Yet another virtual reality headset is coming to market, but this one is from Valve and HTC. It will be called the HTC Vive, and the consumer edition should be available by the holiday season.
The HTC Vive is a new virtual reality headset that runs on SteamVR. The developer edition will release this spring, and the consumer edition should be out by the end of the year. The product (the developer edition, anyhow), will feature two 1,200×1080 screens; one for each eye. They’ll run up to 90 frames per second each.
A headphone jack will be included in the device, as well as a gyrosensor, an acellerometer, and a laser position sensor. What does that mean? Well, the Vive will “precisely track the rotation of your head on both axes to an accuracy of 1/10th of a degree,” according to HTC. Essentially, that means it will be extremely accurate.
You’ll even be able to walk around with the Vive, as a pair of Steam VR base stations will track your physical location in a 15×15 space.
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On top of the headset, players will also use ergonomic game controllers; one in each hand. These will allow you to “use virtual objects and interact with the virtual world,” while the controllers communicate with the headset to provide a wealth of new experience, interactions, and activities.
But wait, there’s more! The Vive already has some partners who will be building experiences for the headset. Fireproof Games, Bossa Studios UK, Cloudhead Games, and Dovetail Games are all working on projects. But the Vive won’t simply be for gaming. HBO, Google, Lionsgate, the National Palace Museum, Owlchemy Labs, and others are hard at work as well.
I’m intrigued by the inclusion of the National Palace Museum in Tiawan. Will a virtual tour of the museum be in store? That would open up an incredible market for museums around the world, potentially breathing life into history!
After all, Peter Chou of HTC said this in regards to the Vive at a press event today in Barcelona, Spain:
We believe that virtual reality will totally transform the way that we interact with the world. Virtual reality will become a mainstream technology for the rest of the world…Attending real-time concerts, learning history, reliving memories.”
In the meantime, get hyped. Why? Because HTC and Valve are both going to be at GDC this week, so there’s a good chance the headset will be shown off during one of Valve’s events.
Does the Vive excite you? Sound off below! I’m intrigued more than anything. Given the shaky development life of the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Morpheus, who knows if the Vive will end up like those, or if it will actually become something.
