HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed

Those surprised that the HTC (RE) Vive VR headset being made in partnership with Valve was announced for release this year will be less surprised to learn that HTC has now revealed the VR headsets will not be widely available until 2016 (thanks VG247). The Verge has word from a press release stating: "HTC will offer the first commercial Vive units via a limited quantity of community and developer systems" later this year, "with larger quantities shipping in calendar Q1 2016." This more closely aligns their release with competing units from Oculus Rift and Sony Project Morpheus, which are also both due next year. No reason for the setback is provided.
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16.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 22:27
16.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 22:27
Aug 28, 2015, 22:27
 
1badmf wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 18:25:
Bundy wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 18:08:
TangledThorns wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 17:24:
I only suspect this has something to do with Half-Life 3.

HL3 CONFIRMED!

wouldn't that be a wicked marketing move?
Yup. If I was Valve I'd have HL3 as a VR launch title (playable without VR as well) and give it away free with Steam Machines and the Steam Controller. That would get their hardware into millions of homes and establish them as a major player in the console market. Then again I'd have also bought up Black Mesa and bundled that with it.

At this point Valve really isn't a developer any more. They've yet to release a threequel to any title - TF, L4D, HL, Dota. They make so much from Steam they don't need to do anything.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
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15.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 18:25
15.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 18:25
Aug 28, 2015, 18:25
 
Bundy wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 18:08:
TangledThorns wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 17:24:
I only suspect this has something to do with Half-Life 3.

HL3 CONFIRMED!

wouldn't that be a wicked marketing move?

"today the vivevr is widely available... bundled with halflife3, built from the ground up as a vr experience."
14.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 18:08
14.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 18:08
Aug 28, 2015, 18:08
 
TangledThorns wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 17:24:
I only suspect this has something to do with Half-Life 3.

HL3 CONFIRMED!
13.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 17:24
13.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 17:24
Aug 28, 2015, 17:24
 
I only suspect this has something to do with Half-Life 3.
12.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 15:55
12.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 15:55
Aug 28, 2015, 15:55
 
HoSpanky wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 10:20:
My primary concern with all of these VR headsets coming out isn't resolution/refresh rate. Those things will constantly improve over time. The first headsets need to be sure to NOT cause motion sickness, that's the absolute most important part. Make someone sick once, they'll never use it again and they'll warn their friends against it. So the resolution is lower than we'd want, because it has to work on less-than-stellar video cards to sell enough to gain traction.

But none of that is really news. What no one seems to be talking about is interoperability. With what...5 different headsets coming out, is there a standard for the interface? Or will SOME games work with the Valve headset, and a completely different set of games with with the Rift, and ANOTHER set only works with the Razer headset...

I see it like when 3D accelerators first came out. Sure, 3DFX cards were the king of the hill, but for a while there, SOME games had a 3DFX patch, and others had PowerVR patches, but very rarely did one game have both. There were other contenders as well, and it made for a splintered market. DirectX came along and solved all that, making it a godsend...it just required people to run their games in windows, not DOS. I didn't like the overhead windows added, but the benefits of directX could not be denied.

Currently, I sincerely doubt these headset makers are agreeing on a standard. They're all funding different projects so they can brag about having a must-have game ONLY in VR on THEIR headset. Because they're only interested in selling THEIR headset, NOT the sustainability of VR as a standard.

Does anyone recall seeing a single article about compatability? Not a rhetorical question, I'm seriously hoping I somehow have missed that happening.

The companies putting out the headsets aren't focusing on whether games developed for theirs will work on somebody elses. Valve/HTC, Oculus, and Morpheus are all focused on providing the best experience they can from their respective viewpoints. They are similar but competiting. The device that garners the most support, and performs the best in the marketplace, will drive the standard, in the same way that the playstation dual shock design essentially created standardization in the gamepad arena, amidst many competing designs.

However, there are other players with some skin in the game. Razer is releasing their open vr system, whose hardware is nothing to write home about, but the software aims to play nice with most headsets. The jury is out on how well this software will work with oculus or vive; but it is one pathway to interoperability.

Also, unlike in the early days of hardware acceleration, most games are created using industry standard engines. The VR support is handled by the engine rather than by developers directly, and industry standard engines will have support for the major players. This means that porting from one system to another will be a lot easier. We've already seen this with very interesting vr demos being ported between the existing oculus dev kits, the gearvr, and google glass. If devs want to make a little more money and it is worth porting, they will do so.

Finally, none of the content at the beginning of this is going to really be interesting enough to be sad you are missing out on it, when you have other cool things to try on whatever you go with. It's like how 90% of the games during a console launch are pretty looking trash that you get just so you have something to play on it.
11.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 13:07
11.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 13:07
Aug 28, 2015, 13:07
 
You are gonna have to look at this just like the quake 1 days.. cause that was about the only game anyone was buying a 3d card for when 3dfx first hit the market..

whats going to be THE GAME to drive the hardware?

I suspect they will pretty much mirror the development of the 3d video card... each iteration of headset getting better every year... compare doom/quake software mode to any modern game (crysis 3, far cry 4, and witcher 3) and you will see the potential for these things to grow.. the interface, interaction, and graphics will get better with time..

pretty damn good time to be a gamer
10.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 12:43
10.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 12:43
Aug 28, 2015, 12:43
 
Is any of Valves hardware gonna come out on time? It was seeming way too quick for it to hit this year, but they paraded a very aggressive date. 2016 doesn't mean they are bullish that it is a small delay.

Boo.

This comment was edited on Aug 28, 2015, 17:04.
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9.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 12:32
9.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 12:32
Aug 28, 2015, 12:32
 
HoSpanky wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 10:20:
My primary concern with all of these VR headsets coming out isn't resolution/refresh rate. Those things will constantly improve over time. The first headsets need to be sure to NOT cause motion sickness, that's the absolute most important part. Make someone sick once, they'll never use it again and they'll warn their friends against it. So the resolution is lower than we'd want, because it has to work on less-than-stellar video cards to sell enough to gain traction.

But none of that is really news. What no one seems to be talking about is interoperability. With what...5 different headsets coming out, is there a standard for the interface? Or will SOME games work with the Valve headset, and a completely different set of games with with the Rift, and ANOTHER set only works with the Razer headset...

I see it like when 3D accelerators first came out. Sure, 3DFX cards were the king of the hill, but for a while there, SOME games had a 3DFX patch, and others had PowerVR patches, but very rarely did one game have both. There were other contenders as well, and it made for a splintered market. DirectX came along and solved all that, making it a godsend...it just required people to run their games in windows, not DOS. I didn't like the overhead windows added, but the benefits of directX could not be denied.

Currently, I sincerely doubt these headset makers are agreeing on a standard. They're all funding different projects so they can brag about having a must-have game ONLY in VR on THEIR headset. Because they're only interested in selling THEIR headset, NOT the sustainability of VR as a standard.

Does anyone recall seeing a single article about compatability? Not a rhetorical question, I'm seriously hoping I somehow have missed that happening.

Why would there need to be standardization from the outset? The software and experience is ONLY thing that differentiates them because the tech will likely be close to identical. These companies are in competition in the market. The market will speak to which standard is chosen. Once someone wins, the others will pile on and then try to innovate for increased market share, or bow out. Remember we're talking about products that haven't even been released yet. It's too early for a call to standardize.
8.
 
Re: G4 Makeover Coming?
Aug 28, 2015, 12:28
8.
Re: G4 Makeover Coming? Aug 28, 2015, 12:28
Aug 28, 2015, 12:28
 
Bundy wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 11:19:
Probably. Vendors wanted X amount of dollars by a certain date for production. HTC couldn't afford to line it all up.
I doubt that has anything to do with it. It seems more to do with the ecosystem. There simply won't be many games or demos ready for this year. Crytek has only just added VR support for the CryEngine SDK. If you look at the Leap Motion it was a great concept but the ecosystem meant there was just nothing to do with it.

It makes more sense to launch nearer the Oculus Rift as that will have a lot of support.

As for interoperability, Valve is working on a VR ecosystem that will support multiple devices. Aside from bundled tech demos I don't think we're going to see support problems, at least not from the major competitors.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
Avatar 22891
7.
 
Re: G4 Makeover Coming?
Aug 28, 2015, 11:19
7.
Re: G4 Makeover Coming? Aug 28, 2015, 11:19
Aug 28, 2015, 11:19
 
Probably. Vendors wanted X amount of dollars by a certain date for production. HTC couldn't afford to line it all up.
6.
 
Re: G4 Makeover Coming?
Aug 28, 2015, 11:14
6.
Re: G4 Makeover Coming? Aug 28, 2015, 11:14
Aug 28, 2015, 11:14
 
"No reason for the setback is provided. "

Maybe the fact that HTC has been in dire straights now for months???
5.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 10:38
5.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 10:38
Aug 28, 2015, 10:38
 
Jamil20 wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 09:54:
InBlack wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 09:39:
Whats the resolution like?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=htc+vive+resolution

Cute.
I have a nifty blue line!
Avatar 46994
4.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 10:20
4.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 10:20
Aug 28, 2015, 10:20
 
My primary concern with all of these VR headsets coming out isn't resolution/refresh rate. Those things will constantly improve over time. The first headsets need to be sure to NOT cause motion sickness, that's the absolute most important part. Make someone sick once, they'll never use it again and they'll warn their friends against it. So the resolution is lower than we'd want, because it has to work on less-than-stellar video cards to sell enough to gain traction.

But none of that is really news. What no one seems to be talking about is interoperability. With what...5 different headsets coming out, is there a standard for the interface? Or will SOME games work with the Valve headset, and a completely different set of games with with the Rift, and ANOTHER set only works with the Razer headset...

I see it like when 3D accelerators first came out. Sure, 3DFX cards were the king of the hill, but for a while there, SOME games had a 3DFX patch, and others had PowerVR patches, but very rarely did one game have both. There were other contenders as well, and it made for a splintered market. DirectX came along and solved all that, making it a godsend...it just required people to run their games in windows, not DOS. I didn't like the overhead windows added, but the benefits of directX could not be denied.

Currently, I sincerely doubt these headset makers are agreeing on a standard. They're all funding different projects so they can brag about having a must-have game ONLY in VR on THEIR headset. Because they're only interested in selling THEIR headset, NOT the sustainability of VR as a standard.

Does anyone recall seeing a single article about compatability? Not a rhetorical question, I'm seriously hoping I somehow have missed that happening.
Avatar 15603
3.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 09:57
3.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 09:57
Aug 28, 2015, 09:57
 
Exact same as Oculus. With the same refresh. They're probably buying from the same manufacturer.
2.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 09:54
2.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 09:54
Aug 28, 2015, 09:54
 
InBlack wrote on Aug 28, 2015, 09:39:
Whats the resolution like?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=htc+vive+resolution
1.
 
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed
Aug 28, 2015, 09:39
1.
Re: HTC RE Vive VR Headsets Delayed Aug 28, 2015, 09:39
Aug 28, 2015, 09:39
 
Whats the resolution like?
I have a nifty blue line!
Avatar 46994
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