Duration: 6:06

2,015 views

1

HTC Vive vs. Oculus Rift vs. Windows Mixed Reality What's the difference.
The fierce competition between the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift heated up even more on October 17, when Microsoft and its partners launched Windows Mixed Reality headsets as part of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Oculus actually struck back just before Microsoft’s VR army marched out, announcing a $100 price drop for the Rift at its Oculus Connect 4 developer conference.

Windows Mixed Reality represents yet another virtual reality platform running on headsets connected to a PC. The software has plenty of overlap with those existing solutions, the hardware is of similar heft, and the overarching concept still involves playing around in room-scale, virtual worlds.

But just as the Vive and Oculus Rift had their share of technical and philosophical differences, Windows Mixed Reality diverges from its competitors in several key ways. The hardware requirements are lower, the ecosystem includes some exclusive content that can’t be accessed via Vive or Oculus, and the name of the platform itself hints at broader augmented reality applications, not just immersive getaways.