StarVR One Resurfaces, Goes on Sale in Asia With US & Europe to Come

Isn’t this year full of surprises, from global lockdowns to Half-Life coming back, the rollercoaster that is 2020 keeps ongoing. Adding to this list is the StarVR One headset. The enterprise-focused device all but disappeared in 2018 but has now reemerged and available for purchase, in Japan and Taiwan.

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The StarVR project has had quite the bumpy journey since the headset was first revealed by Starbreeze way back in 2015. The following year the company partnered with Acer to make the headset a reality, creating the StarVR Corporation in the process. Everything came to an abrupt stop at the end of 2018 when Starbreeze Studios got into financial difficulties due to the poor sales of Overkill’s The Walking Dead. This also saw the closing of the StarVR Developer Program.

After that, it all went quiet until today when YouTube channel MRTV reported that sales had now begun in Asia. A purchase button has appeared on the StarVR website taking customers through to several Japanese and Taiwanese links for resellers and distributors. Further down the page, China is listed as coming soon while Europe, UK and the US all have ‘Inquiry Here’ buttons, where companies can enter their details.

StarVR One is most definitely an enterprise-focused device, aiming to compete with the likes of VRgineers’ XTAL or the Varjo VR-2. Notably absent from the StarVR website and the resellers in an actual price. When the StarVR Developer Program began in 2018 the headset was listed for $3,200 USD so it’s likely to have stayed in that region.

Zerolight

StarVR One features a 210º horizontal and 130º vertical field of view (FOV) with a pair of VR-optimized, full RGB AMOLED displays offering 1,830 × 1,464 resolution per eye, serving up 16 million sub-pixels. Also built-in is Tobii eye tracking for automatic IPD adjustment and foveated rendering capabilities, alongside SteamVR Tracking 2.0 support.

Full Specifications for StarVR One:

  • Panel: 2 x 4.77” AMOLED
  • Display resolution: 16 million sub-pixels (1,830 x 1,464 resolution per eye)
  • Refresh rate: 90Hz low persistence
  • Lens type: Custom Fresnel lenses
  • Field of view: 210-degree horizontal FOV, 130-degree vertical FOV
  • Fully integrated Tobii eye tracking
  • IPD measurement with automatic SW adjustment
  • Dynamic Foveated Rendering
  • SteamVR tracking 2.0 up to two Base Stations
  • HMD
    • 2 x 0.9m Type-C cables
    • 2 x 5m Type-C extension cables
    • 1 x 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with microphone
  • Optional cable adapter box
    • 2 x DisplayPort
    • 2 x USB 2.0
  • Total cable length 5.9m
  • Weight: 450g (Only headset without head strap/headband and cables)

As further details including expanded territory support are revealed, VRFocus will let you know.

Ultra-wide FOV Headset StarVR One Priced at $3,200, Selling to Enterprise Only

StarVR One, the ultra-wide field of view (FOV) VR headset, has traveled a long and winding path on its way to launch since it was first announced in late 2018 that developers and enterprise would be able to apply for hardware. Now the Taipei-based company has detailed price and availability in the US, Europe and Asia.

Update (May 4th, 2020): StarVR has detailed its official pricing, stating that their wide FOV headset is now available for purchase by enterprise customers for $3,200 or €2,800, which includes shipping, but excludes local taxes. The news was first reported by MRTV’s Sebastian Ang.

StarVR tells MRTV that since the headset is a b2b product, that price may skew lower based on order quantity. The company further confirmed that although StarVR One is indeed supported through OpenVR, however the number of viewports needed requires software-side changes for the sake of compatibility.

Furthermore, StarVR tells Ang that it’s headset is strictly meant for qualified enterprise customers, and interested parties will have to go through a selection process first (i.e. no prosumers). The original article follows below.

Original Article (April 9th, 2020): StarVR is now available in Japan and Taiwan through a handful of companies, including ELSA Japan Inc., Cybenet Systems, Access Co, and ASK Corporation in Japan, and Ability International Tenancy Co, Otsuka Information Technology Corp. and Axis3D Technology Co. in Taiwan. Availability in mainland China is marked as “coming soon”.

The news was first reported by Mixed Reality TV’s Sebastian Ang.

Pricing is still unclear, although we wouldn’t expect it to stray too far from its originally quoted $3,200 price tag when it was first offered through the developer program in November 2018 (see update). StarVR’s developer program was however indefinitely put on hold a short time afterwards, which was a direct result of its delisting from the Taipei stock exchange and subsequent reorganization from a public to private entity.

StarVR One, once the result of a partnership between Acer and game developers Starbreeze, is still likely well outside of the reach of consumers, appealing instead to businesses such as VR arcade operators, design firms, and other industrial use cases.

Just the same, when we tried it last back in September 2018 Road to VR Execute Editor Ben Lang was pretty impressed with what he saw:

“From my hands-on time with the headset, StarVR has done a great job of achieving optical comfort. The field of view feels immensely wide, reaching to the ends of your horizontal peripheral vision, without introducing eye-strain or edge distortions that are overtly distracting. The projection of the virtual world feels correct in a way that leaves the user free to soak in the added immersion that comes with such a wide field of view. Getting all of this right is key to Presence—that uniquely deep state of immersion,” said Lang.

The headset’s claim to fame invariably rests on its absolutely massive 210 × 130 degree FOV, dual custom AMOLED displays boasting 1,830 × 1,464 per lens resolution (total of 16 million sub-pixels), and eye-tracking from Swedish firm Tobii.

Check the specs and minimum requirements below:

StarVR One Specs

  • Panel – 2 x 4.77” AMOLED
  • Display resolution – 1,830 × 1,464 per lens resolution, total 16 million sub-pixels
  • Refresh rate – 90Hz low persistence
  • Lens type – Custom Fresnel lenses
  • Field of view – 210-degree horizontal FOV, 130-degree vertical FOV
  • Eye-tracking – Fully integrated Tobii eye-tracking, including Dynamic Foveated Rendering
  • IPD measurement – in-software solution
  • Tracking – SteamVR tracking 2.0 up to two Base Stations
  • Connectivity – 2 x 0.9m Type-C cables, 2 x 5m Type-C extension cables, 1 x 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with microphone
  • Port requirements – 2 x DisplayPort, 2 x USB 2.0
  • Total cable length – 5.9m

Minimum System Requirements

  • Operating system – Windows 10 64bits
  • Processor – Intel core i7-7700
  • Memory – 16GB
  • Graphics – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080Ti or NVIDIA Quadro RTX5000/dedicated internal graphics card

The post Ultra-wide FOV Headset StarVR One Priced at $3,200, Selling to Enterprise Only appeared first on Road to VR.

Acer: ‘We’re continuing to explore & invest in XR’

Following confirmation of the cancellation of its latest ConceptD OJO VR headset, Acer says it’s still in the XR game.

Earlier this week Acer confirmed that it decided to cancel its ConceptD OJO headset; it had been 10 months since the headset was announced before the company confirmed it had been canned.

Acer’s ConceptD OJO headset | Image courtesy Acer

The company didn’t offer any real details on the reasoning behind the decision, though we speculated that Acer may be shifting priorities away from VR. When we reached out to clarify, the company told us that it still has skin in the game.

“Acer continues to explore opportunities and invest resources in XR-related technologies,” a spokesperson told Road to VR.

It’s a seemingly intentionally vague statement; our read is that the company doesn’t have concrete plans right now but isn’t dropping VR either.

When it comes to Windows VR headsets (like Acer’s), Microsoft is the linchpin as it creates and controls key hardware and software for the WMR platform. However, the company has shown little interest in the VR end of the WMR platform in the last year or two (instead focusing heavily on its first-party HoloLens), leaving headset partners like Acer in the lurch. Without seeing much enthusiasm from the key stakeholder in WMR, it’s understandable that it would be difficult for Acer to make future commitments.

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The Acer spokesperson also told us that the company, “continues to support the sales and service of the Acer OJO 500,” its enterprise-focused headset which launched in late 2019, a year after initially expected.

Acer’s OJO 500 headset | Image courtesy Acer

Though we asked about it specifically, the spokesperson avoided mentioning the first-generation Acer WMR headset (launched in 2017), which suggests the headset has been discontinued. As we spotted back in mid-2019, many of the original Windows VR headsets, including Acer’s, had vanished from the Microsoft store after apparently being discontinued.

The post Acer: ‘We’re continuing to explore & invest in XR’ appeared first on Road to VR.