HTC Vive Cosmos VR: We have the price, the release date and the first practical experience

SEATTLE – After nearly a year of teasing, HTC has unveiled the full potential of its next PC-VR headset, the Vive Cosmos. The company has invited me to its American headquarters, American Vive, to confirm its release plan: as of Oct. 3, HTC will start selling the complete system at $ 699, and this system will finally delete the old tracking boxes from the HTC Vive "flagship" in favor of built-in features, "back-to-back" tracking cameras.

However, HTC has also invited me to test the Cosmos in some virtual reality games. Although I have not tested it long enough to offer a full test, I still wonder if HTC's latest virtual standby system has what it takes to compete. with the most expensive Valve Index or the best cheaper and cheaper tracking helmets on the market.

A step forward, a step back?

On the technical front, Vice Cosmos introduces a new pair of VR lenses that advance one step, one step back from the similar goals of the HTC Vive Pro. Cosmos would have a "combined" resolution slightly increased for both eyes, up to 2,880 x 1,700 from the Vive Pro's 2,880 x 1,600 resolution. HTC's representatives insist that the new panel further strengthens subpixel resolution to reduce the inherent "screen door" effect seen in older virtual reality headsets.

In fact, Cosmos rejects HTC's usual OLED panels in favor of fast-switching LCDs, a change we've seen in a range of new virtual reality headsets over the past year. Like the other high-performance, Vive Cosmos LCDs benefit from enhanced sub-pixel resolution without ghosting effects, and operate at the standard 90 Hz refresh rate of the virtual reality industry. But the LCDs are not as efficient as the OLEDs, and the Vice Cosmos headphones that I've tested probably had the most subdued color palette I've ever seen in a 2019 headset. J & # I was directed to a "vibrating" flip-flop to try to solve this problem, but it did not work.

In addition, I did not have any new virtual reality panels to compare the Cosmos to the event, just the original HTC Vive of 2016. So I can not clearly explain why the high resolution panels of the Cosmos had look a little gloomy. A text reproduction was surprisingly blurred in applications like Museum of Other Realities, which could be a problem with the way the headphones handle its subpixel arrangement; HP Reverb has implemented a similar pixel smoothing system, which will likely be commensurate with the user's preferences, with regards to what he thinks of the situation.

In addition, the number of resolutions does not tell the whole story. The Vive cosmos does not use an additional vertical resolution of 100 pixels to increase its apparent field of view (FOV). I may have just gotten used to the valve index, but the Cosmos felt a little claustrophobic in practice, regarding its '110 degree' FOV classification.

Inland issues

In order to get rid of the dependence of the old Vive systems on the lighthouse tracking boxes, HTC has opted for an impressive set of six cameras on the Vive Cosmos. Four sensors scan the front, top and bottom of the helmet on its front, while an additional pair of sensors flanks the left and right sides of the helmet.

But my personal red flag went off when I asked HTC representatives to offer me my favorite test app: Beat Saber. This game is an excellent measure of "normal" VR hand movement for several reasons: it does not require moving your hands behind your head (where the cameras can not keep up), but it still requires a mix of gestures wild and fast movements. to beat his levels corresponding to the rhythm. HTC did not have a copy of the game at hand, the representatives said.

Instead, I was offered an application to the sword, which simply asked me to raise my hand in front of me to parry and attack the enemies. This motion was decidedly less intense than that required of an "expert" Beat Saber song, yet I have always felt concerned. On the one hand, something about the Vive Cosmos tracking network continued to lose my hands for a fraction of a second "acceptable but noticeable" on a regular basis.

This same problem prevented me from recommending many first-generation Mixed Reality Windows headsets, which also relied on built-in sensors and end-to-end monitoring. If this continues with the final version of Vive Cosmos, I will sing the same pessimistic air. I'm a little confident that HTC will be able to fix this problem before the October launch, but this is certainly noticeable for HTC's first great end-to-end tracking product.

Heft in the hands: Not necessarily good news

Worse, there is something else wrong. HTC has finally seen fit to replace old Vive stick controllers with a controller comparable to Oculus Touch, and that should be just good news. He feels solid in the hand; it offers a nice range of joysticks, buttons and triggers; and it maps 1: 1 with the standard solid Oculus table, plus bonus buttons that do not bother you.

But unlike Oculus Touch, Valve Knuckles or even WMR, the Vive Cosmos controllers were designed to showcase bright lights, that the sensors of the Cosmos look for to follow your hands in virtual reality. That means it's easily the heavier VR controller I've ever seen, paired with commercial grade headphones. WMR is the only other mainstream controller with built-in lights, but these controllers have tiny LEDs, unlike the larger models illuminated on the Cosmos pads.

After 15 minutes of testing the Vive Cosmos and maybe three minutes with a virtual reality sword in my last demo, I felt pooped. I am a pretty fit person who does not lack experience as a VR fool. I am probably the high end users who can forgive the effort required in virtual reality. If HTC does not offer a quick solution to the weight of these controllers, they are struggling on the market at large.

As good news, at least, the Vive Cosmos has modularity in mind, as can be seen in the images above. The first Vive Cosmos front plate option, planned for the "early 2020", will add a constellation of traceable dots to replace HTC Vive's old headlight tracking units, if RV owners wanted to match the Cosmos to existing hardware. As indicated in the gallery above, other front plates may be in place.

And HTC has in mind other existing Vive hardware for Cosmos, especially the Vive wireless adapter. An "attachment kit" will be sold "soon" to adapt the existing Vive Wireless adapters to work with the Vive Cosmos, but no release date or price for it has yet been proposed.

And I was happy to see the reorganized Vive Reality software suite introduced in my Cosmos demo. Think of it as another "virtual house" where you can discover content, a bit like SteamVR Home. HTC's new plug serves and advertises neatly a range of games and apps served by Viveport's subscription service.

It does not take much to outperform the built-in SteamVR game mixing interface, so HTC deserves accessories to clean it up with large, clear icons and simple controls to browse as much software. Nevertheless, all Vive systems still use SteamVR as an anchor point for their games and software, and my preliminary test, Vive Reality, included a crash while I was trying to power a Viveport application with the SteamVR starter system.

Clearly, I have some reservations about the VR potential of Vive Cosmos. Oculus Rift S is currently a much brighter system in terms of reliable end-to-end tracking. And Valve Index does not cost much more to blow Cosmos in terms of LCD panel performance and FOV increase. (Let's not forget Oculus Quest, which still figures at the top of my list of "Best 2019 VR Headsets.")

We plan to return to Cosmos next month with a review. Until then, we keep our fingers crossed so that robust tests and last minute changes reveal that HTC has secret sauce in the depths of his Cosmos.

Image of Sam Machkovech's inscription