HTC VIVE Cosmos

Reviewing the Vive Cosmos: I have this in a room with no direct sunlight and it tracks flawlessly. Not sure if its improved software or better room lighting than others but Ive had no issues. I also havent noticed any issues with the controllers playing Beat Saber which has run and responded totally smoothly. Its pretty comfortable, the sound is good, screen and FOV is great, no issues tracking. The issue finding the sweet spot for clear vision is real though. Ive been able to fine tune the fit to make it work but a DIY velcro strap or something will likely be better. The controls are a little heavy and not grippy so Im looking into something to aid the grip with them. The batteries in the controls last about as long as Id expect and I just use a rotation of Eneloop batteries so its not an inconvenience at all. Six batteries with two swapped out and charging/charged gets the job done. The fact that the controllers are non-standard and dont work with a bunch of programs is by far the biggest issue. Why? It doesnt make any sense. Overall really happy. Not having to set up a room is great. I threw this into a box with my PC and headed to a friends house for an evening of VR and it was super easy.

This product has great potential but falls short where it counts - tracking. There seems to be no environment that allows for consistent tracking. I waited to buy this item until after the initial issues were patched but it seems as if this writing, tracking is still unreliable. The screen is the best part about the headset which is also on the cosmos elite so I recommend that one over this one.

THE SHORT VERSION: The controller tracking is terrible. Shooting games are unplayable with the Cosmos. Get a headset with base stations. FULL: I bought the Vive Cosmos as my first VR headset. The price point compared to other headsets was appealing, and I was pleased to learn that base stations were not a part of the room setup, which would save me some effort and planning. This was, however, a mistake. See, the tracking, instead of using base stations, uses multiple cameras that are located on the headset itself. What ends up happening is that, when a controller is blocked from the cameras’ view — such as when one controller is held in front of the other, in the context of holding a rifle in a game — the headset just fails to track that controller. This results in drift/skipping of that controllers location as the headset essentially guesses where that controller might be. Apparently, there have been updates since the Cosmos’s release that purport to help or fix this issue. If this is true, it certainly hasn’t been inadequate. So, if you plan on playing any game requiring fine motor controls, such as shooting games where you need to be aiming any further than point blank (which make up a pretty big part of the market), having the Cosmos is going to severely kneecap your experience. Even aiming using one-handed firearms is a struggle. Since the tracking is image-based, the headset is also going to struggle to track finer adjustments in your aiming. If you’re using VR for games like Fruit Ninja, which do NOT require fine motor controls, or just for watching videos, the Cosmos is fine for those purposes. Otherwise, avoid at all costs. If Oculus has a headset without base stations, avoid that too. Having base stations is absolutely necessary for a lot of games. Spend the extra money for a headset that uses them and avoid the buyer’s remorse I have over this.

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

Set up is easy and support is slow but regular. Unfortunately the tracking leaves a lot to be desired. Games that require more precise aiming like Arizona Sunshine, Gorn, Pavlov, or Boneworks lose a lot of playability because the headset simply cannot track precisely. It is passable at best, if youre looking for a more casual experience like Beat Saber then this headset works fine. It also requires a pretty bright room, things like large open windows will confuse the room tracking. Game support is really slow, I purchased on launch in October but some games like Skyrim or Gorn are still not officially supported. Fortunately there are plenty of fan mods to get things in running condition. Overall, this headset is hard to justify at its price point. For the functionality you get it would be more reasonable to price at maybe half of what HTC currently sells it for.

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.

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.

I bought this during black Friday with 20% off amazon warehouses products including a $100 price drop against new. In the end cost about 450 for the vive cosmos. It did arrive in its original packaging, but in the box all the wrappers were just stuffed in there and none of the components were in their original wrapping?!? So it didnt look like new but there was no damage on any of the components and it worked fine. I also purchased the wireless adapter and mount and it took me a while to get it all working. Have to take the headset foam/cushions out to install the new cable and the mount for the wireless. It took me about 2hours to get it all working. There were some quirks too like sometimes it would give me an error code to reboot the computer and if I did it would hang on reboot or at least my monitor display wouldnt come up but if you reboot again then it all worked again. This seemed to be due to improper shutdown or startup as the documentation for such things is non-existent. Still not sure how you are suppose to shutdown. But all the complaints about cosmos seems exaggerated or something. Tracking is just fine as good as the oculus quest that my kids play with. Its actually much more comfortable fit than oculus quest. The sweetspot is not any better or worse compared to quest either. They are all a blurrier as you shift your eyes to the edges. I wear glasses so maybe that is contributing. Room setup is more poor interface design as I couldnt figure out how to reset playroom other than from the menu from my pc not directly from my headset. The directions that I looked up on the webpage also didnt match my screens so they were just confusing and wasting time. The product is good and the wireless experience for pc driven is very good. The quality of games significantly and undeniably better than Oculus Quest. I am satisfied with my purchase and I think it is a good choice. I have not tried the valve index, but everyone says good good things about it so this is in reference to oculus quest. Cosmos is far better than quest even with oculus link that is very interesting, but doesnt work quite as well.

Good resolution is a big plus. it looks cool... when it works My understanding is that other headsets use tracking devices located on the walls. They can see your moves no matter where your hands are. This headset uses cameras located on the headset. It means that as soon as the cameras dont see your hands, they are lost. I dont know why they describe it as an advantage. To me, losing tracking all the time makes it useless, really. When I play a racquetball like game, the racquet gets lost unless I make an effort to keep my hands in front of me all the time. I kind of hoped that maybe, I could buy additional devices to improve tracking, but no. Their own tracking devices for other versions of Vive are no use with this one. Is not it unfortunate? Overall, I am getting the impression that those who make these headsets use other headsets at home. cons: - many of the games simply dont run or run in some kind of unusable mode, and I cant find any explanations why - as soon as the controllers move outside of the view, they are lost. I hoped to use the headset for fitness. No, forget about it. I made a mistake with this one, its not suitable for fitness, its annoying. - The headphones keep popping out and away from my ears. its again annoying and distracting. - all I am getting when asking questions about how to cope with the above is you shouldnt have bought this headset, we dont know who they are making it for, its pricey and subpar On the positive side, VR is a great experience. Its cool to watch 3D scenes. If quality tracking is not important, and the software that you plan to use runs ok, its really amazing. I wish I had a chance to return this one for something with better tracking because my goal is VR fitness. UPDATE: If you push the joystick down, it is also a clicker. I wish somebody told me before. It was not evident at the beginning. So, I am adding a star back.

I love my this thing so cool and fun but my head is a little to big so vision is a little blurry but I’m pretty blind and I can see better in vr then in real life without my glasses so also this is only one I found that even goes as big as it does (vision is based off I separation distance or something and most don’t go nearly wide enough for my head)