First hands on experience on the HTC Vive Virtual Reality head mounted display

This blog post ist just a reflection of my very first hands on experience on the HTC Vive headmounted display.

For all the technical facts check their website.

1. Motionsickness

I have been developing with the Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2 for the last one and a half years and as a developer I can say that I stopped counting the endless amount of painkillers that I had to take because of that.

And even now with the DK2 and a proper demo, I tempt to feel dizzy after a little while.

With the HTC Vive however this is not the case. If I were allowed I would still be in their booth right now, refusing to come out and enjoying the experience.

2. Motiontracking

I do not know how to feel about the integrated motiontracking system though. I had a bad feeling about the constrains that are given to the user, that could be broken by using the cyberith treatmill (that I also tested today). It was very precise though, which is a good thing and nicely visualized in the demos I got to play (I still ran into the wall twice. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3. The Controllers

The Controllers for the hands felt very intuitive although I am not a big fan of controllers in general. I guess I prefer gloves like the control vr or in the furhter future some motion tracking system that is more precise than the kinect.

4. Summary

All in all I was really amazed by that demo today. I have a great feeling about the HTC Vive and I am looking forward to develop seomthing for it. (or at least play some more stuff with it.)

However I still have to try the new Version of Oculus and some other VR projects tomorrow to compare them properly.