Wireless adapter for Vive now on sale in North America

[porina]

Quote

TPCast has finally begun to take North American pre-orders for its wireless headset adapter for the HTC Vive. Already released in China, the unit offers untethered operation of the HTC Vive for five hours as well as minimal latencies. The cost for this wireless motion is $299.99, and the company plans to begin shipments of the device later this month.

Source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/12018/na-preorders-open-for-tpcast-wireless-adapter-for-htc-vive

 

For North American Vive owners out there who may have been excited by the prospect of going wireless, you can finally order it with shipments due to start shortly. It has only been offered in China up to now. I'd love to get this for the possible freedom it would offer, but it seems Europe is not covered yet, possibly due to different wireless regulations. The other question that might be on Vive owner's minds is how long current gen devices will remain relevant, as you're adding more cost.

[dizmo]

Kind of expensive for an add on. I think $199 would have been a more appropriate price. 

[Sakkura]

It has already been launched in Europe. Preorders started back in September, and the first units shipped recently.

[porina]

29 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

It has already been launched in Europe. Preorders started back in September, and the first units shipped recently.

Well, I totally missed that! Will have to look deeper later.

[Bananasplit_00]

so does this have a battery to power the entire Vive as well on board? seems like it, so thats pretty cool. its a bit expensive but if its a good experience i could see people buying this, i would hold out for another generation of VR where we have higher resolution displays and the hardware to power it, even though the Vive is already a pretty awesome experience

[kilgore_T]

cant wait till gen 3 headsets when everything coalesces into something awesome

and affordable

 

[pyconaut]

I have a bit of insight

46 minutes ago, porina said:

Source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/12018/na-preorders-open-for-tpcast-wireless-adapter-for-htc-vive

 

For North American Vive owners out there who may have been excited by the prospect of going wireless, you can finally order it with shipments due to start shortly. It has only been offered in China up to now. I'd love to get this for the possible freedom it would offer, but it seems Europe is not covered yet, possibly due to different wireless regulations. The other question that might be on Vive owner's minds is how long current gen devices will remain relevant, as you're adding more cost.

To hopefully help answer the last question , It is a bad buy, unless you already have a current gen VR device, and are planning to skip the stuff about to launch.  There are two reasons for this, the first is that the next vive and rift will be wireless variants with slightly improved hardware, and a "hopefully" lower cost.  And any next gen wired versions will be to much for the the TPcast.  I am guessing it can't even sustain the new Samsung mixed reality odyssey as it has 1440 x 3200 (1440x1600) at 90hz.  

 

next vive

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/14/16648112/htc-vive-focus-standalone-headset-announced-daydream-cancelled

next rift

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/12/16463844/oculus-santa-cruz-standalone-headset-prototype-hands-on

 

I help with VR dev in silicon valley sometimes, and most of us agree that if cord cutting matters, VR backpacks are better for the time being, (especially if you are planing to get a computer specific for VR and want to use multiple headsets).  But wait a few more months, CES will bring a lot of new stuff and costs of VR should drop significantly by summer 2018, especially if nvidia doubles down on MXM cards to combat intel + AMD small form factor stuff.  

 

first look AMD x INTEL

http://www.pcgamer.com/leaked-photos-show-an-intel-nuc-with-kaby-lake-cpu-and-vega-gpu/

 

current best VR backpack

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/vrbackpack/overview.html

this thing is nuts.  32gb RAM, i7 pro 7th gen, and a nvidia Quadro p5200 (16 GB video RAM)

 

I really hope HP sends LTT one soon.

[TidaLWaveZ]

[Master Disaster]

Honestly, who gives a crap about VR anymore?

 

0.1% of Steam users purchased a headset, Sony released PSVR and have said nothing since, Bethesda are the only studio still making games and most everybody else has accepted that VR failed, much like 3D did before it.

 

Heck even Luke admitted that VR is basically dead (at least in the home gaming market).

[mynameisjuan]

Not sure how much this will sell. Over the past half a year or so it feels like VR just died out of no where. 

[porina]

2 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

so does this have a battery to power the entire Vive as well on board? seems like it, so thats pretty cool. its a bit expensive but if its a good experience i could see people buying this, i would hold out for another generation of VR where we have higher resolution displays and the hardware to power it, even though the Vive is already a pretty awesome experience

That's the thing... the wireless adapter isn't cheap either, and I have to wonder if I'll get value out of it if I got it. Considering my VR setup isn't assembled at home at the moment (I had moved it previously to demo at work), I couldn't say I use it enough.

13 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Honestly, who gives a crap about VR anymore?

We're about to get the 2nd wave of products and that might make it more mainstream friendly. MS and hardware partners have a load lined up once Win10 FCU rolls out more. We certainly haven't left early adopter phase yet, but it is getting closer.

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, porina said:

That's the thing... the wireless adapter isn't cheap either, and I have to wonder if I'll get value out of it if I got it. Considering my VR setup isn't assembled at home at the moment (I had moved it previously to demo at work), I couldn't say I use it enough.

yah id much rather see the pricetag around $100 lower, honestly just $50 off would be enough to make it a lot more apealing. 

[ARikozuM]

I'm not interested in this wireless adapter and I would recommend waiting for the next Vive or Rift. For now, I'll stick to the ceiling hook for the Vive's harness. 

[michaelocarroll007]

1 hour ago, Master Disaster said:

Honestly, who gives a crap about VR anymore?

 

0.1% of Steam users purchased a headset, Sony released PSVR and have said nothing since, Bethesda are the only studio still making games and most everybody else has accepted that VR failed, much like 3D did before it.

 

Heck even Luke admitted that VR is basically dead (at least in the home gaming market).

Yeah Pretty much this. Prices and entry are too High and theres not that one game that Would even convince 1% of gamers to buy it to maybe show us that its worth $1500 to use VR.  A headset, Trackers Controllers Gaming computer with i5/i7 and 1070 and now this wireless dongle to make it more ideal. but after all that pixel density is still a little too low. 

 

Pricing needs to be wayyy lower.

Wired Headset $150-200. 1080/1440

Wireless headset 250-300 1080/1440

Next gen GPUs that can push VR with $150-200 Graphics card  1080p and 250-300 1440p headsets

 

one of these companies need to invest in a NEW IP that is a must have. Will do more then anything they can in marketing. General consumers might get more fooled by marketing but the Higher end enthusiast will be less likely to be. need to give them a reason to buy it. and there the first demographic to buy 

 

Its been a while and the hype is gone i dont see anyone talking about VR at all anymore. They need some real changes otherwise all the companies will give up before they get it right at this point and it goes into the complete gimmick corner. 

 

I Think it will eventually take off but it doesnt look like that is even in the next year or 2 and where already this april comming up to 2 years since vive launch 

 

 

Phone / Mobile VR Will take over if they take too long to get any of that right aswell