My thoughts are on one hand it comes across quite cagey (imo) selecting/inviting the people directly involved in an NDA ridden test of a competing product under the guise of needing the thoughts of the community when said thoughts are freely available online. On the other, this is good news, another consumer product. Give em hell testers!
VRgineers, the company that develops the high-end wide-FOV VR headset “XTAL” for the enterprise sector, is planning to bring their knowledge and experience in the space to the consumer market. A new VR headset is planned right now that pushes the envelope in the high-end VR enthusiast market, but yet should be much more affordable than the current XTAL headset that comes in at $5800. These plans have just been revealed to MRTV on a recent company visit to the VRgineers headquarters in Prague.
Next to MRTV the VRgineers had also invited the other two YouTubers that were closely involved in the Beta testing program of competing VR headset manufacturer Pimax, SweViver and VoodooDe. VRgineers have asked MRTV and the other two YouTubers to be involved in the development process of the new device and to provide suggestions and experience since all three YouTube channels are at the pulse of the VR enthusiast market and know what VR enthusiasts and gamers are really looking for in a high-end VR headset.
MRTV, SweViver and VoodooDE are currently in talks with the VRgineers to work out the details of the planned cooperation. Since the stage at that MRTV as well as the other YouTubers would join development is much earlier than it was the case with the Pimax 8K headset, the prospects of being able to help shape such a high-end VR enthusiast headset are of course very exciting.
Stay tuned to MRTV to find out about the latest news on this developing story.
Well it was only a matter of time before someone woke up. I hope it will be some time before this new headset becomes available.
I reckon they will not have all these distortion and other issues as much as Pimax seeing as they didn’t have these issues on the XTAL, so it will be the better headset when it becomes available I’m sure
Now this is news worth reading first thing in the morning! Make sure you guys get a good deal. Your time is valuable! Pimax have been taking you for granted with little in return! Congrats and thanks for your efforts!!
Yep very exciting
More info about all this and some thoughts after testing XTAL with SteamVR games/sims. A more summarised video from the testing comes later this week.
Good to see a healthy competition. Having said that, I have a number of question marks preventing me to get all too excited about it.
When will it become commercially available ? Do they already have a proper prototype, which they would show-case at CES 2019 ? If that is the case, it would be good in terms of expected ETA, but then the whole claim of involving the three musketeers to shape the product would just be exposed as a marketing gag, because they would just have the same role as they did with the 8K, being the beta testers (which is not to say it is bad - just not the role being advertised here).
But if they are at an earlier stage, the question will be what the landscape will be by the time they release their product - Samsung could be serious about VR and have laid quite a good foundation already, and they obviously have everything in-house to create a real next gen headset. Maybe the Odyssey was just a prelude, hence the limited market they offered it on, for the real thing.
At which price-point will it come in ? Aiming at the StarVR supposed price of around 3 grand would limit the volume of sales dramatically, because that really just reaches the tip of the VR enthusiasts iceberg. Question whether that creates a sustainable business case.
If they aim for a price-point at a more accessible level, say 1,500$, how many compromises, sacrifices does that mean, and how much better than a 5K+ would it be then ? If it had eye-tracking, but due to lack of in-game support of foveated rendering it cannot be used for anything else than a dynamic distortion profile, will that be worth it for those who actually are not affected or are able to ignore by the flaws of the Pimax distortion mapping ?
We have heard preciously little about many of the relevant aspects of the XTal, let alone of the consumer product, so there is a danger to just assume it will be a perfect 10 on all these other aspects, just because it is expected to be expensive. It might do well on those aspects, but there is no guarantee at all. I do e.g. recall that in the past the weight of the XTal was said to be massive and quite a burden for any kind of extended use.
There is always a risk of projecting ones wishes onto such newly announced project, and this kind of wishful thinking can lead to disappointment later. At the same time I have to admit, that when I heard of the 8K first, I looked at the features they promised and dismissed it right-away as being quite a ridiculous “wish-list turned into product spec” scam. Yeah right, all of this - by a Chinese company. Only weeks later, when people in the forum I frequently visit said they backed it, and I saw the Tested video, I recognized that it actually may be interesting and not just a big bowl of hot air. So let’s see what XTal are up to. I’ll just reserve any excitement for the time when the product starts to materialize so we know what it would offer for which price.
About the 4K OLEDs, they were only demoed on a demo-table with 4 different panels (3 of them 1440p and one 4K) where i could try different lenses on top with perfect alignment/distance. This was not under NDA or anything. I think VoodooDE captures that demo-table in one of his videos not long ago.
But nothing has been said if any 4K lenses will be used in any of their upcoming headsets. Im quite sure its only for demo reasons. But I hope im wrong
But yes it was really really impressive.
I would say with their new lenses all 1440p panels looked incredible. Which makes me think these 4K panels are not even necessary for now. Just the lenses can make such a crazy difference.
This is all really awesome news. I suspect that a consumer facing XTAL HMD could be priced reasonably, and could give excellent quality if Xtal can meet certain goals.
It seems very probable that a bulk of the cost of their enterprise unit is due to its unique non Fresnel lens design. If they can mass produce that lens, then prices will drop. The key to lowering the price even more will probably be in getting lower res panels, but with a much higher fill factor and PPI.
