As happened with the first-generation Oculus, I still managed to garrotte myself playing Arizona Sunrise trying to dodge a zombie – the mother-fudger came out of nowhere.

The impressive room-scaling, motion-tracking and high screen resolution combine to ensure this headset offers one of the best VR experiences yet, but its laborious setup, wired limitations and fussy space requirements are so frustrating that it takes a lot of willpower to even start playing. NY 10036. Upped resolution and improved audio and tracking are impressive, but for a headset that’s twice the price of its nearest rival, the lack of obvious changes is disappointing. The collection is pretty broad, and the unlimited buffet of games makes paying for Infinity once the trial runs out pretty tempting. Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. For starters, before you even begin, you’ll need a fairly powerful gaming PC. The Vive Cosmos Elite is HTC’s latest premier virtual-reality headset.

The touch pads that sit on the controllers’ front work fine – but, again, aren’t as easy to reach or use as the console-like joysticks deployed on the Touch. All that said, remember you’ll have to use base stations and the original Vive controllers to get this level of tracking. By comparison, the Oculus Touch’s trigger-grip button is much easier and intuitive to use. Viveport Infinity is both the name of the service and storefront which you'll pick out games and apps to download for a monthly fee of $12.99 per month or just over $100 if you pay for the plan that renews annually. ( Like the original Vive, the Cosmos Elite uses wall-mountable base stations called lighthouses that track the controllers and the headset using small tracking divots. The grip controls work okay, requiring you to squeeze the wands when you want to grip something in VR, for example. While other inside-out tracking headsets – like the completely untethered Oculus Quest – face similar problems and have a worse resolution, they’re cheaper, less bulky and can be taken with you anywhere. The aforementioned buttons include the standard ABXY buttons from an Xbox One gamepad, but also two concave control sticks, a grip button and both a bumper and a trigger.

1440 x 1700 pixels per eye (2880 x 1700 pixels combined), USB 3.0 (or later), DP 1.2, Proprietary Connection to Faceplates, Intel In most living areas this means you’ll end up having to physically screw them into the wall using one of the supplied fittings. Even though it uses the original Vive’s controllers and lighthouse base stations, it feels more precise in its tracking and therefore more practical use for most games and apps. However, for most people the convenience of the Oculus Quest – which is cable free and works with most of the VR games and experiences worth playing – is a better, more cost-effective option. If you’d expect it to be less-than-flawless given the placement of the cameras, however, you’d be right – HTC is clearly using predictive algorithms to take its best guess at where your hands are should they leave the camera’s field of view, but those guesses aren’t always great. Despite all of that, the elephant in the room is that a cabled VR connection is going to impact the level of immersion. The HTC Vive Cosmos and Cosmos Elite are nearly identical PC-tethered VR headsets that can evolve to match the needs of your virtual reality game collection. It aims to offer buyers the best specs ever seen in a VR headset, and is being marketed as the ultimate, no …

The downside to the design, however, is that the lenses can’t be moved forward and back like they can with the Valve Index – meaning that the 110-degree field of view doesn’t exactly fill your whole visual area. It’s a rich, expanding ecosystem and, for dedicated VR enthusiasts, it offers a lot of content. Here at Trusted Towers, we’ve never been completely sold on the Vive’s wand controllers. It grants you exclusive access – and discounts – to a free library of content on a subscription basis. Cosmos Elite Overview Features Specs Pre-order PC-VR for elite gaming. Precision movements from every angle. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, The connector box also needs its own power source, so make sure you have extra outlets or a power strip handy. Bought an Xbox One X instead of an Xbox Series X? Core™ i5-4590 or AMD FX™ 8350 equivalent or better. The only difference between it and the regular Cosmos is that it comes with, on paper, improved tracking thanks to a nifty preinstalled faceplate and sensor setup. ... See the virtual world through 2880 x 1700 combined pixel resolution—an 88% increase over the original VIVE. The only time you’ll experience any issues is when you come out of VR. This alone makes the Vive Elite Cosmos Elite a hard sell, especially when its closest rivals – the Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest – cost half the price. The Vive Cosmos and Vive Cosmos Elite are the latest VR headsets from HTC and offer a modular experience that lets you upgrade from one to the other. There’s no getting round the fact that £900 is a lot to pay for a VR headset; one that still uses parts from the first-gen Vive. Usually there’s not much to say about controllers, but the Vive Cosmos is a bit different in that this is the first time HTC has made use of the inside-out tracking kind. Its hand-tracking ability isn’t perfect and its setup process can be hit-or-miss. GeForce Elsewhere, the design changes are more subtle and include basic upgrades. Cosmos Elite headset VIVE Base Station 1.0 VIVE Controller (with lanyard) Headset cable ... Headset Specs ... customize and personalize your VIVE Cosmos Elite with faceplates and add-ons. Snap on this accessory to VIVE Cosmos to enjoy external tracking up to 1000 sq. But since the release of the Oculus Touch, the Vive wands have felt fairly clunky. It’s somewhat frustrating, to be honest, that HTC didn’t craft a new controller for the Cosmos Elite, and the new regular Cosmos controller isn’t compatible with the Cosmos Elite tracking faceplate and base stations.

Viveport Infinite is a subscription service similar to Microsoft Game Pass. Most of the testing we did for this review was done through Steam and Steam VR, one of the biggest platforms for VR games and games in general that you'll use with both HTC's headsets and the Valve Index. In fact, besides the tracking styles, the headset has the exact same design and specs, which is why we're reviewing them together. Play and move confidently with supremely precise Base Station tracking. Pair that with HTC’s Viveport subscription service and you can expect an ever-changing library of fun new titles to try on a headset that truly looks great despite some field-of-view limitations. Add to this a cumbersome setup process, and it means it’s the cable-free Oculus Quest that remains Trusted Reviews recommended VR headset for most people.

The bad news? Screen: Dual 3.4" diagonal Resolution: 1440 x 1700 pixels per eye (2880 x … Thankfully, once you get things working the Vive Cosmo Elite is a very capable VR headset. The fact Vive hasn’t managed to streamline the Cosmos Elite’s setup process is also a little disappointing.

Experience ultimate immersion quality with higher resolution and lens fidelity in the highest comfort. 3. The last part of the design worth covering is the set of connectors that run from the included connector box to your PC – though remember that Vive Cosmos has to be tethered to your PC, unless you buy a Vive Wireless Adapter (not included). New York, As such, you’ll be jumping between the two. With that in mind, the worth of the Vive Cosmos all comes down to what you’re willing to spend up front – on the headset, faceplates and games – and how much more you’re willing to spend further down the road. The space-age environment had nice inky black levels on the headset, and while we could notice some light refraction when we weren’t right in the headset’s sweet spot, it wasn’t too noticeable. Switching to the HTC Vive Cosmos Elite is a significant upgrade – especially in terms of precise tracking. However, there’s almost no light leakage around the nose, so it’s not all bad. Unlike other sites, we thoroughly test every product we review. ), Windows Compared to the original all-black Vive Controllers, the Vive Cosmos Controller has a light up ring that encircles the face buttons and give the front of the controller a bit of heft. * *Limited time offer. Bizarrely, the Vive Cosmos Elite does not come bundled with those more advanced controllers, instead opting for the original wands which is a very bizarre move from HTC. The base stations still need to be powered into a mains socket and placed at least 5m apart.

The selection doesn’t match Oculus’s offering, but many of the main games are present – outside of a select few exclusives such as Robo Recall, which remains one of the best VR arcade shooters around. The fast and frenetic Beat Saber played pretty well on the Vive Cosmos Elite, with pixel-perfect motion tracking that we didn’t see on the base version of the Cosmos. *Refer to AMD or NVIDIA's VR Ready website for a list of VR Ready graphics cards. 10.