Welcome to the Oasis, my name's Mike and today
I'm going to be talking about the HTC Vive
Cosmos.
Now, It's been a long time since the initial
reveal of this device back at CES in January
this year and a lot has changed since then.
So in this video, I'll be covering all the
details and the specs of this headset so you
can make an informed decision if this is the
right VR headset for you.
I've pre-ordered one myself so if you want
to wait for my hands on review it should arrive
around the 3rd October.
I hope you find this video useful and without
further ado, let's dive in.
So before we get into the specs, lets go back
to when the Cosmos was first unvealed at CES
in January this year.
Back then the headset only featured two inside
out tracking cameras on the front and it was
teased the headset would be capable of being
tethered to a mobile device.
After CES we heard very little from HTC other
than a strange live stream of the headset
spinning around and that was about it.
HTC could have done a much better job building
the hype for this headset and informing customers
exactly what this headset is all about but
that's another matter.
Fast forward nine months after CES and we're
ready for launch, the headset now has 6 tracking
cameras for inside out tracking but sadly
there wasn't even a whisper of mobile tethering
support on the spec sheet, but more on that
later.
So, what is the Cosmos, well it's not a Quest
competitor in that it's not a standalone headset,
this is a PC powered headset aimed at gamers
and you'll need a fairly powerful PC to power
it with recommended specs of a windows 10
machine running an i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350
paired with 8Gb of ram and a GTX 1060 or AMD
Radeon 480.
So lets get into this headset in a little
more detail starting with the ergonmics as
the Vive Cosmos will sport the halo style
headstrap as we've seen previously on the
PSVR and the Oculus Rift S.
The Halo design comes with a adjustment dial
at the back and built in headphones.
Another new addition to the headset is the
flip up display.
I kinda like the look of this feature as I'm
constantly resting my other headsets on my
forehead to mess around with settings when
recording content but I have concerns about
it not sitting firmly on my face due to the
hinge which was an issue with some windows
mixed reality headsets.
Thankfully the headset features a manual IPD
adjustment, this is so you can correctly configure
the headset to the spacing between your eyes
for the optimal experience.
This was a feature that was lacking on the
Oculus Rift S which I thought was a huge oversight
from Oculus.
Now let's get into the audio, like I mentioned
earlier, built into the headstrap are a pair
of headphones which look identical to those
found on the original Vive deluxe audio strap.
The headphones on the deluxe audio strap were
convienient and get the job done however if
you want to use you're own headphones you
can remove the Cosmos built in headphones
and utilise a 3.5mm headphone jack.
And now this is where things get a bit more
juicy when we move onto the display and lenses
of the headset as the Cosmos offers an 88%
higher resolution over the original Vive however
it still retains the same field of view of
around 110 degrees.
The Cosmos will be following the current trend
in VR headsets and will be using a pair of
LCD panels in the headset.
LCD offers a more pixel dense display with
it's RGB subpixel arrangement meaning you
get three subpixels for every pixel which
provides greater clarity and reduced screen
door effect with the tradeoff that LCDs don't
tend to provide as deeper blacks than an OLED.
When we compare specs to the current leading
headsets on the market you can see the Cosmos
is offering a higher resolution than the Vive
Pro and Index so it should make your VR games
and content look great.
It also runs at the industry standard of 90hz.
In terms of lenses, the Cosmos will have similar
fresnel lenses to those used in the original
Vive and Vive Pro so expect god rays in contrasting
scenes but once in game this becomes less
noticeable.
The Cosmos will use a single Displayport and
a single USB 3.0 but sadly this is another
headset which overlooks the single USB C virtual
link connector which is a real shame.
And now onto another big design change for
the Vive Cosmos and that's the controllers.
This time round HTC have gone with a design
similar to that of the Oculus touch controllers.
I'm happy that HTC have finally ditched the
Vive wands, I was never been a fan of them
apart from playing Beat Saber where they actually
were pretty good.
Instead of using discreet infra red LEDs like
the Oculus touch, HTC have gone for a light
tracking system with their new controllers.
The headset cameras track the controllers
from the light patterns on the illuminated
tracking ring.
Each controller will take two AA batteries
each which will likely make them slightly
heavier than the Oculus Touch and I've got
some concerns as the Windows MR controllers
also used light tracking technology and they
rapidly burnt through batteries, something
that I'll be testing when I get my hands on
it.
The new controllers also have an additional
bumper button just like Xbox and Playstation
gamepads so it will feature a trigger and
a bumper button on each controller.
I like that we're slowly getting parity between
controller designs between Oculus, HTC and
Valve who are now all adopting thumbstick
inputs.
Now let's move onto the other big change for
this headset and that's the move from the
gold standard lighthouse tracking to inside
out tracking.
Personally I'm a fan of inside out tracking
so I'm glad HTC went down this route as it
makes the headset way more accessible to new
consumers and takes another step out of the
setup.
Of course if you want the best tracking available
or you're updgrading from an original Vive
or Vive Pro you can still utilise lighthouse
tracking by buying the optional faceplate
which will support lighthouse tracking which
will be available next year.
I think this is a really smart move from HTC
as Oculus fans were really disappointed with
the Rift S being unable to support the sensor
tracking from the original Rift.
I also like the idea of this modular system
which could open up the Cosmos to further
options in the future.
The Cosmos will feature six inside out tracking
cameras, four on the front plate and one either
side of the headset.
It will be interesting to see how it stacks
up against the Rift S although it will likely
have the same limitations when playing in
the dark, putting the controllers behind your
back or when one controller occuldes the other.
Utilising the cameras the Cosmos will have
a full colour Passthrough mode which turns
on automatically when you move beyond the
boundary or you can double tap the vive button
on the controllers.
Also I saw this clip teased from HTC showing
Cosmos finger tracking without the need of
a leap motion device which is very interesting
indeed.
HTC have stated that the Vive Cosmos will
be compatible with the HTC Vive Wireless adapter
which released last year for $299.
When I tested the wireless adapter I thought
the wireless solution was a great addition
to the Vive Pro which I used for testing and
using a wireless headset is really liberating.
The only reason I ended up ditching this solution
was due to the performance it was taking on
my PC whilst recording or streaming gaming
content at the same time but of course this
won't be an issue for most people out there
as long as you have a high end machine.
Just be aware that you'll also need the Cosmos
kit for the wireless adapter which will likely
cost an additional $60 as the Cosmos needs
a 21w battery to power it.
We don't have a release date for the Cosmos
kit for the Vive wireless adapter just yet.
Launching alongside the Cosmos is HTC's new
home environment called Vive Origin .
Of course the Cosmos will still be fully compatible
with SteamVR and its likley to get Revive
support to play Oculus titles but with Vive
Origin the focus is on HTCs own platform called
Viveport.
For those that don't know Viveport Infinity
is HTC's VR game subscription service.
Think of it like the Netflix of VR games.
VivePort generally doesn't get the latest
biggest titles but it does have some great
games such as Windlands 2, Apex Construct,
Fishermans Tale and Pixel Ripped to name a
few.
If you pre-order a Cosmos before the 2nd October
you'll get a years free subscription to Viveport
Infinity with the bundle and this would normally
set you back $99 for the year or $12.99 a
month.
Hopefully Vive Origin will eventually get
multiplayer support in the future.
It's surprising that the only VR system to
do this right so far has been the Oculus Go
with Oculus Rooms where I could invite friends
over to my place to just chat, hang out or
play board games together.
So you're probably thinking this all sounds
great but how much does it cost.
Well the Cosmos is launching on the 3rd October
for $699 / £699 / 799 Euros.
Pricing wise it sits right in the middle between
the Rift S and Index.
However, if you already have Vive basestations
you can get the Index and Index controllers
for $749 which makes it very close to the
price of the Cosmos.
So depending on your budget and what games
you're planning to play there's a few things
to consider here.
So here's my conclusion.
The Cosmos has some tasty specs in terms of
display and I like the move to inside out
tracking and the new controller design.
However the lack of mobile tethering support
which was originally teased makes this just
another VR headset on the market with a marginal
increase in specs.
I still feel like if you want the ultimate
high end VR headset, the Index is the one
to go for despite it lacking the content to
show the system off to its fullest potential
right now.
The main competition for the Cosmos is of
course the Oculus Rift S. The Cosmos beats
it with higher resoltuon, manual IPD and likely
better audio but will that be enough to justify
almost twice the price without the benefit
of the exclusive content that Oculus can offer.
We'll have to wait and see.
Ok, so there we have it, that's the HTC Vive
Cosmos.
I'm really looking forward to checking it
out myself but I think it's a real shame nothing
was mentioned about the mobile tethering solution
as I feel that that's what really made the
Cosmos stand out from the crowd at it's unvieling.
That feature would have made the Cosmos the
first hybrid headset that could officially
do both PCVR and standalone in a single headset.
Maybe this feature is still in the works and
maybe it'll eventually roll out as an update?
Who knows.
Even if you're not interested in the Vive
Cosmos, I think it's good for the VR industry
as a whole.
Consumers now have more choice than ever before
with each headset on the market having it's
own unique pros and cons and hopefully this
video has helped to find out if this is the
right VR headset for you.
I've pre-ordered one myself so I'll be able
to give you my hands on experience with the
device as soon as it arrives here in the office.
But let me know what you think of the Vive
Cosmos in the comments down below.
Have you pre-ordered a Cosmos?
Are you excited for this device or maybe have
you considered another device instead?
I'd love to know in the comments below.
Leave a like if you liked the video and found
it useful, make sure you're subscrbed for
all my future content and as always, I'll
see you on the next one.
Cheers!
