Hardware doesn’t really have an “Early Access” period per se, the way games often do nowadays, but I’ve put off writing about Microsoft’s Mixed Reality headsets for essentially that reason. They blend some of the best aspects of the Vive and Rift, with both trackpads and analog sticks, easy-to-grasp triggers and grip buttons, and a fairly slim chassis. Oculus Touch still gets the win in that category, but Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality controllers feel a lot better than the Vive wands.
So I dug out Acer’s Windows Mixed Reality headset ($400 on the Microsoft Store ) to give it a whirl. And it wasn’t officially rectified until about a week ago, when Windows 10’s April 2018 Update coincided with SteamVR-on-Mixed-Reality getting the 1.0 seal of approval. But let’s get into the tracking, because it’s the core of the Windows MR ecosystem across all headset models and also where, as a longtime VR evangelist, it starts falling apart for me. Position tracking for the headset itself is remarkably solid, and I haven’t had any floating-six-feet-above-the-digital-ground horror stories like I did at PAX last fall. Sure enough, the quieter confines of my apartment are a much better showcase for inside-out tracking than the chaos of a conference showfloor.
You just plug the headset in, run through the setup tutorial, and you’re good to go, making Windows MR great for travel in particular. The only cumbersome bit is you have to carry the headset around the entire space to calibrate room-scale instead of, like the Vive and Rift, using the controllers.
In Google Earth VR, for instance, holding your left controller up to your chin triggers Street View. On Windows MR, since your chin isn’t in the narrow tracking zone, that action has a habit of not triggering properly, or breaking prematurely as soon as you move your head to look around.
In Job Simulator, throwing objects is at best an approximation of movement as the system tries to estimate your direction and angle. With Windows MR, I found the controllers consistently lost sync with my actual hand placement, making the game all but impossible to play accurately. Bow-and-arrow games like Holopoint or Skyrim’s bows are also a challenge, and swinging stuff around in Gorn felt haphazard and sloppy. Oculus’s cameras have a narrow tracking cone too, and I regularly have problems using the Touch controllers near the ceiling or down towards my floor.
Heaven knows Windows Mixed Reality is more polished than that original Oculus Developer Kit, and back in 2013 I was amazed by my early forays into VR. True to its word, the headset does run SteamVR games now—although that process is also a bit awkward.
Windows Mixed Reality: everything you need to know
Microsoft’s unique combination of VR and AR is designed to immerse more users in the digital experience with lower priced and easier-to-drive headsets. To this end, Microsoft has teamed up with some PC manufacturers like Dell, HP, Asus, Samsung and Lenovo to develop a more accessible head-mounted display (HMD) standard with less ground rules. Similar to high-end VR Headsets like the Oculus Rift, you wear a head-mounted display with two built-in screens to peer into a virtual world. Instead of HTC Vive lighthouses, Oculus Waypoints or other infrared beacons, however, Microsoft Mixed Reality headsets use integrated sensors to scan the surrounding environment.
And, most recently, Viveport is now offering Windows Mixed Reality support, allowing headset owners to download compatible games, as is Google Chrome. The biggest differentiator between headsets for Windows Mixed Reality and those designed for VR is that the former can cost half as much.
Adding motion controllers doesn’t dramatically up the cost, either – a few manufacturers, like Acer, are bundling a complete headset package for $296 in the US. Users can flip up the screen to quickly return to the real world – this is a regular feature of most, if not all, headsets in its class.
The Dell Visor (and all Mixed Reality headsets, really) have a lot in common with Acer’s, but we’ll go over the specs nonetheless. There are a few extra creature comforts in the shape of removable foam inserts, cable management loops and an easily adjustable headband for a comfy and tight fit.
The Samsung HMD Odyssey is the latest Windows MR headset on the block, and it’s both the most advanced as well as the most expensive device of its class. Costing a cool $499 (about £377, AU$638) with controllers included, the Samsung HMD Odyssey shipped later than the other Windows Mixed Reality Headsets on November 6, 2017.
The minimum specs required for a Windows Mixed Reality PC are lightweight enough for most modern Ultrabooks to power a headset. To get to 90fps, Microsoft suggests a system specced with at least a desktop-grade Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400 3.4Ghz – or another quad-core processor. Just keep in mind, if you’re going to take advantage of Mixed Reality on Steam VR, system requirements may vary by game.
HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset Review: Narrow FOV Is Not What You Want
The headset features a balanced crown head strap design, which is universal among Windows MR devices. The strap features rigid bands that support the weight of the headset on the top of your head (hence the balanced crown name). The dial has a ratcheting lock, so it’s best to lift the headset off your head before loosening the strap so that you don’t wear the mechanism down prematurely. FOV (HxV) 95 x unspecified Lens Type Fresnel-Aspherical Lens Adjustment 65-millimeter Fixed IPD, Software Adjustment (+/- 8mm) Sensors Accelerometer, Gyro Sensor, Magnetometer, Proximity Sensor Tracking Technology 6 DOF Inside-out BW camera-based spatial tracking (stereo BW cameras) Integrated Camera Stereo Tracking Camers – No Video Passthrough Audio Headset Jack (Stereo + Microphone) Wireless ✗ HMD Ports 1x Proprietary Cable (HDMI/USB 3.0) HMD Cable Length 11-inch tether + 12-foot extension Dimensions (WxHxD) ~176 × ~85 x ~115 millimeters (visor) Weight 528 grams Warranty 1-year limited liability, extended waranties with accident coverage available HP’s Windows MR headset features dual 1440 x 1440 LCD panels, which produce a crisp, clear image. Several Windows MR devices feature the same display panels, including Lenovo, Asus and Acer’s headsets.
The LCD displays are poor at producing deep blacks, which makes the image appear somewhat washed out in dark scenes. From my perspective, the HP headset provides less than 80-degrees of horizontal view, whereas I can see approximately 90-degrees in a Rift and around 100-degrees in the HTC Vive. The balance of the head strap plays a major role in the visual clarity a headset offers.
HP’s headset features the same fixed interpupillary distance (IPD) Fresnel lenses found in the competing Windows MR devices. The lenses should also be aligned with your eyes on the horizontal axis, but HP’s headset doesn’t offer an IPD adjustment, so that’s likely not possible. The fixed cable is one of our chief complaints about other Windows MR devices because it’s the most likely point of failure, aside from a poor-quality hinge.
HP’s cable design isn’t perfect, as it still includes a fixed tether that leads from inside the visor to the right side of the head strap. However, in practice, we realized that we prefer the tethered, side-mounted headphone jack found on Acer, Asus and Lenovo’s headsets because we caught our hands in the dangling cable multiple times and feared we would eventually damage our gear. HP added a few clever features to its headset to differentiate it from the other devices in the Windows MR lineup, but we wish it would have put effort into making a better controller. HP, like most Windows MR partners, adopted Microsoft’s reference controller design and didn’t change a thing except for the logo on the handle.
Microsoft’s reference controller works well as an example for the company’s tracking technology, but it should not have passed as a consumer product. The company spent a fortune on research and development to refine the feel and actuation of each button and trigger on its gamepad, but inexplicably, it didn’t use Xbox’s expertise to create the Windows MR motion controllers.
The overall construction of the controllers is subpar with loose fitting of the door to the battery compartment and a flimsy piece of plastic securing the halo with the tracking sensors.
Asus Windows Mixed Reality Headset review: The best WMR headset?
Windows Mixed Reality is now at the point now where there’s more content available for the platform – including support for Steam VR, giving access to a mass of games too. Just like all its competitors, the Asus headset requires wires leading from PC, which is the current norm for VR – we look forward to the day when it’s wire-free! As you can see, this low specification requirement sets the Windows Mixed Reality system apart from higher-spec HTC Vive or Oculus Rift setups. Instead, the device uses two cameras on the front to read the room around you in real time, including tracking the controllers to relay the action to your eyes.
Plugging the device into the USB and HDMI ports on your computer will force it to be instantly recognised by Windows, which talks you through pairing the controllers (via Bluetooth) with your machine. The next step is using the headset to map out the room if you want “world scale” play, by simply tracing the limits of your area.
The setup does help by creating virtual borders within the Mixed Reality universe to stop you bumping into walls and household objects while you play. The most striking thing about the Asus Windows Mixed Reality headset is its main visor section isn’t smooth and rounded but made up of multiple polygons. The large headband features cool-touch, antibacterial padding on the front and back and sits relatively comfortably on the head. Without any base stations or separate tracking sensors, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Asus Mixed Reality headset would be less accurate than its high-end rivals in the VR world. However, there are a number of sensors built into the headset as well as the two inside-out tracking cameras to monitor your movement and the boundaries of the world. We put the headset to the test with a number of different games that we’ve played on the HTC Vive to see how the tracking stacked up.
Knockout League, a fast-paced boxing game, didn’t seem to connect quite as quickly and efficiently as on the HTC Vive, but punches are still accurately tracked. This free tracking feature is a real highlight of the design, as it means fewer wires in the room and a much simpler setup every time you want to play.
Secondly, the 90Hz refresh is matched by Dell, Acer and Lenovo – so long as you are running Windows Mixed Reality Ultra and have the beefier PC spec to handle this. So the Asus Windows Mixed Reality headset works with Steam VR games, but not all of them are designed for it, which is something to bear in mind.
Elsewhere, games like Killing Floor: Incursion will load, but won’t run because of the lack of base station tracking. Here you can pop apps onto the walls and resize them to fit the room or go to the edges of the space and fill up the worldview with a screen. This is where we setup State of Decay 2 onto a massive screen, plugged in an Xbox controller and had a nice play around smashing zombies. Play about with specially designed holograms or mess around with a variety of Windows applications in VR form, which is fun, but not a distinct reason to buy the headset.
Microsoft Edge is available for browsing the web – which is pretty interesting on a big screen, while installing a 360 viewer add-on means you can access all the 360 video content on YouTube. Read the full article: Acer Windows Mixed Reality review We have a feeling that the Dell Visor is going to be difficult to beat. Read the full article: Dell Visor preview If the price is on your mind, then the Oculus Rift should be considered as an alternative.
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The Best VR Headsets for 2022
VR’s been gaining traction in recent years thanks to compelling games and experiences, though it still seems very much in a state of flux, with headsets coming and going fairly rapidly. Oculus is focusing its efforts on a standalone VR headset, the Quest 2, but providing the option to connect it to a PC. Even Microsoft is (sort of) supporting its Windows Mixed Reality platform with a scant few third-party headsets. The cable makes them a bit unwieldy, but putting all of the actual video processing in a box that you don’t need to directly strap to your face means your VR experience can be a lot more complex.
Either external sensors or outward-facing cameras provide full 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) movement tracking for both your head and your hands, thanks to motion-sensing controllers. Standalone headsets offer the greatest physical freedom by completely removing the cables and not requiring an external device to handle processing. The Quest 2 lacks a dedicated gaming PC’s processing power, but its high-end mobile processor can still push detailed, smooth graphics. The company’s bowing out of the dedicated, tethered VR headset, though, discontinuing the Rift S in favor of focusing entirely on the standalone Quest 2. That’s hard to swallow, even if the Index features a 120Hz refresh rate, notably higher than most of its competitors (with an experimental 144Hz mode). They can track individual finger movements, making games (that take advantage of them) much more immersive than the standard trigger grips on other controllers. This high-end PC VR headset targets both enthusiasts and professionals, with the sharpest picture available at 2,448 by 2,448 pixels per eye. It features a higher resolution, and replaces the external base stations with outward-facing cameras for motion tracking.
There are some excellent games on PS VR like Moss, Rez Infinite, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, and Five Nights at Freddie’s: Help Wanted. The newly rebranded-to-Meta Facebook might eventually be pushing the Quest 2 and other Oculus devices even further, with a bigger eye for broad platform integration. The company’s plans to build a “metaverse” will likely include AR and VR systems, and the Oculus division would be the natural means for that. VP of AR/VR at Facebook, Andrew Bosworth, has stated that the metaverse will “build the connective tissue” between Oculus headsets and other Facebook/Meta devices, so they will certainly be involved. You might have seen some other famous visual headsets pop up over the last few years, including the Microsoft HoloLens and the Magic Leap One. Basically, these AR headsets have transparent lenses that let you look at your surroundings instead of completely replacing your vision with a computer-generated image. You can make a web browser pop up in the middle of a room, for instance, or watch animals run around your coffee table.
Best VR headsets to buy in 2021
Despite all that, the Quest 2 remains an extremely strong entry point to VR that doesn’t look like it will become obsolete next year. The more expensive and business-targeted Vive Focus 3 shows where more premium standalone VR headsets could evolve. Sarah Tew/CNET Good: Self-contained and wireless; great touch controllers; comfortable design for gaming; doubles as PC VR headset Bad: Requires Facebook account At $299 with nothing else needed, the Oculus Quest 2 delivers virtual reality games and an immersive VR experience anywhere.
It’s faster, smaller, cheaper and more comfortable to wear than the original Quest, but you have to log in to Facebook in order to use it.
The Quest 2 reminds me of the Nintendo Switch for its versatility and fun, plus it takes mere seconds to start up and fits really well over glasses. Its more limited mobile processor still plays games such as Beat Saber, Moss and SuperHot VR extremely well, and it can even connect with a PC if you want to, using a single USB-C cable. The 2,160×2,160-per-eye resolution and 114-degree field of view are the best at this price range, and the lightweight, comfy headset also has fantastic drop-down speakers designed by Valve. Built-in camera-based room-tracking is easier to set up than the Valve Index’s external base stations, but is more prone to tracking errors.
Sarah Tew/CNET Good: Amazing futuristic controllers; high-quality headset; works with Vive hardware Bad: Expensive; requires room setup and tethering cable Valve’s headset might be the most interesting PC virtual reality experience this year, just for its fancy new controllers. Not many apps make the most of them yet, but Valve’s hardware is mix-and-match compatible with the HTC Vive, which also is built on the Steam VR platform. It’s not as self-contained as Oculus’ Rift S, which can track the room with in-headset cameras, or the HTC Vive Cosmos. Sarah Tew/CNET Good: Plenty of games; lower price; works with many PS4 controllers like the DualShock and Move Bad: Resolution isn’t cutting-edge; Sony hasn’t yet made great VR controllers that match the competition, but a new version may be coming next year Sony’s years-old PSVR headset is still the only head-mounted display for gaming consoles and its screen still offers a surprisingly immersive experience.
But Sony’s confirmed it’s working on a next-gen PSVR headset for the PS5, with a new set of controllers, that could be coming in 2022 if you want to wait. There are a lot of expected headsets next year, as I mentioned above: Meta’s Project Cambria, PlayStation VR 2 and Apple’s mystery device. VR is a technology that’s still in flux, with companies aiming for products that are smaller and more able to be connected to devices like phones.
The Quest 2 is by far the best value, and it also happens to be the best-designed headset with the most upside at the moment, as long as you’re OK with the proposition of living under Meta’s metaverse umbrella and Facebook’s data policies.
Most PC VR headsets have similar controller designs, and can bridge to work tools and apps. Take extra care with the lenses, which should be cleaned gently with microfiber cloths the same way you’d treat glasses (don’t use liquids).
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