HTC prepares Ultra HD VR HMD for 2018 HTC prepares Ultra HD VR HMD for 2018
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Boo ya. I wonder how Ultra the HD will be? 
4k
old
120 fov
tracking v2
…
It could be nothing special
Pimax the way to go then …
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Let us wait and see…
I predict it will be end of 2018 Q1 2019 at the earliest
4k resolution. Not dual 4k. The pimax 8k X will be the winner
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I expect it will be whatever the maximum resolution that the next generation of graphics cards can comfortably handle. That could be 4K total, 4K per eye or something in between. It would really depend on the next NVIDIA chipset. Probably OLED with much better lenses than now. A nice sharp angular resolution so it can be used for productivity so probably not more than 110 to 150 degrees field of view (in my opinion piMax should have stuck to 150 so they’d have a really sharp image as well as still having the widest field of view on the market)
I’m glad they didn’t, I swore I’d never buy a HMD with less than 180deg. fov. Then pimax8k happened. And so here we are.
180deg minimum. Anything less is just too distractingly unnatural for me.
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I’ve found that when playing a game on the Vive I usually zone out the 110 degree and don’t notice it so 150-180 would be fine. I would have liked the higher angular resolution for reduced screen door and higher sharpness for text. But it will still be awesome
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Just increases the point for pimax to re release the 4k but with 2 custom panels 19802160 or better cinema 4k. 2x20482160 give it 130 to 150 fov
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Well they said they have a separate team working on the new 4K so I wouldn’t be surprised if it surfaces once the 8k gets released
It would be cheaper for them to use a modular lens design for the 8k with a different distortion profile for 120 or 150 degrees. If they redesign the 4k, by the time that is out, the 8k will have more momentum. To me, it just makes sense to do a swap lens so we all get the best of both worlds.
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Just FYI people, there is no official announcement or even a leak or anything.
This is pure speculation on what they COULD do, there is no evidence they are actually working on it (though they probably should be doing experiments at least).
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Has no-one thought of two or more panels per eye? A sharp, 4k panel for the cone cells and a less sharp panel for the rods (my dyslexia almost mixed those up. Read into what I mean if I do :-). Rods are responsible for peripheral vision so it doesn’t have to be very sharp. Using this technique PiMax (8k+?) can exceed the 200 deg FoV. There will be a line where the panels separate, but it’ll be in the peripheral vision, so who cares. And the lines can be compensated for, anyway.
As a mater of fact…
It is far from perfect though and not exactly what you’re talking about.
BTW. cones and rods aren’t directly related with peripheral vision, you might be thinking about “fovea” ( which is what foveated rendering comes from )
I expect everyone to follow Pimax now. Creating fancy up scaling inside their headsets to eliminate SDE. It is the only for next gen HMD and it makes the most sense. It gives better image quality and future proofs the headset hardware for much longer time. How could they ignore this design now ?
Pimax will be a lot more expensive then anything HTC will make.
Only because HTC has no real current plans to make high end headaets.
Remember HTC didn’t want to drop the price on the vive (they had to to sur-Vive)
This article is pure speculation, nothing officially confirmed.
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Really nice news, thanks ! The best part is that Samsung is planning 4k OLED 5.5" panels for 2018. The Pimax probably will still be the winner, but it’s awesome that HTC is now going for 2018 for their next gen headset (FB still hasn’t made public any other plans than 2019).
I share HelioSurge caution on future HTC High-End Vr products with the decline of their phone market HTC is not in good shape.
On using a single UHD OLED 5.5 inch panel for launching a end high headset at the end of next year not a good idea. The Samsung Odyssey is already offering a 2880 x 1600 resolution now with dual panels on 110 FOV. If you remove some pixels for the IPD ajustement 3,840 by 2,160 not so far of 2880 x 1600 and beside Samsung will probably upgrade this headset by the of next year.
In the consumer market HTC is squeezed between technological limitations/price and low/mid VR solutions. There is maybe a possibility to go on a bushiness only lineup for they high end products.
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