HTC’s latest innovation that’s making people crazy is the HTC Vive Stream VR powered. This is a VR device that delivers virtual reality experience like never before. It almost looks real. I had been to a demo event in Mumbai today and here is what I experienced.
First of all the HTC Vive consist of two controllers, two sensors (360 degrees base stations) and the main controller VR. You need to put the VR on your head there are some wires that will be connected to powerful PC (that is kind of odd). The two sensors need to be placed at a particular height they will sense your movement and distance.
You can use the two controllers to navigate / click / select etc. There is mouse pad and a trigger button on each of these handheld controllers. And of course this unit needs to be connected to a powerful PC (Intel i5 / AMD FX 8350 or greater) with a powerful Graphics card (recommended GeFore GTX970 / AMD Radeon R9 290 or greater). Plus HDMI 1.4 port or Display 1.2 port, 1x USB 2.0 port or greater and PC should be running Windows 7 or greater.
The VR head unit comes with comfortable form fitting and also comes with front facing camera to blend real world elements into the virtual world. VR resolution is 2160 x 1200 with 90Hz refresh rate simply awesome.
The sensors are placed at opposite end they also create a virtual wall, so when you are wearing the head gear and moving around and when you get close to the wall you will see red outline in the virtual world indicating the wall, so as you avoid hitting it (in real world).
After wearing the Head gear (plus headset for sound), I was first shown a movie, an underwater animated movie, I was on the deck of a sunken ship, I could move around. I could see fishes around and then a huge whale came by.
The next item was an interactive video, where I could interact with the characters, point the controller towards them and so on, the idea was getting use to using the controller.
An finally the best of the best, action game. I played this action game wherein I was on a platform with a space fighter ship parked on my back and on the front it was open space. The two controllers in my hand were my guns and then came the drones, I had to shoot them. It was very realistic, the drones were also firing at me, the best part was I could move around (forward / back / left / right) and even dodge from being shot. That was really awesome experience.
HTC Vive (Stream VR powered) will be launched in India in Q3 2016, not sure about the price in India but the current price in USD is 799.
This technology can really come handy in many areas specially education, virtual walk-through and of course gaming.