Category: accessories

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Vive Deluxe Audio Straps Back in Stock on Monday, Vive Pre Adapter Kit Available With Promo Code

The Vive Deluxe Audio Strap is a more ergonomic strap with integrated headphones for the HTC Vive, and when it launched last month, it was only on sale for less than 48 hours until stocks ran dry in the EU and US. Now the company says not only will it be back in stock for US/UK/EU customers on July 10th, but that a special adapter for the Vive Pre will also be available for free with purchase.

In our review of the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap, we found the improved headstrap makes a major difference in comfort and usability of the headset. Proving to be popular despite the $100/£100/€120 price tag, many territories ran out of stock in only a few days. The strap is still available for purchase in Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan.

HTC Vive Pre, photo courtesy HTC

The Vive Pre was the company’s last developer kit, but it’s essentially the same hardware that shipped out to customers when the consumer edition of the headset officially launched in April of last year, save a few minor differences—but because of the Vive Pre’s slightly different mounting mechanism, the HTC-built aftermarket strap simply won’t fit out of the box.

HTC is providing the free upgrade kit that will let Pre-customers use the Audio Strap. The company says limited quantities are available, and only when purchasing a new Deluxe Audio Strap directly from Vive.com. To get an adapter, simply apply the following promo code when checking out with your new strap: txjvuovh3

Sale of the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap starts Monday July 10th at 10 AM Pacific Time (click for your time zone).

Although full instructions and all the parts you need will be provided to safetly attach the strap to the Vive Pre, the company cautions users to follow the setup guide carefully, because as a developer kit, Vive Pre is not covered under warranty and any damage is on the owner.

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VirZOOM Partners With AMD to Bring VR Fitness Bikes to Locations Across the Globe

Pedaling a stationary bike is kind of a sad metaphor for life: try as you may, you’re never going anywhere. But thanks to virtual reality, there might be an exercise machine coming to your local gym or arcade that promises to gamify what many people not only find to be an existential commentary on their personal failings, but also a painfully boring experience. VirZOOM, makers of VR arcade exercise games and the VirZOOM Bike Controller, recently announced a partnership with AMD that promises to provide the graphical horsepower to drive VirZOOM experiences in gyms and arcades, bringing their collection of VR games to gym-quality upright and recumbent bikes around the world.

VirZOOM (pronounced ver-ZOOM) has created a collection of VR sports games designed to combine strategy, coordination, and fitness. The software itself can be downloaded at home for free, as it supports Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR headsets (with Gear VR coming later), but the company’s proprietary VirZOOM Bike Controller, an integral piece of kit, costs a little under $400—available at VirZOOM, Amazon, Best Buy, Gamestop, Target, and Walmart.

image courtesy VirZOOM

While the compact bike is designed for in-home use, VirZOOM is branching out further by retrofitting their VR games suite to gym-quality equipment across the Discover Series Life Fitness SE3 fitness bike line, making VR fitness that much more affordable considering the cost of a gaming PC, VR headset and a special exercise bike.

“Virtual reality brings new excitement to traditional fitness equipment. One of our goals is to continuously enhance the immersive exercise experience on our premium products. Combining the interactive and engaging VR experience with the performance and durability of our Life Fitness products is an example of two innovative technologies coming together. Exercisers forget that they are working out because they are so in tune with what’s going on in the game, it’s been pretty fun to see. We want to continue finding new ways to keep people engaged and moving, and partnering with VirZOOM is a testament to that,” said Amad Amin, Life Fitness product director of digital experience.

The setup will use small form factor PC’s created by AMD to go along with HTC Vive VR headsets. Besides their partnerships with Life Fitness, HTC, and AMD, ViRZOOM is also partnered with Fitbit, providing integration into the app so you can keep an eye on your distance pedaled, workout duration, heart rate, and calories burned—all automatically patched into the Fitbit app on your phone.

Games include multiplayer games like traditional cycling, horse racing, F1 racing, tank battles, and even flying on the back of a pegasus. Competitive and cooperative matches can be played by up to 8 players, including head-to-head challenges and time attacks. To further gameify fitness, you can choose your own workout and goals while collecting coins along the way to upgrade your avatar.

image courtesy VirZOOM

“Partners like AMD, HTC and Life Fitness have been instrumental in making our vision of VR exercise games in a gym setting a commercial reality. The AMD and Radeon teams have gone above and beyond to create a powerful PC experience for high-end virtual reality suitable for a commercial gym environment,” said CEO Eric Janszen.

VirZOOM was founded in early 2015 by Eric Janszen and Eric Malafeew in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since coming out of stealth, the company has raised over $4M in their first seed round from 3 investors.

For more info in upcoming locations, visit VirZOOM.

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Oculus Touch And Rock Band Beat Vive Tracker To VR Accessory Market

Oculus Touch And Rock Band Beat Vive Tracker To VR Accessory Market

The competition between HTC’s Vive and Facebook’s Rift is a closely watched battle, with the two leading PC-powered headsets racing to expand upon the groundwork laid by the SteamVR and Oculus platforms in 2016.

It seems the next step for each company is to support a wide range of accessories that can enhance a virtual world with 1:1 tactile feedback. Despite the excitement for a range of accessories compatible with the forthcoming Vive Tracker, Oculus seems to be coming out in front, at least initially.

Jason Rubin, the vice president in charge of content at Oculus, tweeted over the weekend that the imminently launching Rock Band VR game the company funded with developer Harmonix is the “first major tracked accessory VR game.” For $70, the game comes with a guitar to which an Oculus Touch controller attaches. This combo delivers a more authentic experience than has ever been possible before with music rhythm games, with the feel of a realistic guitar in your hands while playing the game in front of a crowd in VR.

This month Oculus released guidelines and 3D models of the Touch controllers “to help you develop accessories for Oculus Touch Controllers.” This likely makes Rock Band just the first in a series of accessories for the Rift headset using an Oculus Touch controller for positional tracking.

HTC is also working with developers on the Vive Tracker that has already been shown with a range of accessories including guns, phones and even a baseball bat. The Tracker is expected to sell for around $100, with no word on included accessories or games that might work with the unit out of the box.

This adds some interesting new dynamics to the decision buyers are faced with when deciding which VR system to buy. After a price cut this month, Oculus is now selling the Rift with a pair of Touch controllers for $600. The competing HTC Vive’s core system remains $800, and HTC “doesn’t see the need to cut the price.”

An extra camera for the Rift is around $60. While this Rift setup requires a plethora of open USB slots on your PC, this third camera (in addition to the two provided in the core $600 bundle) allows the Rift’s system to track smaller but comparable ‘room-scale’ spaces. Add $70 for Rock Band and its guitar, which attaches to one of the Oculus Touch controllers, and the total for all of the above is still slightly lower than the base cost of the Vive. The Rift is also bundled with a number of freebie games, as is Vive, but the Rift has access to the content on both the Oculus Store and Steam. Unless using a hack, the Vive can’t access the great content on the Oculus Store.

While we adore the reliability and versatility of the SteamVR Tracking technology upon which the Vive relies — and the fact that the Vive uses up only a few ports on your PC — this price difference between the systems, inclusion of integrated audio and superior ergonomics of the Touch controllers could mean Vive will have an uphill battle in 2017.

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Kickstarter Goal Within Reach for VRGE VR Headset Dock in Final 24 Hours

vrge vr dock (1)The sleek-looking VRGE VR headset dock Kickstarter looks set to come down to a photo-finish. Heading into its final 24 hours, the crowdfunding campaign is within $2,000 of its $30,000 goal.

We’ve had our eye on the VRGE Kickstarter since it launched back in January. The smartly designed dock has universal support for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, and their controllers, as well as the option to sit flat on a desk or mount to a wall. Thanks to cable channels underneath, the dock can be set up to charge the controllers too.

VRGE Kickstarter

While the $59 Early Bird option is long gone, the $79 Standard and $99 Limited Edition offerings are all purported to ship in April, which—if they can pull it off—would be an impressively quick turnaround compared to many Kickstarter projects we’ve seen. Thankfully the creators of the project are well passed the mockup stage, having displayed prototypes of the dock in multiple wood finishes.

vrge vr dock (5)With an ‘all-or-nothing’ funding model for the campaign, the project won’t move ahead with any of the pledged funds unless it hits the $30,000 goal. Presently with $27,948 raised, the project is tantalizingly close in its final day.

Disclosure: The VRGE Kickstarter campaign is running banner advertisements on Road to VR.

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