Review:
I had the opportunity to pick up a Samsung Odyssey this weekend for $749 Canadian (about $590 USD) and wanted to share my initial impressions/review. I also picked up an Alienware 15 laptop with an i7 7700HQ CPU, 16GB of 2400 RAM and an nVidia GTX 1070 so that I can pop it in a backpack and really push the limits of Room Scale VR. My initial review is broken into Odyssey HMD, Motion Controllers, Odyssey Experience and Windows Mixed Reality Experience.
First, I want to take a moment to thank Samsung for their minimal packaging. I have had all the major HMDs since the DK1 and the Odyssey has the least amount of waste to date. The ViVe takes the crown as most wasteful. Less is more when it comes to packaging and over packaging is a slap in the face of the environment.
Odyssey HMD:
My first impression of the Odyssey is that it is large and feels much heavier than my past HMDs which I have confirmed 645g versus 470g for the Rift and 555g for the ViVe. This gripe aside I LOVE the HoloLens inspired headband with rear wheel to tighten. I was able to get the Odyssey to perfectly hang in front of my face better than any HMD I have worn and all that extra weight just disappears as it is on your head not face. It is very similar to the mounting system of the 610g PSVR which is also comfortable but not a system I own or plan too. I love my ViVe but really hated the strapped to your face tight feel which after 20 mins of playing just felt nasty. The Odyssey does not suffer from this problem as it just hangs down on your face and for me was perfect. No light leak and no face pressure.
Your mileage may vary depending on face shape. I have never liked the round, puffy shape of the ViVe HMD and the Odyssey is more or less the same here. Makes getting on and off somewhere more difficult as compared to the Rift which just feels just right in the hand when grabbing to put on. I will share that the shiny black plastic in the front instantly looks dirty and will be a constant challenge to keep clean. Why Samsung did not put their logo on the front is a total mystery and a massive marketing loss given all the photos people will be posting of themselves with it on, plus it would make the finger smudges much less noticeable. I am going to paint something silly on mine since Samsung gave me a blank canvas.
I REALLY appreciate that Samsung included an IPD adjustment. Why the other Windows MR HMDs do not have this is a BIG mistake as while I get they are fixed on the average, it means anyone not close to that average is going to have less than an ideal image. I am 59mm which is a full 5mm off the 64mm average.
My only real gripe with the HMD is the ridiculously short HDMI and USB cable. WTF Samsung??? It is ~4M/12 feet which is a full 1M/3 feet less than the ViVe and very noticeable; far more than you would expect. I knew it was short so I was careful but even still I almost yanked my laptop off a desk and I was not even that far away. All it takes is to do a half twist and a tangle on the cable from 2M/6 feet from your PC and your out of cable. This really shocked me as it happened many times despite being aware of it. I must be used to the ViVe cable and that extra length just seems to give you just enough slack to worry less about it. I have a HDMI and USB extension and am going to play with that tonight. That said, I have zero intentions of being tethered as my goal is to just put my laptop in a backpack and be free of all these darn wires for good. I am very curious how big a space I can play in.
Motion Controllers:
I was not expecting to like the motion controllers as much as I do. I love the ViVe controllers (albeit a little large for my small hands) and while I loved the look of the Touch controllers, I never liked them in my hand as the buttons feel spongy and I prefer the trackpad over the thumb stick. The Odyssey controllers are a perfect mix of ViVe and Touch controllers. Microsoft super nailed it especially here. More on this in the experience section below.
I appreciated that these controllers take AA batteries as there has been a few times I have had to stop playing on the ViVe as my batteries died. More on how long they last as I get used to them. One downside is bumping the controllers turns them off very easily which is rather annoying. Going to see if I can modify the battery bay so that the batteries never loose contact on bumps. The last thing I will say physically about the controllers is the ring of white LED lights. LOVE IT. The Touch controllers also have a ring of LEDs but you can only see if you look at with a camera as they are infrared LEDs. The white visible LEDs on the Odyssey just look so cool and IMO catch the eye of those carelessly wandering through a play area which if you ask my partner who got smacked in the head to the point of concussion with the ViVe, she will say she really appreciates. Ahahahaha
Odyssey Experience:
The moment I put on the Odyssey, I immediately noticed the extra resolution over the ViVe and Rift. It is not much, and yes you still notice the screen door, but for me, the extra pixels did make text much more readable and the overall experience is smoother. I was not expecting this. For the first time I could see myself watching a movie in VR as there are enough pixels to make the virtual screen seem like my first 800×600 home theater projector over a decade ago which is very watchable and enjoyable. I will be writing more about this in the coming weeks including as well as more text based use such a Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrency trading in VR.
The Odyssey’s HMD tracks incredible well. In fact so well it shocked me. I drew my chaperone boundaries once and never thought to touch again even after moving my couch back a few more feet. It did not even dawn on me until much later that the original chaperone bounds were still in the same place after hours of play. I was really not expecting it to be this solid. When you consider what it is doing to maintain those boundaries and tracking within (and outside of), it is really rather impressive. Microsoft has totally mastered this IMO. There is no room for improvement outside of people walking through your space causing a glitch and even then rarely. It feels better than the ViVe which I was not at all expecting. I even tried to fool it yet it remained rick solid.
The Odyssey’s motion controllers are also super solid and track just as good as the ViVe’s in terms of accuracy maybe even a touch better in close proximity. By this I mean taking the controllers and touching them together right in front of your face. When The ViVe wands touch each other, this is often about a 1mm / 1/32nd of an inch misalignment from the physical compared to virtual reality. The Odyssey controllers on the other hand seemed exact. Even when I placed both rings flush together and slowly pulled apart, the accuracy was stunningly dead accurate well below 1mm / 132nd of an inch. This I found very impressive. That said, there are some drawbacks over the ViVe here namely finding the controllers once in VR.
With the ViVe you can just put on the HMD and look around for the controllers and no matter where they are in the tracking space you will see them. Not so with the Odyssey. In fact it is a real pain with the Odyssey as even when you look directly towards were you know the controllers are, they still do not snap into VR for some reason. I had to fumble around with my hands to locate and only after I picked up would they snap into their proper location in VR. Prior to picking up the virtual representation of the controllers their virtual location would be all over the place. Sometimes near their physical location, sometime way off, sometimes floating around. It was so jarring to grab them only to realize that it was not actually there. I am just not used to this and it makes me appreciate this aspect of the ViVe. This is an area that has to improve and I see no reason why not. Why can they not snap into view the second you look at them? Do the onboard motion sensors play that big of a detection role? I need to experiment more as perhaps my black couch was throwing detection off?
Once you had the controllers in your hand they are rock solid, even when trying to fool them by blocking with an object such as your arm they are solid with all but the biggest sleeves. Even putting the controllers behind your back and then bringing quickly forward again you cannot tell it ever lost track (which makes me wonder even more why it was not instantly tracked in VR when I look around to pick them up). The only way to tell they are no longer being tracked when out of view of the front of the Odyssey is the shadow they make which freezes in the air once out of view. I am very impressed overall and only see a few situations where tracking outside of the HMDs cameras will be an issue. Shooting blindly behind you with the hopes of taking out some enemies if a good example where it will fail. Hopefully it will get better overtime as surely the onboard motion sensors can play a larger role to help approximate when out of view? I am more than happy to make this trade off given the freedom of the Odyssey over having to be in a lighthouse tracking space. We will see how I feel over time.
The biggest surprise for me with the Odyssey was the thumb stick. I am not one who likes thumb sticks in VR as moving around via this method makes me motion sick and fast. This is my core issue with the Rift and their original face forward tracking system that required you to move with a thumb stick in many cases. BARF. When I saw the thumb stick on the Windows MR kits I was surprised. I was EVEN more surprised when Cortana told me that to teleport around I would use the thumb stick. WTF??? NO Microsoft…YET, I LOVED IT!!! This was my biggest surprise with the Odyssey. I just love the thumb sticks. They have this perfect amount of springiness that feels great. Using it to select a teleport spot was wonderful and my favorite way to move around in VR yet. It is similar to other trackpad or trigger teleportation mechanisms, but for some reason the resistance of the thumb stick added something for me. PLUS, the ability to go backwards, and sideways was BRILLIANT!!! I never knew I was missing this feature until I used it, now I cannot go back. Microsoft really nailed this one. I cannot wait to play with this feature more.
One area of disappointment was the warping. By that I mean when you look around and pay attention to how objects, especially the checkered wall in the theater part of the home, you cannot help but notice it all warp and bend ever so slightly. This made my partner motion sick a little as she is sensitive to these sorts of inaccuracies. I suspect that Microsoft is using the 95 degree FOV warp engine that all the other Windows MR HMDs have on the 110 degree FOV of the Odyssey. Either way this needs to be fixed ASAP (hope someone from these companies reads this).
Windows Mix Reality Experience:
First I need to shake my head at Microsoft for calling it all MR or Mixed Reality. Make no mistake this is 100% VR!!! There is absolutely nothing mixed about it. Perhaps they are going to be including real world objects into the VR experiences down the road, like a coffee table that becomes a console or a bringing your real couch into that virtual movie theater? That would be super cool, but Microsoft has not said a word about that and thus why call it MR? It is going to confuse the hell out of consumers. I knew going in that the Odyssey was 100% VR, but reading others comments on the Odyssey and the other Windows MR HMDs, many people are already confused and some expect AR like functions. Come on Microsoft!!!
Initial setup was easy enough but my first 2 attempts had the world at a 45 degree angle. No idea why, perhaps I was not holding the HMD in front of me level when I clicked the button to calibrate? Past that issue, I found the manual floor calibration to be a rather odd choice and not as smooth as the ViVe’s automatic calibration based on controller location. Plus getting it bang on is near impossible as the floor moves in what feels like 5-7cm / 1-2 inch or so increments. As I mentioned above, once calibrated and chaperone bounds set, it is ROCK SOLID, impressively so.
Popping into Windows Home for the first time I was disappointed in the Cortana tutorial as it just lacked the impact that the SteamVR tutorial has. Microsoft really needs to do better on this one if they wish to attract and retain the masses. The voice command function was a nice addition, but I had a hell of time getting it to recognize me sometimes. I am sure it will improve overtime like all the voice activated systems out there and will become amazing one day. Overall the user experience is ok, but not great.
Windows Home a nice space that is very similar to the SteamVR home with a few more rooms/areas but no additional functionality unless you think Skype is useful (which I fail to see the use case outside of messaging as you are not going to Video chat here). You have all the same things such as an app launcher, web browser, store access, ability to move and size objects as SteamVR. All good, but nothing new or innovative. I was disappointed that from the makers of Minecraft that I could not customize my Windows Home space beyond decorating with a small library of holograms (AKA objects).
I was also disappointed when I was not able to take the 4:3 aspect ratio web browser and make it wider for 16:9 video content as it is aspect ratio locked. I am sure this will be fixed and I hope soon as the utility is high (e.g. watching YouTube movies in the home theater in 16:9 or other ratio). Overall I like Windows Home, but it feels incomplete, sparse and lacking content/polish I expected. In terms of launch impressions, it is not great and majorly lacking content. SteamVR preview is coming November 15th which is great as I have a large library of content there (some I am reading will have issues until apps are updated), but what is Microsoft doing to build, expand and innovate inside of VR? Plus, why on earth can my ViVe not launch Windows Home? Lots of opportunities to improve and I truly hope Microsoft is working hard around the clock to get this in a better place and fast or they are going to make a lot of less than stellar first impressions this holiday season.
Finally, I have to share that it took hours over my 150mps Internet connection to download and update the necessary Windows 10 MR components. So much for being “baked” into Windows 10. Oh yeah, and after my first session, I spent a fair amount of time trying to find out how to turn on again before I realized all I had to do was put it on to turn it on. AHAHAHAHA It is little things like this that while great, need to be better communicated. Maybe I just missed that instruction.
Ok…that is all for my initial impressions/review. I will be sharing much more over the coming days/weeks as I learn more and push the boundaries of what is possible with inside out tracking tech.
Source: Reddit