HTC’s Vive lands Feb 29 for $800, and we want it badly

[Wireless News]

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/aKp1MYW3bry9QqvaXzED_g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9ODY7cT03NTt3PT EzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/digital_trends_973/d6ca6eaff63c91dbe78480381b5e2edb (http://news.yahoo.com/htc-vive-lands-feb-29-201331183.html)Gushing about the HTC Vive is not a new thing for the crew here at Digital Trends. We’ve been enamored with the virtual reality system since we first tried it at Mobile World Congress 2015. One-year, and many beta versions later, the Vive is finally about to become a reality. In a briefing, HTC and Valve (maker of Half Life and the Steam game store)-spoke with us to let us know exactly how the rollout will happen, what will be included in the launch bundle, and when the next round of information will come out. We also got a chance to play a couple new demos as well. When can you-buy it, and how much does it cost? Like the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive will go on pre-order and come out this spring. Starting on Leap Day, February 29, you can pre-order the Vive on HTCVive.com. It will set you back about $800 (689 UK), which is a couple hundred more than the $600 Oculus Rift, though the experience you get is far more advanced on the Vive (night and day different, from our experience). The PC requirements are also demanding, and similar to the Oculus. This is the most advanced VR you can buy, and won’t come cheap, but if you’re going to shell out $600, we advise you to consider spending a little more to get a far more advanced experience. More on that below. Initial pre-orders will ship in “early April.” In the box: 1 Vive HMD headset: Upgraded with a better head strap, shinier finish, and 2 face masks for a better fit. Like the Vive Pre, it has a front-facing camera. Long cables are also included, which are needed since you walk around in VR on the Vive. 2 360-degree tracking controllers: With Micro USB charging cables 2 laser, wireless base stations: You don’t have to mount them on your wall (as we previously thought), and they come with optional super long wired cables, if you want them. HTC also says it has upgraded the motors and durability of these stations. They each come with an AC adapter. Vive Link Box: The middle man between your computer and your Vive. 1 set of earbuds: The headset has a mic and the earbuds will give you some basic audio support to help you get immersed. 2 games: Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption will come bundled. Any other cord or cable you need. What makes Vive different from Oculus Rift? The Vive and Oculus Rift have two somewhat different philosophies on high-end VR gaming. The Oculus, which has been in development longer, is-launching with-a headset (no front camera), a sensor to help with head tracking, and an Xbox controller. Essentially, it is more of a traditional sit-down — but still immersive — video game machine. You can stand, but-the entire experience is more rooted in traditional gaming. It will get its games from an Oculus-specific store, which is also what powers Samsung’s-Gear VR, our favorite mobile VR headset, and the only one we recommend. The HTC Vive is different. Instead of an Xbox controller, you get two 360-degree motion controllers, and in lieu of a single sensor, you have two laser boxes to track your movement from all angles. While you can play sitting down, HTC and Valve built the Vive on the concept of having you actually walk around in video game worlds, as if you were on a Star Trek holodeck (or tripping on hallucinogens). Your room becomes the games, and you interact with them using the two controllers, which have touchpads on them and are incredibly accurate. The experience is precisely what we’ve always dreamed VR could do, and exactly what it has failed at, until now. “Go back to the 80s with VR, what did we think it was going to be?” Valve’s Chet Faliszek asked us. “What did you want to do? What kind of experiences did you want to have? We wanted to put you in the center of the action; We wanted to let you interact with that world; We allow those kinds of experiences.” Thanks to a new front-facing camera on the Vive, you can also now see the outside world if you’d like, and games or apps can be written to augment the real world. Of course, to use it, you need at least 1 square meter of space-around you. The more open space you have, the better. And the Vive will run off of Valve’s successful Steam platform. Comparing Vive to Oculus is-a little like comparing the old Nintendo Wii to an Xbox or PlayStation. The Wii came with a special motion controller and was built entirely around the idea of motion and movement being a part of gameplay, while the PS3 and Xbox 360 had more traditional controllers. Both of them attempted to add motion later on, but it was somewhat tacked on. Nintendo banked its future on the idea and it was quite successful. We also think HTC and Valve have a far better handle on what gamers like to play than Nintendo sometimes did. After the Vive was announced, the Oculus team teased-a Touch version of the Oculus that has sensors and 2 controllers, but this is not what the system is launching with. It may come out later in 2016, but it has no firm release date and is not up for pre-order yet. Right now, the Oculus Rift is about sitting down and gaming with an Xbox controller, and the Vive is about standing up and using your controllers like hands (or guns or swords or anything) to interact with the virtual world. When we asked HTC’s VP of VR Dan O’Brien what makes the Vive better than Oculus, he did not mince words: “Do you want the most immersive, complete, best VR experience you can possibly have? Buy the Vive system. There is nothing else that can do what the Vive does.” Two new demos, and more games to come I got the chance to play two new Vive demos recently. The first was a very fun Sci-Fi space shooting game where my controllers became guns, and a bunch of flying drones came out in waves to shoot at me from all sides. By putting one of my hands behind my head, I could also pull out an energy shield, which was very helpful for blocking some drones while I blasted the others. This may be the best demo I’ve ever played in VR. Like a game of laser tag on steroids, it was astounding to blast wave after wave of new baddies. Sadly, I died on round 9, but I’m told that’s a very good score. The other game was a completely three dimensional pipes game. My right hand was a palette of sorts, which had an array of different shapes of pipes, and using my left hand like a brush in paint, I could select a shape and then place new pipes on a 3D puzzle, guiding water onto what appeared to be cute little hamsters. I failed pretty badly at this demo, but it really shows how creative developers are already getting with puzzle games. I can’t wait to see what comes along at launch. Though the game will come with Job Simulator — which lets you experience what robots in 2050 think our human jobs were like — -and Fantastic Contraption, more games (and apps too) will come at launch. HTC and Valve reps told us that new games and apps will be announced at the Game Developer’s Conference in March. DT will be at the show to let you know more. What kinds of apps might come? According to HTC and Valve, the Vive is “more than just about games.” Companies as diverse as Audi and Sleep Number beds have already created some experiences, and there are more non-gaming apps coming. Surgical theater is taking MRIs of people’s heads and then having doctors use the Vive to look inside of people’s brains. Related:- Climbing Mt. Everest in VR is so terrifying that my knees wobbled “We can’t reveal all the other ones,” Dan O’Brien, HTC’s VP of VR, told Digital Trends. “We have a lot of non-game partners, but we let them announce when they’re ready to announce their stuff. We don’t want to do it for them. We do have a very healthy number of people in the education space and simulation space. They see the freedom of being able to be in the middle of the content and interacting with it.” What kind of a PC do you need to use Vive? Here are the recommended PC specs for the HTC Vive: Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, AMD-Radeon R9 290-equivalent, or greater Processor: Intel i5-4590, AMD FX 8350-equivalent, or greater RAM: 4GB+ Video Output: HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2, or newer USB Port: 1x USB-2.0 or greater-port Operating System: Windows 7 SP1 or newer HTC says that PC bundles are coming, which will package together the Vive with a PC that can play its games. The specs above are not minimums, but what HTC “recommends” if you want a good experience. Vive will not give us minimum specs. Related:- Hands on: HTC Vive Pre We’ll have more on the HTC Vive in the months ahead, but suffice it to say we’re thoroughly excited already.



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