Samsung HMD Odyssey

~~~~~~~[UPDATE APRIL 2018:]

Opmerking: m.u.v. intro en comments, heb ik het in t Engels geschreven omdat ik het deels al op US MS Store site had geschreven én niet-NL mensen blijkbaar ook interesse hebben.

On YouTube 'Mixed Reality TV'did a good comparison of this HMD and all other current HMD's.
MRTV now also put a comparison between Vive, Vive Pro and Odyssey online.

Interesting conclusions in line with my own* experiences:
(average +, good ++, best +++) :

• Comfort: Vive +++, Vive Pro +++, Odyssey ++

>Fold-down construction of Vives provides tad better support for people with glasses

• Construction: Vive +++, Vive Pro ++, Odyssey +++

>Vive Pro looks are 'plastic' compared to more premium looking Odyssey and old Vive

• Resolution: Vive +, Vive Pro +++, Odyssey +++

>Refer to pictures from MRTV video: Vive Pro & Odyssey contain exact same Samsung OLEDs

• FOV: Vive ++, Vive Pro ++, Odyssey ++

>Same for all 3, Rift and Pimax4K (~110o), this is narrower than natural visual range FOV (~150o), but wide enough to be not at all claustrophobic

• Godrays: Vive +, Vive Pro +, Odyssey +++

>Refer to pictures from MRTV video: Odyssey carries newer state-of-art fresnel lenses with much less Godrays then both Vives

• Microphone: Vive +++, Vive Pro +, Odyssey +++

>Vive Pro contains worst Mic

• Headphones: Vive ++, Vive Pro +, Odyssey +++

>Odyssey has clearly best (AKG) Audio

• Weight: Vive +++, Vive Pro +, Odyssey ++

>non-Pro (470gram) and Odyssey(675gr) and Pro (809gr). Even though both Odyssey and Pro are 30-60% heavier than normal Vive, they have good balance, (i.e. not front heavy). Practically you can play with both 'heavyweights' for hours without becoming uncomfortably heavy.

• Motion Tracking: Vive +++, Vive Pro +++, Odyssey ++

>Inside-Out tracking of Odyssey and all other WMR HMD's is most of times fine yet sometimes HMD looses tracking of controllers when out of sight of camera's. This occurs especially in dim lighting, but tracking mostly recovers quickly (not relevant for non-controller sims). This concept is ideal for a truly laptop based mobile setup;
>Outside-In tracking of Vives via Lighthouses is a nuisance to setup and not at all mobile but once done this concept has clearly the best possible motion tracking.

(* - based on 1st hand use Odyssey, Pimax4K and non-Pro Vive)

Remarkable: 6 months after the release of SamSung's Odyssey, the complete Vive Pro set is sold for double the price where it performs noticeably worse in certain important areas!


>> Additional Odyssey and WMR personal findings:
(enriched copy MS store review:)

> Odyssey specific positives:
- nicely build quality headset (synthetic leather);
- sharper image quality compared to other WMR- or non-Pro Vive HMD with much less screen-door effect and therefore more detail especially in distance (crucial for sims and readability small VR fonts, refer to pictures);
- OLEDS very bright and colorful with real blacks;
- hardly any god rays (better than Vive Pro w.o. fresnel mod);
- zero lag gaming for many hours on our 7820X-i7+GTX1080 rig w.o. fatigue/ nausea;
- AKG audio with good sound definition, separation, surround and oomph (bass) if these build-on headphones fit your ears perfectly on smaller/ rounder heads;
- controllers more ergonomic then MS WMR reference design;
- upto medium sized glasses fit fine inside enclosure if you're careful, contrary to recommendation in included manual;
- manually adjustable eye-width works well;
- build-in stereo mics work well with Cortana;

> Odyssey specific concerns:
- Odyssey nose-flaps require some attention when mounting: they tend to fold incorrectly putting strain on nose;
- Sadly not freely available in EURO zone, I had to import it from US; Refer to comment section (in Dutch) for options, experiences and costs involved;

> WMR generic positives:
- both joystick (Rift) and trackpad (Vive) on WMR controllers;
- inside-out controller tracking by WMR works reasonably precise free from need to purchase and install additional external trackers;
- only 1 thin but somewhat short combined HDMi/USB cable to PC;

> WMR generic concerns:
- WMR specific content in MS store limited and disappointing;
- SteamVR or reVive content already very nice, but drivers for WMR are -more than 6 months after initial release- still in bèta: despite frequent updates, WMR via SteamVR still sometimes buggy: Vive2WMR controller mapping wrong/ unresponsive and VR calibration floating/ incorrect;
- effective backstage tech support for better hardware compatibility from MS forum or Samsung's own 1st line support-agents is getting better in the last few months. Steam support community via forum is still primary source for beta bug-hunting threads directly interacting with SteamVR developers.