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Top 7 modern Virtual Reality hardware systems

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  • 7 min read
  • 20 Apr 2018

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Since its early inception, virtual reality has offered an escape. Donning a headset can transport you to a brand new world, full of wonderment and excitement. Or it can let you explore a location too dangerous for human existence.  Or it can even just present the real world to you in a new manner. And now that we have moved past the era of bulky goggles and clumsy helmets, the hardware is making the aim of unfettered escapism a reality.

In this article, we present a roundup of the modern VR hardware systems. Each product is presented giving an overview of the device, and its price as of February 2018. Use this information to compare systems and find the device which best suits your personal needs.

There has been an explosion of VR hardware in the last three years. They range from cheaply made housings around a pair of lens to full headsets with embedded screens creating a 110-degree field of view. Each device offers distinct advantages and use cases. Many have even dropped significantly in price over the past 12 months making them more accessible to a wider audience of users. Following is a brief overview of each device, ranked in terms of price and complexity.

Google Cardboard


Cardboard VR is compatible with a wide range of contemporary smartphones.

Google Cardboard's biggest advantage is its low cost, broad hardware support, and portability. As a bonus, it is wireless.

Using the phone's gyroscopes, the VR applications can track the user in 360 degrees of rotation.

While modern phones are very powerful, they are not as powerful as desktop PCs. But the user is untethered and the systems are lightweight:

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Cost: $5-20 (plus an iOS or Android smartphone)

[box type="shadow" align="" class="" width=""]Check out this post to Build Virtual Reality Solar System in Unity for Google Cardboard[/box]

Google Daydream


Rather than plastic, the Daydream is built from a fabric-like material and is bundled with a Wii-like motion controller with a trackpad and buttons.

It does have superior optics compared to a Cardboard but is not as nice as the higher end VR systems.

Just as with the Gear VR, it works only with a very specific list of phones:

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Cost: $79 (plus a Google or Android Smartphone)

Gear VR


Gear VR is part of the Oculus ecosystem. While it still uses a smartphone (Samsung only), the Gear VR Head-Mounted Display (HMD) includes some of the same circuitry from the Oculus Rift PC solution. This results in far more responsive and superior tracking compared to Google Cardboard, although it still only tracks rotation:

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Cost: $99 (plus Samsung Android Smartphone)

Oculus Rift


The Oculus Rift is the platform that reignited the VR renaissance through its successful Kickstarter campaign. The Rift uses a PC and external cameras that allow not only rotational tracking but also positional tracking, allowing the user a full VR experience. The Samsung relationship allows Oculus to use Samsung screens in their HMDs.

While the Oculus no longer demands that the user remain seated, it does want the user to move within a smaller 3 m x 3 m area. The Rift HMD is wired to the PC.

The user can interact with the VR world with the included Xbox gamepad, mouse, and keyboard, a one-button clicker, or proprietary wireless controllers:

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Cost: $399 plus $800 for a VR-ready PC

Vive


The HTC Vive from Valve uses smartphone panels from HTC.

The Vive has its own proprietary wireless controllers, of a different design than Oculus (but it can also work with gamepads, joysticks, mouse/keyboards).

The most distinguishing characteristic is that the Vive encourages users to explore and walk within a 4 m x 4 m, or larger, cube:

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Cost: $599 plus an $800 VR-ready PC

Sony PSVR


While there are persistent rumors of an Xbox VR HMD, Sony is currently the only video game console with a VR HMD.

It is easier to install and set up than a PC-based VR system, and while the library of titles is much smaller, the quality of the titles is higher overall on average. It is also the most affordable of the positional tracking VR options. But, it is also the only one that cannot be developed on by the average hobbyist developer:

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Cost: $400, plus Sony Playstation 4 console

Microsoft's HoloLens


Microsoft's HoloLens provides a unique AR experience in several ways.

The user is not blocked off from the real world; they can still see the world around them (other people, desks, chairs, and so on) through the HMD's semitransparent optics.

The HoloLens scans the user's environment and creates a 3D representation of that space. This allows the Holograms from the HoloLens to interact with objects in the room. Holographic characters can sit on couches in the room, fish can avoid table legs, screens can be placed on walls in the room, and so on.

The system is completely wireless. It's the only commercially available positional tracking device that is wireless. The computer is built into HMD with the processing power that sits in between a smartphone and a VR-ready PC.

The user can walk, untethered, in areas as large as 30 m x 30 m.

While an Xbox controller and a proprietary single-button controller can be used, the main interaction with the HoloLens is through voice commands and two gestures from the user's hand (Select and Go back).

The final difference is that the holograms only appear in a relatively narrow field of view.

Because the user can still see other people, either sharing the same Holographic projections or not, the users can interact with each other in a more natural manner:

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Cost: Development Edition: $3000; Commercial Suite: $5000

Headset costs and comparison across various features


The following chart is a sampling of VR headset prices, accurate as of February 1, 2018. VR/AR hardware is rapidly advancing and prices and specs are going to change annually, sometimes quarterly. As of now, the price of the Oculus has dropped by $200:











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Google

Cardboard
Gear VR Google

Daydream
Oculus

Rift
HTC

Vive
Sony

PS VR
HoloLens
Complete cost for HMD, trackers, default controllers $5 $99 $79 $399 $599 $299 $3000
Total cost

with CPU: phone, PC, PS4
$200 $650 $650 $1,400 $1,500 $600 $3000
Built-in headphones NO No No Yes No No Yes
Platform Apple

Android
Samsung

Galaxy
Google

Pixel
PC PC Sony PS4 Proprietary PC
Enhanced rotational tracking No Yes No Yes Yes Yes yes
Positional

tracking
No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Built-in touch panel No* Yes No No No No no
Motion controls No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Tracking system No No No Optical Lighthouse Optical Laser
True 360 tracking No No No Yes Yes No Yes
Room scale

and size
No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Remote No No Yes Yes No No Yes
Gamepad support No Yes No Yes

2m x 2m
Yes

4m x 4m
Yes

3m x 3m
Yes

10mX10m
Resolution

per eye
Varies 1440

x1280
1440

x1280
1200

x1080
1200

x1080
1080

x960
1268

X720
Field of

view
Varies 100 90 110 110 100 30
Refresh rate 60 Hz 60 Hz 60 Hz 90 Hz 90 Hz 90-120 Hz 60 Hz
Wireless Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes
Optics adjustment No Focus No IPD IPD IPD IPD
Operating system iOS

Android
Android

Oculus
Android

Daydream
Win 10

Oculus
Win 10

Steam
Sony PS4 Win 10
Built-in Camera Yes Yes Yes* No Yes* No Yes
AR/VR VR* VR* VR VR VR* VR AR
Natural user Interface No No No No No Yes


Choosing which HMD to support comes down to a wide range of issues: cost, access to hardware, use cases, image fidelity/processing power, and more. The previous chart is provided to help the user understand the strengths and weaknesses of each platform.

There are many HMDs not included in this overview. Some are not commercially available at the time of this writing (Magic Leap, the Win 10 HMD licensed from Microsoft, the Starbreeze/IMAX HMD, and others) and some are not yet widely available or differentiated enough: Razer's Open Source HMD.

You enjoyed an excerpt from the book, Virtual Reality Blueprints, written by Charles Palmer and John Williamson. In this book, you will learn how to create immersive 3D games and applications with Cardboard VR, Gear VR, OculusVR, and HTC Vive.

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