Viveport VR Enters Early Access, Delve Into the Immersive Portal Today

At the beginning of the week, just prior to CES 2018, HTC Vive made some big announcements. The most attention grabbing was HTC Vive Pro, updating the original with integrated headphones and improved resolution. There was also the Vive Wireless Adaptor for users keen to free themselves from cables. Both of these are still to come, so for HTC Vive users keen on trying something new today they can now try the early access release of Viveport VR.

Viveport VR

As reported at the time, Viveport VR is a new way for Viveport users to find and consume virtual reality (VR) content through HTC Vive’s store. So not only are there new menus and layouts to improve the VR store experience the entire environment has been completely reworked.

The main addition of Viveport VR is the VR Preview this allows users to sample content prior to purchase very mush in a similar vein to traditional demos. Developers can choose what content they show, from just an environment to actual playable content so users know what the gameplay is like.

Today, HTC Vive has made another announcement. The Viveport Subscription which launched last year offering one month’s free trial will now be reduced. From the 16th January Viveport will only offer a 14-day trial period to new users, meaning that anyone not yet signed up has five days to make use of the one month period, allowing them to experience up to five VR titles from a selection of over 300.

Viveport 300 Titles

Apart from the monthly subscription Viveport also offers several plans each covering a certain amount of months, saving customers money they longer they subscribe. So there’s a three-month plan for £19.99, a six-month plan for £39.99 or a 12-month plan for £79.99. Each works exactly the same as before offering five titles per month that are then swappable. So if you paid the standard monthly cost of £6.99 over 12 months you’d spend £83.88.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of HTC Vive and Viveport, reporting back with the latest announcements.

HTC Vive’s J.B. McRee On New Hardware Dates & The Changes With Viveport At CES 2018

No one ever said that the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) didn’t always start the year with a bang. There’s been a staggering amount – record breaking, according to one source – of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) projects on display at this year’s convention. With everything from haptic suits to a new boxing and fitness tie-up. While outside the walls of the halls in Las Vegas there’s been plenty of other announcements as well.

When all is said and done we will likely all need to take stock of the road ahead that is 2018 after this week, because we’ve been shown a very big chunk of the map. With one of the biggest, if not the biggest product reveals coming from HTC Vive – the HTC Vive Pro. The previously teased Pro, along with developments for Viveport and an official wireless solution for HTC Vive in the form of the Vive Wireless Adapter are big hitters. The latter particularly in a year where standalone VR is set to be perhaps the talking point with the coming of the Oculus Go, Vive’s own standalone headset the Vive Focus and the Google’s standalone Daydream project with Lenovo, the Mirage Solo.

Earlier this week we brought you our interview with HTC Vive’s General Manager for The Americas, Daniel O’Brien, who discussed the announcements that had been made during the company’s CES 2018 press event and talked about how the company had listened to both VR customers and VR developers when putting together the Vive Pro.

VRFocus was also able to catch up with another member of the HTC Vive staff at CES, Senior Manager of Product Marketing J.B. McRee, a name long time readers might well recall – especially from news stories in Vive’s early days of 2015. McRee took time out to talk to the site’s Nina Salomons about all that’s going on in particular both the new hardware and new software – in particular how the new version of Viveport is going to change things.

Vive Wireless Adaptor“We’ve obviously been looking to do wireless for quite some time, we hear a lot from customers that were looking into that.” Explains McRee on what led to the Vive Wireless Adapter. “We had a great partnership with Intel, we announced that last year at CES and we’ve been working really hard on trying to provide a very high performing and low latency solution and we’ve done that now.”

Find out McRee’s thoughts on everything CES in the interview below. We will have lots more videos from all over CES in the coming days and weeks ahead here on VRFocus, be sure to follow us on the likes of Twitter, YouTube and now LinkedIn as well so you do not miss out.

 

Viveport VR Update Means More Games can be Previewed Before Purchase

HTC Vive’s pre-CES 2018 press conference may have been dominated by the HTC Vive Pro and new Wireless Adapter but it wasn’t all hardware based. The company’s own sales platform, Viveport, got a look in with a new upgrade being rolled out that’ll make it easier to use in virtual reality (VR) whilst providing new options.

viveport-vr_store_screenshot02

The update is called Viveport VR, and it’ll put users in a glossy, futuristic environment from where they can access all of Viveport’s content, making it easier to discover new videogames and apps.

The biggest feature Viveport VR will get is ‘VR Previews’. Essentially, short videogame demos, a VR Preview will allow a developer to showcase their work, giving a brief look at their virtual world, possibly offering some gameplay time as well. After which users can then purchase if they so wish or move on to something else.

“Viveport is moving to a VR first experience model, and with the all-new Viveport VR, we are changing the way consumers discover, experience and acquire VR content,” said Rikard Steiber, president, Viveport in a statement “Until now, there has not been a shopping and browsing experience that takes advantage of the full functionality of VR. Available in early access today, Viveport VR increases interaction with content and offers developers a preview that showcases the quality of their titles and experiences.”

Viveport VR

Viveport VR is another step towards making HTC Vive’s own sales platform as immersive and interactive as rivals. Oculus Home has seen recent updates with Rift Core 2.0 and SteamVR has become far more user friendly in its VR environment.

Earlier this year, Viveport launched its VR subscription service to provide a new way to access VR experiences for an all-in-one monthly fee. There are more than 1,000 titles available on Viveport today, and more than 325 available for subscription. As more are added and as HTC Vive expands the platform, VRFocus will keep you updated.