The HTC Vive is now available for pre-order

[midian182]

The HTC Vive was one of our ‘Best of Mobile World Congress’ picks and with good reason. The virtual reality device may be a pretty hefty $799 -- a full $200 more expensive that the Oculus Rift -- but it provides a truly breathtaking experience and a level of immersion that has to be tried to be believed.

Today, fans of the VR headset are able to pre-order the Vive. Prices outside the US vary: The headset will sell for €899 in Europe, £689 in the UK and AU$817.27 in Australia.

Those who pre-order will receive the headset, two wireless controllers and two base station tracking sensors. Buyers will also get three VR games bundled in with the Vive: Fantastic Contraptions, a building game where you construct objects to solve puzzles; Job Simulator, a tongue-in-cheek title set in the future where robots have taken the place of human workers; and Tilt Brush, which lets users create 3D paintings with brushes that ‘paint’ using light. I tried Tilt Brush at MWC, and despite having absolutely no artistic talent, I found that I didn’t want to stop creating images.

HTC argues that the Vive, which it developed in collaboration with Valve, gives a better VR experience than the Oculus because it utilizes an entire room. While the Vive can be used sitting down, walking around in virtual reality improves the immersion enormously. The only issue may be the sheer amount of space that’s required to set up the device.

System requirements for the Vive are almost the same as the Oculus: an Intel i5-4590 or equivalent, GTX 970/AMD R9 290 and Windows 7.1 SP1 or newer. The few differences are that the Rift requires 8GB+ of RAM, a HDMI 1.3 video output, two USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0 port; whereas the Vive asks for 4GB+ of RAM, HDMI 1.4 or Display Port 1.2, and just the one USB 2.0 port.

Not every user is convinced that virtual reality will be the revolution Oculus and HTC promise, and the price of both headsets may prove to be a bit steep for a lot of consumers, but it’s going to be interesting to see how the general public takes to the devices. Ultimately, the biggest factor that influences their success or failure may be the amount of support developers give the headsets.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/63944-excellent-htc-vive-now-available-pre-order.html

 

[Axle Grease]

My eyesight is a little below 20/20 at medium to long distance but I must wear reading glasses for short distance. Is this going to be an issue? There are a great many people with less than 20/20 vision.

 

[Uncle Al]

You would think they would address that right up front, don't you? At that price I'm satisfied with waiting, maybe even upgrading my own glasses in the meantime!

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Yeah this is quite pricey I'm going to have to wait. Unfortunate... I was thinking they would be in the $400 range. Seems they are going with an all or nothing approach.

 

[Bao Nguyen]

The price for Australian is actually in USD and excludes shipping of US$110. In total Australians are looking at approx. AU$1400 incl. shipping (which I assume they have paid custom).

 

[Axle Grease]

You would think they would address that right up front, don't you? At that price I'm satisfied with waiting, maybe even upgrading my own glasses in the meantime!

Yes, because there are legions of us with less than 20/20 vision. Anyway, I got a reply from HTC about that.
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Dear Tony Neville,

Thank you for contacting Vive Support.

We understand that you’re concerned about needing to wear glasses in order to use the HTC Vive. Yes, you can. As our goal was to create the most immersive Virtual Reality experience for our customers, we made sure that our HMD (Head Mount Display) viewer fits most glasses.

 

[Badelhas]

Anyone knows when it will be available in other countries?