Trading in my Vive Cosmos for something different and IMO better.

[Glaucoma Predator]

While the Cosmos has a nice screen and the idea of inside out tracking is appealing, the performance of the device is just not acceptable. 

Being a day one adopter of VR and having bought and used the original Vive, this is nowhere near the the performance I expect from a VR HMD. 

Yes the gradual improvements of inside out tracking are welcome, but the performance will never compare to light house tracking. 

HTC is trying hard to remedy the problem but the only way to do that would be to do some sort of external tracking. 

This is why...

Maybe if HTC offers good pricing on upgrading the Cosmos to Light House tracking I might buy it and send the HDM to my brother but for now it will be sitting in a box collecting dust. 

Because for the life no one want's this thing and I have tried to sell it for the last month and a half.

HTC if you are reading this, yes you have improved the tracking. 

But you need to go a step further, the default controllers are nice and going to light house tracking with the elite package as a consumer you are taking two steps forward one step back. 

The controllers that come with the current package are far superior to the default HTC VIVE and HTC VIVE PRO controllers. They are even capable of competing with the knuckle controllers.

So my suggestion to the Management/Engineering in the VR department is instead of light houses sell 2 custom 90+ hz external cameras with a good FOV that are capable of of low light and bright light performance. 

Make them pair with wifi, or bluetooth. Then in conjunction with the inside out tracking on the HMD you can get your algorithm right. You will have many points of reference for tracking at this point. 

Camera sensors are pretty cheap these days, every smartphone has one. 

My $0.02

@C.T.

[TomCgcmfc]

@Glaucoma Predator I share much of your sentiments mate.  I pre-ordered the Cosmos and have been pretty unhappy with the very slow inside-out tracking improvements.   Like you, my Cosmos is currently back in it's box and will stay there until it's inside-out tracking gets to a much better standard.  Hopefully this will happen within the next few months.  If and when this happens I will probably reinstall it and use it with my Vive Wireless Adapter.  My Cosmos actually worked very well wireless and it would be handy for games that require a lot of moving around.

I also was a little disappointed with the poor blacks/contrast of its lcd screens in darkish games/sims compared to my good old oled Oculus Rift cv1 w/2x sensors.  I'm sorry to tell you but I think you may find the same with your lcd Index.  Probably something you can get used to and hopefully game developers will start catering to lcd screens better in the near future with better lcd/oled in-game graphics options.

I ended up buying a Vive Pro (Mclaren Edition) w/2.0 base stations/controllers a few months ago and I have been very happy with it.  Perfect tracking and fantastic blacks/contrast in darkish games.  I also purchased the latest Etsy Gear VR lens mod and this made everything even better.  Even much better than my Rift cv1!  My only complaint is that the Vive wands are not nearly as nice to use as either the Cosmos controllers or the Rift touch controllers.  However, they are still very usable (and robust) and since I am currently mainly using my Pro for flight/racing sims this is not much of an issue.  If Valve actually ever decides to start shipping Index bits to Australia I may consider buying their controllers.  I have heard rumors that Vive may come out with base station compatible Cosmos-like controllers later this year and I would def be interested in those.  Just a rumor right now, maybe just wishful thinking?

I'm currently running a 2x PCVR headset setup with my Vive Pro and Oculus Rift cv1.  Thanks to the pro's link box on/off switch and the Oculus Tray Tool's ability to automatically switch over audio/ovr settings, both systems are very easy to go back and forth from.  I still many use my Rift for Oculus Store games and because I have a fairly powerful pc (i9 9900k, gtx1080ti, 32Gb ram...) I am able to use 2x Super Sampling on everything which really makes all these look very nice.  Also, the touch controllers are much nicer to use.  For now, I'm pretty happy with this setup. 

I'm also very happy with the free VivePort Infinity subscriptions I gotten with my recent Vive purchases.  Between the pre-ordered Cosmos, initial Oculus sub offer, Vive Pro, and Wireless adapter offers I think my Infinity subscription is good until ~ August 2021!  Most of these games play very well on both my Pro and Rift headsets so this is pretty handy.  I cannot remember the last time I actually bought anything from the Oculus Store, lol!

For now I'm just going to hang onto my Cosmos and hope for the best (= better tracking and less light sensitivity).  I might be tempted to try the Elite SteamVR faceplate in the future but only if I could use these with better controllers (which are not yet available for me).  So, until then, my Cosmos is in a holding pattern, lol!

[Glaucoma Predator]

My understanding is that the Index has pretty bad god rays. The Cosmos was ok for me, it did not bother me at all. Either way if I find the god rays are too much on the Index I will pick up a Pimax Artisian which has 120Hz refresh rate and a 170 degree FOV. 

From MRTVs review it seems that the Artisian is closer to the Cosmos as far as the god rays are concerned. 

I guess with the inside out tracking, ignorance is bliss, you don't know what it could be like until you try base station tracking. 

I can tell you though I'm really looking forward to the 120hz + refresh rate and the knuckle controllers on the Index. 

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by Glaucoma Predator

[TomCgcmfc]

@Glaucoma Predator No doubt about it, base station tracking (or external sensors like my Rift cv1) will always be better than inside-out tracking.  However, the Rift S (which I have used) inside-out tracking is very good and it certainly is a lot easier to setup and move to different locations if need be.  Hopefully the Cosmos will improve to those standards in the near future.  If and wen it does I'll probably take it out of storage and use my Wireless adapter with it.

Good luck with your Index mate.