WHAT IS THE HTC VIVE?
If you’ve tried Google Cardboard, Gear VR or even the Oculus Rift and think you know what virtual reality has to offer, then prepare for a rude awakening. The HTC Vive bombards you with the most immersive virtual reality experiences you can get right now. It’s incredible, and tops a promising 2016 for HTC after the excellent HTC 10.
Trying to describe it in words is a near impossible task – there are none that can do it justice. It’s like trying to draw a symphony or sculpt a ballet – the essence can be evoked, but it needs to be experienced to be truly understood.
This means that this review will be different to TrustedReviews’ usual ones. I’ll still make sure that all the positives and negatives are covered, but before you worry about any of that, you need to know that the HTC Vive is immense, wonderful and utterly fantastic.
Video: Watch our in-depth Vive vs Rift comparison
GETTING STARTED WITH THE HTC VIVE
Development may have started later than it did for its major competitor, the Oculus Rift, but in many ways the Vive is the more complete product.
You can walk around and interact with virtual worlds by using specialised controllers that come bundled with the Vive. This is its biggest strength. It’s also its biggest weakness.
The sheer amount of space you need to dedicate to make the most out of the HTC Vive will make it a challenge for many to have it in their home. It’s also the most expensive VR headset out there.
Still, if you’ve got the cash, and enough spare room, then the HTC Vive provides experiences you just can’t get anywhere else.
Before you start doing anything, it’s worth making sure that your gaming PC is powerful enough to run the HTC Vive. Its minimum system requirements are a touch lighter than the Oculus Rift’s, but you’ll still need a good graphics card and a recent processor.
I tested it with a Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 and it worked fine, but if you want to max out the settings on some games you’ll need something heftier. The two screens within the headset – one for each eye – have a 1080 x 1200 resolution, and with the very high frame rate required you need about three times the power you would for gaming at 60fps on a Full HD monitor. I also tested the Vive with a Nvidia Geforce GTX 980Ti in the Titan Virtual Force PC and I found the experience a little slicker.
The sheer size and weight of the HTC Vive’s packaging is a little alarming. Thankfully, plenty of what’s inside is padding, but there are a lot of parts in there too.
Aside from the headset there are two sensor cubes, two chunky controllers, a link box and enough plugs and Micro USB cables to start a small airport electronics shop.
The sensors are important. They’re what tell the Vive where you’re standing, but also the exact location of the controllers – a fine grid appears when you get a little too close to bumping into something. They come with mounting brackets, so they can be screwed into the wall, and need to be placed high (around 2m) and facing downwards a little to cover as large an area as possible.
Related: HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift
HTC recommends a 2 x 1.5-metre space, but I’d suggest at least a 2 x 2-metre one. Some games warn you if your setup doesn’t allow for a 3 x 3m area. I wasn’t joking, owning a Vive is a bit like having a pool table – you need a big space for it.
You can use the Vive as a sit-down or stand-still experience, but I really don’t see the point of that. Both the games and the controllers are designed for expansive movements and shackling yourself to a chair or a single spot is far too restraining.
No, it’s far better to just accept that you need to dedicate a space to it.
This does make the Vive hard to setup. There are downloads and registrations and then further downloads until you think you’re done. And then everything needs a firmware update so you need to get the USB cables out and connected to your PC. All of this is interspersed with helpful tips such as “remove pets” so you don’t trip over them. HTC clearly hasn't met my cat.
A helpful step-by-step guide does its best to make the setup idiot-proof, but it still took me over an hour, 17 post-watershed swear words and a couple of PC restarts to get everything to work.
It’s worth noting the Vive takes up at least three plug sockets, too – one for each sensor and one for the link box that connects the headset to the PC. There are also two plugs and Micro USB cables for recharging the controllers, but I found it easier to just plug them into spare USB ports on the PC.
So setting up the Vive is a faff, but once it’s done you don’t need to tinker. I’ve had the Vive set up for over a week and it’s worked well every time I turn it on. Oh, well, there are crashes that need a restart to get it working again, and at times the sensors refuse to recognise the headset or controllers, but I never had a showstopper. It’s nowhere near as robust as the Oculus Rift, but the reward makes it easier to forgive the occasional gremlin.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/htc-vive-review#F5WqJBYigKsPit9L.99
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