[Amazon.ca] HTC VIVE Pro Virtual Reality System - Bundled System Edition - $1,353.89

Euugh, even with the discount, you may as well get an Index at this price.

If you are just starting out in VR, look at the Oculus Quest 2 that is standalone (wireless) and can support PCVR as well (with the purchase of an additional cable) and no reliance on bay stations for tracking - at a significantly cheaper price. Easily 1/2 the price of this HTC kit...maybe even a 1/3 of the price once you factor in added taxes.

And if you're serious about VR, you're likely considering the Valve Index or HP Reverb G2.

Just don't know where this HTC unit fits excepts that it has its own separate wireless solution at a significant additional cost .

good luck

TotalDistinction wrote: ↑ If you are just starting out in VR, look at the Oculus Quest 2 that is standalone (wireless) and can support PCVR as well (with the purchase of an additional cable) and no reliance on bay stations for tracking - at a significantly cheaper price. Easily 1/2 the price of this HTC kit...maybe even a 1/3 of the price once you factor in added taxes.

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I know very little about VR, but that line bothers me. What crossover is there between Facebook and this VR headset? What personal information am I giving up if I wanted to use this headset? I want very little to do with Facebook if possible.

TheRockNL wrote: ↑ I know very little about VR, but that line bothers me. What crossover is there between Facebook and this VR headset? What personal information am I giving up if I wanted to use this headset? I want very little to do with Facebook if possible.

I've never had a Facebook account and I never will. I'd already own a Quest 2 if it was a separate entity.

Avoiding Oculus 2 for the Facebook integration. Even if you want to use SteamVR, you still need to install Oculus Home which requires a Facebook account.

I have a Rift, and Oculus still kept bugging me to update my headset, and switch to using a Facebook account instead of an Oculus account.

At this price, I'd rather get the Index or the HP.

This seems really overpriced, and the Valve Index Bundle is cheaper... it's $1150 CAD isn't it and better in every way...

TheRockNL wrote: ↑ I know very little about VR, but that line bothers me. What crossover is there between Facebook and this VR headset? What personal information am I giving up if I wanted to use this headset? I want very little to do with Facebook if possible.

To be brutally frank...stop with this Facebook argument. Do you use Facebook? Instagram? WhatsApp? Guess what, they are all Facebook properties. You share more personal information through these apps than your "VR gaming habits" to Facebook with the Quest. So you're going to deny yourself of using some amazing VR tech because you have to use a Facebook account?

Do you have an Android device? Guess what, you have to have a Google account for the mobile device that has your life on it. Do you use Gmail? Guess what, that's Google too. Do you think Google is any better than Facebook?
Do you use IOS? Guess what, you're stuck in Apple's walled garden. Sure, we'd all like to believe that Apple has our privacy interests in mind. Apple just want to keep the information to themselves.
Use an XBox? Outlook? Office 365? You need a Microsoft account.
You need an account to use a Playstation. Guess what, Sony knows your gaming habits.

This whole Facebook thing is so overblown and is such an artificial argument. Yeah, I get it. Facebook is the worse for using your personal information. If you know that, stop posting on Facebook!

psycholamb wrote: ↑Euugh, even with the discount, you may as well get an Index at this price.

Agreed. Definitely not worth it.
At this price, the Valve Index is cheaper and I would say the controllers are better.

Just got my Valve Index. Love it.

It's something you'll want to have a decent space to set up in depending on the game. Unlike the quest and standalone devices the Valve Index and HTC Vive have base stations and wiring to set up. Definitely not at all flexible to bring to say a friend's place.

TotalDistinction wrote: ↑ To be brutally frank...stop with this Facebook argument. Do you use Facebook? Instagram? WhatsApp? Guess what, they are all Facebook properties. You share more personal information through these apps than your "VR gaming habits" to Facebook with the Quest. So you're going to deny yourself of using some amazing VR tech because you have to use a Facebook account?

Do you have an Android device? Guess what, you have to have a Google account for the mobile device that has your life on it. Do you use Gmail? Guess what, that's Google too. Do you think Google is any better than Facebook?
Do you use IOS? Guess what, you're stuck in Apple's walled garden. Sure, we'd all like to believe that Apple has our privacy interests in mind. Apple just want to keep the information to themselves.
Use an XBox? Outlook? Office 365? You need a Microsoft account.
You need an account to use a Playstation. Guess what, Sony knows your gaming habits.

This whole Facebook thing is so overblown and is such an artificial argument. Yeah, I get it. Facebook is the worse for using your personal information. If you know that, stop posting on Facebook!

It's overblown because they are the first non gaming company to force login on a gaming device. Once more companies do it people will stop complaining

TotalDistinction wrote: ↑ To be brutally frank...stop with this Facebook argument. Do you use Facebook? Instagram? WhatsApp? Guess what, they are all Facebook properties. You share more personal information through these apps than your "VR gaming habits" to Facebook with the Quest. So you're going to deny yourself of using some amazing VR tech because you have to use a Facebook account?

Do you have an Android device? Guess what, you have to have a Google account for the mobile device that has your life on it. Do you use Gmail? Guess what, that's Google too. Do you think Google is any better than Facebook?
Do you use IOS? Guess what, you're stuck in Apple's walled garden. Sure, we'd all like to believe that Apple has our privacy interests in mind. Apple just want to keep the information to themselves.
Use an XBox? Outlook? Office 365? You need a Microsoft account.
You need an account to use a Playstation. Guess what, Sony knows your gaming habits.

This whole Facebook thing is so overblown and is such an artificial argument. Yeah, I get it. Facebook is the worse for using your personal information. If you know that, stop posting on Facebook!

Okay, first off, no...I will not stop it. It's a legit question regarding a product that's being sold. All I wanted to know was whether you can purchase the hardware and not have it connecting in any way to the company to "report back". There's absolutely nothing wrong with asking that question. I don't know about you, but I like being more informed on a product before potential purchase and this is one of the questions I have. I'm not trying to be all high and mighty on facebook, to each there own. In my own opinion, it's a despicable company that I personally don't want anything to do with, and will do my research to ensure I stay out of their ecosystem as much as possible. No, I don't use Facebook, or Instagram, or WhatsApp. I also run pihole and browser extensions that block all facebook tracking while on sites that do embed facebook code, but that's my choice.

The "whataboutism" of your second paragraph has absolutely NOTHING to do with my question whatsoever. You're just being preachy for the sake of it.

To each his own. It's overblown. Way overblown. It's easy to jump on the Facebook bashing. Truly I get it. But this is not the mountain to die on.

Facebook is being sued by the U.S. and Germany governments over it. Eventually, they'll get their comeuppance.

You want to go online with your XBox, Playstation, or Nintendo Switch and use their online stores, you need an account. I don't see how the Facebook integration is far different.

I'd buy that for a dollar

- Sent from Q2

TheRockNL wrote: ↑ All I wanted to know was whether you can purchase the hardware and not have it connecting in any way to the company to "report back".

Unfortunately, you need a Facebook account. It's the only way, for now, to buy Oculus Quest native VR games (and Rift games for PCVR) from their store.

Just to make sure, regarding the headset's screen: the main difference between the Pro and the Index is that the Index has a bigger FOV, but the Pro's screen is OLED vs the Index's LCD and with HDR provides an all-around better picture quality and deeper blacks especially in dark environments than the Index, right?


Also, **** Facebook: No one needs a Cambridge Analytica 2.0. It's pretty clear that the Quest 2's pricing and design is made with monetizing your private information even more than they already do.

actually the fov might be similar to the index, it mostly depend on your head/eye. The vive pro is the only viable option for wireless, all the standalone vr headset are really bad in comparison it's not even close. Personally I don't care about wireless so I kept the Index. The main difference, beside the wireless addon, is the controller, vive wand are probably the worst controller in the vr market right now (except for beatsaber or other sword game, I prefer the vive wand over the knuckles). An other difference is the customer service, htc have awful customer service and valve one is great. Well there is the panel(screen) the vive pro have better black while the index have a higher frequency/hz.

I use a secondary Facebook account for my quest 2, it's not rocket science.

I don't see how the Facebook integration is far different.

To be fair, it is different in the sense of the kind of data that Facebook collects via the headset. Movement data is a form of biometric data and there is much more value in movement data that one might think. Gait detection is being used as a form of surveillance, and a study published just last fall indicated that just a few minutes of movement data produced by a VR headset can be used to identify a person with 95% accuracy. The technology is heading towards integrated eye tracking (it's already part of many platforms) which has been used for over a decade in the advertising analysis.

Cross-reference the movement data with the social media data that they already have, and you begin to have an unprecedented amount of information about a user.

I get your larger point about the prevalence of data collection by entities such as Google and Apple (not to mention Amazon). There is no putting that toothpaste back in the tube, so to speak. But the larger issue is that Facebook (and companies like them) are walled gardens and the data they collect can be had if you have enough money. There needs to be mechanisms in place for the public to exert some control over the collection and distribution of this data or incidents like the Cambridge Analytica will become commonplace (if they arent already.)

I tried having a dummy account once actually for a bunch of gacha mobile games that used it for progress saving. It worked well for a while until FB shut it down and wanted a profile picture to reactivate it. Used a GAN generated one, which seem to work for them for a while, until they shut it down again and then wouldn't do anything without ID...

Lost all the progress on those games after a phone refresh. Screw them.

jsrfuture wrote: ↑ actually the fov might be similar to the index, it mostly depend on your head/eye. The vive pro is the only viable option for wireless, all the standalone vr headset are really bad in comparison it's not even close. Personally I don't care about wireless so I kept the Index. The main difference, beside the wireless addon, is the controller, vive wand are probably the worst controller in the vr market right now (except for beatsaber or other sword game, I prefer the vive wand over the knuckles). An other difference is the customer service, htc have awful customer service and valve one is great. Well there is the panel(screen) the vive pro have better black while the index have a higher frequency/hz.

Hey, thanks for this. This pretty much confirms most of what I was wondering about.

I have a hard time imagining spending this much without getting a quality wireless option available. Ideally, the Index controllers do work the best and I have seen a few videos of guys using the Pro Wands as extras to do feet movement control and decently walk around in Skyrim VR...

Gods. That sounds like a wet gaming dream right there, but the price point would be way up there too.