Valve helped HTC build Vive VR, the first serious threat to the Oculus Rift

[Shawn Knight]

Virtual reality hardware as we know it today can be classified into one of two categories. The first would be something like the Samsung Gear VR or the VR for G3 from LG which rely on a smartphone to provide the visuals.

Then you have what I call the true VR product – think Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus – which is exactly the kind of product that HTC announced during Mobile World Congress.

Built in collaboration with Valve, the HTC Vive looks a lot like the Oculus Rift and will connect directly to your computer instead of a mobile device. It includes a bevy of sensors that’ll be able to track hand movement and allow for 360-degree head movement. There’s also the 90Hz refresh rate which should make for a smooth overall experience from the two 1,200 x 1,080 screens.

The project is still in somewhat of an early state although HTC did mention there are some wireless controllers in the works that’ll be versatile enough to work with a wide range of VR experiences.

The announcement was a bit of a surprise. We’ve known for quite a while that Valve was working on a virtual reality device but didn’t know of HTC’s involvement.

HTC said they’ll offer a developer edition of Vive this spring with plans to launch a consumer version by the end of the year. No word yet on pricing but HTC promised to offer more details during the Game Developers Conference in the coming days.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/59901-valve-helped-htc-build-vive-vr-first-serious.html

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

This VR stuff is still in it's infancy, not worth buying into yet, but maybe in a few years from now it could be.

 

[Puiu]

This VR stuff is still in it's infancy, not worth buying into yet, but maybe in a few years from now it could be.

it depends on what software and games will be available at launch or shortly after.
as it stands now there are a few good games that are already out or will be out when oculus rift launches. I suspect that as we get closer to the end of the year we'll see a lot of announcement from big devs.

 

[Uncle Al]

Hopefully they won't try to recover all their R&D the first year, otherwise it will more than likely be out of reach for the everyday computer user. I have also not found any information on any of these that talk about how effective they are for people that wear higher powered prescription glasses or if they will work over top of glasses. Anyone else find any information on that?

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Good to see some more competition in the VR headset space. Competition is only good for the consumer. I know without a doubt in my mind I WILL be purchasing one of these headsets. I'm very excited about the technology.

 

[LNCPapa]

I don't know about the Vive but if you set the lense distance on the DK2 to maximum you can wear your glasses while using it. Many people who don't have a lot of medicine in their glasses can get good results with the DK2 by just going through the IPD calibration process.

I would assume since Valve has been using the Oculus Rift for so long now that they will take this sort of thing into consideration as well.

I cannot say the same about the GearVR though - there doesn't seem to be enough room for glasses to be worn with this device. I had someone try it out today with thin glasses and it still didn't work out - he had to take them off but luckily he could focus it enough to be usable.

 

[Emexrulsier]

Nvidia is to launch something tonight (7PM San Francisco time 03:00 4/3/14 GMT ) which they say will be a future game changer, a lot of bets are on it being a VR device that wipes the water with all of what has been seen so far from Samsung, Sony, Valve, Oculus wait and see)

 

[Kibaruk]

How hard would it be to make them shift focus to match your needs? I mean, common binoculars have that option, why not state of the art tech?

 

[Puiu]

Nvidia is to launch something tonight (7PM San Francisco time 03:00 4/3/14 GMT ) which they say will be a future game changer, a lot of bets are on it being a VR device that wipes the water with all of what has been seen so far from Samsung, Sony, Valve, Oculus wait and see)

I highly doubt that nvidia can make something better than Samsung, Sony, Valve and Oculus, but the more competition the better.

 

[Emexrulsier]

I highly doubt that nvidia can make something better than Samsung, Sony, Valve and Oculus, but the more competition the better.

Seeing how Valve, Sony, Samsung, and Oculus have next to useless products without Nvidia (and yes AMD etc) then I tbh reckon they are more than capable.

 

[Puiu]

Seeing how Valve, Sony, Samsung, and Oculus have next to useless products without Nvidia (and yes AMD etc) then I tbh reckon they are more than capable.

does it matter? nvidia can have the best GPUs, they still lack what matters most for VR - the the best VR headset components and an established platform to use the vr headset with.
I stand by what I said, Nvidia can make a good headset, but I don't see them making something better than the rest.
this doesn't mean that they can't profit on the GPU side. VR needs high end GPUs. they are out of luck on the console side, but PC is still there.