Omni-One — Image courtesy Virtuix

Enthusiast-grade VR Treadmill ‘Virtuix Omni One’ Now Available for Pre-order

Starting at $2,595

By

-

Oct 19, 2023

Virtuix, the company behind the Omni VR treadmill, launched a crowd-based investment campaign in 2020 to fund Virtuix Omni One, an at-home VR locomotion device targeted at enthusiasts. Previously only available to early investors, now the company announced it’s opening pre-orders of Omni One to the general public.

Update (October 19th, 2023): Virtuix started shipping Omni One to investors earlier this year, however now the company announced general availability of pre-orders has begun, with deliveries scheduled to start in Q2 of 2024, the company says.

Omni One’s introductory price is $2,595 (plus shipping), or as low as $70/month on a payment plan, the company says, which includes both the treadmill and a Pico VR headset. Additionally, anyone placing a preorder before November 16th at midnight Pacific Time will receive a free Omni One game of their choice and an exclusive ‘Trailblazer’ designation imprinted on their unit, the company tells Road to VR.

The original article announcing investor-only shipments follows below:

Original Article (March 22nd, 2023): Omni One units are now headed out to early investors (re: not backers) prior to the device’s planned consumer launch, which is said to arrive at some point later this year.

The company says its currently has a waitlist for Omni One of “more than 35,000 subscribers.”

Here’s a look at what Virtuix says is the final version of the hardware:

Image courtesy Virtuix

Virtuix says 900 of its equity crowdfunding investors have applied to buy Omni One beta units, which will be extended to late 2023, however unit quantities will “start small and gradually increase as the program proceeds.”

Varjo Cuts Price of High-end Aero PC VR Headset by 50%

Similar to other parabolic VR ‘treadmills’, Omni One requires you to wear special low-friction shoes and strap into a harness system which keeps you in the center of the base’s parabola.

And although marketed as a consumer-targeted device, Omni One’s introductory price will be $2,595 plus shipping, which also includes the Pico Neo 3 Pro standalone headset. The company is however also offering a financing plan that could bring it to as low as $65 per month.

Over its lifetime, Virtuix has raised $35 million. The company says it’s now shipped over $16 million worth of products, which includes over 4,000 Omni Pro systems across 45 countries, and than 70 Omni Arena systems to US venues such as Dave & Buster’s.

BioEngorged

I have to admit, the solution with the mechanical arm seems pretty cool! Nice to see innovation in the VR treadmill industry!
mellott124

It’s a cool device but calling $2500 consumer is quite the stretch. And Pico is an odd choice.
- BenVirtuix
  
  While Omni One’s price point is not for everyone, we’re seeing incredible demand for the system. The Pico Neo 3 Pro is an excellent headset with comparable specs to the Meta Quest 2 (with a larger FOV). Also, many developers are now making content for it alongside the Quest.
  - ViRGiN
    
    Or maybe you were forced by chinese partners to use Pico for promotional purposes? This doesn’t make ANY sense.
    - VrSLuT
      
      Probably the demographics fit since arcades and games are big in China where there are more young males that PICO caters to at the loss of other types of users.
      - ViRGiN
        
        Which makes is a china-oriented product, for one-time-off customers.
        Omni still haven’t secured any real deals with anyone.
      - silvaring
        
        Its such a laughable situation, someone gets millions in investment (or uses their own money) to fund a product in the hope that the VR market will expand (and not contract).
        
        Then reality hits, the reviews come in, the engineering prototypes have less than desired drawbacks.
        
        What to do?
        
        Defend your decision, pretend like it wasnt a bit mistake, so you can pass the bag to someone else, or get so lucky that the VR market suddenly gets massive technological breakthroughs, or a superstar employee joins your team that can help you sell / massively optimize your product.
        
        Or maybe I’m just cynical and not understanding the nuance of this all.
  - Andrew Jakobs
    
    But does it also support the Meta Quest 2, SteamVR headsets or even the Pico 4? As locking it to the Pico Neo 3 pro is not a smart move (although it’s an excellent headset).
    Is it powered? as in the video or screenshots there doesn’t seem to be any powercord going to the device. Otherwise it would also be great if it would have an USB-C port so you can just plug in the headset to run of the cable for power instead of the limited time of the battery.
  - CrusaderCaracal
    
    “comparable specs” you’re going to force people to pair their $2500 vr treadmill with a shittier competitor to a older vr headset
JanO

I’m sure these feel different or even cool, but I’m not sure it could ever feel right, given the design. Platform seems way too small to strech your legs and actually run comfortably or to quickly strafe left or right… Furthermore, you never get to stand on a flat surface and when you stop moving, the bowl shape of the platform brings your two feet together…

Has anyone here tried these (or KAT VR)? I’m curious about your experience…
- BenVirtuix
  
  In addition to an improved shape, Omni One’s base is larger than on our previous model, Omni Pro. It feels better underfoot, as a result. There is plenty of space to run, and only very tall users will have to curtail their stride a little. It is possible to stand still with feet apart (as they brace each other when both are in contact with the base), and while this was also possible with Omni Pro, it is perhaps easier now with the new base. Strafing indeed cannot be performed as quickly as on a keyboard, but this may have a positive impact on the multiplayer experience, as anyone who is familiar with ADADing may appreciate.
  - ViRGiN
    
    Cool, and you got how many developers actually supporting your stuff… zero and a half? You kickstarted this 10 years ago and still haven’t delivered anything to customers?
    - BenVirtuix
      
      This is not the same product we Kickstarted ten years ago. In the interim, we have sold over 4,000 Omni Pro units to entertainment venues, as we had to switch to a commercial focus for the last few years. We aren’t ready to announce our launch line up yet, but we are currently meeting with developers – we are targeting 30 titles for the official launch. We have delivered the first few beta units, and we are excited to continue bringing to people’s homes the VR treadmill we always dreamed of making!
      - ViRGiN
        
        Oh wow. I’m not impressed. Where are these 30 titles huh?
  - CrusaderCaracal
    
    will a 6’3 user fit
- Aeos
  
  I have a KATWalk C (not the newer one that has improved tracking). My biggest problem is that since most platforms are emulating joystick movement, the accuracy of the movement is pretty awful. If you’re just walking continuously in a direction it works great for immersion, but once you want to start getting more precise movement in higher intensity situations it’s a huge competitive disadvantage. I haven’t used it a ton FWIW, I’m sure people could be good at it though.
  
  You learn to walk on the surface so it’s not too crazy to adapt, but it definitely is not natural. For balance you typically stand with your feet further apart when not moving, and with the angle you apply pressure your feet don’t slide together. To start moving you basically have to switch stances to not have that slide happen so again, not really natural.
  
  Apart from the movement accuracy, picking/interacting with items on the floor in the game around you is the biggest challenge on the katwalk the back harness doesn’t offer you a lot of reach to bend down (especially since I’m over 6FT tall, but that is defintely something the Omni One looks to improve upon. Most games have a way to work around this limitation but not something I thought about being a problem before owning.
LazyFox

I’d like to try out one one of these at a VR arcade. A bit outside of what I could ever justify at home, but I’m definitely curious about it.
ViRGiN

It’s not for enthusiast.
Peter vasseur

The fact that this a closed ecosystem, and you need their headset and to buy their games makes this a doa for me. If it’s not comparable across the board then it’s not worth anywhere close to the money they are asking.
- BenVirtuix
  
  We will have emulation software for PCVR games to help players who want to use other headsets and software platforms, but it likely won’t work for games on closed platforms, such as the Quest or PSVR2. You could use a Quest as a PCVR headset with Omni One.
  - Peter vasseur
    
    Well that’s an improvement, but as a psvr2 user no good for me. Pcvr isn’t worth all the hassle for a lil better resolution. Cost to benefit is not worth it. I do like the design, but until it works seamless with console vr i wont be a customer.
  - ViRGiN
    
    Take your emulation and shove it deep you-know-where.
    You dont even believe in your own product lol.
    Plus, it didn’t stop companies like CyberShoes with equally dumb product to actually run in standalone mode through some sort of adapter.
    You shill for this simulating walking/running, yet you don’t even have a base sprinting/marathon game with leaderboards where owners could compete.
    What an absolute trash. You should visit MRTV channel, they are going to love you there.
    - Ade
      
      Is that how you talk to people in person?
      - ViRGiN
        
        Yes
      - Ade
        
        Can’t fault ya.
  - knuckles625
    
    If I’m remembering correctly, the original Omni (kickstarter & direct pre-order) from 10+ years ago promised some sort of universal SteamVR emulation, but I don’t recall it really being delivered. That was a key piece to the intended (and obviously canceled) first try at fulfilling consumer Omni pre-orders.
    
    Unfortunately I can’t really check back through history to confirm because the Virtuix forums are scrubbed and gone, and most of the old videos have now been set to private.
  - Christian Schildwaechter
    
    That should have been available when the pre-orders started, esp. since your website doesn’t provide information about the 30 games developed for Virtuix Omni One, or their price. I’d assume that most were developed for use in VR arcades and won’t be cheap.
    
    There is definitely a market for more natural movement in VR, and several tool have supported emulated movement for years. “Natural Locomotion” on Steam now supports 100+ games with various movement mechanics like walking in place or arm swinging, and can use devices like Vive trackers, Switch JoyCons or old smartphones to track leg movement. Providing similar integration with games or making Omni One usable with existing software like ‘Natural Locomotion’ would make the investment much more future-proof.
    
    You may have enough preorders for this not to be a priority, or your business model may require selling games. But with the DisplayPort connection on Pico Neo 3 Pro, using the Omni One as a high end accessory for existing PCVR games or VR mods is an obvious use case, and the hardcore HL:A or VRChat fans have already proven that they are willing to invest significant amounts of money into making their experience even more immersive. You could probably sell a lot just by demonstrating actually walking through a fully modded Skyrim VR.
  - CrusaderCaracal
    
    send me one
Foreign Devil

If you are the type to spend $1000 on a treadmill or that fad video instructor and bike program (forgot the name). . this would be a much better value proposition.
- CrusaderCaracal
  
  Peloton?
Dembonez

After the big screen beyond fiasco, which I’m going through currently, I will never ever ever again pre-order anything ever ever,
- Cburn
  
  what fiasco?
Muhammad Jihad ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ

“Max user weight 250lbs.”

I thought they wanted to sell this to Americans.
Carlos

Can wait for more treadmills like this become better and cheaper. I love VR and the power it has to ‘transport’ you to another world, but every time I have to walk using joysticks I remember I’m only wearing a headset on my living room.