PanicX72 Posted February 12, 2021 Share Posted February 12, 2021 Friends and foes! Greetings! Where should I start.. I visited a friend just a week ago, because she purchased a PSVR. We enjoyed it, had fun. Reminded me of the time years ago, when I owned a HTC Vive. Immediately when I got home, I went to a website and checked if HTC had any new headsets. Guess what? I saw the Cosmos! Since I owned a HTC Vive before, and it was one of the best headsets back then, I could only imagine the headset being even better now, years after. So, I went ahead and ordered it. I believe it was Saturday that evening, on Sundays no deliveries, so it arrived on Monday. I was hyped! In the meantime I decided to browse the interwebs to find more information regarding this headset. After 1 Google result I already regret ordering it. A whole page full of people complaining mainly about the tracking of the Cosmos. I decided to remain positive, maybe those people had poor lighting, were handling it incorrectly, etc. So. Monday it is. Package arrived. Yay!! https://imgur.com/CzDENVd Time to unpack and install it. Not having to install the base station really makes things easy. Powered it up. Popped it on my head. Screen blurry. Huh? Maybe reposition it, change the straps, etc. Helped a bit. Okay, maybe I gotta get used to it or maybe VR didn't advance this much over the past years, because I was expecting the resolution of the screens to be way better than back then. First few games I noticed the controllers stopped working. Shit. What's wrong!? I Googled some issues, and found out that the Cosmos didn't like white walls. Fine! I mounted a painting, made a few X's on the wall with tape (pfffff), and it stopped losing track of the controllers, somewhat. Great! Time to play some Pavlov, Onward, The walking dead, Boneworks, etc. All games where you're able to aim your weapon. As usual with something you got new, you have to get 'skilled' at it, get used to it. I thought my aim sucked big time, and it would get better over time. I dealt with it. Adjusting settings in the meantime, so I got the best and finest resolution I could get with the Cosmos. 1 problem though.... Every time I played for 15-30 minutes, depending on which game, especially Boneworks, I noticed I felt dizzy. Headache. Getting nauseous. Googled this (because, why not?!). Looks like I need to get 'VR legs'. Fine. I'll get used to this. Play for 30 minutes and take a break. Eventually it'll be better. I quickly started noticing that when I was wielding a 2H weapon (melee,rifle,shotgun), the tracking wasn't the way I was used to with the HTC Vive. I thought this was also a thing I had to get used to. Since I wasn't getting used to this 2H playing/tracking, I started to look for some Youtube gameplay video's, to compare the headsets with each other. Guess what?! It's not me. It's the Cosmos! More and more people complained about the way the controllers are tracked, the display isn't clear (all blurry on the sides), getting nauseous, etc etc etc. At this point I was like 'Why the hell did I pay 800 euro's for something that isn't working correctly?!'. I tried finding solutions for all these issues, but nothing would work. The most disturbing thing was the tracking. I absolutely love the aiming/shooting in VR, that's why I got the headset in the first place. And to just find out that the tracking is this bad, is a complete dealbreaker. After some more and more Googling, I found out that like every person preferred ANY other headset over the Cosmos. Heck, I even found this link: https://www.roadtovr.com/htc-vive-cosmos-accuracy-test-controller/ saying that the Cosmos is the least accurate headset out of all! And at this moment I realized I should next time look up on Google and compare items. Luckily in the Netherlands, we can return items purchased from the internet within 14 days after delivery. You get another 14 days to ship it back. Awesome! I mailed the company I ordered the Cosmos from, told them about the problems, and they agreed with me sending it back. Lucky me! Cosmos packed up again, pretty neat huh?! Like it's never used! https://imgur.com/x2gmZxo Yesterday I decided to order a Oculus Quest 2. People were positive about this headset. Couldn't find really bad review about it. Quest 2 arrived today. Couple of hours ago. https://imgur.com/x2gmZxo At first I was skeptical. "How could such a cheap headset (over half the price) be better than a Cosmos headset costing 800 euro's?!". When I unboxed the Quest 2 I was flabbergasted. Sure, the packaging is also nicer than the Cosmos, but I'm talking about when I powered the device on and put in on my head. I immediately noticed that the screen was waaaaaaaaaaay clearer than the Cosmos. Within the 10 seconds I put on the Quest 2, I realised that it's a huge difference. How smooth the controller tracking is, how the 'Guardian Shield (or w/e it's called)' is awesome, their Oculus app works awesome. Everything is awesome on this thing. I immediately fired up Boneworks and boy what was I happy. This Quest 2, not even focused on dedicated PCVR gaming, half the price of a HTC Cosmos. How can it be soooo much better? Usually I don't write reviews about products I like/dislike. HTC released a malfunctioning headset which they shouldn't have. It's not getting fixed, and it can't be fixed. It's the light tracking which messes the controllers up when you're holding them next to each other or behind each other. The first thing I tried with the Quest 2 was to hold the controllers straight in front of each other, and see if the tracking worked. LIKE A CHARM. I also played 1 hour straight, and didn't even get nauseous. The tracking on the Quest 2 is so subtle, it's a day and night change from the Cosmos. Also I noticed that the screen wasn't blurry at all. On the Cosmos I kept touching the headset and refit it, hoping it would be better. But it didn't get better. Now, if you're a person considering purchasing the HTC Cosmos like me, please don't. I was naïve, thinking it'd be okay, acceptable. But it's not. All those forums/websites/reviews claiming all those negative things, it's true. Still I am surprised about the fact that a product way cheaper is so much better than something that's this expensive. I'm glad we got such good customer protections in the Netherlands, otherwise I'd be stuck with this thing. HTC, too bad you've released this piece of garbage. You know it is, otherwise you wouldn't have released the Elite shortly after. Sorry for the rant, but hey, I'm being honest. Now time to get back to the Quest 2, and enjoy VR like it's supposed to be. Have a nice day! 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Peaceseekingmissile Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 Good ad! I like my Vive with Gear VR Lenses + wireless. I plan on getting full body tracking as well. My pal has a quest but I like having my Steam VR apps as well as having the option to use oculus stuff as well. With VR everyone wins! (HTC Vive is expensive with the stations and all but the Q2 is sold out and is over 400$ in CanadaLand) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomCgcmfc Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Ya, my Vive Pro w/Etsy Gear VR lens mod and Index controllers is still my favourite PCVR headset for all my flight/racing sims (and most other PCVR apps as well). Unfortunately My Vive wireless adapter is still too much of a CPU resource hog for these, even with a i9 9900k and rtx3090, lol! I still prefer my good old Rift cv1 for most of my Oculus store apps and thanks to the Vive Pro link box on/off button and Oculus OTT it's very easy to switch headsets. I enjoy my Quest 1 for mobile VR, media viewing, and for a bit of PCVR wireless fun w/Virtual Desktop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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