Are Valve and HTC’s VR goggles really the future of PC gaming?
Are Valve and HTC’s VR goggles really the future of PC gaming?
Over the weekend, HTC announced that it’s partnering with Valve to release a new virtual reality headset dubbed the “Re Vive.” Powered by SteamVR technology and manufactured by HTC, this seems mutually beneficial for the time being. But what about five or ten years down the road? Is the Re Vive good for the burgeoning VR market, or is it doomed to failure like so many other high-profile partnerships?
This head-mounted display sports two 1200×1080 screens with a refresh rate of 90Hz. The high pixel density will reduce the screen-door effect seen with earlier headsets, and the high refresh rate will hopefully work against the lag-related nausea some people experience with VR. In addition, your PC must be able to render 2400×1080 at 90fps to get the full benefit of the Re Vive, so your mileage will certainly vary. When I think about how much you’ll need to spend for the goggles and a suitable gaming PC, I start to feel the nausea before the goggles even reach my face.
Early last year, Valve introduce SteamVR with support for the existing Oculus Rift development kits. And with all of that work under its belt, Valve now has an official headset of its very own. Developer kits will start shipping in the spring, and a consumer-focused launch is slated for the 2015 holiday season. But if you take Valve time into account, that release date could very well slip.
The Re Vive is chockablock with sensors — reportedly more then 70 on the helmet itself. By using built-in gyroscopic sensors, accelerometers, and laser positioning sensors, HTC claims that the Re Vive is accurate to within one-tenth of a degree on both axes. Frankly, that’s just common sense problem solving. People tend to get nauseous when their senses don’t quite match up, so this head-mounted display is trying to gather as much motion data as possible. The closer the visuals match your real-world movements, the less you’ll want to puke.
As it stands, it’s hard to criticize the Re Vive based solely on its promises. When the dev hardware starts making its way into more hands, we’ll get a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the platform. However, I’m slightly worried about the ramifications this will have on VR gaming in general. What happens if Facebook sees this as a threat, and forces Oculus games off of Steam? What if HTC wants to support games outside of the Steam walled garden? My concerns are exclusively speculative for the time being, but we’ll definitely have a better grasp of this VR solution in the coming months. For now, we wait.
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