Vive Pro - Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

December 13, 2021

HTC Holiday Sale Discounts up to $300 off Vive PC VR Headsets & Accessories

HTC is doing a week-long holiday sale starting today that is bringing deep discounts to many of its PC VR headsets, as well as accessories such as the Vive Wireless Adapter and Deluxe Audio Strap.

The promo is in effect starting today, and goes until December 19th (or until supplies sell out).

We’ve listed prices in US dollars below, however you’ll find similar savings across both EU and UK regional sites. Here’s the full list of VR hardware currently on sale:

VIVE Cosmos Elite Kit — $650 (reg. $900)

1,440 x 1,700 pixels per eye LCD at 90Hz
SteamVR 1.0 Base Stations
Vive wand controllers
Elite SteamVR faceplate
Built-in headphones
PC Required

VIVE Cosmos Elite Headset — $400 (reg. $550)

all of the above minus SteamVR Base Stations and controllers

VIVE Pro Full Kit — $900 (reg. $1,200)

1,440 x 1,600 pixels per eye AMOLED at 90Hz
SteamVR 2.0 Base Stations
Vive wand controllers
Built-in headphones
PC Required

VIVE Pro Eye Full Kit — $1,100 (reg. $1,400)

1,440 x 1,600 pixels per eye AMOLED at 90Hz
Built-in Tobii eye tracking
SteamVR 2.0 Base Stations
Vive wand controllers
Built-in headphones
PC Required

VIVE Pro Eye Office Headset — $800 (reg. $1,000)

all of the above minus SteamVR base stations and controllers

VIVE Wireless Adapter — $200 (reg. $350)

Supports Vive Pro and Cosmos series
Supports up to 2,448 x 1,224 resolution and 90Hz refresh rate when used with VIVE Pro 2
Wireless Adapter for VIVE Cosmos Series & VIVE Pro 2 only work with the 21-Watt battery included in the kit
Requires PC with available PCIe slot

VIVE Deluxe Audio Strap — $70 (reg. $100)

Brings headphones and greater long-term comfort
Natively compatible with original 2016-era HTC Vive

We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more savings in the coming days, as the usual rush of hardware and software discounts tend to arrive around this time frame, often seeing repeats of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Check back for more deals and discounts!

The post HTC Holiday Sale Discounts up to $300 off Vive PC VR Headsets & Accessories appeared first on Road to VR.

September 13, 2021

HTC Vive Pro 2 Full Kit Ships In October For $1,399

The HTC Vive Pro 2 Full Kit will start shipping in October, the company today confirmed.

Pre-orders for the bundle are already live in the US and will launch in Europe, Middle East and Africa on September 23rd. The kit costs £1,299 in the UK and you can also pre-order from Vive.com, Amazon, Scan or Overclockers to get a £50 voucher at the respective store. The pre-order window closes October 14th, so expect units to ship in the second half of next month.

HTC Vive Pro 2 Full Kit Ships Next Month

The Vive Pro 2 Full Kit includes the headset itself, two Vive wand controllers and two of Valve’s 2.0 SteamVR Base Stations. There’s also two months of the company’s VR subscription service, Viveport Infinity, thrown in too. Previously the headset had only been sold as a base model with just the device itself.

As we calculated back in May, though, you can actually get the Vive Pro 2 on its own and then buy the base stations and a pair of Valve Index controllers for $1,375. Not only are you saving yourself a little money, but the Index Controllers (which HTC has confirmed are compatible with the headset) support advanced finger detection and have analog sticks too.

It’s definitely worth doing a little digging if you’re in the market for a full PC VR kit, then. We haven’t tried the Pro 2 for ourselves yet but its specs certainly impress on paper – with dual 2448×2448 LCD panels, more than 2.6x as many pixels as the original Vive Pro. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring you some full impressions sometime in the near future.

August 24, 2021

HTC Vive Cosmos, Pro Headsets Discounted In UK Sale

HTC is discounting its Vive headset range in the UK this week, as part of a back to school promotional sale.

The discounts, available online through HTC in the UK , are fairly hefty and bring the price down on some of HTC’s older PC VR headsets.

Here are all the deals available on HTC Vive’s online store in the UK:

– Vive Cosmos: £549 (down from £699)

– Vive Cosmos Elite: £749 (down from £899)

– Vive Cosmos Elite Headset Only: £449 (down from £549)

– Vive Pro Full Kit: £969 (down from £1,119)

– Vive Pro Eye: £1,149 (down from £1,299)

All of these offers also include 2 months of Viveport Infinity, a subscription membership that allows you to download and play games included in the service for only the price of the ongoing subscription. It works similarly to Xbox Game Pass, but for VR games. Some popular games included with Viveport include A Fisherman’s Tale, Superhot VR, The Room VR, Cosmodread, Moss, Hyper Dash, Synth Riders and many more.

It’s also important to note that the Pro headsets listed in the sale are the older Pro models. The newer Pro 2 model was announced in May alongside the enterprise-focused HTC Vive Focus 3. Those newer headsets remain at full price, with the headset-only model of the Pro 2 available for £659 and the full Pro 2 kit available for £1299.

If you’re looking at the Cosmos headsets on sale, then you’ll want to keep the differences between models in mind. The base Cosmos is HTC’s consumer PC VR headset, which released in 2019. The Cosmos Elite models are the same headset, but with an added external tracking option that lets you use the headset with SteamVR base stations.

Those with base stations and controllers already can go for the headset-only Cosmos Elite at £449.

Will you be picking up anything in the HTC back to school sale? Let us know in the comments.

May 12, 2021

HTC’s Wireless Adapter Doesn’t Support Vive Pro 2’s Full Resolution

When used with Vive Pro 2, the Vive Wireless Adapter doesn’t support the full resolution or 120 Hz mode.

The adapter currently operates at 1224×1224 per eye 90 Hz when used with Vive Pro 2.

HTC says it will increase the resolution to 1632×1632 “soon”, presumably via a firmware update.

The Vive Wireless Adapter first shipped in late 2018 for $299. HTC currently sells it for $349, which includes parts needed to affix it to the Cosmos & Pro headset series.

Even the upcoming resolution falls far short of Vive Pro 2’s full per-eye resolution – 2448×2448. The Vive Wireless Adapter uses a high bandwidth 60 GHz signal, but it looks like HTC is running into the bandwidth limit with Pro 2.

HTC announced the Vive Pro 2 earlier this week using the same design as the original but switching out the OLED panels for much higher resolution LCDs capable of going to 120Hz in wired mode. The headset also uses HTC’s new wider field of view lenses. If you already own SteamVR base stations & controllers, or plan to purchase those from Valve separately, the headset alone is priced at $799. The headset will ship from June 4. A full kit of Vive Pro 2 with SteamVR base stations and HTC’s original “wand” controllers will be available from August for $1399.

Do you already have the Vive Wireless Adapter? Are you planning to pair it with the Vive Pro 2? Converting from wired to wireless mode isn’t exactly an instantaneous change, so we’re curious how owners are planning to use this hardware. Let us know in the comments below what your plans are.

May 11, 2021

HTC Announces Vive Pro 2 For Consumers & Vive Focus 3 For Businesses

As expected, HTC announced not one but two new VR headsets at its ViveCon virtual event today: the HTC Vive Pro 2 and the HTC Vive Focus 3.

The Vive Pro 2 is a PC VR headset aimed at both enthusiast consumers and enterprise use, while the Vive Focus 3 is a standalone device aimed squarely at the enterprise market. Both are launching in the coming weeks.

HTC Vive Pro 2

Vive Pro 2 looks much like the original Pro, which itself was an update to the first Vive. Its shell features a mix of the original Vive’s black and the Pro’s navy but, otherwise, the design is essentially the same, with an adjustable headband and built-in speakers. The kit features LCD displays offering 2448×2448 per-eye resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 120 degree field of view (FOV). There’s also adjustable IPD and support for existing Vive and SteamVR peripherals, though no eye-tracking support as seen in the Vive Pro Eye. You can see a full spec run down right here.

As with the original Vive Pro, HTC is selling Vive Pro 2 in two different forms. The base headset alone will be available for pre-order for $749/£659 and HTC plans to start shipping on June 3rd, when the price will increase to $799. This option is designed for people that already have the essential SteamVR kit: at least two base stations and either a pair of Vive wands or even the Valve Index controllers. The device is available to everyone.

A full kit, meanwhile, includes two 2.0 base stations and the Vive wands. It will launch on August 4 for $1399/£1299.

HTC Vive Focus 3

The Vive Focus 3, meanwhile, builds upon the original Focus and Focus Plus with an all-new design. Running on Qualcomm’s XR2 chip (the same used in the Oculus Quest 2), the kit’s display specs are largely comparable to the Pro 3 – 2448×2448 per-eye resolution and 120 degree FOV but with a 90Hz display. The headset features four-camera inside-out tracking and new controllers that look much like the Oculus Touch devices.

Interestingly, the device has a swappable battery at the back of the headset and features a magnesium alloy frame. Focus 3 will also come loaded with enterprise-focused software including access to the Vive Business AppStore, a marketplace for generalized enterprise applications. Again, you can find a full spec run down right here.

Unlike Pro 2, Vive Focus 3 will be sold to businesses, though HTC says it will also be available on “some consumer channels” for smaller outlets to purchase. It will cost $1,300/£1,060, which includes a 24 month warranty and services suite. The company would not confirm if a consumer version of the device might be in the works for the future.

HTC confirmed to us that it will continue to sell its Cosmos consumer headset too, as well as the original Pro and Pro Eye for now.

What do you make of the Vive Pro 2 and Vive Focus 3? Let us know in the comments below!

May 11, 2021

Vive Pro 2 Specs: 120Hz 5K LCD, New 120° Lenses, SteamVR Tracking

HTC just officially revealed Vive Pro 2, the successor to the Vive Pro launched back in 2018. Read on for Vive Pro 2 specs.

Vive Pro 2 is a PC VR headset for both consumers and businesses. It uses the same design as the original but switches out the OLED panels for a much higher resolution 120Hz LCD, and uses HTC’s new wide field of view lenses.

The front of the headset is black like the original 2016 Vive, but the strap arm & rear remain blue. It still has built-in headphones and two color cameras for passthrough.

Vive Pro 2 Specs

If you already own SteamVR base stations & controllers, or plan to purchase those from Valve separately, the headset alone is priced at $799.

The headset will ship from June 4, with preorders before then getting a $50 discount.

A full kit with SteamVR base stations and HTC’s original “wand” controllers will be available from August for $1399.

2.5K Per-Eye 120 Hz LCD

Vive Pro used dual PenTile OLED panels with a resolution of 1440×1600 each – the same used in the first Oculus Quest.

Vive Pro 2 replaces them with a “5K” LCD panel providing 2448×2448 per eye – more than 2.6x as many pixels. That’s the highest resolution available in the consumer VR space, going beyond even HP’s Reverb G2.

Vive Pro 2 uses DisplayPort 1.2 with Display Stream Compression (DSC), so any graphics card that supported the original should still work.

Vive Pro’s panels ran at 90 Hz refresh rate, but Vive Pro 2 increases this to 120 Hz.

The switch from OLED to LCD means Vive Pro 2 can no longer display the true color black, since there’s a backlight behind the display instead of pixels controlling their own light.

Wider Field Of View Lenses

Vive Pro 2 & Vive Focus 3 introduce HTC’s “new bespoke dual stacked-lens design”.

HTC says the new lenses provide a clean 120 degree field of view, without introducing new distortion or blur at the edges. For comparison, it marketed the original Vive Pro’s field of view as 110 degrees.

There are multiple ways to measure field of view, and it changes depending on how close your eyes are to the lenses. We’ll bring you our impressions of the new lenses when we get hands-on.

Like with all HTC headsets so far, Vive Pro 2 has lens separation adjustment.

Same SteamVR Tracking

HTC’s Vive Cosmos line switched to “inside-out” positional tracking, but Vive Pro 2 sticks with SteamVR Tracking 2.0.

That means existing base stations and controllers should continue to work, and tracking should be extremely high quality in most environments.

What do you make of the Vive Pro 2 specs? Let us know in the comments below!

May 11, 2021

Vive Pro 2 vorgestellt: 5K, 120 Grad FOV, Dual-Stacked-Lens-Design

Die VIVECON ist gestartet und HTC hat die Vive Pro 2 und die Vive Focus 3 vorgestellt. Während sich die Vive Focus 3 ausschließlich an Unternehmen und professionelle Anwender und Anwenderinnen richtet, ist die Vive Pro 2 auch als Upgrade für Enthusiasten gedacht.

Vive Pro 2 und Vive Focus

Die HTC Vive Pro 2 wird auf ein 5K LCD-Panel (2,5K pro Auge) mit RGB-Subpixeln setzen. Dabei wird HTC ein “Dual-Stacked-Lens-Design” verwenden, welches großflächige Klarheit auf einem Sichtbereich von 120 Grad verspricht. Beim Dual-Stacked-Lens-Design kommen direkt zwei Linsen hintereinander zum Einsatz.

Vive Pro 2: Upgrade auch für ältere PCs

HTC Vive wird bei der Vive Pro 2 weiterhin auf das SteamVR-Tracking von Valve setzen. Ihr benötigt für den Betrieb also Lighthouse-Stationen der ersten oder zweiten Generation, um die Brille im Raum zu tracken. Auch bei den Controllern wird es keine Veränderungen geben. Ihr könnt aber die Vive Pro 2 mit den Controllern der Valve Index oder anderen Controllern verwenden, die von SteamVR unterstützt werden. HTC wird mit der Vive Pro 2 das Rad also nicht neu erfinden, aber ein spannendes Upgrade für Menschen bieten, die bereits eine Brille mit SteamVR-Tracking besitzen.

Damit ihr nicht zwangsläufig euren PC für den Betrieb der Vive Pro 2 upgraden müsst, hat HTC Vive gemeinsam wohl mit NVIDIA und AMD ein System entwickelt, um die Stream-Kompression zu optimieren. Hierdurch soll es möglich sein, auch mit schwächerer Hardware die Vive Pro 2 zu betreiben. Wenn euer PC also flott genug für die Vive Pro 1 war, soll er theoretisch auch mit der Vive Pro 2 arbeiten können.

Falls ihr die Vive Pro 2 als Upgrade bestellen wollt, dann könnt ihr dies ab sofort tun. Durch einen aktuellen Rabatt kommt ihr auf einen Preis von 739 Euro für die VR-Brille ohne Tracker und ohne Controller. Ab 4. Juni wird es auch ein Komplettpaket für 1.399 Euro geben.

Alle Details zur HTC Vive Focus 3 findet ihr hier.

Der Beitrag Vive Pro 2 vorgestellt: 5K, 120 Grad FOV, Dual-Stacked-Lens-Design zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

May 5, 2021

Report: HTC To Announce Vive Focus 3, Vive Pro 2 At ViveCon

According to a report from Protocol, HTC will unveil two new headsets at ViveCon next week – the Vive Focus 3 Business Edition and Vive Pro 2.

Protocol found mentions of both devices in company documents, and reports that both were also briefly listed on Alzashop, a European ecommerce site.

The Vive Focus 3 Business Edition will be a standalone enterprise headset following up the Vive Focus Plus, while the Vive Pro 2 will be a high-end PC VR successor to the original Vive Pro.

According to the Alzashop pages, the Vive Focus 3 Business Edition will retail for €1,474 (approximately $1770) and the Vive Pro 2 for €842 (approximately $1012). Protocol reports that both devices will be available to purchase by the end of the month.

HTC has been teasing hardware announcements for the last few weeks and confirmed it would unveil “game-changing” VR headsets at ViveCon next week, which runs from May 11-12.

Most recently, promotional GIFs gave a look at some of the upcoming hardware, including a view of the front of a headset and its tracking cameras, embedded above.

HTC’s previous comments suggested its standalone headset would not be a Quest competitor. This lines up with the Protocol report, which indicates that the Vive Focus 3 is aimed at an enterprise market and, priced somewhere around $1700, comes nowhere close to the Quest 2’s $299 starting price, and still more than double the $799 starting price of the Quest 2 business edition.

The Vive Pro 2 looks to be a successor to the original Vive Pro, which was mostly discontinued in March 2020, spare for a few Vive Pro Eye models.

Keep an eye out for more information next week at ViveCon – or more leaks before then.

March 10, 2021

HTC Vive Pro Facial Tracker For Sale In The U.S. This Month

HTC’s Vive Facial Tracker will be available for purchase in the United States starting March 24 for $129.99.

The face-tracking accessory is compatible with the Vive Pro, a headset which accounts for just over 2 percent of headsets in use on Valve’s Steam. As of this writing, Vive Pro is only in stock starting at $1,199 for a full kit.

The Facial Tracker is also compatible with the Vive Pro Eye which comes with eye tracking for $200 more than Vive Pro. If you tacked on three of the newly announced third-generation Vive Trackers which sell for $129.99 each, HTC is selling what amounts to a complete body and face-tracking VR headset solution for just under $2,000. You of course need to also have a PC capable of driving high end VR.

HTC claims the Facial Tracker “provides accurate real-time depiction of almost the entire lower facial area in VR” by tracking “38 facial movements across the lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, chin, and cheeks.” It is a dual camera accessory with a 60Hz tracking rate and a infrared illuminator that HTC claims provides tracking latency of 6ms.

We’re expecting HTC to announce a new standalone VR headset sometime this year but it is unclear what market the device will target. The device is also likely to use inside-out tracking and operate within the tight power consumption and processing constraints of a mobile chipset like the XR2. That means it is likely these full body tracking accessories will remain tied to the Vive Pro line of headsets, but we’ll have to see what HTC has in store.

March 8, 2021

Community Download: What Do You Expect From The New HTC Vive VR Headset?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you think about the news of HTC gearing up to announce a new VR headset soon. Specifically, what do you expect out of the device, assuming it’s a standalone Quest competitor?

What Is Next From HTC Vive?

Last week HTC Vive teased what looked to be news about an upcoming new VR headset. The tease itself was only a fraction of their logo, but it looks like it’s on some sort of plastic or leathery material that would indicate it’s an actual physical logo on a device of some kind.

This week, it was spotted that HTC’s President of Vive in China, Alvin Graylin actually said in a past interview they’re going to release a “next-generation standalone” VR headset this year. So, the mystery is probably not quite as mysterious as it originally seemed.

Assuming this is accurate—which, let’s be real, it probably is since this is what everyone was already expecting—this is big news. Obviously the Vive Focus line already exists, but those were never really designed to be consumer-focused headsets at all. From the moment the Vive Focus was announced it was always marketed as and targeted at enterprise customers. Hopefully, this is the Quest competitor everyone has been waiting for.

However, it’s worth noting that in that same interview Graylin did say, “I don’t think I would position it as a Quest competitor,” but that could just be him downplaying comparisons ahead of the announcement.

What do you think? Assuming this is HTC Vive’s standalone all-in-one VR headset that aims to be a Quest competitor, what do you expect?

Let us know down in the comments below!