[MUSIC]
What's up Prize Fighters?
This is the first ever virtual reality Prize Fight where the rules have changed and anything is possible
[MUSIC]
We'll pick a winner each round in this 5 round showdown.
First round is immersion.
[MUSIC]
Put on either wrist or vibe and your instantly taken away to new worlds and environments, it's glorious.
Now you'll never get VR until you actually get inside a VR experience They both look great and sound great, but you won't really be able to call out any significant visual differences that favor one or the other.
What makes the Vibe more immersive right now, is that you can freely walk around in VR by walking around your actual living room.
That's important.
The Vibe's current controller's allow you to interact more naturally in VR's Space with two remote like wands, allowing you to grab things, compared to being tied down to the wrist.
XBOX one controller really limits the impact, and feels more like you're playing an XBOX game with goggles.
The judges agree Round One goes to the Next up is comfort.
[MUSIC]
If you're wearing a headset it needs to feel good and there are differences between these two contenders.
The Oculus Rift just feels better because it's lighter in weight.
You're tethered by a single cord and flip down headphones are build into the design so it's a very self contained piece.
The HTC Vibe is larger in size and awkwardly just.
Front heavy.
It's not a deal breaker, but you can tell the difference when you're comparing the two.
The VIVE's three piece cable set up can also get more tangled and then putting on separate headphones on top of the headset plus battling those head straps means it just isn't as comfortable as the Rift.
[UNKNOWN]
takes round two, next round is interaction.
It's the wrist Xbox game controller versus the Vibe's wand-like control that lets you grab and interact with things instead of pressing buttons on a gamepad.
The Vibe allows you to act more naturally and this is the biggest difference between these two platforms Right now.
See, Oculus is working on something better with their touch controls.
It's a whole different ball game.
I've used them and they're really as close to reality as you can get, but they aren't available until the second half of 2016.
The HTC Vive takes round three, next round is set-up.
[MUSIC]
New groundbreaking experiences cost money.
Now we're including set up because it really makes a difference, and you need to know what to expect when you're jumping into VR.
Now no matter what, you'll need a PC that's capable of running either of these systems.
And you're talking about a minimum $1500 investment just For an entry level Oculus Rift bundle, that includes the $599.00 headset in that price and can easily hit over $3,000.00 for higher NPCs.
Now the ATC Vive set up is sold for $799.00, that's $200.00 more than the Rift.
So we're talking about a starting price, with a PC, around $1,800.00, that can soar up to several thousand more, depending on your PC.
Now once we get pricing out of the way, the setup is a completely different beast between rift and buy.
The oculus rift is one cable, a simple sensor, and a headset.
It's not a plug and play experience for your general consumer but it only takes a few fairly simple steps to get you up and running.
The ATC vibe, let's just say patience is a virtue.
There's tables galore.
And that's not the scary part.
The Vibe requires two laser boxes that need to be installed and paired with each other.
They'll need to be up on tripods or high bookshelves, and have a clear view of your entire room.
You'll need space to play, so that means moving your furniture around as well.
Just to get all the hardware situated, it's easily a half hour setup.
You might need to recalibrate them, and even when you want to jump in the next day after it's been set up, you'll need to plug in multiple things to get synced up before you start.
VR is anything but plug and play.
But the [UNKNOWN]?
It takes the cake for the longest setup time of any tech gadget that I've ever seen.
The Oculus Rift easily takes round four.
We're even at two round apiece.
The final round that decides it all is ecosystem.
[MUSIC]
The Oculus Rift knows exactly what it wants, and it launches with 30 games.
But you'll need to stay in the Oculus ecosystem to enjoy them.
[UNKNOWN] 3 is an amazing spaceship shooter And Lucky's Tale, gives you a real sense of how a platformer in VR plays.
There's a way for the Rift to access scenes VR library, but not all games are compatible, and it can be a pain to sort through what works, and what doesn't.
Now the HTC Vibe launched with 50 games and works directly with Steam, giving it a larger library of content.
[MUSIC]
And more open platform for developers.
Some of the games are already on the PC and there are some fun ones.
But at times, it feels more like tech demos and experiences and really not full pledge games.
It also brings team staples like messaging, a friends list, and voice chat that really makes it a more social platform out of the box We know it's only going to get better for both sides.
I personally prefer the occulus library, but the judges agree that steam platform and its ecosystem gets a slight edge this time.
So in a back and forth [INAUDIBLE] by the [INAUDIBLE] ends up taking three of the five rounds, and excels at two of the most important categories, immersion and interaction.
Making it your prize by winner.
But don't hold your breath because that could easily change by the end of the year.
Virtual reality is so fresh and new, and it's just scratching the surface, but it's hard for me to tell someone to go out and invest in a set up right now.
Myself, I'll be waiting it out.
Virtual reality is the future.
It will be part of our future.
And the future is now.
I'm Bryan Tong.
Thanks for watching.
I will chat you all next time for another Prizefight.
[NOISE]
[MUSIC]
