I see vive is already coming out with vive 2.0 codenamed oasis in 2017 Q1 or so. Will oculus come out with improved version too next year? Dang.. I bought oculus rift in July and Vive few days ago. I am so angry and happy.
There is a lust for version increments. The danger is when that increment becomes detached from reality. Some consumers will buy anything with a higher version number. Similarly, some manufacturers will sell anything.
A good example of detachment from reality is wireless tethers. Similar to the room scale fallacy, wireless tethers will be similarly nonfunctional for most gamers and applications because the play space still limits your movement. That means in reality gamers will still use controller movement which defeats the promise of wireless. A wireless tether is still a tether.
A good example of attachment to reality is the Oculus Santa Cruz which is not only wireless but also untethered. That combination addresses the limitations of room scale and tethered (even if wireless) experiences. In the Santa Cruz you have not just new features and a version increment, but a complete product that offers real and purposed value.
Also on the topic of products and versioning, Oculus is the only company that is correctly creating separate product lines. They have the Gear VR which is made for stationary, simple applications. The Rift which is made for tethered, high end experiences. And now the Santa Cruz which breaks into the new realm of untethered VR.
It is so important to recognize that PC VR is made for tethered experiences. Any physical movement in PC VR is novelty at best. The nature of having a tether to a physical, unattached computing device means your movement is limited, and limited movement in VR might as well be no movement.
In summary:
wireless PC VR = tethered tethered = no movement no movement = no real value no real value = not worth a version increment
Despite having no real value, consumers will eagerly buy wireless tethers because of the promise of movement. But in the end the practical applications will be the same as room scale where you stand still in the middle of a tracked area and use controller movement.
No, a Vive 2 isn't even out of the planning stages. The new vive you're thinking of is literally just a redesigned cable and headstrap. Other than that there are no differences. There is also no CV2 coming out this year since they haven't even talked about it yet.
HTC have the next Vive in the advanced planning stage. It will be wireless and appear in 2017. The question is not if or when but where it will appear. Will it be consigned to Arcades or will it become the next consumer version.
Will should find out at CES 2017.
Ooooh wireless VIVE ... didnt know about that, wheres the article?
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I really could care less about wireless. Buying a new headset, whatever brand, will come down to how much the resolution has increased. For me, that is the only downside to the Rift atm.
Valve hasn't announced or said anything at all about any wireless Vive in 2017, where did you read that? There is a third party company that is making their own wireless kit for the existing Vive that they are releasing in 2017 (for around $200), are you maybe thinking of that?
I think there is still a ways to go. Current GPU's can barely handle the Oculus Rift Max settings. Remember most games now only use half the pixels that are present in the Oculus Rift.
I think there is still a ways to go. Current GPU's can barely handle the Oculus Rift Max settings. Remember most games now only use half the pixels that are present in the Oculus Rift.
If developers starts to integrate VR SLI....
...then they'll have a potential install base of around 300,000 customers 🙂 Probably less, since the 300,000 number I read was the number of people using SLI, but for VR SLI you also need a 970 or better.
I think there is still a ways to go. Current GPU's can barely handle the Oculus Rift Max settings. Remember most games now only use half the pixels that are present in the Oculus Rift.
If developers starts to integrate VR SLI....
SLI for VR is interesting. Each card could render each eye. Might be tricky to implement without DX12/Vulkan, though I'm not terribly familiar with using either API.
Just to throw out a bit of controversy here but could Valve release their own HMD in 2017?
Steam supports 3 HMDs now in 2016 and could be four or five in 2017. Oculus might be stuck on one if they don't loosen up their SDK. Before long Oculus might become irrelevant as the choice of new HMD with Steam and Revive support will flood the market. We could be in the situation of seeing s new HMD every 4 or 5 months.
More likely HTC Vive 1.0 will become irrelevant once Touch comes out, since there'll be zero reasons to buy a Vive after that. Steam supporting 3 HMD's is only good for Steam, not for Vive.
I wouldn't say the Vive becomes irrelevant, but rather the Rift equally relevant to the Vive once touch is released. Both HMDs will be on a nearly equal playing field at that point.
