Wearable 'Backpack PCs' Let You Experience High-End VR On The Go (mashable.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Powerful virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive require powerful PCs with beefy graphics cards to operate. That means you'll usually be tethered to a PC tower in your home. Well, HP and MSI have announced portable 'backpack PCs' designed to be used with high-end virtual reality headsets. These PC internals are built in a backpack enclosure powered by a large battery pack. The HP Omen X weighs less than 10 pounds and has a battery that's big enough to last for up to one hour of gameplay, but you do have the option of swapping out the batteries for uninterrupted VR. Specs include either an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, up to 32GB of RAM, and at least an Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 or higher. The MSI Backpack PC features an Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia GTX 980 graphics, according to the company. The last of the backpack PC trio is the Zotac Mobile VR. The company hasn't released any specs of the product but the company did state in a blog post, "This mobile solution not only removes the bulk of connecting to the large traditional computer towers of old, but also allows the user to roam freely in VR with their undivided attention. This innovative solution includes a system powerful enough to drive VR, and a portable battery pack to keep you going." There is no pricing or availability information as of yet.

Comments

Memories

[deadwill69]

Reminds me of lan parties back in the day. Almost brought tears of joy to my eyes!

This is why VR will fail.

[Anonymous Coward]

Every does know that the Hololens does its own rendering and is a complete system in the head gear right? AR is a better idea, their system fixes all head tracking and is fast enough to fix motion sickness.... Why is this this kludge news?

Re:This is why VR will fail.

[janoc]

Because:

a) AR is not the same thing as VR or a replacement for it. Those two technologies are pretty much orthogonal to each other, with different use cases. Saying "AR is better/will replace VR" is like saying an airplane will replace car. Both are means of transportation but serving different purposes and used at different times.

b) Hololens is unable to generate a fully immersive scene - has narrow field of view and a lot of problems with achievable contrast (as any see-through display) in brightly lit spaces. This is important for sense of presence. Making a fantasy game (for example) believable is going to be difficult if you have the real world visible in your scene, unless your objective is to make dragons roam your living room. Not a problem for VR.

c) Nobody knows how well (or whether at all) the tracking on Hololens performs - all that was presented were carefully orchestrated demos in controlled conditions and no specs are known. Again not something that is comparable.

d) Performance of the embedded ARM/Intel CPU/GPU combo on something like Hololens is far behind what a desktop CPU/GPU combo are capable of. Hololens is likely comparable to something like GearVR performance-wise and those require a lot of "dumbing down" of the content in order to achieve reasonable frame rates. Moreover Hololens has to also do the optical tracking of the surrounding scene which GearVR does not do - making the problem even worse.

e) Motion sickness is less a factor of how fast the tracking/rendering is but much more a function of content. You can have usable VR at 30fps with no motion sickness and a totally atrocious experience at 120fps if the content is poorly built.

Disclosure - working with VR since 1998 or so :)

Re:This is why VR will fail.

[HornWumpus]

Nobody believes me when I tell them my VFX1 is no more pukey then my Rift. Like you say, it's all about content. Descent 2 was the worst, but they are working on a new Descent...

Re: This is why VR will fail.

[110010001000]

Good questions. You will run into things and trip over things with VR. You can't see. This is why VR is useless, along with the motion sickness because what you "see" in your VM screen doesn't match what your inner ear is sensing.

Battery swap.

[sims 2]

Am I understanding that this is a dual battery system so a battery hotswap would be possible?

gargoyles!

[lkcl]

welcome to snowcrash by neal stephenson!

Re:gargoyles!

[Lumpy]

Snowcrash 0.01 Pre alpha... we dont even have 1/500th the processing power nor even 1/50,000th the internet capacity needed to do even early snowcrash.

Great!

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Is any of those backpacks compatible with the new nVidia GTX 1080 that came out today? And wouldn't using a GTX 1080 give you more hours/minutes with the same batteries?

Re:Great!

[K. S. Kyosuke]

On the other hand, you can probably use the powerful fans to levitate!

I'll be suprised if VR goes anywhere.

[kenj123]

I use google streetview a lot, basically as a virtual tourist. I even put together my own little library - museum of my favorite places:
http://xweb123-001-site1.myasp...
but I talk to people and I'm shocked at how few(actually none) people are into using google streetview to explore. Although, there are whole web sites devoted to streetview pics of hookers and people urinating in the streets. Quite a few people say its somehow wrong to see the world through streetview and you should go there in person to see it for 'real'. Problem is I only have the budget to see a fraction of the world for 'real'. 90+ percent of the people I talk to only want to do facebook and Netflix on the internet. Maybe VR will take off but it will surprise me.

Re:I'll be suprised if VR goes anywhere.

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

I'm also a VR tourist and Google street view is awesome.

Sweet

[bistromath007]

Can't wait to try "Get Hit by a Bus Simulator."

On the go?

[wonkey_monkey]

"On the go"? You mean, like... when you're pooping?

Re:On the go?

[HornWumpus]

First you have to swallow a 360 degree camera pill though. Pooping yourself out is a unique experience.

Re:On the go?

[CCarrot]

Brilliant! I actually want to try this. Of course there is some delay from swallowing before you get to the pooping part.

Coat the camera with a fast-acting laxative...?

Brings glassholes to a whole...nutha...level

[The-Ixian]

You can experience the virtual world... while walking around in the real world...

Try not to get hit by a bus... Or ... whatever, go ahead..

10 years from now...

[kyle3489]

Cant wait to look back on this moment in 10 years and LMAO. Oh, virtual boy.

Re:Great

[bugs2squash]

The battery life and weight are no problem, simply set the backpack down on the passenger seat and plug into the car's lighter socket while driving. It should keep the batteries charged for the rest of your life.

Can't Wait

[mentil]

These were actually announced a while ago. You can make one yourself by putting a gaming laptop inside a backpack (and figuring out how to ventilate it). The upcoming ones are more like NUCs with decent GPUs and big batteries. As GPUs improve, the size/weight/battery draw will shrink, until it can clip onto your belt. Hopefully the HMD will be down to a single thin cable by this point. In the near term, external graphics card docks will be used, as HMD advances will track closely with GPU advances for the next several years.
An HMD was announced (can't find it now) that uses a usb 3.1 type C cable to connect to a smartphone that you clip onto your waist, which will be the low-power version of the same thing, but I think this form-factor is going to become standard for mobile VR until the processor is so fast (decades from now) it can be put in the HMD itself. Sliding the phone into the HMD imbalances it, and counterweighting it is difficult if the HMD supports multiple models/weights of phone; furthermore, HMDs will eventually have 5k+ resolution screens, overkill for a phone to have otherwise.

Re:Serial Experiments Lain did it first!

[Etcetera]

Re: Serial Experiments Lain did it first!

The unshaven guy looking for the Knights of the Eastern Calculus IIRC. Unfortunately for him, he got more than he signed up for.

I came here to post exactly this. Mod parent up :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1oAczD98pk&feature=youtu.be&t=4m23s

Re:Great

[rtb61]

Would that be the same life time of the typical unfit gamer geek/nerd running around with a back pack playing a very active game, and those batteries lasting those players the rest of their lives ;D.

What does mine say?

[antdude]

Watch this cammed video clip for its reference. :P