Following many announcements on ‘day zero’ of CES, we’ve rounded up some of the most important bits from ‘day 1’ of our CES 2018 coverage: hands-on with the Vive Pro, Google introduces new VR180 cameras, Lenovo Mirage Solo detailed, and HTC’s official wireless adapter for Vive and Vive Pro.
Pimax, the Chinese VR startup honing in on a consumer headset with a huge field of view, is said to soon be shipping the first Pimax “8K” headsets to Kickstarter backers. While the company executed a very successful Kickstarted and parlayed that into a healthy investment, it remains to be seen if Pimax can go the final mile to meet the fevered expectations set upon it by the West’s high-end VR community. We go hands-on with the company’s latest prototype headset at CES 2018 to see where things stand.
During HTC’s pre-CES event where the new flagship Vive Pro headset was revealed, the company also announced an official Wireless Adaptor for Vive. The optional accessory will allow for a tether-free VR experience, and will support both the Vive and Vive Pro systems when it launches in the summer.
Lenovo today unveiled the first standalone VR headset in Google’s Daydream mobile VR ecosystem, the Mirage Solo. Revealed today at CES, the headset integrates Google’s WorldSense six degrees of freedom (6DoF) positional tracking alongside the headset’s 3DoF controller.
Google today unveiled at CES a pair of point-and-shoot stereoscopic 180 cameras from Lenovo and Chinese camera manufacturer YI Technology. The cameras, respectively called the Lenovo Mirage and the Yi Horizon, are the first consumer cameras in Google’s growing VR180 camera platform.
Here’s a roundup of news from ‘day zero’ of CES 2018, served in bitesize chunks. Intel’s tiny VR-capable PC, Tactical Haptics’ reconfigurable controller, NextVR updates, TPCast Plus, HTC Vive Pro, and Xiaomi’s re-branded Oculus Go.
It might still be rather bulky, but HTC’s new Vive Pro brings a host of improvements that have the headset teetering on the edge of next-gen.
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.
Today at a pre-CES Vive press event, we got a look at the newly announced HTC Vive Pro, a higher-resolution headset from the company acting as a sort of ‘Vive 1.5’.
HTC is due to announce updates to its Vive system today during a press event at CES 2018. We’re on the scene to bring you the news live.
Late last week, HTC made a major tease of a forthcoming new Vive headset with improved resolution. Apparently leaked information ahead of any official announcements suggests we’ll see a ‘Vive Pro’ announced by HTC at CES this week with an enhanced 2,880 × 1,600 resolution and the addition of an optional Vive Wireless Adapter.
TPCast, manufacturer of wireless adapters for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift systems, has announced an upgraded version of its eponymous wireless system called TPCast Plus. According to the company, the new Plus version, which will be demonstrated at CES this year, offers several hardware and software improvements, including a new mounting system that supports hot-swap batteries.
Today, live event broadcasting specialists NextVR announced three technology advancements to their platform coming this year: six degrees of freedom-enabled content, higher resolution output, and augmented reality support. A sneak peek of the technologies is being shown to media at CES 2018.
Tactical Haptics’ newly developed haptic controller prototype uses mechanical sockets that allow them to be mated in different configurations on-the-fly, in order to match a particular virtual interaction more closely than standard VR motion controllers. The controllers incorporate the company’s ‘Reactive Grip’ technology, a unique form of haptic feedback.
The latest version of Intel’s miniscule ‘NUC’ PC is VR capable, the company says. Thanks to the power of AMD’s discrete Radeon Vega M graphics, the new NUC can power “premium” VR experiences at 90 FPS, says Intel.
