HTC VIVE Cosmos

Overpriced, tracking needs work, and display is blurry unless you move it to a very very precise sweet spot, but even then the edges are still blurry. If you move your head even slightly without much effort or swaying, that sweet spot is lost. Headset must be on really really tight to keep it there. I had issues with the floor raising with me every time I ducked. Controllers werent detected by sensors if hands move behind head and disconnected occasionally when out of view. The room awareness grid didnt stay put and would move with you causing you to run into objects. The rgb camera to show you the real world was very blurry and hard to distinguish things. Light sensor kept saying room was too dark even in a very well lit room. Go with Valve Index for this premium price.

What I disliked about the product was the not available mini display port the adapter for gaming laptops. What I liked was the high resolution screens and pass_through mode. I used it for Flight simulator and space exploring.

The inside out tracking HTC advertises for this unit is nowhere near ready for consumer use. This thing loses track of its controllers during nearly every movement youll make. You may be able to play some game, but enjoying them is a much different matter. This issue can be fixed if youre willing to spend around $900 to upgrade it or scrounge around and take chances on used peripherals. First youll need a tracking faceplate. This is sold separately for $200. In order to work, it needs two base stations. These are sold separately for $200, each. You will need both. Then, because the faceplate also cant track the Cosmos controllers, youll need to buy the older model controller at $130 each. That comes to $860 just to get it to do what it needs to function normally. Maybe most telling is the fact that HTC sells the Cosmos Elite with a faceplate, base stations, and the correct controllers for $900. The simple existence of the faceplate tells me they know the inside out tracking system does not work and the Cosmos Elite package tells me that they know the standard Cosmos is not a functional product. The Cosmos Elite is a more reasonable and honest portrayal of what the Cosmos system can do and should cost, although its still very expensive by comparison to its competitors. The Cosmos standalone is nothing more than a dishonest and overpriced platform to sell you expensive peripherals which are actually essentials without which the system is nearly unusable. Poor form, HTC. I returned this, and will have to think long and hard before buying anything else from this company. Even though the Cosmos Elite package appears to be a better offering that will work as advertised, the standard Cosmos has left me extremely suspicious of HTC.

Best Black Friday gift to myself I could ask for. The only thing i disliked is the foam facepad, and thats an easy 15$ fix. The tracking is great and the lighting needs arent nearly as bad as people are saying. Maybe someone should have explained that the tracking cameras arent meant for a blacked out room. Have some common sense people and turn on a dimmable lamp. Its not that hard and way cheaper than buying base stations. This device is borderline mobile if you have a gaming laptop that is powerful enough for VR. I have it hooked up to my Alienware Laptop and can take it with me to my University courses. Its great being able to do walkthroughs in Architectural models! This device isnt that old, so grab those firmware updates as they come. many of those launch isdues have been fixed. And for everyone whining and telling you to just buy an Oculus cause its way cheaper please consider the following: Oculus is now owned by facebook. Every oculus game is now attatched to your facebook account. So feel free to let Daddy Z tell everyone about your big tiddy VR anime waifus and second life account. He already telling them everything else.

This design of a headset is extremely uncomfortable to wear. There isnt enough of a downward angle in the halo strap to allow optimal placement of said strap without losing face contact on lower part (or cheek area) of the HMD, letting in massive amounts of light on top of now having an awkward viewing angle from the lenses. If you move the strap up to allow full face contact on HMD, head starts hurting after about 20-30 of wearing. Screen door effect was also very much a problem for me but that may have been a side effect of awkward strap and HMD placement. This headset just like the Rift S and Quest has whats called inside tracking which means no external base stations are required for tracking HMD and controllers. Tracking is done at the headset. Now many people boast that the Oculus inside tracking is surprisingly really good after some firmware updates, but that is not remotely the case with the Cosmos. Basically if controllers are down at your sides, no tracking, if you bring the controllers to your face for lets say, aiming weapons, again no tracking. Tracking only occurred when controllers were in eyesight with some distance to HMD and it still wasnt very good. All in all if you want a good vr experience, spend an extra $300 for the Valve Index (whenever they come back in stock) or spend $300 less and get the Oculus Rift S or Quest (again whenever they come back to stock). As far as HTC goes everything they put out after the original Vive was a shot in the foot and a waste of money for what youre getting.

I bought the Vive Cosmo in Jan of 2020. Want to pass along some feedback as a consumer, Vive Pro owner, Vive Cosmos owner(just got it and started trying it out since last week), Oculus Quest owner and business owner. First, let me start off by saying that the Vive Pro has been great, in many regards. The biggest strong point of the Vive Pro over other gear is the outside-in tracking which is super reliable. If I had to compare the Oculus Quest with the Vive Pro, it would be like comparing an Squier guitar with a Fender. Fenders are high precision quality and what someone wants, when budget isnt an issue. If you plan to perform or you play guitar often, Fender is your only option. While an Squier makes for a nice beater guitar. Squier is entry level only. It would be a mishap for Fender to try and compete in the Squier market. HTC taking on inside-out tracking was exactly that with the Vive Cosmos. As a business owner, one thing Ive realized after owning many businesses is that you want to own your strengths and make them stronger. Market those. Dont try to compete on someone elses home turf. The inside-out tracking is what it is. Whether its the Oculus Rift or the Vive Cosmos with the beta patches, its only 90-95% accurate. For someone like myself who has really enjoyed games requiring exercise, accuracy, speed, etc. such as Beat Saber or Sairento VR, that super accurate tracking of the Vive Pro is great. Going backward is just not an option once Ive gone Pro. That should be the first thing you put forward in any marketing campaign. It is why someone should choose the Vive over some other model. Let me ask a question. Why do people spend $1500+ for a high end gaming PC? A lot of people do. Its because they tried out the $500 PC and found that wasnt good enough for the PC games they enjoy. They like gaming and so they find they need something thats more than 90-95% accurate. They want something thats 99.5% accurate. So AlienWare or MSi pick up that market. I realize youve got a mask coming out for the Vive Cosmos so it can do outside-in tracking, and thats great. But what Im getting at here is marketing and development strategy. Oculus is laying the groundwork for you, introducing people to VR. They are actually doing you a favor. Now all you have to do is market yourselves correctly and youll get a big chunk of those to upgrade into an HTC Vive or Vive Pro. Onto the controllers, The Vive Cosmos does okay when the controllers are in front, but whenever they leave the view of the face cameras or are only in the view of 1 camera, they tend to drift or be non-responsive. The Vive Pro doesnt have the same level of tracking issues. Its fairly seamless and you feel well connected with the environment the whole way through. Vive Cosmos controllers are much lighter than the Vive Pro controllers and so song fatigue is less. However, in exercise games like Beat Saber, I dont mind the extra weight because it just means more calorie burn. The grip on the Vive Cosmos controllers are better than the factory shipped Vive Pro controllers. But both could be improved on. The Pro controllers tend to slide out of the hands over time, due to their tapered shape. This is a major issue. Look at the shape of any sword hilt. It gets larger on the end. Through thousands of years of experimentation, people all around the world have generally accepted this to be a superior grip design. Lets not reinvent the wheel. The straps are great, but they arent going to stop the controllers from slipping out of the hand - only stop it from flying across the room when it does. When I bought the Cosmos, I was planning on selling my Vive Pro. But after a couple sessions, I realized that is not going to happen. Ive put the Vive Cosmos back in the box until they make the tracking face plate.

I dont know if its just me, but it felt impossible to work with. Ive used a few different headsets and this is the only type that had these issues. Issues i ran into were: Very very uncomfortable to wear, gave me very severe headaches. Ive never had this with other headsets, but this could just be an issue of my head shape? Unsure. Very blurry. I wear glasses, so like other headsets, i kept them on inside the headset. This proved to be problematic, as no matter where i looked, it was very blurry. I had to adjust it for a long time every time i put the headset on, and if i moved around too much, it would get blurry again. This made it very hard to do anything. Glasses off did not help any, for the record. The controllers were not very intuitive at all, and honestly were somewhat deceptive. They look just like oculus rifts touch controllers, so one would assume they were also touch controllers. This is not the case. They are in fact, not even slightly touch based. One of the joysticks were also off by an annoying margin. So if you wanted to move left, youd have to move the joystick left and down, or it would just make you go up. This all said, i feel like these issues would vary person to person. A bit more reading and research than i did is recommended for purchases like these. The tracking was about what you would expect with a camera based tracking headset, limited, but functional. If you want better tracking you can even replace the faceplate and get lighthouse sensors. A big +. Would i recommend buying? Depends. If you have a big budget and plan on getting the external tracking, yes. If youre just looking for a casual experience in VR, then get the oculus rift S. Its far cheaper. This thing is for people who plan on getting external tracking on an updated headset. The price reflects this. If youre reading this during the period where the oculus is out of stock and want to know if you should buy this instead of waiting, the answer is dont do it. This is a very expensive purchase compared to oculus. Not for casual experiences.

Initial impressions are very positive. I was expecting it to be awful because of several reviews I read and watched. I did not experience any tracking issues. The tracking was spot on. When the controllers were out of range they reacquired quickly and accurately. So far with a couple of hours playing with the Cosmos, I am happy I didnt cancel the order.

Amazing VR headset. Pros: -Many adjustments to the sizing makes for a good fit. -Many games to play -Better than the Oculus Cons: - COMPATIBILITY!! there are many games that seem to think its the Vive Pro, and the controllers are different. Im still struggling to find ways to remap the controls. (A lot of tutorials online have older interfaces which makes finding specific settings difficult) -SteamVR Home and the Vive home screen are slightly blurry, despite messing with the knob on the side of the headset. Not the worst thing, but its annoying for sure. Most games seem to be very clear though, which is a bit confusing!

Fun to play have trouble at first after updates works great now