HTC Vive 8th Jan Press Event 'Vive Pro'?

Hardware & Tech Questions
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The revision of the HTC Vive (the v1.5 as it’s called) is being live blogged here (1pm PST today, Jan 8th):

A previously wrong/leaked/snuffed out (delete as applicable) article showed the resolutions up’d to about Samsung Odyssey levels (about 150% above what we have now). Might be nice for flight sims details etc…

Here’s the pulled article text (although the above news conf should clear this up):

After the announcement at the weekend follows now as expected the official press release: HTC announces its new headset Vive Pro , which wants to shine with a higher resolution and integrated loudspeakers. There is also a new Vive wireless adapter .

Vive Pro: Update 1.5 with 3K and speakers

Those looking for a completely new model may be disappointed - but the Vive Pro offers a welcome update - the original HTC Vive remains in the program. The Vive Pro has two OLED displays with a common resolution of 2880 x 1600 pixels, which makes it similar to the Vive Focus from the same company. Overall, the new headset has thus increased by 78 percent resolution and should achieve a much sharper and clearer presentation. For comparison: The “normal” HTC Vive offers 2160 x 1200 pixels.

A welcome innovation is the integration of speakers, which should increase the comfort significantly. Owners of the old model had to resort to the Deluxe Audio Strap , which should be superfluous in the Vive Pro now. HTC intends to provide information on the availability and price of the new VR headset later.

In addition, the manufacturer announces the Vive Wireless Adapter for the HTC Vive and HTC Vive Pro , with which you can connect the headset without a cable to the PC. The adapter uses Intel’s WiGig technology, unlike TPCast , but you have to be patient for a while. Only in the third quarter of 2018 should the adapter come on the market. Open and exciting the price remains: Although TPCast for the first HTC Vive available, but for around 350 € anything but a bargain. Whether the Vive Wireless Adapter can position itself here as a price-breaker remains to be seen. Whether TPCast with the HTC Vive Pro without (too) large latency problems or even works remains to be seen.

Here’s a nice pulled from reddit image showing a comparison in per eye resolution (assuming this is right for ‘Vive Pro’):

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Obviously, with Facebook money subsidizing the Oculus Rift price, the price point on the HTC side will be key. Maybe we VR junkies opt for ‘Pro’ equipment and pay twice as much as the general VR for Gaming crowd just because we really want the higher clarity/resolution? I mean, we spend $500 on a HOTAS so the niche market might be there if it’s good enough?

EDIT: Old habits die hard, not sure why we keep using that 1000 posts topic for VR when we have a nice isolated #hardware category. :slight_smile:

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Interesting!
I wonder what the next Oculus will look like.
Better resolution is of course paramount, but I’d like a little wider FoV as well.

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No new Rift in 2018 apparently (according to Oculus).

As for the news conf, the info up top remains confirmed. A nice resolution upgrade. The ‘headset only’ upgrade will be available in Q1. No price info as yet, but great that you can keep your current Vive controllers/tracking and just get the new HMD.

The wireless stuff looks fun as well, for the proper roomscale VR stuff.

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The official info and specs:

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Interesting. Hopefully Oculus will have something special to show us in 2019 then.

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Will be interesting to see if it helps cockpit clarity. Here’s a nice demo of what the Vive Pro could be like for a readability example:

Facebook/Oculus are really more keen on the mobile/standalone market now I think, with their SantaCruz non-PC release the thing they want to push this year. The Zuck is not a PC fan, as mobile/console is seen as the growing chunk of mass market appeal.

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That might be what pushes me away from Oculus. It’s a pity because I love my Rift.

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And I’m not married to The Zuck.
If someone makes a better VR HMD The Troll flashes his Creditcard.
I got the Oculus Rift because I had the opportunity to try one, and because DCS had native support for it. From what I read on the web, the difference between Vive and Rift is small. Depending more on room scale vs. sitting, and slightly better optics in the Rift.

Good to see the VR branch is growing. Would hate to see it die…

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Yesturday I had some interesting times with the Rift. It does not like me overclocking my card… AT ALL. Finally I got rid of the overclock and its back to smooth sailing. It looks Gooooood on Win 10.

So the real question is will it be worth it? IMO what we need more than new hardware is game optimization. Lets just think about how far we came in 2017… DCS looks way better now than it did when VR started. I’m walking cautiously here because I don’t want to get dragged into another “good enough” upgrade. That being said, if its good (I watch the reviews) and worth replacing the Rift, then BRING IT!
One more thing, the novelty of VR is gone with the hardcore. The prices HTC was asking were IMO ridiculous. Lets get real.

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Hrm. This presents a philosophical quandary. Do I continue to be a contrarian buzz kill? Do I honor my position as the only Vive owner and buy it?

I must meditate on this.

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If the screen door effect is fixed ill have one pdq

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I think there is a market for ‘Gaming VR’ and then there’s a market for ‘Flight Sim VR’ and the intersection of what makes them the same between the big market circle (hint: not us) and the little market circle is pretty thin. If you want to play Resident Evil or Fallout and have a good time in a 3m by 2m area jumping around or you want to drive a car in PCars2 around the Ascari and feel like you are there then VR is currently in a great place. That market will grow and do well this year and beyond.

If you want to spot things in DCS as good as a big 4k monitor, it ain’t happening with this 1.5 version and probably not the 2.0’s in 2019 and beyond. The requirements for the sim genre are not the same and are not going to be mainstream. Just like we don’t want an Xbox Controller rather than a TM Warthog HOTAS for an A10C, we’ll unfortunately want/need higher end than consumer VR equipment (with subsequent pricing/niche makers). We’ll basically need fovated rendering, probably dynamic lensing and the ‘12’ series of Nvidia and that ain’t too close. Hardware cycles have a pacing, and are needs are too weird for the size of niche we are.

If Odin has a wake-up timer, then for ‘DCS as competitive as a big TV’ then set it to about 2022. VR at the moment is all about compromise for flight sims. The compromise will become gradually easier (and is definitely good enough for me now), but it will take a while. :slight_smile:

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A few days ago my old CH went spiky and I decided to trash it. I pulled the old FFB Logitech G940 out of the closet and spent a day in 2D/TrackIR to set up all the HOTAS stuff. I hated every minute of it! But I had to laugh as I was setting up the A-10C using the mission “Shooting Gallery”. There were airplanes all over the sky! I never noticed any of them with the Rift. No matter. If the resolution were HALVED I still would never go back. Plus, IL2 manages object visibility better than DCS making even current gen VR perfectly playable, competitive even, for competent players. Never in my life have I been a competetive or competent. I die regularly regardless whether I see well or poorly. So I’ve decided to die in the visual environment I most enjoy.

Vive, Oculus, Chinese-this, Russian-that. I don’t care. I’ll buy whatever most of you are happy with. But to those who think Oculus is going to ignore the PC market because of what Zuck may feel about PC’s, you are making the error of confusing business people with hobbyists. I see no reason for a headset maker to update when the current generation of GPU’s and (now) dumbed down CPUs are unable to produce the horsepower to drive it. They are biding time.