HTC are broadening the scope and ease of use of the Vive’s already impressive VR system with some new products and improvements, as announced at CES in Las Vegas.
First and foremost, from my point of view, is the Vive Tracker, which is a small, tri-pronged device that can be attached to objects and bring them into the game world. One use example will be as a tracking device for cameras in mixed reality set ups, which merge real world footage with a rendered game world via chroma keying, which currently use additional Vive controllers in a jury-rigged fashion.
It can also be attached to real world objects as a simple tracking point, or integrate with other peripherals via its USB port, such as gun controllers or haptic feedback gloves.
Release is pencilled in for Q2, but no price has been announced.
The Vive Deluxe Audio Strap is another accessory that aims to improve the experience of wearing the headset itself. In addition to integrating earphones for ease of use, it replaces the elasticated material and strapping of the original Vive headset with a more secure looking rubber harness and padding.
Again, it’s planned for a Q2 release, but pricing has yet to be announced.
While not coming from HTC themselves, they expect the first fully wireless solutions for Vive to appear later this year. TPCast is expected to release in Q2 for $249, featuring a 90 minute battery at launch – a five hour battery will come later – and latency as low as 2ms.
Finally, HTC are offering up a new subscription service via their own Viveport marketplace, to give people quick and easy access to a range of apps. There’s no specifics on when this will launch, how much it will cost or what it will offer, but it isn’t necessarily geared towards gaming and is another avenue for developers of all kinds of VR products to reach an audience.
Source: press release
Severn2j
Will definitely be picking up the audio strap, the current earplug setup is fiddly as hell..