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One of the biggest gaps between the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive is about to be closed with the launch of Touch motion controllers in the next few days, but camera set up guides suggest the Rift will always fall behind the Vive in terms of roomscale tracking. Even with three cameras, it is only capable of up to a 2.5m x 2.5m tracking space.
While this writer has been restricted to a 2m x 2m space for the majority of his home-VR roomscale experiences, there are many gamers around the world with bigger open spaces to explore virtual worlds in. The Oculus Rift however has had a much more restricted tracking solution since its release, something that we noted during our review.
While that should improve by leaps and bounds with Touch controllers and the added second camera, Oculus guidelines suggest that will only deliver as much as a 1.5m x 1.5m play area. This, despite the fact that sensors need to be set up on opposing room corners, at least three metres apart. The same is true for three cameras, with two front facing – you still only have a 2.5m x 2.5m play space and requires a larger room too (thanks UploadVR).
Of course this is perfectly large for many roomscale experiences and should offer great motion tracking within it – but it's still a far cry from what the Vive can do right out of the box. Those twin laser trackers mounted above head height in opposing corners, can track play spaces as big as 4m x 4m without much difficulty.
In comparison, the Rift doesn't seem capable of that, despite pushing for a third camera which is an additional purchase on top of the Touch controllers. You also need to factor in USB connections for all of the cameras.
We'll need to wait for the release of Touch to find out for sure, but it remains the case that if you want a roomscale VR experience, the most versatile (and arguably cheaper) hardware is the HTC Vive.
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KitGuru Says: It seems like as more time goes on, that Oculus was really caught out by the sudden emergence of the Vive. As much as I think it made a great headset, it just isn't as good as the alternative.
now we just wait for the Vive 2.0 with the new controllers and wireless gaming experience
true enough, nothing kills the experience quite as well as tripping over the trailing wires…
Wireless gaming for the vive is on its way, 6 months max. $200 and your good to go
Have a 3m x 2.6m play area and have zero issues with tracking with a single rift sensor anywhere in the room.With touch Im going for 3 sensors to prevent any occlusion of the Touch controllers.Based upon what Im experiencing with a single sensor Roomscale will be just fine with the Rift.
The problem with Wireless in the future is going to be latency when the HMD’s go to 4K.Really good news they are making progress on it tho I have high hopes.The tether even with a ceiling boom is a pain.
Wireless 4K hmd can be 2018’s problem. As it stand now they have smashed it “apparently”. The wireless adapter is only supposed to add 2ms latency which will be unnoticeable. The cable on my vive has always been an annoyance, but after playing doom 3 bfg, the cable has got to go. All the quick turns you need to do is so much hard when the cable is wrapped around your feet
HTC/VALVE are having problems with Content which they are just NOW trying to fix.
Oculus has big money invested with devs who already have a lot of content in the pipe.
Oculus has the advantage of having content from Oculus home AND supported in Steamvr, (while not the other way around without hacks.)
The touch controllers are superior vs the large VIVE controllers.
No ETA on gen 2 vive controllers..
Oculus is a bit smaller, lighter more confortable than vive.
no real tracking issues with Oculus with a 3 sensor setup.