Ever since the Oculus brought virtual reality back to the forefront of technology, a number of companies have started releasing their own virtual and augmented reality hardware.
Vive VR Headset
Recently the game developer Valve has been demoing their own offering. Working with HTC for the hardware, the Vive VR headset is meant to be a fully immersive, room-based virtual reality experience. At first glance it just looks like a slightly bulkier version of the Oculus, but this hardware certainly has some unique features.
The large number of sensors on the front are used to detect lasers emitted by base stations set around the room. This is how the Vive VR headset tracks users and means that it not only knows head position and orientation, but allows them to walk around the room within a certain radius. Offering a potentially much wider range of body movement, when compared to other VR headsets.
Another factor that separates this hardware from the Oculus, but not necessarily other systems like Sony’s Morpheus, is the inclusion of controllers. The VR headset not only wants you to look at virtual reality in a more organic way, but wants you to interact with it as well. Valve already raised a lot of eyebrows when it announced its standalone Steam controller with a very unique design.
The controllers that come with the Vive are somewhat similar in design. Instead of some kind of joystick, each thumb has access to a small trackpad like the Steam controller. In addition to that the index fingers have familiar trigger buttons, and there is other interactivity through squeezing the whole Porno controller. Some that have demoed it say that the controllers are slightly awkward to use but that you get used to them eventually.
Valve has certainly put their own unique spin on the controllers but they aren’t a huge departure from designs like the PlayStation Move controller or even the Wiimote.
Some other criticisms of the the Vive VR headset are related to the limitations of the demo/developer model. Currently, all of the components including the controllers are wired. People trying it even had to wear a belt to manage all the cables and prevent them from walking out of the area in which the lasers could track the headset.
Although the consumer version is planned to have wireless controllers some of these limitations raise questions on how well the tracking system would fare in the variety of rooms found in different homes.
Another issue that has been reported is the display. Despite the 1080p resolution in both eyes, some have reported seeing individual color pixels on grayscale images. The demos have happened at places like the Mobile World Congress and the Game Developer Conference, with developer kits Xvideos purportedly available sometime this spring.
So it remains to be seen if some, if not all of these issues will be addressed by the time the consumer version of the VR Headset is available, said to be released by the end of the year.
As far as experiences go, Valve has showed off a few offerings, including something based in the Portal universe. It has been described as a minimally interactive short story in which you repair an Aperture Science robot while GlaDOS criticizes you. But arguably the favorite from the demos so far is the game Tilt Brush. While a simple concept, a painting simulator, it may be just what the Vive VR needs.
The controllers offer very organic movement while painting and users can actually paint in 3 dimensions. With Valve/Steam backing this hardware who knows what other experiences could be around the corner. There are some issues to work out for the consumer version, but the Vive VR headsetcertainly has potential.
