HTC Vive Cosmos Review

The HTC Vive Cosmos is the latest high-end, high-spec virtual reality headset to hit the market, and it shows how far virtual reality technology has come in recent years, while also pointing out some of the issues that have kept it from doing so. make your way to each player's house.

(Image credit: HTC)

It's been eight years since a fledgling Oculus Rift opened the doors to its Kickstarter page, the same year the iPhone 5 arrived, and yet VR is still struggling to make its main breakthrough, despite that many products, were launched in the meantime.

We've spent the past few weeks in a succession of virtual worlds, courtesy of the HTC Vive Cosmos and this is our verdict on what VR headsets have to offer: the specs, features, and gaming experience you get if you purchase the device.

While we will do our best to convey our experiences with the Cosmos, virtual reality is, to some extent, subjective experience and affects everyone a little differently. The good news is that many of the early initial issues are resolved on these devices.

HTC VIVE COSMOS: DESIGN AND CONFIGURATION

It's hard to make a thick VR headset look attractive, but HTC has done its best with the Cosmos: The blue grille on the front offers some relief from the black plastic that generally dominates these devices. It feels well built and solid to hold, though the built-in headphones are a bit weak.

The included Vive Cosmos controllers also look good, with a well-finished design that adapts perfectly to the shape of a human hand. The controllers come with fabric loops to keep them tied to your hands (just like the Nintendo Wii controllers, if you're old enough to remember them), and overall, the HTC Vive Cosmos is highly rated in the design department: Looks adequately futuristic without appearing as a hack.

(Image credit: Future)

As for the settings, type the URL in the box, and follow the instructions. Your mileage may vary, but it only took a few minutes to get everything up and running. It's worth noting that you'll need a Steam account to use the HTC Vive Cosmos, if you don't already have one, and you'll also need to sign up to use HTC's own Viveport VR library (you can purchase individual titles here, or sign up for a subscription to the Netflix-style £ 12.99 a month).

The headphones can be adjusted to fit your head almost perfectly, and thankfully we're now beyond the stage where external trackers are needed, so you don't have to put extra boxes around the room. The Cosmos is described as a modular headphone, so you can add a different faceplate and external trackers if you like - this will cost you more, but it means your actions will be tracked a bit better.

(Image credit: Future)

The headset comes with what is described as Eye Comfort Adjustment or IPD (Interpupillary Distance) Adjustment - you can essentially adjust the focus of the headset depending on how far your eyes are. We were just at the lower end of the adjustment range, and it took us a while to get everything right, but in the end we achieved a satisfactory level.

HTC VIVE COSMOS: SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

Inside the HTC Vive Cosmos you get two 3.4-inch LCD screens with a resolution of 1440 x 1700 pixels each, so 2880 x 1700 pixels are combined. That's one of the key updates on the original Vive (1200 x 1080 pixels), and it also beats the Oculus Rift S (2560 x 1440 pixels). Here too is an impressive 110-degree field of view and a 90Hz refresh rate.

Hoses are top-notch VR specs, and you'll need a pretty fast Windows PC to run it all. The recommended official specs are here, and you'll need a minimum of an Intel i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 graphics card, and 4GB of RAM to run everything. If you're the type of PC gamer who is interested in virtual reality, you probably have a setting that suits you.

(Image credit: HTC)

As we have said, there is no longer any need for external trackers, with the six cameras on the outside of the Vive Cosmos capable of tracking from the inside out so that the device always knows where it is in 3D space. We found this tracking to be fast and smooth, and this is certainly one of the areas where virtual reality hardware has advanced by leaps and bounds since the early years.

As we mentioned, if you want to improve tracking, you can upgrade by adding a couple of bases stations and an Elite faceplate, and there's also an augmented reality faceplate, which allows you to merge the real and the digital, which apparently "is coming" soon Another upgrade you can opt for is the £ 353 wireless adapter, which means it's not tied to your computer by a 15-foot (4.5-meter) cable.

Please note that you will need two AA batteries to power the controllers (you will get a pair in the box to get started), and that HTC recommends a minimum space of 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) by 1.5 meters (almost 5 feet) for your experiences virtual reality. This is not something you can really play in small rooms.

HTC VIVE COSMOS: PERFORMANCE AND GAMES

Gaming is primarily a delight on the HTC Vive Cosmos, whether it's in newer games like Half-Life: Alyx or more established titles with virtual reality modes like Digital Combat Simulator World. The only "game" we really didn't like was a virtual reality roller coaster, which took us five full minutes to recover in the real world.

Making the jump to virtual reality may require some tweaking of standard PC gaming - if you think about it, it's like having to sit near your monitor. You have to get used to moving your head instead of your eyes, and there are some pixelated ones in some of the games. Overall, however, we were impressed by the quality of the graphics that the HTC Vive Cosmos is capable of producing.

(Image credit: Valve)

Manual tracking was not always as sharp and precise as we would like, especially if you move your hands in and out of the 'sight' of the headset, perhaps as a consequence of moving away from external tracking stations, but we only noticed a couple of problems that were quickly corrected. Tracking the room was fine, with our walls always showing up in the right place (useful if you don't want to bump into them).

In our experience, one hour is about the maximum time that can be managed before games start to become too immersive, and you feel compelled to give your eyes and brain a break. However, this is not unique to the Cosmos and its mileage may vary. We also found a bit of light leakage at the bottom of the earpiece.

(Image credit: Future)

The "3D spatial audio" you get with the HTC Vive Cosmos worked well for us, as most titles give you a real idea of ​​what's going on around you through sound and stream high-quality audio to us. ears. On the software side, we also get along well (jumping between the Viveport and SteamVR stores can be a bit awkward, although it's not a deciding factor).

HTC VIVE COSMOS: PRICE AND CONCLUSION

With an official RRP of around £ 700, there's no question that the price of the HTC Vive Cosmos is the biggest drawback - that's not an amount of money that casual gamers are going to consider dropping in a little extra kit. With the Oculus Rift S it costs less than £ 400 (albeit with lower graphics resolution and lower refresh rate), that makes the HTC option more difficult to sell.

(Image credit: HTC)

However, there's a lot more to the column: We definitely enjoyed our time with the HTC Vive Cosmos, from the setup to the quality of the graphics and the surround audio. There is now a plethora of games and content available once you immerse yourself in virtual reality, and the overall virtual reality experience is less nauseating and much smoother than when these headphones first hit the market.

If you can afford the price of admission with the HTC Vive Cosmos, then you certainly won't be disappointed by what it offers. Leaving aside some frustrations with tracking drivers and software stores, this is the best virtual reality gaming experience you can get right now. However, it could be the Cosmos II, if HTC can lower the price and maybe even go wireless, that's the real game-changer.