HTC Vive Goes Wireless (uploadvr.com)

One of the biggest cons with premium virtual-reality headsets is the fact that they need to be tethered to a powerful gaming PC or game console via annoying wires. In early September, HTC announced it was working on a method to remove the wires, and now their solution is officially available via a $220 add-on kit. UploadVR reports: HTC today announced a tether-less VR upgrade kit for its SteamVR device, made by TPCAST, one of the first of 33 companies to join the Vive X Accelerator. Speaking to UploadVR in a phone interview, [China Regional President of Vive at HTC Alvin W. Graylin] said that the experience would "greatly improve" the overall Vive experience, with no "noticeable difference" for factors like latency. The product will be available to pre-order with a standard battery, though Graylin said that a bigger battery will be sold eventually. We're told the standard battery can deliver around one and a half hours of power. The bigger battery would rest in a user's pocket. HTC expects the device to be adopted by "avid" Vive users, though it could also be useful for businesses. The upgrade kit will be available to pre-order on Vive's Chinese website "in limited quantity" for 1,499 RMB ($220.33). The kit is said to ship starting in Q1 2017. According to HTC, pre-orders go live at 7 a.m. Pacific on Friday. Graylin said anyone could order the unit from there and pay for shipping. According to HTC, in a press release, "Order fulfillment will be prioritized to existing customers who can provide a valid Vive serial number." You can watch some wireless HTC Vive test footage here.

Comments

Already Sold Out

[cirby]

...and the Chinese web site wouldn't sell to people outside of China in the first place.

Other companies are working on similar products, though.

The biggest problem is that it takes a good solid 6 gigabit/sec connection to push the amount of bandwidth the Vive and other headsets need.

Re:Already Sold Out

[blackpaw]

Not even close. 1080p video requires upto 3.4Mbps max, depending on compression,sensor overhead is negliable. Double that for stereo, then quadruple it for higher res, call it 30Mbps

Re:Already Sold Out

[thygate]

you forgot the resolution is 2160x1200 and the refresh rate is 90Hz. Also compression results in more latency, which is absolutely undesirable for VR.

Sold out in 18 minutes...

[iCEBaLM]

http://uploadvr.com/18-minute-...

vast majority unchosens support deweaponization

[Anonymous Coward]

not even a real word? like infantocide? if all of our crown royal crooks voluntarily disarm themselves... truth+mercy=justice.. cease fire...

Wait a second

[Ol Olsoc]

I thought wires were good.

Re:Wait a second

[iCEBaLM]

They are, up until they're attached to you when you need to move.

Re:Wait a second

[GNious]

But that was the whole trick with 1st person VR shooters - keep shooting people on their right side, making them turn around repeatedly until choked-out.

Install base

[Anonymous Coward]

... and all ten Vive users rejoiced.

Re:Install base

[cirby]

Since there's been over a hundred thousand copies of at least one Vive game sold, you might not have a realistic grasp on market size...

Re:Install base

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. Its total install base is far below the pre-order stats alone for Playstation VR.

(And with third party libraries to connect PSVR to Mac/Windows/Linux now appearing that basically means HTC Vive is all but gone from the market)

Re:Install base

[sir-gold]

They haven't figured out how to actually get the VR part of the PSVR working on the PC. At the moment, it's just a non-VR HMD when connected to a PC.

Re:Install base

[Anonymous Coward]

There are (at least) four different projects with full VR when connected to a PC, all of them on Github, since ~2 weeks back.

The biggest con is not wires

[Anonymous Coward]

it's DRM.

Annoying wires

[Isendur]

Wires are good. I'd prefer if they got rid of the "powerful gaming PC" part. A man can dream...

Re:Annoying wires

[iCEBaLM]

Not going to happen anytime soon. Resolution (pixel density mostly) is the biggest improvement that needs to be made at this point, and to increase pixels while still keeping framerates high is going to require even more powerful machines than we have now.

Sure, you can get a PSVR, and it'll be fun, but the graphical fidelity is just not there.

Re:Annoying wires

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe when they can shove a 300 watt graphics processor onto someone's head, they can remove the gaming PC part of it.

Annoying wires?

[Anonymous Coward]

How else are we supposed to transmit our precious bodily fluids?

Wires are needed

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a con. Wireless adds significant lag to response time. Going wireless will cause many people to feel dizzy and uncomfortable while playing.

Re:Wires are needed

[sir-gold]

Obviously wireless adds latency, that's why it took this long to come out on the market, they had to find a way around the latency issues.

Most of the wireless VR method use their own low-latency wireless system instead of existing wireless technologies like wifi or bluetooth

I think I'll pass for now

[allcoolnameswheretak]

Wireless is great, but for only 1.5 h of gaming is way too short. I think it needs to last at least double that amount of time.
I'll wait for the larger battery. I have developed a sixth sense for the Vive cables by now, they are not such a big deal to me.

Re:I think I'll pass for now

[iCEBaLM]

This comes in two versions, one where the battery pack sits on the back of your head for 1.5hrs, and another where a battery pack is clipped to a belt or put in a pocket for 5hrs.

Re:I think I'll pass for now

[sir-gold]

Hopefully the connection to the battery pack is just a standard USB or USB-C connector, so we can use standard external phone batteries.

Re:I think I'll pass for now

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't have to hope. I have faith that the maker community will eventually hack one on and make it happen. :-)

Why the Vive over the Razer HDK2?

[Anonymous Coward]

Half to a third the base cost, similiar display resolution, open source libraries and various dev resources, and it is not Facebook/HTC working hard to take more rights away from you as a consumer.

Re:Why the Vive over the Razer HDK2?

[sir-gold]

I think you are confusing the vive with the rift, Facebook has nothing to do with the vive.

As far as HTC taking away rights, they really don't care what you do with it, and Valve just cares about selling games.

Important question:

[Anonymous Coward]

What company is making the batteries? We need to know before we strap these things to our heads.

Not so

[cirby]

What usually makes lag is compression.

Uncompressed wireless, even at higher resolutions, doesn't have to be laggy. The latency of a straight-through digital signal is vanishingly small in this context.

The real problem is getting access to enough bandwidth to let it work. Wi-Fi certainly won't work with uncompressed 90 Hz VR signals. Getting FCC permission for very short range (less than 5 meters with no obstacles in the way), very high bandwidth connections is the real issue.

Sweet!

[Greyfox]

I'll be all over that. The wires quickly become a trip hazard if you start moving around much at all. A couple of games for the thing require more agility than the wires allow. This does mean I'll have to move the coffee table that's just outside the play area, though, or someone's going to break a kneecap.