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.
According to a report by Silicon Era, Sony expects to increase the number of PSVR games from 150 to 280 over the course of 2018.
HTC made a not so subtle tease today that a new version of the HTC Vive is on the way with improved resolution. While it doesn’t look like this will be positioned as a ‘Vive 2’, here’s what we could see from a ‘Vive 1.5’ when it debuts next week at CES on January 8th.
HTC today shared a teaser image which appears to indicate a forthcoming new model of the HTC Vive with improved resolution.
Sony has compiled a list of the top 10 PSVR games downloaded in 2017. Based on the number of downloads from PlayStation Store (and not total revenue), the list gives us a good idea of what’s been popular with PSVR owners this past year.
