SteamVR and Microsoft HMD SUCK

With holiday price slashing and hype in general making this new thread to warn others.

Caveat: this is with the acer headset, but I imagine the experience is the same across others
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EDIT**** This review is with HAND TRACKING in mind*******
IF these headsets somehow work for racing sims, then they could be viable dedicated motion sim alternative HMD for that because it does not involve hand tracking. As of right now, motion cancellation requires commercial sims, AFAIK

The breathability of this headset (sweat and fog) could still be an issue, but thought I should put this possibility in here due to perceived resolution and physical comfort benefits some people claim.
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The number one reason SteamVR and Microsoft HMD VR mixed reality is bad is because it does not work anywhere close to Rift or Vive, it:
1) Latency lag
2)consistent loss of hand tracking

1a) I can do great at say Eleven Table Tennis or other fast games, but there is a disturbing lag that doesn't feel right, a slight blur as well

2a)
Across various games, the hands lose tracking, and when this happens, even for a split second it is a HORRIFIC interruption in gameflow, because it KEEPS happening

Simple as that.
Where are my hands, oh, where are my hands, oh, where are my hands, oh.

Maybe they're planning extra camera add ons or something. Stick with rift and vive. Sad Oh well

The Samsung WMR headset has a chance of being ok as it has a number of upgrades over the Acer and the other lower end headsets, but I’m not spending the money on it to find out.

Tracking is really key to comfortable VR and if these WMR headsets can’t reacquire the controllers faster than people can notice, or do a good job tracking anyway, they may not be good at all for gaming.

It’s really unfortunate since these are aimed at entry level users. Giving new people bad experiences is no way to grow VR but Microsoft went all-in with these WMR headsets and is pushing them as "VR". No doubt they will sell lots of them too.

In one of my prototypes I embedded a leap motion tracker, tracking was probably 50%. Hand tracking simply isn't good enough currently, there are some research using combined mems sensors which improved it quite a bit, but ideally it needs to be 80-90% to be of any use.

I think the reviewers need to be more honest when reviewing tech.

@Zed said It’s really unfortunate since these are aimed at entry level users. Giving new people bad experiences is no way to grow VR but Microsoft went all-in with these WMR headsets and is pushing them as "VR". No doubt they will sell lots of them too.

So sad and frustrating indeed, as agree with that.
Over the past few days, demoed this unit to people that have never experienced VR or VR beyond cardboard/daydream. I demoed it without introducing any bias. They LOVED VR, but one audible thing that happened was they all, at some point said some variation of, "where did my hands go/where are my hands?"

New users with no bias who were blown away by the basic immersiveness of VR where frustrated by the loss of hands, GREAT system to demo VR or maybe to plank games.

Like @RobsonSwiss said, this tech reminds me of Leap Motion exactly - unlike Leap, where you really need to be a dev or dig into the stuff to get it to work like a half ready DEMO with VR, by the time you do, it is no better or worse than this Microsoft stuff, the FOV and speed with which each view, acquire and reacquire hands is very similar

@RobsonSwiss
said

Many are paid to review, and appear like they are not paid, targeting consumers. That being said, there is TONS of tech out there that CAN work as advertised, but needs a developer base to implement it, because the entities that come up with the ideas and base don't necessarily have the resources to implement it for consumers in each marketplace....devs are the first point of contact, and they are often frustrated by lack of API/SDK/support. Initial hardware developers usually have a limited funding pool.