Hands-on: Intel’s wireless HTC Vive add-on teases a cord-free future for VR - bennsawas1983
dmasaoka@idgcommunications.com Wireless VR might be here within the succeeding year.
"I fair-and-square john't stand the wire," is probably the most shared ailment about realistic reality—at least on the hardware side. And for those masses, I have exciting news: Wireless VR mightiness be here within the future twelvemonth, thanks to Intel's WiGig technology, which we tested using the HTC Vive. No more tripping over cables, or doing that awkward kick-move to untangle your legs.
And while Intel's WiGig add-on still has quite an a ways to go before it's ready for consumers, the remaining hurdles lie in excogitation and manufacturing much the underlying radio receiver tech. The Congress of Racial Equality functionality is rock musi-solid.
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I'm going to use WiGig Eastern Samoa shorthand for Intel's wireless VR tech, but WiGig itself is actually a broader term—it refers to "Wireless Gigabit" engineering science. The tech has broader applications outside of VR, allowing a PC to connect wirelessly with monitors, peripherals, and many finished the 802.11ad canonical, inside the 60GHz set. It's been around for age.
Adam Patrick Murray Intel's wireless WiGig add-on sits on top of your head.
WiGig has struggled to find a perfect use-case though, which makes VR an interesting prognosis. VR's struggle with wiring is a job waiting to personify solved, and the recognised WiGig tech is seemingly a perfect right smart to solve it.
How perfect? Goose egg latency. Not actually, of course—Intel told Maine WiGig adds close to 7 milliseconds of latency to the VR experience. But peradventur a better way of wording is to enunciat: None perceptible latent period.
That's just my experience, and of course hoi polloi's sensitivity to latent period varies. That said, I consider myself pretty sensitive to VR heebie-jeebies and we were acting Space Pirate Flight simulator, an action-expectant unfit that requires lots of campaign and quick reflexes. Over the course of around 10 minutes I walked around, hunkered, ducked, leaned in all directions, and never noticed even a hint of latency between my movements and the reaction in the headset.
Adam Patrick Murray Non that there weren't issues. The unit's a bit large at the moment, about the size of a hard parkway resting connected the indorse of your skull. Placement seems good—it actually helps res out the weightiness of the Vive on the front of your face. Simply it's still definitely perceptible. You might not get thrown in the cable, but I wager after a while victimisation the prototype your neck would feel the strain. The current prototype besides had a tendency to pillow slip around when I looked down or up, and occasionally obstructed the Vive's Pharos tracking.
[ Further reading: 40 must-see PC gaming gems from E3 2017: Watch every trailer ]
Those are problems for HTC to solve though. Intel is quick to reiterate that the contemporary WiGig VR mock up is just a prototype, and a bulky unitary at that. It's a proofread of concept for those who want to license the tech. When WiGig eventually makes its way into a VR-ready product—which Intel claims will about likely constitute sometime in the next 12 months—it'll come with HTC's possess design and HTC's brand stamped connected the outside.
How WiGig will integrate with the Vive? Will it support some the Deluxe Sound Strap and the old rubber band? Will HTC fold information technology into a potential Vive successor? How wish the unit be powered? In that respect are raft of questions that all the same penury respondent. That last one is particularly epoch-making, as the Vive presently draws power from its 3-in-1 cable length. The WiGig unit wish need to be battery-steam-powered in some capacity, which introduces flush more questions—assault and battery life, weight, charging.
Adam Patrick Murray The PCI-E carte needed to magnate Intel's WiGig wireless VR computer hardware.
It's important to tone that WiGig ISN't Vive-exclusive, however. "Headset unmoral" is the way Intel phrased IT.
Connected the PC end, the WiGig accessory requires a PCI-e expansion slot, which on the face of it rules out PlayStation VR for the moment—I doubtfulness Sony's going to be incorporating it into the PS4 anytime soon. Oculus has been working on wireless VR also, but the current Rift headset has the wire firmly attached, signification it's besides credibly out of the interview for now.
We saw LG's upcoming SteamVR headset back up in Butt though, at the Gimpy Developer's Conference in San Francisco. It's only possible LG bequeath have a WiGig alternative for its headset, conditional when some WiGig and LG's headset reach.
That's speculative, though. For immediately, we absolutely have it off HTC and Intel have partnered equal to use WiGig with the Vive, and it's just a topic of waiting for an official unveiling. If I had to guess, I'd say it'll be 2018 before we see WiGig again—either CES surgery GDC 2018, as HTC's used both occasions to announce Vive hardware before.
Regardless, wireless VR seems quite morsel closer than I think anyone hoped-for. The technology is superior. Now information technology just needs to be miniaturized. We'll keep you updated.
Stay tuned for more, as we go hands-on with games, hardware, and more during E3 2017.
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Hayden writes or so games for PCWorld and doubles as the resident Zork enthusiast.
Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/406994/hands-on-intels-wireless-htc-vive-add-on-teases-a-cord-free-future-for-vr.html
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