Should I buy a Playstation VR or an Oculus Quest

[Darth Vader | 154]

So I'm ready to dip my toes into the water and peer through the "screen door" into the virtual reality world. I have never strapped on a VR headset, with the exception of my Virtual Boy....lol, so I don't know much about them. Did a little research and kind of narrowed my interest down to either the Playstation VR or the Oculus Quest.

Just looking for some direction here, mostly from people who have put some time in on one of the two or both headsets.

Best Buy has a decent bundle deal for the PS VR right now that includes download codes for PS Worlds, Skyrim, Astro Bot, Resident Evil, and Everybody's Golf for $200. This kind of has me leaning in the PS VR direction.

What do you guys think?

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

You should buy the Oculus so I can come over and try out the new Half Life game. 

[Richardhead | 2,813]

Quote

I have the PSVR and i loved it at first. RE7 was and is a lot of fun IMO. There are other fun game, like Rush of Blood and Skyrim. The novelty wore off pretty quick though. Doesn't seem to be much coming out and i fear support will soon cease once the new Playstation comes out. I could be wrong. If I were you, I'd probably wait until the new wave of VR stuff comes out. I can't speak on the Oculus though.

 

[MuNKeY | 241]

I have a PSVR I got on sale a couple years ago and in all honestly I lost interest in it after some time and it's been sitting since but my boy likes getting on there and play fruit ninja and job simulator. RE7 and Rush of Blood was pretty fun on it though oh and Thumper. 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I've not used the Quest, but I have a Vive and I've dabbled with PSVR. In my opinion, VR is only worth the hassle if you can go wireless (Vive has an adapter) and room scale (Vive and Oculus). When you add in the immersion of an environment you can explore and move within, it's truly awesome. Things like Unseen Diplomacy and Budget Cuts are really simple, but will make you believe VR has a chance at showing us something new.

[Startyde | 175]

Like all things it depends on the games. I've had PSVR since launch. I don't play it too often, ONLY because I have a toddler and I play at night, so it's hard for me to dampen all my senses if she wakes up. 

Sounds like the ppl here who dabbled in PSVR haven't played any of the more recent games which is a shame. Astrobot, Moss, Blood and Truth, Rez, Teris Effect, all incredible. 

As a technology it has plenty of room to grow, and PSVR is on the lower end of tech compared to the competition, but it's plug and play nature makes it a perfect fit for casuals, which is the strength of consoles on general. Also Sony has stated that PS5 will fully support all PS4 PSVR equipment, so no need to worry about their commitment into the next gen.

Edited November 25, 2019 by Startyde

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

47 minutes ago, Startyde said:

Like all things it depends on the games. I've had PSVR since launch. I don't play it too often, ONLY because I have a toddler and I play at night, so it's hard for me to dampen all my senses if she wakes up. 

Sounds like the ppl here who dabbled in PSVR haven't played any of the more recent games which is a shame. Astrobot, Moss, Blood and Truth, Rez, Teris Effect, all incredible. 

As a technology it has plenty of room to grow, and PSVR is on the lower end of tech compared to the competition, but it's plug and play nature makes it a perfect fit for casuals, which is the strength of consoles on general. Also Sony has stated that PS5 will fully support all PS4 PSVR equipment, so no need to worry about their commitment into the next gen.

I heard Astrobot is really good and I'd like to play it. I'm still not sure if I can go back to sitting after playing room-scale, but that would definitely be the number one game on my list if I did.

And I didn't say it before, but the PSVR hardware is surprisingly nice and definitely works as advertised. It's not really fair to compare it to a $1000+ computer VR setup like I'm doing.

[Yelir | 11]

You have to really dig in a bit more to find out what you expect out of having your own setup. I own PSVR, the must have games for the most part aren't on any other platform. If you have limited space and don't mind being in one spot for long periods (sitting/standing) then it isn't bad. The Quest isn't quite like the higher models, it has kind of short charge capacity, but if you travel a lot it might fit the bill for having an almost complete package.

With the upcoming Black Friday sales, I think the PSVR is a no-brainer unless you don't already own the PS4.

[zeppelin03 | 314]

10 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

I've not used the Quest, but I have a Vive and I've dabbled with PSVR. In my opinion, VR is only worth the hassle if you can go wireless (Vive has an adapter) and room scale (Vive and Oculus). When you add in the immersion of an environment you can explore and move within, it's truly awesome. Things like Unseen Diplomacy and Budget Cuts are really simple, but will make you believe VR has a chance at showing us something new.

Did you get the adapter and if so how do you like it?  I haven't used my vive in a long time.  Getting tangled in those wires got annoying after a while.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

4 hours ago, zeppelin03 said:

Did you get the adapter and if so how do you like it?  I haven't used my vive in a long time.  Getting tangled in those wires got annoying after a while.

Yeah, I bought the official adapter and it works great. I was worried it would introduce lag, but I haven't noticed any significant delay in any games I've played. I've been spoiled and can't go back to wired now.

[AstralSoul | 502]

I've never played Occulus but I have played PS VR and I loved it. Plus it's the cheapest VR option. There are a number of great games for it. I just bought a PS VR bundle myself on early Black Friday sale.

[cj_robot | 542]

Both.

Then send me the one you don't like.

[koifish | 555]

Besides the obvious disclaimer that this post is my own opinion, let me start by saying that I first experienced VR through student projects in university, around 2014-2015. That was very early days back then, you were cool just to tilt your head and have it notice Still, playing Doom with a 3D motion-detection helmet was really cool, even if it did destroy the illusion of 3D created by the 2D character sprites. Since 2017, I've owned the following:

• HTC Vive
• Oculus Rift
• Oculus Quest

I've also used a few cheaper items, like a Gear VR or Google Cardboard, but I did not own them myself.

The HTC Vive had great tracking, but that was about all I liked tbh. The controllers were by far the worst part, they had almost no inputs, an unnatural shape, and also featured the terrible touch pads, which Valve was obsessed with for several years. This basically made it so that vive was only good for simulating guns, swords, or amputees. Also, the screen door effect was more notable than on Rift, which may have been just a difference in how they chose to render things, since Rift had IIRC the same eye screens. I sold the vive less than a year after I bought it, mostly because I tried a friend's Rift and became convinced that oculus knew better what they were doing than valve did.

I bought the Rift maybe early 2018? It's tough to remember, I was fed up with VR after the Vive, but then convinced that developing VR games might be fun, so I bought a Rift. The main thing I praised it for was the controllers, Oculus Touch pads blew the Vive wands out of the water. They had actual inputs, a natural shape, and felt like you could do more than just pretend to hold stiff rods with fake hands on the end. I know some people have complained that original touch controllers were too small for their hands; I personally didn't have that problem, as my hands are long and slender. Either way, they released new touch controllers which have no hand wrap, so that issue sort of died away (even if IMO the new controllers aren't quite as good).

The biggest problem with Rift was the setup. The cameras are much more clunky than the vive sensors in my experience. To be fair, the vive sensors had better placement in the room in which I used them (where I am now is not where I was then) and some do tell me that they have better experience with rift sensors than with vive sensors. Either way, I've had trouble. Also, I found the oculus software to be tempramental. Too often it would lose my settings or just behave oddly. Finally, being wired got old. I never noticed until I bought a quest, but wired VR is like a halfway experience compared to wireless. I imagine there's an adapter for that, but still, it's a problem on the base model.

So that brings us to the Quest. I bought one of those on release, because I know a guy (who knows a guy) and got to try a quest dev kit several months before it launched. Pretty much as soon as I used it, I was in love. The reasons?

1. Extremely easy setup. Put it on, set up your environment, and you're ready to play, almost never more than 30 seconds required. Compare to any camera tracking VR system and it's just insulting to them.
2. Wireless. As stated before, I realized how much of a game changer wireless was for VR. Yes, you can buy adapters for PC VR to be wireless, but that's a lot more expensive, which leads me to
3. Price, quest is to me a perfect entry point for a VR system price-wise. It's enough that you don't get total junk hardware, but low enough that you can make it a buy like a console, as opposed to the significant investment in hardware you'll be making to get a proper PC VR setup.
4. Homebrew. It's pretty easy to dev on PC VR too, but it's also easy to sideload apps for Quest, and there is already some interesting stuff. Since it's "just" quest as well, you don't have to wrestle with any oddities that for me have popped up in the PC VR world, ie. where a dev made something for Vive but didn't make Rift support since he didn't own it, or vice-versa.
5. Portable. This was a winner for me, as packing, unpacking, setting up PC VR was killing me even with just the rift's small sensors. I can't imagine doing it proper with a Vive setup. I carry my quest in a small laptop bag (with a small pillow over the visor opening to guard the lenses) and it travels easily.

The main problems are as people said, battery life is not super long, and also, because it is basically a souped up android phone, the games won't wow in comparison to what you can do on PC VR. Also, you cannot use it in dark rooms, unless you have an IR light source (which you can buy in places), which can put a damper on watching a movie in bed while your partner sleeps. To me overall, however, the pros outweigh the cons. I've had way more fun with the games I got for quest, if only because the experience of using the hardware was that much better.

PSVR, I've been sort of interested, but I haven't tried it yet. The biggest perk here is that it's Sony, who not only promotes outside development for their console (comparable to oculus and way more so than valve), but they are also able to convince bigger Japanese developers to care, those two forces combining to mean that you will get games there that just won't come out elsewhere. That said, I have concerns about the camera setup and about the controllers. The PS Move controllers aren't the best IMO, they don't even have joysticks, and IMO they weren't that good with PS3, so I don't know that I'd go for them on PSVR. Also, going to cameras and to wires, and from what I've heard, the most restrictive camera/wires of any current major VR platform, that concerns me a lot. Full motion is where many of the most exciting moments occur, so it would suck to go back to the old ball and chain of wires and camera sensors.

Ultimately, I won't say I don't think you should get PSVR, however, I will say that perhaps you should wait. Sony has already said that they will keep PSVR support for the PS5. That means, at the very least, that it isn't going anywhere for the immediate future. On top of that, Sony has made some patents lately for new VR tech, including headsets which do inside-out tracking instead of relying on cameras. It's possible that PSVR will get a big upgrade in the coming years, and that it will remove some of the issues present in the current iteration. Given that possibility, I would choose to wait and see if they make a new model. If they do, you can get a better experience, or buy the PSVR original model more cheaply. If they don't, then PSVR should still be cheaper than it is now.

For me, the quest is an easy choice for a VR headset. Cheap enough to be not horrible on the wallet,  good enough to supply some entertainment, and more versatile than PC VR for, well, actually using VR. The free nature of the hardware has meant that I've used it way more than I ever used PC VR, because the PC VR was "only" for games to me, whereas I feel that I've gotten a variety of uses out of the quest hardware. If I were to choose between the two, I would definitely pick the Quest, unless you already owned a PS4 and definitely had specific games you really wanted to play now. I suspect that the latter will have an upgrade in the next two years, so maybe keep your eyes open and see if it gets new hardware. Anyway, that's the end of my long long post, I hope my insights have proved valuable to you.

[Sign Collector Guy | 334]

On 11/24/2019 at 2:54 PM, Darth Vader said:

So I'm ready to dip my toes into the water and peer through the "screen door" into the virtual reality world. I have never strapped on a VR headset, with the exception of my Virtual Boy....lol, so I don't know much about them. Did a little research and kind of narrowed my interest down to either the Playstation VR or the Oculus Quest.

Just looking for some direction here, mostly from people who have put some time in on one of the two or both headsets.

Best Buy has a decent bundle deal for the PS VR right now that includes download codes for PS Worlds, Skyrim, Astro Bot, Resident Evil, and Everybody's Golf for $200. This kind of has me leaning in the PS VR direction.

What do you guys think?

I pondered the same thing for awhile but wanted to demo VR before I spent the money. Found out after trying a friends PS4 VR I was one of those folks who get nausea from VR. Very neat tech but sadly not for me. 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Sign Collector Guy

[koifish | 555]

Just now, Sign Collector Guy said:

I pondered the same thing for awhile but wanted to demo VR before I spent the money. Found out after trying a friends PS4 VR I was one of those folks who get nausea from VR. Very neat tech but sadly not for me. 

I sympathize with that, but suggest perhaps another insight that may help you out. When I first used VR for games, I found that I became nauseous after about 20 minutes of play. As I kept playing, however, I found that I slowly improved, and for every subsequent game that granted me motion sickness, I would come back the next time able to handle it without problems. What I'm getting at is that, in my experience, people can definitely adjust and become more comfortable with VR. I'm not saying to go out and buy it now, but I would suggest giving it some more tries in the future. You might find that your body adjusts to it with more exposure.

[Sign Collector Guy | 334]

2 minutes ago, koifish said:

I sympathize with that, but suggest perhaps another insight that may help you out. When I first used VR for games, I found that I became nauseous after about 20 minutes of play. As I kept playing, however, I found that I slowly improved, and for every subsequent game that granted me motion sickness, I would come back the next time able to handle it without problems. What I'm getting at is that, in my experience, people can definitely adjust and become more comfortable with VR. I'm not saying to go out and buy it now, but I would suggest giving it some more tries in the future. You might find that your body adjusts to it with more exposure.

I believe I have read some discussion about that before. What exactly causes the reaction? Its not like I have puked or anything but its just the weirdest feeling of it just beginning to slowly creep up on me. After playing briefly I feel just icky. lol

[koifish | 555]

I'm not sure, probably just the contrast between how you "appear" to be moving, and how you actually are moving, something comparable to car sickness. It reminds me of the eye aches I had when I first got a 3DS and played my first 4+ hour session of Ocarina of Time 3D. It only happened once, and then never again, but man, it was weird. I think it's just a new sensation that the body has to adjust to, and some things will be gentler than others.

If you REALLY wanna get sick, check out some of the "expert" VR software out there. I tried one once, forget the name now, which allows full zero-G rotation AND position shift. I only tried it once at a friend's, and once I was spinning on three axes I lasted all of 30 seconds I might have to go back to that one again someday though, the concept seemed cool. I've also gotten ill on it before from playing racing games. F-Zero GX on Dolphin VR is amazing to look at, the scenery really comes alive, but the game was a bit intense. Same was true for Project Cars for me.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

12 minutes ago, Sign Collector Guy said:

I believe I have read some discussion about that before. What exactly causes the reaction? Its not like I have puked or anything but its just the weirdest feeling of it just beginning to slowly creep up on me. After playing briefly I feel just icky. lol

It has to do with the proprioceptors in your brain and body not matching up. You're seeing one thing, but you're body is experiencing another. As mentioned above it's similar to car sickness in that your brain/eyes say you're moving, but you're body is in a steady state and says you're not.

I don't know what the research says about acclimation, but it could definitely be a thing.

[Sign Collector Guy | 334]

16 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

It has to do with the proprioceptors in your brain and body not matching up. You're seeing one thing, but you're body is experiencing another. As mentioned above it's similar to car sickness in that your brain/eyes say you're moving, but you're body is in a steady state and says you're not.

I don't know what the research says about acclimation, but it could definitely be a thing.

So what I need is a fully hydraulic VR chair that matches the movements.  

[koifish | 555]

There's certainly enough of it in high-end simulation hardware for that to be a possibility. Personally, i think attempting acclimation would be a much easier and cheaper option.

[Hoskat | 42]

I had a PSVR and sold it to buy an Oculus Quest.

Playstation VR has more games but Quest is portable, wireless and has a MUCH better screen and MUCH better motion tracking.

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

I've only used Oculus Rifts and HTC Vives on PCs so my opinion is only worth so much. If you're buying into a walled garden platform (those poor custom Beat Saber songs!), I'd go Oculus Quest all the way. Wires (and headset weight) are the #1 worst part of VR IMO.

Edited November 26, 2019 by DefaultGen

[Darth Vader | 154]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! Seems like PS VR is slightly ahead in the polls and that $200 entry price is hard to pass up (I have a PS4). I'm gonna go with the PS VR right now and if I like VR I'll most likely try some other headsets out in the future. I'll let you guys know what I think about it once I've had some time with it. 

[Boosted52405 | 178]

i REALLY want to get into VR, even PS VR which does have a killer deal right now (but with no wands).  However I have motion sickness to the point where I have to drive at all times OR if passenger I have to focus on the road ahead 100% like I'm driving to anticipate the motions.  If I don't do this, I fall ill quickly and it took me years of frustration to piece this together (and then read and learned a ton).

I am 99.9% sure I won't be able to handle VR, but are there test stations anywhere does anyone know?

[koifish | 555]

On 12/3/2019 at 2:40 PM, Boosted52405 said:

i REALLY want to get into VR, even PS VR which does have a killer deal right now (but with no wands).  However I have motion sickness to the point where I have to drive at all times OR if passenger I have to focus on the road ahead 100% like I'm driving to anticipate the motions.  If I don't do this, I fall ill quickly and it took me years of frustration to piece this together (and then read and learned a ton).

I am 99.9% sure I won't be able to handle VR, but are there test stations anywhere does anyone know?

You would probably be fine playing anything which was "roomscale" , meaning you are wearing a headset and either standing stationary or are moving by your own legs. Motion sickness starts in vr when you are not physically moving the same way that the game camera is moving. If possible, I would try out games Superhot, Beat Saber, and Lucky's Tale or Astrobot. Those games are very much "safe" for motion sickness, alternatively, the platforming games might be too much at first, but you may find that you acclimate to them with time.