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On the big collective wish list for Easier VR, two things tend to emerge: the wireless and the follow up.1 The first cancels the umbilical dependence of your headset on a computer or game console; the second puts an end to the tango of cable routing and wall perforation well known to anyone who has set up external followers.
HTC, which manufactures the range of Vive virtual reality headsets, is familiar with both of these needs. Last year, the company began selling a wireless adapter for its Vive and Vive Pro models, as well as a standalone device, the Vive Focus, which allows full immersion at "6 degrees of freedom". As with most early versions, both of these efforts left something to be desired. The adapter cost $ 299 – a modest cost for a helmet of at least $ 499 – and the immersion of the Focus concerned only the helmet itself, the manual controls can only be followed by rotation.
Now, with the Mobile World Congress on the horizon, HTC has unveiled another new headset, which points more than ever towards an easier VR world. The Focus Plus, a stand-alone suite, extends full immersion to its manual controls and adds eye tracking capabilities. Add to that the Cosmos wireless headset, announced by the company at CES in January, and you'd be forgiven for hailing HTC as the savior of easy-to-use consumer VR. Except that it's not exactly what's going on.
On paper, which is the only place publicly available before HTC's presentation on the MWC next week, the Focus Plus is a beast. The use by HTC of the phrase "3K AMOLED screen" suggests that it corresponds to the Vive Pro's 2880 x 1620 resolution. Eye tracking is a feature that is currently only found in the Vive Pro Eye helmet recently announced by the company. (If you lose the account, this brings the line to: Vive, Vive Pro, Vive Pro Eye, Focus, Focus Plus and Cosmos. By the time CES 2020 arrives, there will be a headset for every pixel of the display.)
But each turn, HTC designates the Focus Plus as a device for "corporate clients", these institutional and professional entities that care more about performance than price. The announcement includes statements from leaders of two companies that are already using the headset for medical training and safety simulation. These are noble and compelling uses of virtual reality and highlight some of the many ways technology can streamline processes in all sectors. But they will not change your the mind about virtual reality.
True, the company is not the only future for the device. Wave, the software platform of Focus Plus, supports the company's nascent subscription service, Viveport Infinity. "At launch, the target audience is primarily corporate," says Dan O'Brien, general manager of HTC Vive in the Americas region. "However, we can consider consumer viability as our Wave platform and content library grow."
Other parts of the world could see things unfold differently, especially in China, where consumer interest has outstripped that of the United States. "HTC's premium standalone VR headset will be aimed at businesses outside of China, but will target retail and business customers in China," said Tim Merel, general manager of Digi-Capital, Silicon Valley's RA / VR advisor. "China has more content on the Wave platform today, which could be a factor for the audience of pitchers to be mainly companies outside China."
Simple economic aspects may, however, hinder this process in the United States. Although no awards have been announced for the Focus Plus, the Focus core model was launched in the US last year for $ 599 – and this without eye tracking or 6-controller DOF. Even if you add only $ 100 for the new version, that's $ 300 more than the Oculus Quest, the future free 6DOF headset of the company owning Facebook. And with both components built into the same Snapdragon 835 processor, consumers have little reason to choose the much more expensive option. (Eye tracking capacity can do wonders, but it also needs to be built into consumer experiences to be taken into account.) "Oculus Quest does not seem to have a direct competitor in its sector at the time of launch, Said Merel.
This includes the Vive Cosmos, which, even though it is wireless, still depends on an external device for its processing power, making it a device more than a standalone device. Interestingly, this external device may someday be a smartphone rather than a PC. The headset's official website chooses a fuzzy language: "With a series of more and more modular customizations, the possibilities of virtual reality are endless."
For now, the Cosmo still requires a high-power computer, making it a smaller investment than the original Vive. And the Focus Plus targets consumer markets. Extending the reach of virtual reality requires power and convenience; HTC is able to provide both, but its half-steps seem to be a compromise rather than a promise.
1 Easier, of course, is not the same as better, although they overlap. Higher resolution, wider field of view and lower price are overall improvements that have little to do with convenience but have everything to do with a more convincing product.
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