Hiya, folks! Over this year, I got a huge interest in VR, and I’m planning on purchasing a VR headset and a FBT setup. I’d say I’ve done a fair bit of research and I’ve landed on the following two combinations:
Meta Quest 3 128GB
Valve Lighthouse base stations(x2)
HTC Vive 3.0 trackers(x4)
Total: 1.597€;
or alternative
Meta Quest 3 128GB
Slime VR Deluxe Body set (12+4)
Total: 1.270,6€
My planned budget in total is 1.600€.
My planned use for the VR setup is hanging out with my friends in VRChat and possibly making some short form content for social media (IG Reels, YT Shorts). I am also planning on using the headset in PCVR mode only (cable price is included in the totals).
I’ve seen a few copmarison videos between SlimeVR trackers and Vive 3.0 trackers, and I’m wondering if the price difference is worth it. I am also aware that Slime trackers are drift-prone, but I’m willing to take it as a downside. I am also wondering if there is an alternative setup that might provide me with better performance (better tracking precision), while still being within the budget listed above.
Thanks in advance!
Both have pros and cons, really depends on your environment. If you have a room with a lot of reflective surfaces, then lighthouse is gonna be a bad time. If you have a lot of things in the room that might occlude the trackers from the base stations? Then lighthouse is gonna be a bad time.
Otherwise, lighthouse is probably less hassle and better, more consistent results, but also more money.
Slimes can be finicky, though they’ve recently made some serious improvements to the software that make them a lot less so. Still, I need to reset a few times an hour most of the time and usually do the mounting calibration at the start of each session, which thankfully is like a 30 second process these days.
Overall, your experience will vary based on a lot of factors, none of the solutions are prefect. Some people have very bad or very good experiences with each solution, and some are more spendy than others.
Good luck!
Hi! Thank you very much for your response!
Truth to be told, my room is quite small and I do have a fair bit of stuff around. My room has one of them big ~1.6m x ~1.6m balcony window and a balcony door. My walls are also plain, but I don’t think I am allowed to modify them since I live as a tenant. My table where I have my pc is also on the smaller side and I can see how that could cause setup issues for the lighthouses.
On the other hand, I do have a quite stable and strong WiFi connection in my room, the router is ~3m outside my room. It’s a 1Gbps fiber optic connection.
An upside for Slimes that I really like is the fact that I can cover them without them losing traction (at least that’s what I heard).
In the end, I think I will go with Slimes, but I’ll still think about it for a few more days before making the final decision.
I am also thinking about possibly waiting for a black friday deal either for the headset or the trackers but I dont even know if such a deal will exist. Oh well.
Thank you once more!