Starbreeze partners with Acer for StarVR headset manufacture

[HEXUS]

The companies will also collaborate on design, marketing and sales of this dual-display HMD.

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[3s-gtech]

"wants to produce something higher-end for those with the cash"

Because Oculus and Vive are just too budget oriented? :/

[cptwhite_uk]

No, but they don't deliver high definition experience at present, imho. Honestly the GPU tech needs to improve to power the necessary resolution for me to buy in. This thing is going to need something like a GTX1070 SLI set-up as a bear minimum with those kinds of specs.

Basically this is for people with money to burn.

[TooNice]

To be fair, Oculus and Vive aren't the only two players in town. Every other offerings are aiming at lower end/cheaper market than the Oculus/Vive. Those guys are trying to out-spec the big two, so it would make sense that they would try to position above them (with a price to match). It will be interesting to see what the market will tolerate. Would people pay 4 digits for a VR headset? Or will the sub £300 range win out? Can all of them co-exist, or will we end up with a duopoly in the end.

That said, Oculus has been associated with VR long, long before any other players so they are pretty much the benchmark every other VR headset will be compared to. It will be interesting to see if StarVR can come late into the party and convince enough of the market to pay more so that they can build a niche.

As to the headset itself, I'd wait for reviewer to comment if dual screen is really a superior implementation, and whether there is also a cost in the bulk of the headset to be paid.

[cptwhite_uk]

In 3 or 4 generations time we'll look back on today's headsets and laugh at how low res and bulky they were. I'm waiting till it's something you effectively put on like glasses and (preferably) wire free, using a slim minimal cable if absolutely necessary.

[lumireleon]

so the minimum requirements for the StarVR is an AMD Vega card with HBM2.0, ZEN 6 core 12 threads and 16gigs of 2333mhz DDR4?

[TooNice]

In 3 or 4 generations time we'll look back on today's headsets and laugh at how low res and bulky they were. I'm waiting till it's something you effectively put on like glasses and (preferably) wire free, using a slim minimal cable if absolutely necessary.

Well, it'll always need a power cable (or battery, but that would add to the bulk), wireless speakers have been around for long, long time but aside from the tiny portable ones, they still need to be plugged into the wall.

I can sort of see augmented reality work in glasses format, but less so for VR. Perhaps something more liked snowsports goggles. It seems to me that one of the appeal of VR, is how it completely seal your view from the outside. With regular sunglasses, you always notice the parts of the peripheral vision that is not blocked by the lens.

I am sure that resolution and image quality will come in time (alongside the hardware required to power it), but I really hope that room scale VR stays (right now only the Vive is really pushing the feature). It might not be practical for everyone, but if the implementation is done well, and you have the room, it looks like it could be really fun.

[Axle_Grease]

To be fair, Oculus and Vive aren't the only two players in town. Every other offerings are aiming at lower end/cheaper market than the Oculus/Vive. Those guys are trying to out-spec the big two, so it would make sense that they would try to position above them (with a price to match). It will be interesting to see what the market will tolerate. Would people pay 4 digits for a VR headset?

I already paid 4 digits just for the Vive. $825(US) for the Vive, $120(US) freight charge to New Zealand, 15% tax on anything over $400(NZD) = $142(US). That's $1087(US). That and the lousy state of the NZD means I ended up paying $1630(NZD) for a Vive. The resolution and limited FOV is very noticeable, as well as the blurriness 2/3rds away from the center. I can only imagine what a high-end HMD like a StarVR would set me back. It'll be out of my league.