Untethered virtual reality (VR) is undoubtedly the future of the medium, as proven by TPCast and other companies as they scramble to make low-latency HD video streaming to head-mounted displays (HMDs) a reality. Now, HTC are throwing their own hat into the ring, one they promise will beat out all competitors, with the HTC Vive Wireless Adapter.
Not content with just announcing the Vive Wireless Adapter, HTC also announced the HTC Vive Pro, a higher resolution VR headset which should make VR worlds clearer, and more immersive than has been possible before.
The HTC Vive Wireless Adapter will of course work natively with the HTC Vive and HTC Vive Pro, which was also announced as CES 2018, Las Vegas.
HTC previously teased announcements with a semi-cryptic ‘New Years Resolution’ tweet, and today they made good on those teasers with some solid announcements, proving HTC is still just as serious about VR as when the Vive first released.
The low latency video feed should make untethered VR more viable than it ever has been before, and HTC hope that this will make room-scale VR – and larger – easier than ever.
This is the answer to many people’s prayers, as third parties have struggled to incorporate the wires dangling behind the HMD into their product designs. Speciality VR gaming chairs can rotate 360 degrees, with the cables threaded through the centre of the chair, out of the way of the user. But of course, solutions like this can only ever be secondary to a true untethered experience, where the weight of cables being dragged by gravity, or even users tripping over them in real life, can be completely averted.
The HTC Vive Wireless Adapter uses Intel’s WiGig technology, which is unsurprising after we heard reports of the technology being adapted for HMDs last year. Although it seems that the adoption rate of the WiGig technology for VR HMDs might well be even faster than predicted, especially now that HTC have shown their faith in the technology.
We’ll have news and information about absolutely everything from CES 2018, including impressions and run downs of all of the announced hardware. For everything you want to know about HTC and CES 2018, stay on VRFocus.
via Mint VR