During the Vive Developer Conference, the HTC Vive team unveiled their upcoming standalone VR Headset on stage called the Vive Focus. It’s been announced for some time now that HTC is working on a standalone VR headset that provides a tetherless experience without the use of a PC or a smartphone.
The device will be powered by Vive Wave and will have access to Viveport. Vive Focus delivers inside-out 6 degrees of freedom (6D0F). The Vive Focus will also feature an AMOLED screen which delivers a clear display. The HMD will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chip.
“We’re delighted that the Vive Wave VR open platform is receiving such strong industry support from both hardware partners and developers,” said Alvin Wang Graylin, China Regional President of Vive, HTC. “As the VR industry leader in China, it is our duty to help reduce market fragmentation and provide content developers with more ways to make money. Vive Wave will assure a higher consistency in the user experience on a variety of mobile VR devices across various price points, making quality VR more accessible to the mass market. What’s more, with the new Vive Focus, we are excited to bring high quality 6DoF VR experiences, which were previously only available on tethered devices, in a more convenient and portable form factor.”
“As the world continues to become more mobile and connected, we’ve been working closely with Vive though our HMD Accelerator Program and advanced VR software features to enable immersive virtual reality experiences without the needs for wires or PCs,” says Hugo Swart, senior director, product management, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. “The combination of Snapdragon’s ultra-low power, high performance VR coupled with the new Vive Wave VR open platform will help content developers deliver best-in-class mobile VR experiences to users.”
The headset looks to come equipped with a controller, similar to how mobile headsets such as Samsung Gear VR operates. It has a trigger on the bottom and a trackpad on the top. Other specs have not yet been released. Vive Focus is being released in China and might differ from the US release.
hmm.. htc really can’t seem to escape the bulky look.. And why bother with 6dof in such a limited stand-alone headset, with a 3dof controller? ..seems like it’s only really going to be good for phone-VR seated/stationary games anyway.. Kinda odd what they’re targeting.
Also, if they’re getting into “standalone”, that means they need an OS/Platform and their own games.. yikes..