HTC’s VR Platform Goes Pro & Wireless With New Vive

The new Vive Pro from HTC is quite the refinement of the top-tier VR solution. It fixes some of the issues that were brought up by many people, as well as enhances existing functions, and even adding a few more features. The Vive Pro still looks like the familiar Vive, but there are quite a few additions beyond the striking blue paint job.

While there has been a big push to drop prices on head mounted displays for VR, there is also concurrent research into getting more out of the VR experience. Standalone headsets powered by Qualcomms Snapdragon VR SoCs with both HTC and Lenovo, using Google’s Daydream platform, these are still targeted towards a budget. Some still want to see what VR is really capable of.

The first obvious addition is that of built-in headphones. One of the main complaints with the original Vive was that wearing headphones or a headset was rather difficult, as the head rest would interfere, making headphones either uncomfortable to wear, or sealed poorly, breaking immersion. By including a pair into the HMD, means you won’t have to worry about comfort.

Another slightly less obvious change is the inclusion of two front-facing cameras, and microphones with noise canceling. This is likely to extend developer creativity to spread out into some form of augmented reality, rather than straight up VR. It’ll also help with co-op games as part of a new sensor system that lets two pairs of Vive controllers to be used.

Being able to see and track another person by their arms and legs, and not just the position of the head and hands will also help with collision detection. It also means people won’t have to take their headset off in order to see and hear someone standing in front of them… or to grab a drink.

However, probably the biggest improvement overall is the display and optics system. One of the big problems with VR headsets across the field, is something called the screen-door effect, it’s where you can see the gaps between pixels in the display. While you do get used to the effect, it can take some time.

The new Vive Pro uses dual OLED displays at a combined resolution of 2880×1600, which increases pixel density by 78 per cent over the current Vive, an effective 600+ DPI pixel density. It’s probably fair to say that this won’t completely eliminate the screen-door effect, but it will mean that the majority of people will get used to it much faster than with the previous version, immersing you quicker in virtual Reality.

There have been same changes to the head band as well, to offset some of the weight and to redistribute it better over the user’s head. One of the complains with the original Vive is that it can be a bit top-front heavy, making you drop your head over long sessions. More adjustment in the strap and a change in anchor points means the Vive Pro should feel lighter (even though it’s likely heavier due to the headphones and extra hardware).

Of course, the one feature that’s been requested for a long time is wireless. This is something that’s a lot more difficult than it first appears, because displays use a lot of bandwidth, a lot more than a deceptively thin HDMI or DP cable may first appear. While compression is an option, a screen that’s just an inch away from your eyes will quickly show any compression artifacts that could be a result. The second issue is that of latency, compression and wireless transfer would add latency, and VR needs low-latency in order to prevent nausea.

HTC opted to use Intel’s WiGig technology, which is a high-bandwidth, high-frequency wireless standard in the 60GHz range. It’s meant to support the high frame rate and low latency demands of VR, with enough bandwidth for the higher resolutions. 60GHz is also a low-use frequency, and won’t be susceptible to other devices in the area. The catch though is that high frequency wireless also has very low penetration, meaning you can use it through a wall for example, so this will have to be setup specifically in a single room, likely attached to one of the sensor arms used to track the IR LEDs on the headset.

HTC is also taking the opportunity to push its own VR platform separate from Steam, called Viveport. This is something that was launched in China last year, but is being expanded to include the US audience. It takes a VR first focus to the VR store as a way to show VR content in a VR world, rather than as a flat display. It’s to show previews of games and movies as a teaser for extra content that’s in-the-works or soon to be released.

Pricing and availability of the new Vive Pro have not yet been announced, but the Wireless unit is expected to be released in the third quarter this year (likely around September). We don’t expect either the Pro or the Wireless unit to be cheap though.