A Vive headset was lowered over my face, and a rifle placed in my hands. The cleared-out room space around me was ready for me to take on a few waves of attackers. All around me, I saw enemies coming. I ducked, I aimed, I ran towards a wall and tried to hide. And it was pretty amazing stuff, maybe the best time I had in Las Vegas over a busy CES week.
All because I wasn’t tripping over any wires.
Wireless dongles are here (if you’re willing to pay)
TPCast’s wireless adapter for the Vive (with a version also coming for the Oculus Rift) is very real, and it really works. It’s arriving in the second quarter of this year, and it streams audio and video to the PC-connected Vive headset, removing the last tether between my VR gear and the rest of the physical world.
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Going wireless with Vive means no tripping when turning, and it works with no lag.
Photo by Josh Miller/CNET
It’s the best example of wireless VR I’ve ever seen, and it turns the Vive into a true Holodeck experience. But, at $300 for a snap-on thing that sits on your head and also requires a separate battery pack on a tether, it’s gear on top of gear. The battery lasts either two or five hours, depending on how big the battery pack you buy.
TPCast’s solution is one of several coming this year: another, an Oculus/Vive wireless adapter from KwikVR, is also coming (I didn’t get a chance to try KwikVR at CES, though). These gadgets are building onto existing hardware. But, amazingly, it really works well. I didn’t feel any lag, and being totally cable-free changed the way VR felt. I was still smothered in a helmet and other gear, but it felt more relaxed, more natural.
All I could keep thinking was, when will this be built into the actual headset? Last year’s solution to wireless PC VR was strapping on a backpack PC. This year, it’s an expensive wireless dongle. A better answer might not be coming anytime soon. More advanced wireless tech like WiGig, that could handle this level of wireless video and data throughput, isn’t here quite yet, and it’s unclear what building such powerful wireless into a headset would mean for adding bulk or batteries.
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New cameras, like Google Tango, could make mobile VR more…mobile.
Photo by James Martin/CNET
Mobile wireless: Just add movement
In mobile VR, wireless has already been available: slot your phone in, and you’re ready. But mobile VR currently lacks walk-across-the-room positional tracking, or “six degrees of freedom.” That means you can’t lean forward, or go for a stroll. Instead, with Gear VR or Daydream, you sit and turn your head. But it’s coming, thanks to possibilities from Google’s depth-sensing Tango cameras combining with Daydream View VR in phones like the Asus Zenfone AR. Qualcomm’s vision for mobile VR powered by its new Snapdragon processors allows for walking around too, provided you have a wide-angle lens on your phone.
In Qualcomm’s Power Rangers demo, walking around was halfway decent. If a cheap phone VR headset let me walk around like this for a few basic apps, I’d be satisfied in a pinch. It’s not great, but it works.
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Source: CNET