HTC Vive Cosmos Review

HTC Vive

The battle for home-based virtual reality began with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive-but things are becoming difficult these days. The Oculus Quest is achievable for strong autonomous VR and Valve pushes the boundaries between high-end VR and the Scale. Now here is the Vive Cosmos, the first genuine companion from HTC to the Vive and Vive Pro.

The Cosmos is essentially an improvement in almost any way, but there is only a problem: it costs 699 million, which makes it much more costly than the Oculus Quest (400 dollars) or Rift S (400 dollars). The Cosmos price, when the rivalry is so high, is a surprising strategic decision by HTC.

HTC Vive

The Cosmos provides a solid, high-quality VR experience, but almost twice the price of Oculus equipment and is not as versatile as the Quest. And for a premium VR experience with cash and no items the Steam Calculator is a much easier way to pay just $300 extra.

HTC could completely rely on the Cosmos's knowledge to justify the value. It could be. It is slightly better than Rift S and Index, and has a 2 880-by 1700 pixel resolution across both ears, and an important step beyond the initial 2,160-by 1,200 resolution Vive. It is operated inside and the detectors are inserted directly into the headset. And the Cosmos comes also with new motion controls, which make an enormous improvement on the original Vive.

HTC Vive

Even notable are the 90Hz Led displays of the Cosmos, whereas the S of the Rift is just 80Hz. So actually 90Hz of smoothing so immersive VR is generally considered the bare minimum. But the index has everybody beat with 125Hz monitors and revolutionary 144Hz mode if you're looking for true top of the lines hardware.

There are six cameras along the side, an halo headstrap that is integrated into headphones. The Cosmos is not much different from most traditional VR headsets. It looks more interested, it has a slick dark blue and dark esthetic than the original Vive. It also looks and feels much better than the Rift S, which Oculus has designed and built by Lenovo. Another plus: You can change the world when you wear it, like many headsets with Windows Mixed Reality, and make a quick split. And the façade can be removed so that mods can be installed to customize your VR experience.

HTC guarantees that there's plenty of relaxed coiling in the headset, particularly where your forehead and ears are resting. Thanks to its compact vision, The Cosmos is easy to attach but it didn't sit on my head as comfortable as the Index or Rift S, it did not matter how much I fucked the headstrap, it felt a bit disappointed. It did not stop me from doing it for brief hours, but it certainly hurt the feeling of being in the Cosmos because I was always mindful of it. The design along the forehead pad is another major annoyance because you inevitably leave odd marks on your face.

HTC Vive

Although I certainly have difficulties in design, I liked not to have to configure Lighthouse sensors to use Cosmos. It uses internal sensors instead to search and monitor your movement in your field. We've already seen these sensors on the portable Vive Focus, and HTC took them to a premium PC system for the first time. It's a clever move because it means that you can easily pick up Cosmos without thinking about adding detectors, and take it elsewhere.

Obviously, HTC also has to refine the optimized sensors in Cosmos, nevertheless. It could literally not see my office during the night until I turned on every single light in my room.

The Cosmos set-up consists of a USB 3.0 connector, DisplayPort and power link of your breakout box. Then you only have to attach the front ports headset. You will have to deal with a long cable when you plunge into VR, equivalent to any other high-end headset. You can also attach the $300 Vive wireless adaptor to give a bit more freedom I haven't found it unbearable.

Instead of relying on SteamVR setup, HTC has also created a software suite to help you install. The new procedure looks better than before, but still a slow program. It was difficult to recognize that my PC program was in the United States and failed many times during installation. Through plugging in a random zip code I was able to make progress, although the entire process did not create much faith in HTC devices. There's a short demo in the complex new "Vive Reality Program" environment, but most of the time you'll spend in Lens, the latest HTC app for your VR library to explore.

HTC Vive

The Cosmos also comes with Viveport Infinity, the subscription service from HTC for a year that allows you to enjoy enormous games and experiences. It normally costs $13 a month or $108 every year, so it is a good deal to have a free year.

Viveport Infinity is also directly integrated in lens, so games you have bought in Steam or in the Vive Shop will be shown. HTC makes sense to try to give Vive consumers a more tailor-made interface, although the Lens app is still a bit half-baked. I feel sluggish and clumpy in managing the menus and I have had problems starting some games.

The Vive Cosmos has managed to achieve a good high-end VR experience after I progressed through the software issues. The high-resistance screens in the shooter Raw Data made the scenes more vivid and accurate than the Vive. It was also a great test to track and move the Cosmos, since it involves a lot of fast-paced weapons fire. Even if I wanted desperately to avoid being destroyed by cruel aliens, the headset had no challenge.

Superhot always runs like a dream on the Cosmos, which is my favorite VR game. It is faster, but it includes a lot of agility and accurate action. Thankfully, HTC did not lose much flexibility when going into tracking. I just had a big problem with a lot of sun. Sometimes I would send error messages indicating that my atmosphere must be better. HTC knows about this problem, but up until now, the company has reduced the number of error notifications. Ideally, though, it will find some way to refine the low-light sensors early.

HTC Vive

The buttons of the Vive Cosmos, meanwhile, sound comfortable yet odd. This looks a lot like the Oculus touch screen, with contoured arms, analog sticks and gamepad-like buttons. You will see them. Two grip buttons are on the bottom and a click key is given.

Oculus is now in its second-generation controllers, with Valve explore entirely new methods for VR interaction with its finger-tracking controllers. HTC seems to have only been keeping up with a design that clearly shows up what Oculus has done four years ago. The controllers work well, but it feels cheap and it's a step behind the market. It was also mischievous to keep them long because they are so large. This is another area in which the Cosmos is overcome by the List. As its buttons are attached directly to your arms, it's practically easy to hold them.

HTC Vive

Also, with its near field speakers, the Valve headset offers superior audio. The headphones from Cosmos sound great, but I had a lot of difficulty in bringing them to my ears. Luckily, if you want to use your own headphones you can easily remove them.

The Vive Cosmos is certainly not perfect, but I think it's a good headset overall. But, the value of $699 makes it unbelievable. While the service is better than the Rift S, it is not better than 300 bucks. However, when the $400 Oculus Quest offers great stand-alone VR and will shortly also power PC's virtual reality via cable, the world is even harder to swallow. If you have the money to burn it is much more efficient to use the $1,000 Valve Index on Next Level VR even if sensors are necessary.

I'd have sung her praises had HTC launched the Cosmos a year later. Yet now, since low cost VR is improving and high quality VR is more creative, I'm not sure who the Cosmos is for.