HTC Secures VR Dominance With High-End Vive Pro Upgrade

[kcarbotte]

Today, at CES, HTC introduced the Vive Pro, a new VR HMD which features updated display panels that produce a crisper, clearer image. It also offers support for Valve’s updated tracking system.

HTC Secures VR Dominance With High-End Vive Pro Upgrade : Read more

 

[coolcole01]

If this costs 1000 bucks im expecting some declining sales

 

[KD_Gaming]

Doubtful... the pimax 8k has even higher specs and was only $500.. headunit only. 800 with remotes and base stations

 

[237841209]

I'd imagine they'd try to make it around 600 to 700 dollars and lower the price of the original.

 

[hdmark]

im kind of confused why they only matched the odyssey resolution. obviously the tracking is way better than the odyssey due to the cameras, but im a bit let down. I was expecting to regret buying my odyssey and want the vive 2 (and try to convince my fiance that having base stations in the living room wouldnt be so bad) but i'm actually still pretty happy i bought my odyssey

 

[quilciri]

Well, as they said in the article, those are apparently the highest resolution displays available for VR HMD's right now.

I'm hoping the wireless adapter announced will be included in the Vive Pro and the upgrade package for existing Vive owners

 

[hannibal]

Pimax 8 at 500 is only for kickstarters. Normal price is much higher.
The old headset will remain as an ”cheap” option and this will come above it, so 1000$ or more is guite good ques. But this Also needs two 1080ti cards to run properly so not cheap in anyway.

 

[Kahless01]

two 1080tis? they never really solved the frame pacing issues with sli and vr. dunno why its so hard. one card for one eye one card for the other.

 

[cryoburner]

im kind of confused why they only matched the odyssey resolution. obviously the tracking is way better than the odyssey due to the cameras, but im a bit let down. I was expecting to regret buying my odyssey and want the vive 2 (and try to convince my fiance that having base stations in the living room wouldnt be so bad) but i'm actually still pretty happy i bought my odyssey

Going higher wouldn't make much sense, given the performance and pricing of today's graphics hardware. Since there's nearly 80% more pixels compared to the original Vive, the minimum requirements are likely to rise to at least GTX 1070 level hardware. And due to the graphics card shortages that have been plaguing PC builders since early last summer, these GPUs are actually more expensive now than when they launched over a year and a half ago, shortly after the original Vive came out. Hopefully the pricing of graphics cards will come back down, but it's not looking good, as prices have been climbing again in recent weeks.

As for pricing of the Vive Pro, I expect the standard bundle to be no more than what the original Vive launched for. I'd say the original Vive is due for another price cut before long as well, since the Oculus Rift has been offering a very similar experience at a significantly lower price since the summer. While the Vive's $200 price premium was justifiable back when the headsets launched, due to the inclusion of motion controllers and room-scale that the Rift didn't have, now the Rift includes motion controllers at a $400 price point, and a comparable room-scale experience can be added with a third sensor for another $60. The Vive might still offer more precise tracking, but many consider the Rift and its touch controllers to have better ergonomics. A sub-$500 price could make the original Vive a lot more competitive again.

It could also be a good idea for them to release an updated version of the standard Vive, in addition to the Vive Pro. While the Vive Pro might appeal to those willing to spend $800 on a VR bundle, and another $500 on a graphics card, it won't do much to attract most others. Refreshing the existing Vive with support for the new sensors, along with other small refinements to things like ergonomics and lens quality would help keep it fresh, even if the resolution stays the same.

 

[mihen]

There is a design flaw, where do I stick my beer can helmet with this VR headset?

 

[quilciri]

two 1080tis? they never really solved the frame pacing issues with sli and vr. dunno why its so hard. one card for one eye one card for the other.

This was *supposed* to be what happened under DX 12, even with normal monitors. The idea was you could even have two cards of different performance, even different manufacture (i.e. an AMD and an Nvidia card) work together. The API was supposed to evaluate the performance of each card and then assign portion of the screen to render to each based on that evaluation. None of that has materialized yet, though.