HTC Vive Cosmos
Second generation virtual reality is upon us, so how does one of the originals in the scene follow up the popular HTV Vive?
After over three years on the market, HTC Vive is finally ready to retire its original VR headset, the HTC Vive, and replace it with a new model. In many ways, the HTC Vive Cosmos is a big leap forward from the original headset. But in other ways, it feels like a step in the wrong direction.
The Cosmos seems full of potential. It has great displays, is well-built with nice speakers that produce clear, loud audio, and the inside-out tracking system removes a handful of pain points that have stopped many from investing in VR – namely base stations. But the Cosmos also has a few glaring problems. It’s more expensive ($1,299) and less comfortable than the original Vive. I also have critiques on the controllers, and the platform drivers leave much to be desired. All things considered, the Vive Cosmos is a good headset and worthy of your consideration if you’re in the market for a new VR device. But it likely won’t check all the boxes for you.
The Cosmos features a halo-style head strap (also known as a balanced crown), which puts the weight of the visor on your forehead and attempts to balance it with a rigid strap that clamps to the lower part of the back of your head. Like all halostrap designs, the Cosmos includes a dial on the rear to adjust tension. However, my problem with the halo design is that you don’t get as much wiggle room to find your visual sweet spot. With fabric head strap and deluxe audio head strap designs, you have the freedom to place the visor directly in front of your eyes and then position the strap where you need it to be. In order to get a good fitting with the halo design, the strap’s position must take priority over your visual clarity.
The Vive Cosmos features a much higher resolution than the original Vive headset, but thanks to software advancements HTC’s latest headset doesn’t require much more power than the outgoing device. The older headset could run on a PC with 4GB of memory. The Cosmos requires 8GB to function properly.
The Cosmos includes an integrated audio system, which is something I believe every VR headset should have. There’s also a simple way to remove the headphones if you prefer to supply your own. Previous Vive audio solutions were removable but required a screwdriver and a process that wasn’t very userfriendly. The Cosmos, however, features an incredibly simple clamping system that takes less than a second to remove but isn’t likely to come apart accidentally.
The displays in the Cosmos headset produce some of the clearest images that I’ve yet seen in VR. The headset features two 3.4-inch LCD panels with a 90 Hz refresh rate and a combined resolution of 2880 x 1700. The Cosmos also boasts an RGB subpixel array, which further enhances the clarity of the image and helps to reduce the perceived screen door effect. The HP Reverb, with its dual 4K resolution RGB panels, still offers a higher overall resolution, but the Cosmos is easily as good as the Valve Index, with a slight increase in vertical field of view (FOV). Because the screens are LCD panels, you won’t get the same deep blacks that you see with the Vive Pro’s AMOLED panels.
The Cosmos is the first PC-based VR system from Vive that departs from Valve’s Tracking solution. Instead, it features camerabased inside-out tracking, which means it doesn’t require external base stations like the previous Vive headsets.
The Cosmos controllers are very similar to the new Touch controllers, which makes it easy for developers to offer input parity. They include a clickable thumbstick and X/Y and A/B buttons on the left and right controllers, respectively. They also have grip buttons for your middle finger and R1 and R2 shoulder buttons. Finally, each controller has a Vive
button, which triggers the Viveport software and SteamVR.
When gaming, the controllers were somewhat difficult to hold securely. The handles are pretty thick, and there’s a bulky tracking halo. The controllers are comfortable enough, but I couldn’t get a secure hold on them because there’s nowhere to hold the controller with your thumb when you’re not pressing a button.
The HTC Vive Cosmos isn’t a perfect piece of hardware, but what is? Yes, the headset has a few shortcomings, but it’s still a pretty great device. Going back and forth from the Cosmos to the HTC Vive Pro, Valve Index and Oculus Rift S gave me further appreciation for the Cosmos.
The Vive Pro is a well-built piece of tech but feels rickety in comparison to the Cosmos. I’ve tested the best VR headsets, and I can honestly say that I’ve yet to try on another headset that feels as high-quality as the Cosmos.
I have reservations about the Cosmos controllers’ ergonomics, and I wish that more games worked with the controllers upon release (although this will likely change). Plus, there’s no lens relief adjustment. However, those are pretty small concerns.
The Cosmos hardware isn’t perfect, but for the most part it’s an improvement over previous Vive headsets. The software, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. When Vive first introduced the Viveport platform, it pitched it as an improved marketplace that would offer a better experience for consumers and higher revenue share for developers – presumably a win-win situation for everyone. However, the execution and delivery of Viveport hasn’t lived up to the goal. That was never a problem before because the Vive and Vive Pro headsets were developed first for SteamVR, and Viveport was built around the headsets. The Cosmos is the first PC-connected headset that Vive designed for Viveport first, SteamVR second, but the Cosmos still requires SteamVR to function. During the setup process, you must either log into an existing Steam account or create a new one and install Steam. To access Viveport, you press the Vive button on the right controller, and to access SteamVR, you doubletap the Vive button on the left controller
As I said, no headset is perfect. However, the shortcomings of the Cosmos are worth looking past because the rest of the package is quite impressive and a notable improvement over the original HTC Vive.