HTC Vive Wireless adapter and sensors
travis1409
Posts: 131
in In the News
Tested took a look at the new sensors and the HTC Vive TP Cast, Trackers, and Deluxe Audio Strap
This looks perfect for the Omni! And it will eliminate the need for the boom because there won't be anymore wires getting in our way. We always knew that wireless was the way to go, now it's coming in Q2, hopefully I'll at least have en email by then.
This looks perfect for the Omni! And it will eliminate the need for the boom because there won't be anymore wires getting in our way. We always knew that wireless was the way to go, now it's coming in Q2, hopefully I'll at least have en email by then.
Comments
TPCast - I'm STILL not sold on Wireless VR. While it may be working well for the current dpi/fps/latency requirements, I'm still not satisfied with the resolution of the Vive nor the Rift. My major concern is that if Wireless becomes the standard, companies will be unwilling to push for a clearer visual experience if it would mean reverting back to a tethered transmission method, and while TPCast may be able to handle the current resolution, if you attempted to double the video resolution (4x the number of total pixels, or more if the next headset attempts a widescreen peripheral-vision-filling experience) I have no doubts that it would push the transmission completely outside of what their standard can handle.
I highly doubt that the rest of the VR community shares my sentiments. I don't think I've seen anyone NOT completely hyped of the potential benefits of the wireless. Is it because everyone is confident that the Wireless transmission standard will improve fast enough that headsets wont be limited? Or are they only looking at the short term benefit, and not considering what type of long term stranglehold this could end up creating? If it does create that stranglehold, I guess it would be hard to even tell. It's not like companies will be announcing that they INTENDED to create a headset with better resolution, but gave up since it wouldn't work with a wireless standard.
Vive Tracking Pucks - There are a few different issues I have with these trackers,and I'm not sure if I'll be able to adequately summarize my concerns.
1) Niche accessory glut - the main focus to these Pucks seems to be involved in creating a large quantity of incredibly specialized accessories that are only compatible with experiences designed specifically to make use of them. While I can see this being useful within professional fields, like for the baseball and Firefighting simulations, I just don't see this benefiting an adaptive gaming experience. The only benefit I see to gaming is the potential for a company to make more ergonomic controllers, possibly mimicking the Oculus Touch controllers, but with the Vive pucks for the tracking method.
2) Cannot track virtual items - Go take a look at @SutekiB's videos for GTA or the like. When he wants to switch from bare hands to holding a gun, he has to actually take a prop gun out of his jacket to be able to do it properly. That only works if the item being used is already on the player. All the various virtual objects that exist only in the virtual world have no way to be given a physical presence through these Pucks. Lets say your gun is being tracked via the Pucks, and then you drop your gun (maybe to switch to a different gun that an enemy dropped?) if you drop the physical gun controller, and pick up a different virtual gun, then the physical gun would remain stationary while you move around in the virtual world.
3) The Vive headset can only track 2 Pucks INCLUDING the Vive Wands? Seriously? I guess when people have said that the light house sensors can support any number of trackers, it's only because the lighthouse sensors aren't what handles the tracking, in reality it's the pucks/wands that track the light houses. While 2 Vives could be hooked up to the same computer and use the same set of lighthouses, each HMD still has a its own tracking system. Ultimately, I don't see why HTC doesn't just also include the portion of the HMD headset that tracks the wands as a separate USB accessory, so that you can track 4 or 8 or any number of pucks from a single computer.
The real potential I had seen in the pucks was being able to simulate the perception Neuron without quite as high of an investment (substitute the cost of 4 more Vive Wands, $500, in place of the $1000 or so that the Perception Neuron costs) or even just substituting in place of the Virtuix Omni foot tracking pods (along with a 3rd to resolve hip/pelvis orientation) so that a player would only need the physical housing of the Omni instead of all the wireless and electronic/magnetic sensors. The foot tracking could also be used to play Virtual simulations of games like DDR, or provide foot-based interaction to other games. But with only having 2 pucks tracked by the HMD, without a separate tracking solution for more pucks at one time, I just don't see the benefit. That said, it wouldn't be THAT hard to add that support, as long as HTC bothered to do so.
"The real potential I had seen in the pucks was being able to simulate the perception Neuron without quite as high of an investment (substitute the cost of 4 more Vive Wands, $500, in place of the $1000 or so that the Perception Neuron costs) or even just substituting in place of the Virtuix Omni foot tracking pods (along with a 3rd to resolve hip/pelvis orientation) so that a player would only need the physical housing of the Omni instead of all the wireless and electronic/magnetic sensors."
That is such a great use for the pucks. and they can definitely be shipped worldwide, so getting someone to make a heavy duty plastic base and support struts shouldn't be an issue. Even if you own an Omni or Kat VR and the electronics break down, you can still have movement in VR with the pucks. There should be no excuses now!
As for the headphones, I believe they are removable but that they come with the headset regardless. I had the same concern for the same reason, I have a great wireless headset that blocks out all noise as well as having multiple speakers to fully immerse me in any game.
As for the Pucks, I honestly would never buy them unless I just felt the extreme need for my game to track my gun. I could see attaching them to something like a sword and shield to play skyrim or something, just so that the weight would feel even more realistic, but even then I don't realistically see myself buying them. I think it's cool that they have them for people that want them but I don't see me ever wanting to buy them.
Yes, the wire is a giant pain in the ass, but you can learn to move in ways that mitigate the issue, there is no solution available to a player for increasing their peripheral vision or clearing up the grain on the screen formed by the (when magnified, comparably) low resolution.
Regardless, neither of these issues have anything to do with the developers of the games. These are purely hardware issues and can only be addressed through the companies making the HMDs themselves. That's why, for me, those issues are the one that should be dealt with first.
Hopefully they get that down in final versions.
Cheez\/\/iz
Omni Backer #40!
Rift Backer #2,770 (That was a good one!)
Middle Tennessee
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