I am someone who started out as a 3D addict. I had a 3D Asus for a while, a 3D Tablet (Commander Freevi), and I had a Sony 3D bloggie to make my own 3D content with. I also shoot with a Canon 20D and got use to making stereo pairs with my camera. For about three years I played around with this and got some pretty cool stuff out of it.
About 3 years ago, I got the Vive. I loved it. The graphics were great, the games were pretty awesome, I loved the controllers. I hated the cables, the light boxes were clumsy, the visor was heavy and didn't breath well. And on top of that, the fresnel lenses were just hell on my eyes. Because of distortions, and what would eveentually be called "God rays". I had my vive for just short of a year, when my best friend passed away. And one day while I was away for the weekend, his relatives showed up and cleaned out things they wanted. They claimed they never took my visor, but I know it was them. But they were too stupid to take the controllers, and the lighthouses. One day if the Vive gets cheap enough, I might replace it. But right about the time that I was contemplating that, the Rift and Controller came out for $400. So, I got that instead.. It still had a cable, but it was a much lighter cable, and both the HDMI and the USB were more or less a 2 ends to 1 end connector. Which was a much better choice than vive's multiple cables plus an adapter of some kind. The rift was lighter, more comfortable, and the fresnel effect was still there, but not quite as strongly. I didn't really like the controllers, but for most of what I was doing, it didn't really matter.
When I compared the Vive environment (SteamVR) to Rift, I have to say, I liked the SteamVR setup better. It was much more customizeable and easier for me to understand. All of the settings are out in the open. In the Rift environment, it feels like someone said, "Settings! No..users am too stupid for them! Hide the settings! Hide the settings!" I found some of them. but it still was nowhere near as user friendly or flexible as Steam was.
And then the HDMI port on my Desktop system went. And my laptop is SUPPOSEDLY VR capapble, but the software refuses to install on my Alienware laptop. Soooo..for now, I am Riftless. I should be starting a new job soon. And as soon as I have the money, I am gonna build my ubersystem. All of my current computers each have some things I want, but none of them are the total package.
I bought the Daydream Tzumi on sale for $15 so that I could demo videos and games to other people. And I gotta tell you. its a cheap crackerjack toy. And yet.. its cheap plastic has no god rays, has little or no distortion at the edges, and is crystal clear. Aaaaand I can adjust the eye pieces independently forward/backward, and independently left/right. A feature I'd HIGHLY recommend for future versions of the Gear VR. Now, I will say Gear VR's glass IS clearly a better qaulity optic. But this actually works a little against it, because you can still see some distortion at the edges, some obcvious magnification distortions at times, and wierdly enough, is much less forgiving of low quaility video. Although, I do appreciate that you don't use fresnel lenses. Whoever had that idea should be kicked in the stones. And it has earbuds built in, and you just have connect a jack that is in the phone compartment into the phone to have sound. I was a little wierded out that my $15 VR goggles had this, but the $159 Gear VR doesn't.
Last, but not necessarily least, I ended up getting a Gear VR when my android phone died, and I upgraded to a Samsung. And I have been having fun with it ever since. Although, it feels like the Gear VR store isn't as large as the Rift store,and is nowhere near what the Vive port is. I was finally glad to have a controller. It took me a few days to get use to the environment, the controller and the software. But once I did. I love it. I am using it until my Rift is up and running, and once that is in place, this will be my travel unit to demo to people. I have shown it to a few people so far, and every single one of the was beyond impressed. I also bought my own VR camera/camcorder and take a lot of my own VR photos and Videos to show people. I'm not sure about rules of posting links in this forum. But if I double check and find out its fine, I'll give you guys a link to some of my videos on youtube.
