laprid0

interesting you say about WMR, have you ever used it? i have an HP that i puchased to try and even with "only two cameras" i still only need to look left right down and up and the tracking is locked in...in the same room and the same lighting that takes about two minutes of looking waiting for the "superior" six cameras of the Cosmos to get a fix. HTC did NOT develop the lighthouse tracking tech, Valve owns the IP for them as well as licensing, and originally was developing the tech with Oculus until Oculus was purchased by Facebook which caused an issue on the Valve side. HTC was then brought in as a partner. the passthrough i saw in my time with the Cosmos was blurry, and if thats what i can expect of HTCs vision for AR...ill pass thanks. if you say you're a developer and that lighthouse tracking is slow and inaccurate - it makes me worry that maybe youve not actually tried it. i can toss a controller to a person in VR and all they have for spatial tracking is a 3d representation of the controller in their headset but they can catch it. that is not slow, nor inaccurate. You can praise the Cosmos forever and a day, based on specifications and best case controlled environment scenarios...all i can say is i have a Vive, ive had one for two and a half years. i love it and I enjoy introducing VR to people with it. The Cosmos doesnt imbue that sense of wonder that the Vive can...what do I mean? i refer back to my controller tracking. I usually get someone in the HMD and wave to controllers in front of them ask can they see them...when they can i just hold them still and say just grab them off me...and when they do instinctively i get them to stop for a moment and realise what has actually happened...and then they realise how deep that level of immersion is.You cant do that with a Cosmos. Sure its a step down from the Vive...but HTC is charging like its step up and they arent giving good value to their customers. I thought a Cosmos would be a natural progression but it was so below my expectations that i had no choice but to return. I just hope you aren't developing exclusively for Cosmos because it's probably going to be a bumpy road. Good luck though.

steve - the Vive is not outside-in tracking. The headset on the vive is only different because it "sees" ir light scattered by the lighthouses as its point of reference, not visuals captured by camera. in both cases it is the headset that calculates its position in space from information it acquires from the outside. a big reason that the Cosmos didnt use lighthouse tracking is MONEY...not convenience. by removing the lighthouse tracking - HTC didnt have to pay Valve. optical tracking can be done properly...by all accounts and one video ive seen comparing side by side; the Oculus Quest at half the price of the Cosmos has substantially better tracking both optically for positional tracking and controller tracking. Paying double to play wait and see if HTC can get it right just highlights how non-ready this device was for market. I guess It's nice that you've made a note of my comments - however I've already walked. Passing on notes to higher levels does nothing without action. Resolving to fix and pushing out a beta patch and saying "did that work for everyone now?" seems akin to groping in the dark and doesn't engender confidence that a real fix is even on the cards let alone in the works. If it was just release it already! Fix the problem! i seriously encourage anyone who can to tell HTC in the strongest manner possible that this is not good enough by returning this faulty, incomplete, utter letdown of a product to their place of purchase - advising that it is not fit for purpose as it doesn't work anywhere near the way it was advertised and getting your money back.

or the imuto 20k QC3 works too.

@TomCgcmfc so all returned and thankfully my Cosmos journey is at an end. I simply explained how it was unfit for purpose - the tracking just doesnt work, the fact that it is being touted as an "upgrade" from the Vive - but barely any of the titles in my Steam library worked, and that the only way I could expect it to work as well as my Vive would be to wait however many months until when (if) HTC released the lighthouse adapter...at an extra cost...Ive lost $120 by buying a wireless cable for it but better that than a $1300 lemon sitting in a box lol

...agreed. ive made my choice sitting in box next to my desk to return on my way home from work - i doubt HTC will do anything that implies liability or means they'd lose money...they want profit at all costs...and minimum cost to themselves to resolve this issue even if it means them pushing hardware in a direction it simply isnt designed to...eg making rgb cameras try and perform like b&w/ir...rip Cosmos...if only youd been given some more love on pre-release instead of this wreck...

no.

ive got same...not really had overheating issues but youd better find yourself a bigger battery! theres a bunch that are compatible as long as you get the right ones...I think its QC3? I dont have it right in front of me now. have a look on reddit.

it's fine...the window still shows what is going on inside the headset. the only thing you lose by losing the linkbox is the ability to turn the lighthouses on/off via bluetooth and even then if you just leave linkbox plugged into power and usb on your computer that will still work. wireless is pretty awesome...enjoy!

The visual system is great - I'll keep on singing it's praises long after I've gotten my money back - but everything else makes it unusable. From the time I fired up Google Earth (after the current fw update) the controllers jumped from being both L to both R then they were in opposite hands. Standing at street level with a lot of tall buildings and texture around turning head left to right fairly quickly - where tracking would have been smooth in Vive - stuttery and jerky in Cosmos. I started to feel sick and was wondering if it was even displaying at 90fps. Even with the "flyscreen" and blur of the Vive compared to current headsets - still a more immersive experience than Cosmos. HN listed it about a week prior to launch - it still took until a few days ago to come in because they fell short of the number of units shipped apparently - I would have been waiting weeks more if they hadn't found a store with them - I should have taken the "hint" and cancelled.

I can see where that would be of use in that instance. I'm not flying sims though - and like in the Vive I'd like to have the inside of the HMD as dark as possible.

apologies if this doesn't read terribly well in some parts - I went back to edit but time limit reached or something so I can't...

I'm not sure how many users are choosing to return their Cosmos - a lot I hope - to send a message to HTC that they should properly test, quality assure, and test again - any product they send to market. The Cosmos in Australia debuted at just on AUD$1300 - the same price I paid for my original Vive a couple of years ago. The Vive just works...the tracking is spectacular, it is reliable, durable and I've enjoyed using it so much both personally and introducing people to VR - I saw very good reviews on the wireless kit and bought it as well - AUD$470 here, and while it has bugged out a couple of times here and there - its usually rock solid and a purchase I am very glad I made. As soon as I looked in the Cosmos' box and saw the "padding" was just cardboard (rather than the foam for my Vive that I still use today I just transplanted into Pelican case and keeps everything snug still) and parts were wrapped in bubble wrap - it felt cheap - even though it was exactly the same price. I figured the Cosmos would be a unit I could use wired and with it's controllers until wireless was available (at extra cost) and the lighthouse faceplate (at more extra cost) then it would be at a level I would have hoped for from launch. On par with the Vive but exceeding with the innovation since the Vive was released. Except the Cosmos offers an experience NOTHING LIKE the Vive. The visuals are sharper absolutely - they're great! The Cosmos tracking is so inferior it's embarrasing - moving head side to side stutters and lags, controllers are both L controllers one moment then both R the next, they jump up to the ceiling, then disappear. The HMD says the room is too dark, then too bright. The Cosmos has very very little compatibility with SteamVR games - controller button mapping in Google Earth even - an absolutely mainstay for VR experiences is wrong labels point to buttons that don't exist, one of my favorite experiences Wave (once WaveVR) doesn't even run anymore because it doesn't even detect the controllers. Having backward compatibility is essential for releasing a new product and HTC couldn't even do that right. It's been a really disappointing experience, I hope anyone looking to purchase the Cosmos reads this and avoids it - the reality that I've bought a product that will only become "usable" after I've spend who know how many hundreds of $$$ more on HTC accessories - which should only exist as a 'nice to have' not as 'this is the only way Cosmos will work like your Vive' - especially when it was the same price to start with. I just can't in good conscience recommend anything but the original Vive to anyone - I just pray that Valve will bring the Index to Australia soon so I can actually buy a proper upgrade to my original Vive. I'll find it hard to seriously look at purchasing another HTC headset again to be honest. Having said this - how have other purchasers experiences been returning the unit? I'm returning mine to a retailer - and of course I can't show them because I'm not dragging my rig into a store with the Vive to give them a side by side comparison to illustrate how inferior the Cosmos is - as an enthusiast and in a way a VR evangelist too this unit definitely doesn't meet my expectations and I can only see future solutions that will cost me more money which is a pretty crappy business model HTC.

If I wasn't returning my Cosmos you could have had mine - I decided not to use it immediately in case Cosmos wasn't up to my expectations.

One thing I haven't noticed other users bringing up as much - is how much light leaks into the HMD! I am lucky to see any at all on my original Vive - but on Cosmos light leaks from below where the rubber flap is meant to conform to users nose(?) I guess that's what it is meant for. Light leaks in through there from beneath...doesn't on Vive. From top it seems to leak right in onto the LENS?!? how did that get missed? it somehow comes in from behind if there is a light source above and behind you from something like ANY ceiling light you might be standing under or behind you. Has anyone mitigated this somehow?

@jegra45 that's my experience exactly - i get a smoother view from my HP Windows Mixed Reality headset! and that's only two cameras? The HP "locks in" to the external visual environment way way faster too. I usually only have to look left, look right, look down and it's away. The Cosmos?!?! two-three minutes plus of looking around, up/down too dark, too bright. I can't work out how it is that WMR does it so simply, then a headset which I paid 4x more for can't seem to get it together. HTC should have just gone "we think lighthouse tracking is superior" - kept buying the tech from Valve and given us a killer product. Now (well maybe if the adapter ever arrives - and at WHAT price!!) we can maybe get that experience but it's going to cost more more more...I think the only way to let HTC know they have released an inferior product but tried to charge us - the community for something the Cosmos definitely ISN'T - is to return return return. This device isn't fit for purpose.

I just bought the pro cable for $120 @Vanradil I already bought a bigger battery a while back. Hope it has the extra oomph needed. The thing that irks me is almost guaranteed you'll be looking at AUD$200+ as the pro cable alone is $120. Especially if it's a larger capacity battery. I am worried that by the time the Cosmos is dependable in the way my Vive is...it will have cost Upwards of $2000. That's with already owning the $470 wireless kit. I thought it would be a replacement with few foibles - but I either mothball it until I buy the required upgrades or just cut my losses get a refund and start burning incense to the VR gods to get the valve index here.

Theres no reason. HTC hasnt even had to buy lighthouses from Valve this time round and they still charged the same as they did for the original Vive. It's called "cash grab" and "corporate greed"...mind you VR is the only thing HTC does anymore isnt it? The Focus was a flop, the Vive Pro was a hard sell, and they obviously underestimated the market when they first demoed the unit...a very VERY hasty redesign and rush to market before properly testing hardware or software and here we are today with an inferior product that really isnt worthy of the Vive name.

Agreed...the controller tracking is light years behind original Vive. i have shown how accurate tracking is in demos by getting peope to throw the controller to me in vr and i can catch it...this..lol...these would just be broken plastic on the floor...its laughable how bad the tracking is...yet Ive paid exactly the same price for this as I did for the orignal Vive a couple of years ago...the Cosmos is inferior in every way except the upgrade displays...and the only way to fix properly is to *give HTC more money* how does that work?!?! Try for a refund...get an index if you can! I wish I could!

Honestly this hmd was not properly optimised before release. Apart from the clarity which is much improved the only way I can see myself keeping this headset is to wait and spend how much more $$$ on top of what ive already bought to get it working with my original Vive lighthouses. If most of your customers got the chance to compare the tracking on original Vive compared to Cosmos...there'd be outrage!!! controllers stutter through the air, jump up to above my head or below my waist, looking quickly side to side often stutters because it cant see Ive moved. I use it in a fully lit room...it says too dark, I use it in the same room in the daytime...too bright...When I paid AUD$1300 for my Vive two years ago - I knew it was a good product, the foam the packaging. I bought the audio strap, and the wireless kit...theyre awesome! But then I made the mistake of thinking the Cosmos would be an upgrade...big mistake! cardboard packagine inserts, bubblewrap?! It just looked cheap. Ive already spent AUD$120 for a cable for the wireless, then how much will your lighthouse faceplate be?? To Date: Vive $1300, Audio strap $170, wireless kit $470, Vive Cosmos $1300, new wireless cable $120...how much is it going to cost me to get an "upgrade" from the original Vive? I'm thinking the safest bet for me is to return for a refund until the lighthouse faceplate comes out (depending on how much it retails for) and evaluate for there I havent even mentioned the woeful light leakage into the HMD...caveat emptor!

i have to say...from day one a couple of years ago my original Vive was fantastic, I showed people how amazing the tracking was the experience was awesome. Cosmos? I'm taking it back...if it was my first VR experience I'd have been incredibly disappointed. Sadly I cant get an Index where I live...if you can I suggest you do! Nothing can fix the optical tracking issues and terrible controllers. until you have to pay more $$$ to "upgrade" to where the Vive was from day one.

The optical tracking (cameras on the faceplate) is terrible, likewise because this is how it tracks the comtrollers...their tracking is terrible too. Nothing at all like the incredible accuracy I enjoy with original vive (that uses the lighthouses) The only way to get the Cosmos on par with the original Vive is to buy lighthouses (seperately), buy controllers (seperately) and buy the faceplate (seperately)...suddenly an "out of the box" product only becomes usable after spending...who knows how much more on add-ons...

I'm incredibly disappointed in the Cosmos after being a Vive fan for the past two years. I am hoping I can also return mine to the retailer I purchased from.

if you havent received call your bank and see if they will do a chargeback for you. I've had my cosmos for a day after using original Vive for a couple of years, and I wish I hadn't bought it. it shouldn't have gone to market as it is.