HTC VIVE Cosmos

Bought this product while I was on deployment during a black friday sale, and was not able to use or do anything with it until I came back this June. Was initially excited about it, but even after all the updates to improve the supposed issues the tracking is still really bad. And on top of all of that, due to my deployment I am long past the ability to return it, and I dont think I could in good conscious sell this to someone, so now Im stuck with it. And to upgrade it so that it has external tracking (which would fix all the issues) you need to spend $200 on the faceplate, another $300 on the external SteamVR 2.0 base stations, then another $250 on the Index knuckle grips, so to fix the issues with the head set you need to spend another $650ish, your better off just getting the Valve Index instead, or just getting the HTC Vive Cosmos Elite instead. Do not get this product.

Amazing VR headset. Pros: -Many adjustments to the sizing makes for a good fit. -Many games to play -Better than the Oculus Cons: - COMPATIBILITY!! there are many games that seem to think its the Vive Pro, and the controllers are different. Im still struggling to find ways to remap the controls. (A lot of tutorials online have older interfaces which makes finding specific settings difficult) -SteamVR Home and the Vive home screen are slightly blurry, despite messing with the knob on the side of the headset. Not the worst thing, but its annoying for sure. Most games seem to be very clear though, which is a bit confusing!

All the other reviews here are for the vive and vive pro. This one is not. I find very few good things about this headset for the price. I will say the visuals are definitely an upgrade with near impossible to see screen door effect (you really have to hunt for it in bright areas of your screen). Thats all I got. My HMD came with non working microphones, that I literally spent 20 hours debugging for absolutely 0 gain. (No tech support on the weekend after they launch a major piece of hardware..Good job HTC). Now onto the controller tracking. I have a small office with a very bright kitchen size LED light in the middle of my office. Cosmos controllers seem to work pretty well. I say pretty well, because they do glitch at times and lose contact. But switch off my light and even with daylight coming in thru 3 large windows and guess what, Cosmos cannot see LIT UP on top controllers. That means the battery eating ooooo, lights are useless. Cool things that reduce play time and eat batteries, are not my thing, no matter how cool they are they are useless. For now we will call them safety lights so others, who errantly walk in, can see that wildly swung back hand coming at them better lol. After about 20 minutes or so, the controllers will start to feel pretty heavy. The headset itself is not very comfortable. They did release a patch on the Cosmos after release to fix the light issue. I have tried it in the previous usage scenarios and only in very bright light did the Cosmos not have controller detection issues. You can hit the button on the side of the HMD to engage see thru, and move your head around, and you can see as you get close to shaded areas, say under a desk, and it will increases brightness, but its still not enough to detect the controllers. Hope I helped someone else to make a good informed decision. Too many companies are rushing products and games out the door half finished, in order to get the money rolling in. This kind of thinking needs to stop. We dont need anymore Fallout 76, Anthem, Cosmos, being released with what had to be known issues. And the fix it later attitude must die, as if you read reddit and elsewhere, these units are being returned all over. I am giving HTC the benefit of the doubt, that this can be solved with software. I believe more then likely some of this can be fixed. Not so sure on the mic issue. So for me giving it a week, which then brings my decision of return for exchange or return for refund. I suggest not using the Viveport year trial included with the Cosmos till your certain it is fixed. Use the free 7 day trial and then cancel before the 7 days is up. It will give you a much better idea of how the Cosmos is working. I wont even use that. I use the VR games I have. Another PSA, you better have 1 beefy computer to run the Cosmos, I have a Intel i7 9800X octa core watercooled and running at 4.5GHz maxed out by intel turbo software. Asus Strix X299-E gaming motherboard, 16 gig of Kingston Hyperfury quad. Samsung 970 500 gig M.2 drive. MSI RTX 2070. And it flat works my computer. At ultra on No Mans Sky I get 18 to 19 FPS. Reduced to high graphics settings I get just under 50 FPS. at 50 there is no stuttering, so I didnt go lower. Nothing is manually overclocked. The audio for this headset the Cosmos pretty much stinks. You have to fiddle with it far too much, and the sound is just meh in quality. UPDATE: 10/8/2019. Either the mics started working, or they released a patch in the background. Either way mics now work, but the controller issue is still there.

Fantastic overall! But the tracking is mediocre because you need really good lighting to use it. Recommend you get rechargeable batteries with this too!

I bought the Vive Cosmo in Jan of 2020. Want to pass along some feedback as a consumer, Vive Pro owner, Vive Cosmos owner(just got it and started trying it out since last week), Oculus Quest owner and business owner. First, let me start off by saying that the Vive Pro has been great, in many regards. The biggest strong point of the Vive Pro over other gear is the outside-in tracking which is super reliable. If I had to compare the Oculus Quest with the Vive Pro, it would be like comparing an Squier guitar with a Fender. Fenders are high precision quality and what someone wants, when budget isnt an issue. If you plan to perform or you play guitar often, Fender is your only option. While an Squier makes for a nice beater guitar. Squier is entry level only. It would be a mishap for Fender to try and compete in the Squier market. HTC taking on inside-out tracking was exactly that with the Vive Cosmos. As a business owner, one thing Ive realized after owning many businesses is that you want to own your strengths and make them stronger. Market those. Dont try to compete on someone elses home turf. The inside-out tracking is what it is. Whether its the Oculus Rift or the Vive Cosmos with the beta patches, its only 90-95% accurate. For someone like myself who has really enjoyed games requiring exercise, accuracy, speed, etc. such as Beat Saber or Sairento VR, that super accurate tracking of the Vive Pro is great. Going backward is just not an option once Ive gone Pro. That should be the first thing you put forward in any marketing campaign. It is why someone should choose the Vive over some other model. Let me ask a question. Why do people spend $1500+ for a high end gaming PC? A lot of people do. Its because they tried out the $500 PC and found that wasnt good enough for the PC games they enjoy. They like gaming and so they find they need something thats more than 90-95% accurate. They want something thats 99.5% accurate. So AlienWare or MSi pick up that market. I realize youve got a mask coming out for the Vive Cosmos so it can do outside-in tracking, and thats great. But what Im getting at here is marketing and development strategy. Oculus is laying the groundwork for you, introducing people to VR. They are actually doing you a favor. Now all you have to do is market yourselves correctly and youll get a big chunk of those to upgrade into an HTC Vive or Vive Pro. Onto the controllers, The Vive Cosmos does okay when the controllers are in front, but whenever they leave the view of the face cameras or are only in the view of 1 camera, they tend to drift or be non-responsive. The Vive Pro doesnt have the same level of tracking issues. Its fairly seamless and you feel well connected with the environment the whole way through. Vive Cosmos controllers are much lighter than the Vive Pro controllers and so song fatigue is less. However, in exercise games like Beat Saber, I dont mind the extra weight because it just means more calorie burn. The grip on the Vive Cosmos controllers are better than the factory shipped Vive Pro controllers. But both could be improved on. The Pro controllers tend to slide out of the hands over time, due to their tapered shape. This is a major issue. Look at the shape of any sword hilt. It gets larger on the end. Through thousands of years of experimentation, people all around the world have generally accepted this to be a superior grip design. Lets not reinvent the wheel. The straps are great, but they arent going to stop the controllers from slipping out of the hand - only stop it from flying across the room when it does. When I bought the Cosmos, I was planning on selling my Vive Pro. But after a couple sessions, I realized that is not going to happen. Ive put the Vive Cosmos back in the box until they make the tracking face plate.

Tracking could still use some improvement but it is a great headset that doesnt need light houses. Since I dont have a dedicated play space this is exactly what I need. It has an official attachment coming that lets it use the light houses so I can upgrade if I do get a dedicated space.

This product has great potential but falls short where it counts - tracking. There seems to be no environment that allows for consistent tracking. I waited to buy this item until after the initial issues were patched but it seems as if this writing, tracking is still unreliable. The screen is the best part about the headset which is also on the cosmos elite so I recommend that one over this one.

1 out of 9 games from steam work on it. Includes obv choices like SuperHot - totally unusable. The games that do are very sub par. The controls are junk, totally not intuitive. The original Vive was great for that. The headphones WILL NOT WORK FOR YOU. They make sound, but they were designed to snap against your ears. Only... they dont. They spring out, so you hear sound from 2 away from your head. Terrible design. The setup process barely works. Actually, Id say it DOESNT work for the vast majority of people, you just need to thrash around at buttons and boundary settings until something happens and it moves forward. Took over an hour to do that. Did I mention the control are TERRIBLE? This is a MASSIVE step down from the original Vive. Returning this and setting up my Vive again. What a piece of junk.

Do you see a lot of reviews of the Vive cosmos that are negative? Well this one isn’t. I think it’s a great headset fairly comfortable when adjusted right. The six cameras do incredible work in virtual reality. You are not Imprisoned by base units it’s just the headset and the controllers. I choose to play sitting down often mostly because I’m still learning and I don’t want to knock everything over in my house. You can stand up, some games Require it. This is a moderately priced headset and controller box and worth the money! I’ve been having fun that I didn’t know existed.

This design of a headset is extremely uncomfortable to wear. There isnt enough of a downward angle in the halo strap to allow optimal placement of said strap without losing face contact on lower part (or cheek area) of the HMD, letting in massive amounts of light on top of now having an awkward viewing angle from the lenses. If you move the strap up to allow full face contact on HMD, head starts hurting after about 20-30 of wearing. Screen door effect was also very much a problem for me but that may have been a side effect of awkward strap and HMD placement. This headset just like the Rift S and Quest has whats called inside tracking which means no external base stations are required for tracking HMD and controllers. Tracking is done at the headset. Now many people boast that the Oculus inside tracking is surprisingly really good after some firmware updates, but that is not remotely the case with the Cosmos. Basically if controllers are down at your sides, no tracking, if you bring the controllers to your face for lets say, aiming weapons, again no tracking. Tracking only occurred when controllers were in eyesight with some distance to HMD and it still wasnt very good. All in all if you want a good vr experience, spend an extra $300 for the Valve Index (whenever they come back in stock) or spend $300 less and get the Oculus Rift S or Quest (again whenever they come back to stock). As far as HTC goes everything they put out after the original Vive was a shot in the foot and a waste of money for what youre getting.