HTC Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient evaluate: beautiful lossless PCVR

HTC’s Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient combines a few of the greatest options of its Vive XR Elite, Focus 3, and Professional 2 to create a brand new VR headset that helps visually lossless PCVR and blended actuality gaming in standalone mode.

I bought an opportunity to do this intriguing new machine. I explored its strengths and dug for any weaknesses, evaluating it to earlier HTC fashions and the perfect VR headsets to check if it’s well-suited to gaming, work, and informal use. Regardless of a basic tethered connection, the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient nonetheless manages to face out.

Lossless PCVR

Whereas standalone VR headsets just like the Meta Quest 3 or the Vive XR Elite tout wi-fi connections to your laptop to play SteamVR video games, a direct wired connection can cut back latency and supply a cleaner image.

HTC’s new Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient allows visually lossless PCVR through a DisplayPort connection. Which means it’s unlikely you’ll see any compression artifacts and muddy textures with this technique.

You’ll want a DisplayPort to USB-C adapter. I used HTC’s DisplayPort mode package, which features a charger, loads of adapters, and cables to be sure to can join the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient to your graphics card.

Whereas the decision per eye is 2448×2448 pixels, your GPU will likely be delivering twice that quantity at 90 to 120 frames per second (fps). That’s a extra demanding process than outputting to a 4K PC monitor, so be sure to have a gaming desktop that’s as much as the problem. In the event you constructed your personal PC, you’ll want one of many greatest graphics playing cards.

As a PCVR headset, your laptop does the heavy lifting and the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient acts as a head-mounted show. It really works effectively, with a display crisp sufficient for productiveness and VR gaming.

I didn’t discover any compression artifacts or lag whereas enjoying on my Nvidia RTX 4070. Traditional VR titles like Half-Life: Alyx, in addition to each different recreation I performed, appeared sharp and principally clear. The one concern is HTC’s use of Fresnel lenses.

Whereas most new VR headsets use pancake lenses, Fresnel is an older optical system that appears like stepped ridges etched into the lens. That permits you to give attention to shows which can be solely an inch out of your eyes, however brings an unlucky facet impact of seen rings of sunshine in high-contrast photographs. These “god rays” can spoil an in any other case good expertise.

For work use, I had three large, vivid screens with no distractions or flaws within the picture. HTC’s Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient comes with Vive Desk, a VR app that connects to Vive Hub on my PC to create digital screens that I can resize and place anyplace round my workstation.

It additionally helps hand-tracking and accepts gaze enter. It’s not as dependable because the look-and-pinch system of an Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, however with extra observe and additional enhancement, it might simplify use. The lens ridges are distracting once I look off-center, one other strike in opposition to gaze enter.

For work, a keyboard and mouse continues to be greatest, and Vive Desk let me drag home windows between digital screens and use my mouse cursor to function digital controls.

I may use the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient’s built-in rear battery for energy and hook up with Vive Desk wirelessly, or use Digital Desktop or Immersed to remotely hook up with my laptop to look at movies, play video games, or work.

Standalone VR

HTC’s Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient is optimized to be used with a PC. It’s a cumbersome, 2-pound VR headset constructed for consolation, with a USB-C 3.2 port that helps DisplayPort. Nevertheless, it additionally works as a standalone headset just like the Vive XR Elite or Focus 3. I can disconnect from the tether and recreation or exercise wirelessly.

The Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient can entry the Viveport retailer and he video games in my Vive XR Elite library work. I can paint in Figmin XR, survive in Zombieland, and exercise in Les Mills BodyCombat.

The headset consists of 128 GB of storage that’s expandable with a microSD card as much as 2 TB, so don’t fear about working out of area. The blended actuality view makes use of dual-16MP passthrough cameras and is best than that of the Vive XR Elite, which felt a bit zoomed in comparison with actuality.

Few standalone video games help eye-tracking, however HTC mentioned foveated rendering is feasible to extend sharpness in cell video games. Meta didn’t take full benefit of the Quest Professional’s eye-tracking past animating avatars, leaving it for builders that hardly ever bothered. I don’t count on a lot developer consideration on the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient’s eye-tracking both.

Multi-user VR

A number of options make HTC’s Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient a really perfect multi-user headset. Computerized IPD motors modify the lens spacing for optimum sharpness. A built-in 20 minute battery lets me scorching swap the rear battery. Additionally, the entrance and rear pads are simple to take away and clear.

The Vive Focus sequence is kind of common with location-based leisure venues. Companies like Sandbox VR and The Void have areas throughout the nation the place teams play in a big room designed particularly for multiplayer VR gaming.

HTC designed the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient as a really perfect improve for the growing older Focus 3, incorporatng the colour passthrough of the Vive XR Elite and the PCVR energy of the Vive Professional 2.

Is the HTC Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient best for you?

At $999, the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient prices greater than the Vive XR Elite, which is now $899, however the XR Elite’s eye-tracking accent prices $199. In the event you love VRChat, know you need eye-tracking, and plan to make use of your VR headset for SteamVR, the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient is the apparent decide.

For standalone use, the Vive XR Elite’s lighter, extra compact design is less complicated to maneuver round in and appears like steampunk gear, which I think about a bonus. Its pancake lenses are clearer, however the picture decision and passthrough view are worse. Personally, I favor the Vive XR Elite, nevertheless it’s a troublesome comparability.

In comparison with the Vive Focus 3, the Imaginative and prescient is a transparent improve. It’s additionally an automated sure when you personal a Vive Professional 2. You get eye-tracking, hand-tracking, an inside-out controller, and headset monitoring with out exterior base stations. The Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient additionally has the benefit of hot-swap batteries and colour passthrough.

In the event you favor standalone VR, it’s arduous to beat the $500 Meta Quest 3 or new $300 Quest 3S. PC players may be extra fascinated with the perfect VR headsets for Home windows computer systems.

In the event you just like the sound of the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient, HTC has a promotional provide by means of October 17, 2024. In the event you preorder, you’ll get a Vive Wired Streaming Equipment with a alternative of three bonus recreation packs. The Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient prices $999 for the patron model and $1,299 for the enterprise version with machine administration.