The official unveiling of a HTC Vive Standalone head-mounted display (HMD) has been expected since the tease back at Google I/O in May of this year. However, the fact that it came as a device exclusive to the China market has surprised many. Exactly how this new device aligns with that revealed at Google I/O remains to be seen, though the input device for the HMD has now been confirmed.
The HTC Vive Standalone announced this morning will support the Viveport content distribution platform and come equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 for on-board processing. However, few other details have been revealed. The form factor of the HMD is unknown, as well as other technical specifications such as screen resolution and field-of-view. VRFocus has contacted HTC for further details on these matters and others, and will report back with any further information.
In the meantime however, confirmation has arrived that the HTC Vive Standalone HMD will feature a three degrees-of-freedom (3DoF) control similar to that included with the Google Daydream HMD. This suggests parity between the previously announced western version (a collaboration with Google itself that will support the Daydream platform) and the newly revealed China-only HMD.
The confirmation came via the official HTC Vive China website, which includes much of the same imagery used to promote the previously announced Google collaboration. On this page, you can see an image taken from the website which includes the controller.
It will no doubt be disappointing to many to learn that the controller included with the HTC Vive Standalone HMD will be limited to 3DoF, which also suggests – though does not confirm – that the HMD itself will not include any form of spatial tracking.
More information on the HTC Vive Standalone HMD will be forthcoming very soon, and VRFocus will of course keep you updated with all the latest details.