simple sensor and a headset it's not a plug and play experience for your general consumer but it only takes a few fairly simple steps to get you up and running the HTC vive let's just say patience is a virtue there's cables galore and that's not the scary part the vibe requires two laser boxes that need to be installed and paired with each other they'll need to be up on tripods or high bookshelves and have a clear view of your entire room you'll need space to play so that means moving your furniture around as well just to get all the hardware situated it's easily a half-hour setup you might need to recalibrate them and even when you want to jump in the next day after it's been set up you'll need to plug in multiple things to get synched up before you start VR is anything but plug and play but the vibe it takes the cake for the longest setup time for any tech gadget that I've ever seen the oculus rift easily takes round four we're even at two rounds of peace the final round that decides it all is ecosystem the oculus rift knows exactly what it wants and it launches with 30 games but you'll need to stay in the oculus ecosystem to enjoy them eval curry is an amazing spaceship shooter and Lucky's tale gives you a real sense of how a platformer in VR plays there's a way for the rift to access themes via our library but not all games are compatible and it can be a pain to sort through what works and what doesn't now the HTC vive launched with 50 games and works directly with steam giving it a larger library of content and more open platform for developers some of the games are already on the PC and there are some fun ones but at times it feels more like tech demos and experiences and really not full fledged games it also brings steam staples like messaging a friends list and voice chat that really makes it a more social platform out of the box we know it's only going to get better for both sides I personally prefer the oculus library but the judges agree that the steam platform and its ecosystem gets the slight edge this time so in a back-and-forth prize fight the ACC vibe ends up taking three of the five rounds and excels at two of the most important categories immersion and interaction making it your prize fight winner but don't hold your breath because that could easily change by the end of the year virtual reality is so fresh and new and it's just scratching the surface but it's hard for me to tell someone to go out and invest in a setup right now myself I'll be waiting it out virtual reality is the future it will be part of our future and the future is now i'm brian tong thanks for watching and we'll catch you all next time for another prize fight