A month ago, I tried the Vive Pre - a developer version of HTC and Valve’s virtual reality
headset.
I called it unfinished and incredibly fun, and I’ve been looking forward to the consumer
version ever since.
Now I’ve finally got it in my hands, and it’s just as much fun - but it still doesn’t
feel finished.
The Vive has gotten more polished since it was first announced last year, but it’s
not a pretty piece of hardware.
The new headset is almost identical to the Vive Pre, which is to say, it’s big, front-heavy,
and sort of industrial-looking.
The Pre had a couple of issues that seemed totally fixable, like the fact that its foam
face mask soaks up sweat like a sponge.
But don’t expect that to change on the Vive.
Of course, the good things about the Pre are still here too.
The Vive blocks out most light unless you’re looking straight down your nose, and it’s
not too uncomfortable once you get used to its size — although it’s significantly
*less* comfortable than the Oculus Rift.
Unlike Oculus, the Vive doesn’t come with built-in headphones.
It includes a pair of earbuds to plug in, but you’ll probably want to use your own.
Setting up the Vive involves a lot more than just plugging it in.
The Vive uses your computer’s HDMI and USB ports, just like the Oculus Rift.
But in between your PC and your headset, there’s a link box that needs plugged into a power
outlet.
And then there are the lighthouses — two laser towers the Vive uses to detect its position.
The lighthouses are set up diagonally across the space you want to use — anywhere from
a box that’s big enough to stand up in to a 15x15-foot room.
They don’t need to be connected to your computer, but they do need their own power
supply, so hopefully you’ve got either lots of outlets or lots of extension cords.
Once you’ve got all this done, you’re ready to set up SteamVR, a tool in Valve’s
Steam gaming platform.
Given how complicated the Vive is, SteamVR is good at giving you feedback about what’s
working: you can always see what’s connected right on the dashboard, and there’s a simple
calibration process that’s even sort of fun.
For room-scale experiences, you trace around the entire play space with a motion controller,
and SteamVR sets up chaperone lines to match it.
This all takes some time, but it’s worth it - as long as you’re also fine paying
$800 plus the cost of a gaming PC.
When everything works, the Vive is the best experience you can have in VR right this minute.
The screen is a little grainy, but that’s true of every headset.
The field of view feels shaped a little different from Oculus’, but different doesn’t mean
worse here.
And the laser towers are incredibly forgiving — as long as they’re above you and pointed
toward you, they track almost perfectly.
A front-facing camera can show you a rough outline of the outside world at the press
of a button, or whenever you move outside the Vive’s boundaries.
That’s all great, but there’s one thing that really sets the Vive apart: right now,
it’s just about the only headset that lets you move around in VR.
You can use normal gamepads or a mouse and keyboard with the Vive, but most experiences
are based around a pair of motion controllers that fit in your hands like remote controls.
I've got a few issues with them, like the fact that it's way too easy to hit the home
button under their trackpad.
But these fade away after you've used them a while.
They're also incredibly solid - which is good, because even if you never accidentally throw
them across the room in a game of VR tennis, you'll probably whack the wall or some furniture
at least a couple of times.
Inside VR, Valve has set up lot of features.
You've got a full version of Steam, plus the ability to see your computer desktop and set
a custom environment all around you.
The fact that Valve already has a ready-made platform is a huge benefit here - there are
already tons of people playing, modding, and selling a wide variety of games on Steam.
The downside is that this can make everything sort of complicated.
Your settings are spread out over lots of different menus, and SteamVR itself still
has plenty of glitches.
If you're already used to Steam, it's not too hard to figure things out, but it's not
a friendly system for newcomers.
Which is too bad, because the Vive shakes up all the usual stereotypes about PC gaming.
It features creative non-gaming tools like Tilt Brush and Virtual Desktop, plus non-traditional
games like Audio Shield, where you defend yourself against the notes of your favorite
songs.
Motion controls can feel incredibly fresh and intuitive, and they support a huge number
of different experiences.
You can shoot guns at zombies, or you can solve plumbing puzzles to make tiny alien
bears happy.
There's something for almost everyone, it can just be hard to find.
It can also be hard to find games and tools that aren’t rough, experimental, or very
short.
This is okay at first, especially because you’ll probably want to take breaks every
hour or so — standing up and walking around is more tiring than sitting in a chair.
But after a while, I wanted something more substantial, and my favorite experiences were
clearly unfinished ones.
The Vive is where you go for cutting-edge virtual reality, at least for the next few
months.
But that also means nobody has quite figured out what to do with it, whether you’re talking
about specific games and apps or its whole user experience.
By the time it’s polished, the Vive’s going to be competing with Oculus, which will
support a lot of the same titles later this year.
But for an early adopter’s headset, the Vive does everything it’s ought to: it’s
flexible, functional, available — and often incredible.