Is HTC About To Reveal Vive 2.0?

[kcarbotte]

HTC sent out a tweet on Friday that suggests the company has a higher-resolution Vive HMD to reveal at CES next week. But will it be a mid-cycle refresh, an experimental prototype, or the Vive 2.0 update?

Is HTC About To Reveal Vive 2.0? : Read more

 

[excalibur1814]

Your page should now simply shut down. Please stop. The amount of adverts and rubbish is beyond annoying. I'll give it a month then remove you. Shame as I've been coming here for years.

 

[cryoburner]

We could also, of course, be reading too much into HTC’s tease. If you look at the blurry text on the teaser image, you’ll notice that the image distortion worse on the outer extremities than it is at the center. HTC may have developed a software layer that reduces the image distortion and provides a better visual experience without changing the underlying hardware.

That seems pretty unlikely. It's almost certain that they're going to announce new hardware with higher resolution displays. Why else would they post a teaser image with a play on words like that nearly a week after New Year's? They're clearly making a point of highlighting the word "resolution", which would strongly indicate that there will be an increase in the number of pixels in their headsets soon. And that makes perfect sense. HTC has always pushed the Vive as being a "premium" headset, but that's kind of difficult when even the lower-end Windows Mixed Reality Headsets selling for a little over $200 feature much higher resolution than their device. They know they need at least 1440x1440 per eye to keep their specs looking competitive in 2018, and I wouldn't doubt if they went higher than that, particularly if they were to incorporate eye-tracking combined with a foveated rendering technique so that a higher resolution can be pushed without increasing the performance demands too much.

And of course, HTC will obviously want to update their hardware to support the new Steam trackers coming this year. More importantly, we'll also probably be seeing the SteamVR "Knuckles" controllers coming to market before long, since prototypes of those have been in the hands of certain game developers for the last year.

 

[kcarbotte]

We could also, of course, be reading too much into HTC’s tease. If you look at the blurry text on the teaser image, you’ll notice that the image distortion worse on the outer extremities than it is at the center. HTC may have developed a software layer that reduces the image distortion and provides a better visual experience without changing the underlying hardware.

That seems pretty unlikely. It's almost certain that they're going to announce new hardware with higher resolution displays. Why else would they post a teaser image with a play on words like that nearly a week after New Year's? They're clearly making a point of highlighting the word "resolution", which would strongly indicate that there will be an increase in the number of pixels in their headsets soon. And that makes perfect sense. HTC has always pushed the Vive as being a "premium" headset, but that's kind of difficult when even the lower-end Windows Mixed Reality Headsets selling for a little over $200 feature much higher resolution than their device. They know they need at least 1440x1440 per eye to keep their specs looking competitive in 2018, and I wouldn't doubt if they went higher than that, particularly if they were to incorporate eye-tracking combined with a foveated rendering technique so that a higher resolution can be pushed without increasing the performance demands too much.

And of course, HTC will obviously want to update their hardware to support the new Steam trackers coming this year. More importantly, we'll also probably be seeing the SteamVR "Knuckles" controllers coming to market before long, since prototypes of those have been in the hands of certain game developers for the last year.

I completely agree with you. Overwhelmingly likely that it's a new hardware announcement.
We don't know for sure, though.
I'm very excited for Monday!

 

[irfbhatt]

It is unlikely that this will happen until the spring )

 

[gergguy]

I wouldn't bet on a new screen. I would venture to guess it's just a new lens. I believe Valve was working on a new lens. We'll find out soon enough.

 

[chicofehr]

1.Bigger field of view please. I want to look to the side and up and down without seeing any edges. Feels like looking through binoculars.
2. HDMI 2.0+, DP and Thunderbolt support.. Not just one or two.
3.Decent wireless that any joe can install without having to google for hours on why it won't connect. This will kill adoption if the average person can't do it.
4. Per finger tracking as well as leg tracking.

 

[metathias]

Wow none of the things you want are gonna happen.. sorry.