Mi VR – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

May 31, 2018

Oculus Go Launches in China Under Xiaomi Branding

Oculus previously announced earlier this year that Oculus Go, the company’s 3DOF standalone headset, would officially launch in 23 consumer markets, although China would be receiving its own version with Xiaomi branding. Now, at a conference in Shenzhen, the Chinese tech giant announced that Mi VR has officially launched in China.

According to Chinese tech publication Yivian, Mi VR is priced at ¥1,500 yuan ($235) and ¥1,800 yuan ($280) for the 32GB and 64GB versions respectively, a slight increase over Oculus Go’s $200/$250 price tag in the US, which is likely due to Chinese Value Added Tax of 17%.

Like Oculus Go, Mi VR features a Snapdragon 821 SoC, 2,560 × 1,440 (538 PPI) ‘fast-switch’ LCD display, and a single 3DOF controller. From the outside, the only difference comes down to the white body and badging; in place of Oculus, you now have a ‘Mi’ logo prominently on the faceplate.

While both headsets are actually manufactured by Xiaomi, the software experience is a slightly different story however. Oculus Go features 1120+ VR applications in the US market already, but it’s possible only a fraction of those are destined for the Chinese market at launch due to localization issues, and of course excluding more prominent apps that directly compete with Chinese variants.

Mi VR however supports the Oculus Mobile SDK, letting existing Oculus developers bring their content to Mi VR, providing the content is localized for the Chinese market. As added incentive, Oculus is offering 100% revenue share to devs throughout 2018 who localize content for Mi VR.

SuperData Research Weighs-In on CES 2018’s Biggest VR News

This year’s annual CES event, Las Vegas, has brought two major announcements for the virtual reality (VR) industry: HTC’s Vive Pro and Oculus VR’s partnership with Xiaomi for the launch of the Oculus Go in China, set to be known as Mi VR. Both of these announcements will shape the future of VR over the course of 2018, and SuperData Research’s head of immersive technology insights, Stephanie Llamas, offers her insights as to just how this will unfold.

Vive Pro Profile Below follows the commentary offered by Llamas, verbatim. Llamas is currently at CES 2018, along with VRFocus, and you can find out more about her experiences from the show on her personal blog.

Vive unveils hardware upgrades with the new Vive Pro

What this means: Tethering has been a big issue for VR thus far, which is why the Vive Focus and Oculus Go were designed to hopefully quell that issue. However, Vive is striving to create gold-standard devices (think of it as the iPhone of VR: higher cost, higher quality, lower accessibility), so experience is going to continue to trump affordability. But cost may be the key to adoption, at least in the beginning, so they will need to corner the enterprise market and provide extra compelling content for high-end users until mainstream consumers gradually get hungrier for premium devices.

Oculus VR partners with Xiaomi and Qualcomm to launch the Oculus Go worldwide and the Mi VR Standalone in China

What this means: Facebook can invest in VR without an immediate path to profit, unlike Vive. Therefore, they can afford to create more economical products that will help boost overall penetration and, in turn, make them the primary household name for VR. Oculus is also focusing on Facebook’s strong suits – social media and experiences – rather than invest in hardware development where they don’t need to. Right now, Vive is winning China in regard to high-end devices, so this is Oculus VR’s chance to get into the region by selling to a different market. Meanwhile, Xiaomi, which shipped over a million devices by November 2017, is striving to corner the Chinese standalone and premium mobile markets in the face of their strongest competitor, Huawei, who is working with Oculus VR competitor Google. These partnerships bode well for all companies involved – as long as the quality of experiences are high enough not to deter the general public from VR (the way Google Cardboard did).

January 9, 2018

Xiaomi to Bring Oculus Go to China Under Its Own Brand

Xiaomi, the Chinese electronics giant, officially announced that they’ve partnered with Oculus to not only manufacture Oculus Go, the company’s upcoming $200 standalone VR headset, but also produce a China-only standalone VR headset called Xiaomi Mi VR Standalone. Xiaomi’s headset is said to incorporate everything Oculus Go does hardware-wise, albeit with Xiaomi branding and its own Mi VR content store.

According to Xiaomi’s official announcement, the Mi VR Standalone will be available exclusively in China, while Oculus Go will be available in the rest of the world. Oculus has yet to officially offer Rift in China, while Xiaomi, the world’s fifth-largest smartphone manufacturer, has relatively low market penetration in the West.

Since they’re ostensibly the same hardware platforms (besides Mi VR’s white housing), both headsets include 2K resolution fast-switch LCD screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 mobile processors, Oculus-developed integrated spatial audio, and what Oculus calls “next-generation” lenses.

Tang Mu, VP of Mi Ecosystem and head of Mi Lab, said: “We are excited to work with Oculus on these standalone devices that exceed expectations in terms of performance at a very attractive price. Xiaomi has always relentlessly pursued the best user experience and price-to-performance ratio. For the best experience, we consider every minute detail. Through our collaboration with Oculus, we have integrated world-class technologies and craftsmanship to produce a VR standalone that lets people immerse themselves in another world without being connected to smartphones or computers.”

“The standalone VR form factor represents the next significant phase of VR hardware development at Oculus,” said Hugo Barra, VP of VR at Facebook. “Through our partnership with Xiaomi, both Oculus Go and Mi VR Standalone represent our first step in delivering that sweet spot between mobile and PC VR. These devices will be, hands down, the easiest way to get into VR.”

Barra, a previous Google VP of Android, came to Facebook from his last position as Xiaomi’s Global VP—sort of making it a Game of Thrones-style marriage of brands that seems to have bore a viable offspring of its own.

Oculus Go still doesn’t have a street date, although what appears to be the headset’s controller has already passed FCC testing, possibly pointing to a release just around the corner.

The post Xiaomi to Bring Oculus Go to China Under Its Own Brand appeared first on Road to VR.

January 9, 2018

Oculus Go & Mi VR Standalone To Be Powered By Qualcomm Snapdragon 821

It might have been a night, as this year’s CES trade show properly got underway, that has been dominated by the news of a brand new version (or upgrade) of the HTC Vive head mounted display (HMD) – the HTC Vive Pro. But that doesn’t mean that HTC have had the headlines all to itself when it comes to virtual reality (VR).

Whilst Vive had their own conference, where it had teased in advance there would be plenty to get people interested, HTC’s rivals at Oculus’s time in the limelight came at the end of Qualcomm’s press event. Where they surprised everyone with the announcement of a new standalone HMD specifically for the Chinese market (in a similar move to the Vive Focus) which will be made by their international hardware partner on the Oculus Go, Xiaomi.

The announcement for this was, from Facebook’s side, made by Hugo Barra who took to the stage and, along with the news of the Xiaomi partnership, also confirmed the reason for both himself and Xiaomi’s Thomas Tang being in attendance. That the hardware (that is identical between the Oculus Go and the Xi VR Standalone would be running off hardware provided by Qualcomm Technologies. More specifically, the collaboration sees both headsets using the Snapdragon Mobile VR Platform to cope with the processing side of performing VR in a standalone piece of technology. It will be the Snapdragon 821 which is used in the case of both headsets.

Qualcomm were also involved in the annoucement of the aforementioned HTC Vive standalone headset targeting the Chinese market, later revealed to be called the Vive Focus. Although in that instance it was revealed that the Vive HMD would be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. The Snapdragon 821 does however power a number of smartphones that are compatible with Google’s smartphone based HMD the Daydream View, such as the LG G6.

Speaking after the initial announcement on Twitter, Barra added that “We’ve worked closely with Qualcomm to deliver the highest possible level of performance in the standalone VR category.”

More details are expected at a later date. For everything relating to CES 2018 stay tuned to VRFocus.

January 9, 2018

Xiaomi and Oculus Reveal Mi VR Standalone Headset

Qualcomm held its pre-CES 2018 press conference today and as part of the event brought virtual reality (VR) company Oculus on stage for a very special announcement. Oculus has revealed that its been working with Chinese tech company Xiaomi to create a specific standalone head-mounted display (HMD) for the Chinese market called Mi VR.

Making the announcement was Oculus VP of VR Hugo Barra, revealing that Mi VR is based on Oculus’ own upcoming virtual reality (VR) headset the Oculus Go. Mi VR standalone shares the same core hardware features and design as Oculus Go and supports the Oculus Mobile SDK, enabling existing Oculus developers to easily bring their content to the Mi VR platform in China.

Xiaomi is working directly with Oculus developers to localize some of the most popular content from the Oculus Store and to bring it to the Mi VR Store in China.

In collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, both headsets use the Snapdragon Mobile VR Platform to address VR processing demands. The partnership between Oculus and Xiaomi isn’t just about the Mi VR headset, Xiaomi is Oculus’ hardware partner for launching Oculus Go globally.

Tang Mu, VP of Mi Ecosystem and head of Mi Lab, said in a statement: “We are excited to work with Oculus on these standalone devices that exceed expectations in terms of performance at a very attractive price. Xiaomi has always relentlessly pursued the best user experience and price-to-performance ratio. For the best experience, we consider every minute detail. Through our collaboration with Oculus, we have integrated world-class technologies and craftsmanship to produce a VR standalone that lets people immerse themselves in another world without being connected to smartphones or computers.”

No price has yet been revealed for the Mi VR but with Oculus Go priced from $199, Chinese consumers will likely pay a similar cost. As further details emerge VRFocus will keep you updated.

January 24, 2017

Xiaomi MI VR im Test

Xiaomi ist bekannt für hochwertige Produkte, die nicht unbedingt teuer sein müssen. Der Hersteller bedient sich dabei gerne bei den Ideen von anderen Unternehmen und versucht diese Tatsache auch nicht zu verheimlich. Ärgerlich ist, dass wir in Deutschland häufig nur schwierig an die Produkte von Xiaomi gelangen können. Mit dem MI VR Headset hatte das Unternehmen eine Virtual Reality Brille für Smartphones vorgestellt, welche einen Controller wie das Daydream System von Google bietet, einen technischen Aufbau wie die Samsung Gear VR vorweisen kann und die Halterung des PSVR Headsets übernommen hat. Doch kann diese Mischung funktionieren?

MI VR im Test

Das Smartphone wird wie bei der Samsung Gear VR eingelegt

Das MI VR Headset kommt in einem schlichten Karton und darin befindet sich das Headset und der passende Controller. Das Headset setzt auf eine Halterung, wie wir sie vom PlayStation VR Headset kennen. Der große Unterschied ist aber, dass das Display nicht frei beweglich ist. Somit sitzt das Display immer in einem festen Abstand zur Halterung und dieser Umstand macht das Aufsetzen des Headsets weniger komfortabel. Zum Ausgleich hat Xiaomi dem Headset eine Möglichkeit zum hochklappen spendiert. Wenn man den Dreh raus hat, dann lässt sich das Headset mit dieser Funktion komfortabel aufsetzen. In Sachen Komfort liegt das PSVR Headset dennoch eine ganze Nase vor dem MI VR, denn es sitzt einfach besser am Kopf und das Polster beim PSVR Headset ist deutlich dicker. Außerdem dient die Hochklapp-Funktion auch nur dem leichteren Aufsetzen. Die Halterung rastet nicht an einem bestimmten Punkt ein und somit kann man das Headset nicht hochklappen und für eine Weile in dieser Stellung lassen. Ein kurzer Blick in die echte Welt ist dennoch möglich.

Im MI VR Headset sind Sensoren für das Tracking verbaut (kein Positional Tracking) und ein Button zum Verwenden von einfachen Inhalten. Außerdem erkennt ein Näherungssensor, wann ihr die Brille wirklich auf der Nase habt. Wenn ihr das Headset absetzt, dann geht das Display aus und der Akku wird geschont. Hier hat man sich also frei bei der Gear VR bedient. Doch das Headset weist noch eine weitere Parallele zur Gear VR auf. Die MI VR Brille ist mit dem Note 2, Mi 5s, Mi 5s Plus und Mi 5 kompatibel. Damit auch alle Geräte in die Brille passen, hat sich Xiaomi an dem beweglichen USB-Port von Samsung orientiert und diesen übernommen.

Der kleine Controller kann seine Ausrichtung erkennen, aber die Position im Raum wird nicht getrackt. Der Controller ist also eine Nachbildung des Controllers für Google Daydream. Im Test haben aber nur wenige Spiele den Controller richtig verwendet und deshalb besteht hier noch Nachholbedarf. In den Menüs steuert ihr weiterhin mit dem Blick und auch viele Spiele setzen auf den Blick als Eingabemethode. Bestätigen könnt ihr die Auswahl aber über den Controller, wodurch er wie die Fernbedienung für die Oculus Rift agiert. Die Verarbeitung des Controllers ist in Ordnung, aber der Daydream Controller vom Daydream View Headset kam uns etwas hochwertiger vor.

Der Beitrag Xiaomi MI VR im Test zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!