VR PC Backpack!

travis1409 · June 2016

Alienware is building a VR backpack for VR! Guys, how has no one thought about a VR backpack before? Imagine eventually paring this with a VR suit! Can we discuss this thing please?

http://www.roadtovr.com/alienware-backpack-pc-virtual-reality-e3-2016/?platform=hootsuite

travis1409 · June 2016

Sooooooo no one wants to discuss a PC VR backpack?

sutekiB · June 2016

I seem to remember Palmer talking about the 'backtop' on MTBS3D years ago, but laptops were never really powerful enough for it. I do see a future in them. For now, this solution may be a little too cumbersome and heavy to replace having a cable suspended over your head, but as the weight, form factor and power improve it may well become popular.

Sponge101 · June 2016

Looks cool. The audience for this seems to be commercial or for people who have a lot of space in their home.

xxann5 · June 2016

I am just not that exited about PC VR backpacks. Even with the power efficiency of the 1080's and 1070's your still going to need one hell of a large batter if you want to run it for more than 30 min's and batteries are heavy, never mind the the weight of the rest of the PC. At this point your just trading one annoying thing, the cable, and replacing it with something that's just as annoying but in different ways.

Then there is the practicality of buying a very expensive PC that's in a form factor that is only us full for VR. I am sure you could connect a monitor keyboard and mouse to it and use it like a normal computer that switching between modes like that is not very practical.

Further more most people already have a PC, if the PC is not VR ready most are a video card perches away from being VR ready.

So I just don't see these catching on. I am sure there is a niche market for them and they will make them and sell them, though I am sure at quite a premium.

What I am looking forward to is wireless though I would bet we wont see that until at least the 3rd generation of HMD's though.

travis1409 · June 2016

I think you're right that the ultimate goal is to be wireless but until then this is great solution for the here and now. It might be a few years, or it could be a decade, before wireless is fully effective for the same reasons, battery life, frame rates, and latency are problems that need to be solved. You're right that it's a Niche market but VR arcades are up and running right now, with more being built as we speak and VR itself is a niche market at the moment but as it's popularity grows I could see this being viable if it's built. We might even be able to custom build a VR PC backpack like so many of us did with our PC's .

xxann5 · June 2016

For VR arcades VR backpack PC's are a perfect. I can see that being the norm. Just not for your everyday Joe VR consumer.

Ascensi · June 2016

Has anyone found a quality 360 deg Rotary HDMI adapter? most on the market don't rotate endlessly, they have max rotation 360 deg + or - but don't go past that point either way. If there is an HDMI Adapter solution then, I have the perfect solution to compliment it.

GreyAcumen · June 2016

@Ascensi - http://www.rotovr.com/#!product-page/nsaar/4b5f59ae-8be6-6659-7e92-87c93b7a721f <---- @xxann5 posted this link in another thread, and I've got no idea how well it works, if at all. All the videos that they've posted(https://www.youtube.com/user/elliottmyers/videos) seem to have more focus on their chair, which itself is pretty cool, but isn't too useful for the Virtuix Omni.

KellCam_Virtuix · June 2016

It's an interesting idea. For me, it would need to be lightweight, long-lasting battery, need to be able to un-pack so it can double as a desktop PC.

travis1409 · June 2016

The battery is said to last around 30 minutes and any PC can be hooked up to a monitor but idk if you'd be able to use it as a laptop. Right now it's just a concept but I think it's a good idea as a place holder until we go full wireless VR

GreyAcumen · June 2016

@travis1409 - so... we'll be able to play candy crush VR? 30 minutes barely gets me out of the tutorial in Skyrim. Hell, I can barely get out of the character creator by then.

Ascensi · June 2016

@GreyAcumen AWESOME!! Thanks you made my day! I've been on the hunt for something like this for a while. When I get the treadmill(s) I can then finally show people what I've been working on to create a full 360 solution.. I've mentioned some details on the forum here in the past and it seems to have allowed another start up company to get close but to me and some others I've compared the two potential products to I'm still greatly ahead

Ascensi · June 2016

I think you can project ultrasound at a VR suit that would effect specific dots like a mocap suite to provide more tactile solution. Dots would likely be a aluminum or something that will vibrate with sound the best. Small Surround Ultrasound emitters projected onto the player -body suit would not need any electricity at this point

I need to get hired by a big company otherwise all my ideas will be used by Virtuix's VR competitors.
There already is development of ultrasound that allows people to feel objects with their fingers. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/526651/using-ultrasound-to-feel-virtual-objects/

VR PC Backpack!

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