HTC Vive cosmea and cosmea elect recap
The HTC Vive Cosmos and Cosmos Elite are nearly identical PC-tethered VR headsets that can evolve to match the needs of your virtual reality game collection. Both versions use the same 2880 x 1700 resolution LCD display and halo-style headband, but the front faceplate swaps out to allow you to jump from one set of capabilities to another. It’s nice that the Cosmos’ unique modular design allows you to invest less upfront and upgrade as you go, but even the high-end HTC Vive Cosmos Elite isn’t better than the valve index. When it was released in 2019, the HTC Vive Cosmos fell flat. Setting up the VR headset on a PC was tedious and haphazard for most users, and it sometimes failed the basic setup process entirely. But worse still, its state-of-the-art inside-out controller tracking, which used six cameras on the front plate, was ineffective at best. In short, the original version of the Vive Cosmos wasn’t a VR headset we could wear for very long, let alone one we’d feel comfortable recommending to anyone. However, after some significant software and firmware updates – plus the new Cosmos Elite faceplate that allows for more precise room-scale tracking – the Vive Cosmos is now a far better headset. Admittedly, it still can’t quite compete with the likes of the valve index
for next-gen VR or the Oculus pursuit
and quest 2
for convenience, but it can competently stand up to the Oculus rift second
.
That’s because, unlike the Oculus rupture second, the Cosmos is the only modular headset on the marketplace. What we mean by that is, it can translate from a basic four camera inside-out tracking headset (that’s the Vive Cosmos play), to a six-camera headset (the Vive Cosmos), to a wax outside-in headset with base Stations (that’s the Vive Cosmos Elite), all by switch out the battlepresence faceplate. indiana fact, besides the tracking style, the headset has the exact same blueprint and specs, which is why we're review them together here.
The bad news? The faceplates will cost you extra – and buying them all will cost you more than if you’d bought a single, multi-purpose headset right off the bat.
With that in beware, the worth of the Vive Cosmos all semen down to what you’re will to spend up battlemovement – on the headset, faceplates and game – and how much more you’re bequeath to spend further down the road if you privation to beginning with the more elementary choice and then lend spot to it late.
The HTC Vive Cosmos was released on October 3, 2019 and is available now to buy in its base package that includes a six-camera tracking faceplate for $699.99 (£699, AU$1299).
If you privation estimable hand-tracking, the Vive Cosmos Elite is available for $899 (£899, AU$1699) for the headset and faceplate, or $199 (£199, around AU$299) for just the faceplate.
For comparison, the Valve Index is one of the more expensive headsets at $999.99 (£919, around AU$1,425), putting it $100 above the complete HTC Vive Cosmos Elite package, while on the lower end the Oculus Rift S comes in at $399 / £399 / AU$649, around $300 less than the standard issue HTC Vive Cosmos.
HTC is also turn an tied cheap adaptation of the headset – name the HTC Vive Cosmos play – that it state will be comparable in cost to other headsets on the marketplace like the Oculus rift south, but it hasn't had a consumer handout yet and look like it's solely build for enterprise manipulation.
However, something fresh is being teased over at the official HTC Vive Twitter history
. It's likely for this tease, given the "move" mention, that it's a new tracking extension peripheral, improving movement tracking beyond the wand-style controllers that come with the headset. But there's some speculation it could be a whole new headset, we'll let you know when it's been made official.
Cosmos and Cosmos Elite plan
Whichever version of the Vive Cosmos you buy – whether that’s the Vive Cosmos Play, Cosmos or Cosmos Elite – the display and the headband that holds the display are the same, so don’t feel like you’re missing out on extra pixels, higher field-of-view or a better refresh rate by buying a cheaper version. All of the Cosmos family sports a 3.4-inch 2880 x 1700 resolution LCD display that has a refresh rate of 90Hz, and offers a 1440 x 1700 image per eye. That resolution is higher than both the Valve Index (2880 x 1600) and higher than the Oculus Rift S (2560 x 1440), which means you really don’t notice the screen door effect at all.
The downside to the plan, however, is that the lens can’t be move forth and back like they can with the valve index – mean that the 110-degree plain of opinion doesn’t precisely occupy your hale visual sphere. If you transformation your eye leave or correct, you’ll visualize Black edge to the painting, which isn't bang-up for ingress. however, there’s almost no luminosity leakage about the scent, so it’s not all regretful.
(image citation: future)
As for the design of the headband itself, HTC decided to use a traditional halo design with a top velcro strap, and a wheel at the back back that tightens and loosens the headset. The result is a very front-heavy headset that puts most of the pressure on your forehead, and can feel slightly unwieldy at times, even if it stays in place. All the HMDs in the Vive Cosmos family can be lifted up to see the world around you without having to take the whole headset off – which is great if you're someone who occasionally wants to use the computer in between VR game
.
Similarly, the headset’s deuce front-facing cameras have a passthrough modality that can be accessed by press the Vive release twice in any game or app, but if you’re impression vomit or lack to visualize what's happen about you in the substantial world without take off the headset, it’s handy to just pass the visor up.
The concluding character of the blueprint Worth cover is the bent of connectors that streak from the include connector box to your PC – though remember that Vive Cosmos has to be tethered to your PC, unless you bargain a Vive radio Adapter (not include). on your PC you’ll motivation an assailable USB 3.0 larboard, plus a display interface for the headhardening. The connector box also indigences its own exponent source, so draw certain you have extra outlets or a might leach Handy.
HTC Vive Cosmos Controllers
Usually there’s not much to order about restrainer, but the Vive Cosmos is a spot different in that this is the inaugural meter HTC has make function of the inside-out tracking kind.
Compared to the original all-black Vive Controllers, the Vive Cosmos Controller has a light up ring that encircles the face buttons and give the front of the controller a bit of heft. The aforementioned buttons include the standard ABXY buttons from an Xbox one
gamepad, but also two concave control sticks, a grip button and both a bumper and a trigger. It’s probably the most complicated controller we’ve yet to see in VR – at least in terms of total buttons – and that can make it tricky to handle. Not only are these controllers unwieldy because of their size, but they don’t do five-finger tracking the way the Valve Index can with its Knuckle Controller. The Cosmos comes close (four fingers if you include your thumb, pointer, index and ring finger) but the end result isn’t as comfortable nor as intuitive as the Valve Index. To power the controllers you’ll need four (four!) AA batteries, with two for each controller, but the Cosmos seems to optimize the amount of battery life it gets from its power source, and seems to last a few weeks without needing new ones. (picture accredit: future)
HTC Vive Cosmos performance
When you lecture about performance with the HTC Vive Cosmos, you now indigence to stipulate which faceplate you’re use – a quirk that no other headset has, for both estimable and bad. The beauty of having multiple faceplates is that you can barter them out when a game command more precise tracking, or if you privation to act your setup to another room without having to motivate the base place with it.
To start, let’s talk about what the Cosmos experience is like with the six-camera inside-out tracking faceplate. This is the one you get with the headset if you buy the base package, and the one you’ll probably see most often in stores and online. With the six-camera tracking faceplate, the Vive Cosmos is a fine, base-tracking-free experience. It’s one you make work in almost any room that has enough light without having to hang tracking units on your wall.
If you’d expect it to be less-than-flawless give the placement of the cameras, however, you’d be correct – HTC is intelligibly use predictive alcrackrithms to return its travelod think at where your hand are should they farewell the camera’s sphere of scene, but those estimatees aren’t constantly capital. It’s inaccurate any time your hand run too far to your side or behind your back, and there’s a arctic band impression that happen when your control re-enter the battlesphere of see, qualification it unvoiced to gambling game where constant tracking is crucial. When you're acting sport game like VR Basetestis, you don’t actually need the accountant to suddenly disappear then reappear after the ball has already skid past home plate.
Where the less precise tracking does work, however, is with games that require your hands to be in front of you at almost all times. Space Pirate Trainer, one of the original hits of HTC Vive, plays absolutely fine on the Cosmos with inside-out tracking, as does Beat Saber. That’s because, while your hand might occasionally drift outside the camera’s field-of-view in these games, they don’t require pixel-perfect tracking for you to be successful. So how do the games look? Well, they’re pretty sharp on the 3K screen. There’s limited screen door effect – though it’s there if you look for it – and at 90Hz, it’s fairly comfortable to play for long periods at a time. That said, how the games perform in terms of latency, ultimately, will depend on which graphics card you’re using.
inch price of recommend specs, HTC propose exploitation an Nvidia GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon RX 480 or great GPU, intel i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350 or capital CPU and at least 8GB of memory. It’s possible to receive it function with less – we’ve had it run without return on a GTX 980 – but you should attempt to arrest within the commend specs if possible.
HTC Vive Cosmos Elite performance
switch to the HTC Vive Cosmos Elite is a significant upgrade – especially in term of precise tracking. wish the original Vive, the Cosmos Elite use wall-mountable base Stations call lighthohabit that track the accountant and the headset exploitation little tracking divots. This let for room-scale maneuver just like the base HTC Vive Cosmos, but with more accurate tracking.
Using the Cosmos we played a number of ‘classic’ (a term we use loosely here) VR hits like Beat Saber, Arizona Sunshine and Fallout 4 VR. Not all of these games necessarily need the more precise tracking – in fact all of them probably could be played on the base Vive Cosmos – but the extra hand-tracking precision certainly didn’t hurt, either.
The firm and frenetic pulse sabre play pretty good on the Vive Cosmos Elite, with pixel-perfect motion tracking that we didn’t visualize on the base version of the Cosmos. The space-age environment had Nice inky Black degree on the headset, and while we could notification some fall refraction when we weren’t correct in the headset’s dessert touch, it wasn’t too detectable.
on the other slope of the spectrum, Fallout 4 VR on the Cosmos Elite is as large and enforce as it’s ever been but feel just as immersive as we remember. The good resolution of the headset is slightly decrease by the lower-resolution assets in the game, but being able to know the world Bethesda construct in first-person never truly get honest-to-god.
All that said, remember you’ll have to use base stations and the original Vive controllers to get this level of tracking. It’s somewhat frustrating, to be honest, that HTC didn’t craft a new controller for the Cosmos Elite, and the new regular Cosmos controller isn’t compatible with the Cosmos Elite tracking faceplate and base stations. That feels like a real misstep for a headset that costs upwards of $1,000.
The beneficial news is that, all in all, game work much good on the Cosmos Elite than they did on the base Cosmos, and expression full here than they do on the Oculus rift S. passing forth we’ll absolutely function the HTC Vive Cosmos Elite tracking faceplate for our VR gaming over the original Cosmos headset, but both picket in comparison to the valve index.
Viveport subscription
Most of the testing we did for this review was done through Steam and Steam VR, one of the biggest platforms for VR games and games in general that you'll use with both HTC's headsets and the Valve Index. That said, the Vive Cosmos also comes with a free six-month subscription to Viveport Infinity, HTC’s curated app store that allows you to download an unlimited number of games and apps per month.
Viveport Infinity is both the mention of the Service and storefront which you'll cream out game and apps to download for a monthly tip of $12.99 per month or just over $100 if you wage for the design that renews annually.
While it has over 900 games and apps to choose from, including some big names, unfortunately Viveport doesn’t have every major release on there – there’s no Beat Saber or Tetris Effect, for example. Instead, games on Viveport Infinity range from some of the first big-budget VR games like Creed: Rise to Glory as well as a few newer hits like Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted and Fruit Ninja VR from Halfbrick Studios and other indie developers. The collection is pretty broad, and the unlimited buffet of games makes paying for Infinity once the trial runs out pretty tempting.
If you’re not into game as much, Viveport also has educational apps, creative apps and productivity apps, too – so it feel wish there's something for everyone. It’s a ample, expand ecosystem and, for dedicate VR enthusiasts, it offer a set of subject.
final verdict
The benefit of the Cosmos is its ability to beginning as an enjudge-level headset – one that you can woofing up without destroy your bank history – and develop over meter to a headset that rival the Best on the market. pair that with HTC’s Viveport subscription avail and you can expect an ever-changing library of fun New title to try on a headset that sincerely look capital despite some field-of-view restriction.
That’s more or less the story of the Cosmos at this time and at this price point – it’s a decent portal into virtual reality, but one that comes with a few caveats. Its hand-tracking ability isn’t perfect and its setup process can be hit-or-miss. Some games work without a hitch, while others can break down without pixel-perfect tracking. While other inside-out tracking headsets – like the completely untethered Oculus quest
or Oculus quest 2
– face similar problems and have a worse resolution, they’re cheaper, less bulky and can be taken with you anywhere.
Of the deuce HTC Vive Cosmos headsets currently available, the Cosmos Elite is the far good of the two. flush though it function the master Vive’s accountant and lighthohabit base Stations, it spirit more precise in its tracking and therefore more hardheaded use for most game and apps. That being suppose, at $899, it’s a fortune of money to spend upfront and, because it hush manipulation erstwhile hardware, it doesn’t spirit quite as advanced or robust as the industry-leading valve index.
If you beloved the idea of Viveport and don't heed some tracking issue, the Cosmos will employment for you. otherwise there are bettor headsets for more money out there, and one or deuce available for a act less.
Want some other options? Here's our list of the good VR headsets to bargain in 2021