HTC VIVE Cosmos

The controllers are very bulky and feel cheap. The vibration does not feel natural at all more like a buzzer. Rotating one of the thumbsticks around would click and felt like tape was coming up when depressing it. I could not get any audio to playback after messing with it for a half hour this might be a steam issue. The headset would also message that the room was too dark with natural light room light and controllers would not track even with their bright lights. My setup had to be in near daylight to work properly. The controllers still seemed to lag even when it was working. If you passed the controllers in front of your face crossing cameras the tracking would get stuck and take a second once it was in a position to track them. The headset display is better than the Oculus Rift/(S) and is more comfortable being able to position the headset from the Halo. However nothing else measures up to it. Tracking is not as good. There is considerable lag tracking the controllers compared to the Rift/(S). And it does not bounce back near as fast. I really wanted to like this headset being the only VR new headset with PC Wireless capability but sadly is a major letdown and will be returning.

I will start by saying the only positive thing is some aspects of the software - the tron (colored outline) passthrough mode is awesome almost like a valve index. The next positive thing is the audio - great thing that it comes with built-in headphones. Thats pretty much it. Literally everything else about this headset completely pales to any of its competitors. The lens is a fresnel lens. It is the worst - the frostiest, streaking/godrays at their worst. Sweet spot very small. The FOV is also poor. The comfort of the HMD isnt the worst and I was able to wear it for awhile, but the fit isnt very good, and the synthetic leather leaves a pattern on your forehead. It feels too tough. The Halo headband wheel is by far the worst ever. Its small and very hard to turn. THe HMD also gets quite hot and has a built in fan that brrhz, very annoying. There should be no need for that. There is definitely SDE in the headset and only in the small sweet spot in the middle - but I guess its technically a good type of SDE. You can see the pixels, but they are pretty small and at least it retains sharpness plus makes text good to read. Onto the deal-breaking part of the headset - the tracking. Its shaky, wobbly, and loses position when crouching and will freeze for a couple seconds after which will finally pick back up. Aiming with skill is not possible. The HMD is so jerky/twitchy when tweaking your position as are the controllers. The controllers will lose tracking when held in front of the other so tracking will set you back very far in FPS games. The controllers are also too chunky, and I dont like that the grip buttons click at the end - cramps my hand to keep that click held in to hold objects/weapons in some games. The Oculus Rift S completely alleviates every single issue I mentioned....and somehow HTC makes the Cosmos nearly double the price in comparison. This is a no-brainer. I was hoping the tracking would already got fixed....but HTC has not been able to fix tracking with the software updates as of yet so who knows. I cannot recommend the Cosmos in any such way and I believe it should never have ever been released.

Set up is easy and support is slow but regular. Unfortunately the tracking leaves a lot to be desired. Games that require more precise aiming like Arizona Sunshine, Gorn, Pavlov, or Boneworks lose a lot of playability because the headset simply cannot track precisely. It is passable at best, if youre looking for a more casual experience like Beat Saber then this headset works fine. It also requires a pretty bright room, things like large open windows will confuse the room tracking. Game support is really slow, I purchased on launch in October but some games like Skyrim or Gorn are still not officially supported. Fortunately there are plenty of fan mods to get things in running condition. Overall, this headset is hard to justify at its price point. For the functionality you get it would be more reasonable to price at maybe half of what HTC currently sells it for.

EDIT: 05/04/2020 The updates just keep coming and things are great. No complaints with any game and by now we have a library of 30+ games that work flawlessly. EDIT: 01/11/2020 ————————— Been a few weeks since original review and here are a few additional observations: 1.) More firmware updates for both headset and controllers further improving tracking. It’s very good and getting better. Purchased several new games: 1.) Drunken Bar Fight 2.) Boneworks 3.) No Man Sky All games are working/tracking fantastic without the need for and configuration. Finally, we are going through AA batteries like mad. These controllers chew up batteries. I’d estimate 4-6 hours of solid gameplay before they need to be exchanged for a fresh set. Getting closer to giving this 5 Stars... ————————— I, like many of you reading this, read horrible things about this headset. I debated for several weeks after careful research before making this purchase for my 11-year-old son who already plays his older brother PS4 VR system. What ultimately convinced me to make the purchase were several key factors: 1.) HTCs reputation in the market for innovation 2.) HTCs modular design, making it capable of future upgrades, and product roadmap 3.) The Cosmos high-resolution support 4.) Steady tracking and other improvements since October release via multiple firmware updates Setting up the headset, pairing the controllers, making the connections to the computer and creating a room boundary took less than 10 minutes, and it was very easy to do. We just followed the step by step instructions and it was a breeze. We opened presents early this year so my son and I have been playing with this headset for three straight days. We have played the following games: 1.) Superhot (free for 12 months with Viveport Infinity, included with Cosmos purchase) 2.) Gorn (Purchased on Steam) 3.) Blade and Sorcery (Purchased on Steam) 4.) Budget Cuts (Purchased on Steam) 5.) Arizona Sunshine (free for 12 months with Viveport Infinity, included with Cosmos purchase) 6.) Sairento (free for 12 months with Viveport Infinity, included with Cosmos purchase) 7.) Fruit Ninja (free for 12 months with Viveport Infinity, included with Cosmos purchase) 8.) Five Nights of Freddy (free for 12 months with Viveport Infinity, included with Cosmos purchase) Each game worked out-of-the-box without any sort of configuration. I have read about people having to bind or map their controller within steam for some of the games listed above but that was not our experience. It is possible a firmware or game update took care of this, but either way, problem solved. We have had great success and experience with controller tracking. In Arizona Sunshine, there have been few (very few) occasions where my hands lost position and floated off, but I think that might be attributable to me mashing buttons and flailing in a panic when a horde of zombies were attacking me. We have not had any issues with low light warnings as some have reported. I have this set up in a room where I can dim canned lights, and I dimmed them to a low light setting and the headset never once complained and the controllers have also performed well. Despite reading complaints about the audio quality, I actually find the headset to produce quick immersive and well-balanced tones. The audio, to me, sounds pretty darn great. Voices, music, and ambient game noises are all clearly discernible and clear. I did not rate this 5 stars because Im hoping for continuous improvement and want to see more of the product roadmap realized. I also agree that the lense sweet spot is too small and I find myself adjusting the headset here and there. Overall, however, the adjustment frequency is not so constant where it detracts from gameplay, and the headset does include an IPD dial to adjust the lenses so that the sweet spot can be more easily attained per user. This is a fine headset, and glad I made the purchase. For what its worth, my son has been having a blast over the past few days and I have constantly been asking him leading questions with a negative bent to see if I could extract anything to report in this write-up, but he insists at every turn that the Cosmos is perfect. BTW - I have never seen him adjust the headset and he never complains about losing controller tracking, etc. He would rate 5 stars.

I bought this used for Christmas but decided to open it up early for the sake of testing it to ensure everything works and is included. At first I was a little uneasy since the description didnt say what was all included besides it saying it was in great condition. However I wasnt expecting to have the original packaging so that was great along with having everything else (including batteries) except it was missing part L2, the DisplayPort cable. Contacted the seller and heard back very quickly along with them sending out the cable right away. Once it arrived I hooked it up (and dealt with the long time of software downloads and drivers) and its works pretty good besides me needing to figure out how to best fit it on my head with glasses. Very happy with the Cosmos and with the seller, will recommend!

was waiting for the 2nd generation of headsets. This headset released oct 3 of 2019. has 100 more pixels than the vive pro.. and a lot fewer wires. need 1x display port (have 3 on my vid card, gtx1060 6GBvram) and one USB 3.0 port. The cable to the head set seems adequate (i dont have much space so i play standing / seated not full room) There is no substantial light leak with the headset. The eye distance is easy to adjust on the fly.. a button to allow you to see a fuzzy reality thru the headsets cameras instead of lifting hte visor. you have to ensure its correctly placed in front of your eyes or you get bluring. there is a strap and a knob to turn.. to clamp the headset to your head. This headset uses internal tracking not external towers for location. So you have to set it up for each room you use it for. this entails turning it on in setup mode.. and looking left right up down etc so it can map out the room.. this means the lights have to be on when you use this headset.. turn off the lights and it loses tracking. Still a small price to pay to not have to deal with external tracking and more wires. The only real depressing thing is there is just not that much content yet. I am not sorry i bought this.. i still have games to get.. There was some god rays (circles/halo of the Fresnel lens being visible) but not that i noticed if i wasnt looking for them. and there was some screen door.. but not when i was playing a game. wasnt noticeable unless you looked for it or read text or watch a movie.. It was less sharp than my 4k monitor.. but movies were watchable.. and large text is readable.. even smaller text if you look close and its centered. Its like being used to watching tv on a 4k tv then going back to a 480 tv to watch a movie. Passable for me. to have missiles and bullets shot at you in VR.. 3d! Or stand in the middle of a coral reef with fish swiming around you.. or virtually tour a museum... Vr has a lot going for it even tho it has a way to go for mainstream support. Im glad i bough this.

Fun to play have trouble at first after updates works great now

Good resolution is a big plus. it looks cool... when it works My understanding is that other headsets use tracking devices located on the walls. They can see your moves no matter where your hands are. This headset uses cameras located on the headset. It means that as soon as the cameras dont see your hands, they are lost. I dont know why they describe it as an advantage. To me, losing tracking all the time makes it useless, really. When I play a racquetball like game, the racquet gets lost unless I make an effort to keep my hands in front of me all the time. I kind of hoped that maybe, I could buy additional devices to improve tracking, but no. Their own tracking devices for other versions of Vive are no use with this one. Is not it unfortunate? Overall, I am getting the impression that those who make these headsets use other headsets at home. cons: - many of the games simply dont run or run in some kind of unusable mode, and I cant find any explanations why - as soon as the controllers move outside of the view, they are lost. I hoped to use the headset for fitness. No, forget about it. I made a mistake with this one, its not suitable for fitness, its annoying. - The headphones keep popping out and away from my ears. its again annoying and distracting. - all I am getting when asking questions about how to cope with the above is you shouldnt have bought this headset, we dont know who they are making it for, its pricey and subpar On the positive side, VR is a great experience. Its cool to watch 3D scenes. If quality tracking is not important, and the software that you plan to use runs ok, its really amazing. I wish I had a chance to return this one for something with better tracking because my goal is VR fitness. UPDATE: If you push the joystick down, it is also a clicker. I wish somebody told me before. It was not evident at the beginning. So, I am adding a star back.

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.

Bought this to play Fallout 4 VR & Skyrim VR with a new, upgraded headset (currently own the Rift CK1) only to find out that the controllers do not work on those games. Also ran into some issues with it displaying a steam icon in the middle of my view that I could not get rid of. Then there is the fact that you need a lot of light or the headset will not track the controllers. Ended up returning it and will just stick with my current headset.