Acer's Mixed Reality HMD, Hands On

[kewlguy239]

Acer filled us in on the full specifications of its Mixed Reality HMD and let us see its capabilities for ourselves.

Acer's Mixed Reality HMD, Hands On : Read more

 

[Fiqar_]

Bit of a buzzkill that Acer hasn't made a set that is fully mixed reality. Although, i am happy that this product is going to be way cheaper than the high end models from oculus etc. This is going to be pivotal getting virtual reality to the masses and not just for the dyed-in-tweed status quo.

 

[pecul1ar]

IMHO, cheaper sets like this WILL be the driving force to widespread adoption. That and software support for the community to tinker with. Personally, I buy into this when the sets go into the $250-200 ranges and programming for VR has matured somewhat.

I think VR is in a place where companies want to be _the standard_, but aren't going all in because they are still testing the waters.

 

[Sadi Stark]

Good n

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Mixed reality ? ... I think many US politicians have been beta testing these things for a while now.

 

[thor220]

It will be interesting to see the work applications for this device. Honestly we need an open-source framework for VR badly. Having certain apps only works for certain headsets is a big problem.

 

[alextheblue]

Bit of a buzzkill that Acer hasn't made a set that is fully mixed reality.

The only thing they screwed up is the name. We need inexpensive PC-tethered VR first, and that's what sets like this Acer unit bring to the tablet. Untethered "go anywhere" MR/AR like HoloLens are still going to be expensive for a while longer - especially something really decent in terms of real-world clarity (like HoloLens, which doesn't occlude at all).

IMHO, cheaper sets like this WILL be the driving force to widespread adoption. That and software support for the community to tinker with.

If you build it (affordably), they will come. Just having decent affordable headsets on the market will start bringing everything else into place a lot more rapidly. Also, as standards form, existing software will be adapted to use them. So it's not like all current VR projects will be nonfunctional on future hardware. Maybe a few that are badly supported by their developers... who knows maybe wrappers will be developed. Like when we had Glide wrappers!

It will be interesting to see the work applications for this device. Honestly we need an open-source framework for VR badly. Having certain apps only works for certain headsets is a big problem.

Well it doesn't necessarily have to be open-source, but it HAS to be hardware agnostic. That's the most important part - it shouldn't be linked to a single headset. New and existing headset manufacturers and game devs should be able to build around it as they please. Could probably sustain a couple of standards, similar to the situation today. Vulkan XR and DirectX XR, something like that.

 

[GrayRat]

This is just the beginning as Microsoft did say partnerS. A cheaper entry into VR without too much sacrifice from the performance stand point is really gonna help large scale adoption of the tech and consequently, more and better VR experiences for consumers.

 

[pegnose]

How comes the resolution isn't as good as the Vive's or Rift's if it is actually better (more pixels)?

 

[Damon_10]

wouldn't 2280x1440 be 1440x720 per eye?

 

[pegnose]

No, it wouldn't. For multiple reasons. One of them is a typo.