For sure, on a test run, the Vive is amazing. If you’ve tried the Vive in-store like I did, you have sort of skipped to the good part. You’re suddenly in a fun zone…someone is providing a voice-over for how things work (which makes everything seem pretty easy) and you’re cycling through a few games where you get just the right sample size of play. This set up will offer you a fantastic first experience with VR.
Then you buy it and things become a bit more real. Don’t worry, this review is not about to become dark and twisted; mostly I wanted to write the review that I wish I’d read before purchasing the Vive. The goal of this article is to simply set your expectations on more solid ground.
This thing feels like new technology. Woo hoo! That’s exciting…it also means it requires a learning mindset from the get go and a bit of discomfort until you sort things out.
It took about 12–15hrs for me to set up Vive on my PC. No, I did not sit in front of it for that long… I worked in 2–3hr bursts and took breaks in between to read trouble shooting blogs, and also to stop, breathe, and ask myself if I should just be repackaging and returning my purchase.
If you purchase the Vive just know getting started requires research through multiple blogs and forums, trial and error set up, potentially installing, de-installing, reinstalling…and lots of investigation into what trouble-shooting will work for you. After reading a lot of forums where folks get stuck with issues they can’t resolve (even after trying a dozen approaches to fix a bug or crash) I feel lucky to have set mine up in as brief a period as I did. Yes, that’s right…a brief 12–15hrs. Put a pot of coffee on.
Now, let’s take a closer look. Here’s a brief peek at what I had to do to get my computer (a Razor Blade 14) up and running:
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Problem: HTC Vive Tutorial won’t load.
Resolved by: I was never able to load and watch the tutorial. It turned out not to matter. I went on to play games without it and never looked back. I saw so many others posting about this in forums that I can’t guess what the issue is. Oh well!
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Problem: Steam VR could not find headset.
Resolved by: The headset connects to my computer through a link box. Then cables from the link box connect to the computer. Unplugging, replugging and restarting seemed to resolve crashes or failures to find the headset. This seems archaic, but it works.
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Problem: Compositor not Found.
Resolved by: There’s a part A and part B to this……A) Open Steam VR and enable Betas. B) Now, the next time a game of Steam VR is open you’re going to get the same message…this is when you move the arrow OUT of the desktop display and into the VR display…which you likely are not looking at and then… just click.
Wheh.
That last one melted my brain. Seriously? Ouch… Okay okay this stuff is still new to market.
There’s more to tell regarding set up, but I won’t walk through everything. This little bit should help you get the idea of the kind of stuff that’s going on. The current workflow for Vive isn’t exactly user-friendly for the average consumer... though the carrot at the end of the stick is certainly appealing enough to keep a person at work for at least 15hrs :)
I’ve seen a few ads where a mom and a couple kids or some un-suspecting teenagers are being introduced to the Vive and I secretly wish one of those prescription-drug disclaimer voices would come in and start to reality check…
“Set up may include crying and cringing. Families who set up Vive together may argue and disagree on what forum suggestions will work. Consumers may be tempted to return the product, but are urged to forge ahead. Not recommended for people with high blood pressure, chronic stress, or stomach ulcers etc…”
All of this aside, I told you we’d not have a dark and twisted ending!
The HTC Vive is fun and well, it’s amazing. For now I feel like I’ve bought a puppy that is more work than I thought it would be, but I have the hope that it’s going to grow into something that I’ll want to spend more time with as it improves and matures. I’m happy to be a part of some of the first round of folks who are checking out this tool, and writing about the good and WIP status of where it’s at today.
I’ve been using the Vive for only a few days now (3 days!) and it’s already starting to make a bit more sense. It’s also been really interesting to see what mental models and UI elements have been carried over from the more common desktop / mobile interfaces we’re all more familiar with.
So far I’ve only been playing with Google’s Tilt Brush tool, but the experience and new utility is amazing… so much so that I haven’t looked for a new game or tool beyond this yet.
Whoosh! There’s a lot to take in.
