HTC Announces Vive Wave Open Mobile VR Platform, Vive Focus HMD

[kcarbotte]

The HTC's Vive Wave toolset lets developers support third-party mobile VR HMDs on Viveport. HTC also revealed the name of its upcoming standalone VR HMD (Vive Focus).

HTC Announces Vive Wave Open Mobile VR Platform, Vive Focus HMD : Read more

 

[computerguy72]

The Focus VR seems to make no sense. Here HTC has built a community with the Vive that is entirely PC based so instead of iterating the design to try to command the market they put their efforts into a weaker non-pc solution. With 1/35th the processing power this is basically identical to the Oculus Go and a number of others. Not sure the VR market is the place to be a "Me-Too" manufacturer.

 

[Sakkura]

The Focus VR seems to make no sense. Here HTC has built a community with the Vive that is entirely PC based so instead of iterating the design to try to command the market they put their efforts into a weaker non-pc solution. With 1/35th the processing power this is basically identical to the Oculus Go and a number of others. Not sure the VR market is the place to be a "Me-Too" manufacturer.

This is not a replacement for the PC-based Vive. The hardware is not ready for a true gen 2 PC headset yet, and this doesn't hurt what they're doing on PC. It's just a concurrent thing.

 

[Dosflores]

With 1/35th the processing power this is basically identical to the Oculus Go

The Oculus Go uses Snapdragon 821 and only features orientation tracking. The Vive Focus uses Snapdragon 835 and features full positional tracking. The Focus is undeniably better than the Go, just like the Vive was undeniably better than the Rift when they launched.

HTC doesn't want to be a "Me-Too" manufacturer; it wants to be the leading manufacturer. It already leads the PC-based VR market, and there's no better alternative from any other manufacturer in sight. It would make no sense to neglect the standalone VR market.

 

[bit_user]

The Focus VR seems to make no sense. Here HTC has built a community with the Vive that is entirely PC based so instead of iterating the design to try to command the market they put their efforts into a weaker non-pc solution. With 1/35th the processing power this is basically identical to the Oculus Go and a number of others.

The point @Dosflores alluded to about about Vive Focus being 6-DoF vs. Oculus Go's 3-DoF capability can't be overstated. This makes it a fundamentally different & superior product.

Not sure the VR market is the place to be a "Me-Too" manufacturer.

Second, they're decidedly not opting to be a me-too ODM. That's the main point of this article! They're flicking a giant middle-finger at Google, Valve, and Microsoft. With Vive Wave and Viveport, they're jockeying for software platform primacy and to be the dominant content distribution channel of VR and AR content. This should hardly come as a surprise. I expect the aforementioned players will probably deprioritize their partnership activities with HTC, as they're now stepping up and donning the mantle of a full-fledged competitor.