Got the approval from the wife for VR finally. I'm going to start doing my research and decide which to get but I do want to ask you guys... Should I wait for 2nd gen or will it be a while? Price doesn't really concern me but didn't know if 2nd gen VR was around the corner.
We will most likely not see a 2nd-gen device until next summer (2017) because the Oculus & Vive were just released a few months ago. Here's the current status of available options:
- Google Cardboard: (GC) This is the guidelines for creating a basic headset that works with just about any smartphone. Really basic. I bought a plastic viewer from Viewmaster for my iPhone.
- Samsung GearVR: A step up from GC. More features, gamepad support, etc. The GC got me interested in VR; the GearVR is what sold me on VR. Headsets are $99 & require a support Samsung phone. It's nice because it's 100% wireless...you strap the phone into the headset & optionally use a wireless gamepad. No tether to the PC required!
- Oculus Rift: The first big PC headset.
- HTC Vive: The first competitor to the Rift. Came out about the same time, but for $200 more, because it included two location cameras (Lighthouses) & two "Wiimotes" (Vive VR controllers). This let you walk around your room & track your hands using the gamepad sticks.
- Playstation VR: (PSVR) Not as good as the Rift or Vive, but tons of games coming out, and sells for $500 as a package (camera, controllers, headset) if you already have a Playstation 4 or newer.
Oculus has their own roomscale & controller combo coming out in December. Google is upgrading GC & has a competitor to the GearVR coming out next month (November) called Daydream. There are a variety of other lesser competitors coming out. Right now, for serious VR, it pretty much boils down to the Rift, the Vive, and the PSVR, with the Vive probably being the best among them thanks to the wireless motion controllers & Roomscale setup. Plus, the Vive has excellent Steam integration, so if you have a VR-ready PC, you can unbox the Vive & set it up, download Steam & some games, and get playing pretty quickly.
One of the problems VR is running into is fragmented stores & exclusives. So certain games are only coming out for the Oculus instead of both the Oculus & the Vive (although there's Revive Inject, which lets you play most Oculus games now). Despite partnering with Steam, Vive for some reason just came out with their own platform called Viveport. Samsung uses the Oculus store & runs optimized experiences & games for the Samsung phones (mobile CPU's). Google Cardboard has apps for both iPhone & Android, but Daydream has its own SDK. And of course, Playstation will have PS4-only games. So things are kind of all over the map right now. Plus Microsoft has the Hololens AR system, Intel is working on an Atom-based AR/VR headset called Project Alloy, there's all kinds of stuff in the works.
Right now, the Vive has over 500 VR games & experiences available in Steam. Having owned it a few months, I absolutely love it, but I was bit by the VR bug & was willing to be an early adopter (imperfect software & hardware, lack of full games because they have yet to be developed, etc.). I would absolutely recommend it if you have the budget available & are chomping at the bit to get into VR, but also with the caveat that this isn't an Xbox or Wii system where you're going to spend a lot of hours in one game, because we're still missing a huge library of AAA gaming titles. The game I play most is actually still in an alpha state (QuiVR, a multi-player castle-defense archery game). I mean, there are plenty of awesome things to do, but oddly enough, largely nothing super addicting. After a couple passes through most items in your library, you get bored, and I think part of the reason for that is that you perceive them as physical experiences rather than just games (that, and the content is still lacking). I've played games on my iPhone for far longer than I've played most games in my Vive library on Steam.
TL;DR: VR is awesome, if you're willing to be an early adopter & get everything that goes along with that. The Vive is imo the best system out there. However, if you want to game, I would try a demo of the PSVR first & see if you like it, because my guess is that there's going to be a lot more full, awesome games for the Playstation VR system than for the computer & phone-based ones.