HTC Tease a Potential NEW Vive

[Armakar]

EDITED: Posting the images deleted some of my content. Fixed it.

HTC have just updated their facebook cover photo with a photo showing a slightly "off" HTC vive, with the caption "New Years RESOLUTION".

Photos:

 

While this is just a drawing, there are a few reasons to believe that this is a new Vive;

Firstly, the sensors on the headset in the drawing are pretty different. There's less of them, and they are in different places. In addition, the foam is shaped differently and is quite a bit more square, as is the whole headset. There's also no headband on the headset, which could be because they are including the audiostrap on the headset. As a Vive owner, the audiostrap really improves immersion and usage for me.

Second, It's dated the same as CES. CES isn't just about raw, enthusiast hardware, but many new products like Smart TVs, AI robots and VR devices are often announced or released at CES.

 

Third, HTC has been building up the idea of a Vive 2 for a while now. To avoid shafting the people who invested in the vive like myself, they have been releasing many acsessories compatible with the Vive, such as the improved cable, the audio headstrap, the wireless addon and the Vive tracker. They've also given a BIG push to Vive sales by dropping the price and incuding far better free games and deals. This could be because they want to push out final stock before releasing a new Vive.

 

Fourth, it's pretty clear that the "RESOLUTION" text is intentionally stood out from the other text. That's no mistake and clearly we're going to see something resolution-related.

Lastly, a Vive 2 is needed. While it is fantastic, the resolution isn't amazing, the SDE is quite poor, and lighter, more natrual feeling controllers would be nice. The cable is also annoying.
Other headsets have been competing well, and VR ready hardware with the rebirth of CPU competition and a nice boost to GPU performance from Pascal, Vega and maybe the 580 means VR hardware is much cheaper and easier to obtain than two years ago.

So, I'd say at best, there's a Vive 2 coming. At worst, I think we'll be getting some sort of addon like a PCB you could add to the Vive, as well as the option to buy it with the updated resolution new.

[Cyberspirit]

7 minutes ago, Armakar said:

Spoiler

 

HTC have just updated their facebook cover photo with a photo showing a slightly "off" HTC vive, with the caption "New Years RESOLUTION".

Photos:

 

In addition, the foam is shaped differently and is quite a bit more square, as is the whole headset.
Lastly, a Vive 2 makes sense right now. The TPCast wireless addon has been properly implemented now, we've got the Vive Puck down as well as other acsessories. Content has improved, as has software like SteamVR. Other headsets have also caught up, so staying ahead is a good shout for HTC.

 

As a Vive owner, it's brilliant but indeed flawed. The SDE is pretty bad, the resolution makes high-quality games look bad (even using supersampling isn't helpful), and the controllers are great but have room for improvement. The cable, even the updated version, is also pretty annoying. We now have the ability and acsessories to solve that, so I'd think HTC would capitalize on that.

So, I'd say at best, there's a Vive 2 coming. At worst, I think we'll be getting some sort of addon like a PCB you could add to the Vive, as well as the option to buy it with the updated resolution new.

 

-snip-

As someone who wants to buy into VR in 2018-2019, a Vive 2 would be amazing news.

[ARikozuM]

Have a Vive and this sounds great! Now the question is do I get the Rift as I intended to or wait for the Vive 2? Decisions, decisions...

[Cyberspirit]

2 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Have a Vive and this sounds great! Now the question is do I get the Rift as I intended to or wait for the Vive 2? Decisions, decisions...

Why get a Rift if you have a Vive already?

Also, if a better version comes out might as well sell the older one.

[Armakar]

3 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Have a Vive and this sounds great! Now the question is do I get the Rift as I intended to or wait for the Vive 2? Decisions, decisions...

Meh. The only thing I liked about the Rift was the quality. I found the SDE on the rift was quite a bit better than on my Vive. I'd say the Vive 2 would dumpster on even the origional Vive. 

[Rune]

I'm in for a new Vive! Could do lots of fun things

[bimmerman]

Vive2 would be nice, especially if the price point is lower.

[Stabbers]

I definitely welcome a Vive 2. Was about to pull the trigger on the Rift but decided to wait it out.

[Tzomb1e]

Having a better resolution or wireless out of the box would be a great addition.  The current does have an upgrade kit for wireless, but still...the option when first ordering would be great!

[Guest]

As a recent adopter of VR, if this has a larger field of view and higher res than the WMR stuff, I'd be all in. The current gen stuff is nice, the the narrow field of view takes me out of it when light/white games like superhot.

[Doobeedoo]

Cool. But I will wait for quite a while until getting a VR though. Just really need to mature much more and also games, just imagine quality VR MMO one day.

[ARikozuM]

3 hours ago, Cyberspirit said:

Why get a Rift if you have a Vive already?

Also, if a better version comes out might as well sell the older one.

I like to try new tech out as much as I can. I'm usually active on forums or boards to better them. I also don't sell tech that I've acquired since I like keeping momentos of them. I had a display case of every X80 Nvidia and XX70/90 AMD GPU, along with some lesser known cards like my Matrox, until I had to make room for more important items, but those were nearly 70 or 80 GPUs in a case.

[BuckGup]

New Vive for $499 at 4K 120Hz with 140 degree FOV. I am down

[Matu20]

9 hours ago, Legendarypoet said:

As a recent adopter of VR, if this has a larger field of view and higher res than the WMR stuff, I'd be all in. The current gen stuff is nice, the the narrow field of view takes me out of it when light/white games like superhot.

Huh, just got my rift 3 days ago and finished Superhot, never took me out, guess people differ in that manner.

[Imabigmac]

As a current VIVE owner, I dont think its a good time to go for a V2 of the VIVE. GPU's haven't advanced enough to support higher resolutions, while this minor because they will shortly. The biggest problem is truly a lack of good VR content that is pushing boundaries. Don't get me wrong VR content has improved in quantity/quality and features - but I don't really there is a game out that is being held back by current tech. Yes, it would be nice to not walk around with a cord and to see higher resolutions but the mass majority of the games that are made aren't making it feel like these are necessary. Fallout, Doom etc the major AAA titles have bigger issues than resolution. 

 

I see more of need to launch it next year or maybe tail end of this year for a release. 

 

And I do think they have to very careful here going forward - VR equipment is not like monitors. If they build these too different from one another its going to annoy a lot of people. Developers aren't going to want to work for the last gen if new one is so much better/different - same way no one makes PS3 games once a PS4 is released, etc. And unlike game consoles VR equipment isn't cheap or just something to toss out after awhile. 

If they wanted to focus on for example improving movement characteristics - making it easier for people to walk in games, it would likely create such a huge difference in Vive V1 and V2 that it would be like going from ps3 to ps4. 

Developers have a hard time already getting an audience for their games because of such slow adoption (its finally picked up i think) to throw a new road block with mega hardware change would truly damper growth just as momentum was changing. Its just to early in my min for that. 

 

However if all the V2 is a resolution bump, maybe a lighter headset more comfortable unit for a similar price I see no issue. 

 

[Suika]

I really doubt we're going to see a Vive 2, I believe both HTC and Oculus have indicated they don't intend on replacing their consumer kits at all this year. If anything, this is an updated model compatible with the current lighthouses and controllers. 

 

What I anticipate seeing personally are updated 1440x1600 displays, possibly OLED displays, better and/or cheaper lenses to reduce the cost of the kit, lighter construction, and possibly inclusion of the audio strap by default. I'm really torn, since I JUST purchased the original Vive, I may return it and pick up this 'Vive 1.5' instead, but I'm not sure if my GTX 1060 equipped laptop can handle it. I could possibly just downsample on my laptop and utilize the higher resolution when I'm on my desktop, but I dunno.

[Cyberspirit]

40 minutes ago, Suika said:

I really doubt we're going to see a Vive 2, I believe both HTC and Oculus have indicated they don't intend on replacing their consumer kits at all this year. If anything, this is an updated model compatible with the current lighthouses and controllers. 

 

What I anticipate seeing personally are updated 1440x1600 displays, possibly OLED displays, better and/or cheaper lenses to reduce the cost of the kit, lighter construction, and possibly inclusion of the audio strap by default. I'm really torn, since I JUST purchased the original Vive, I may return it and pick up this 'Vive 1.5' instead, but I'm not sure if my GTX 1060 equipped laptop can handle it. I could possibly just downsample on my laptop and utilize the higher resolution when I'm on my desktop, but I dunno.

You can still have plenty of fun with the original Vive even if a newer version comes out but, I understand why it would be frustrating.