Virtual reality (VR) is a bit of a hot topic at the moment! I spend a lot of time putting together a weekly newsletter all about emerging tech news like virtual reality, talking about VR at events, showing people the possibilities of VR, teaching people to build VR experiences and more. There are a lot of VR thoughts flooding this brain of mine! Throughout all that, I've come across plenty of virtual reality headsets and thought I'd share something that not a lot of people out there realize — there are many more VR headsets out there than you think... and even more on the way! Here's a look at my favorites, starting with the more commonly known ones!
Oculus Rift
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The Oculus Rift is the VR headset that started the whole VR trend once again! Even this headset has been around for longer than a lot of people realize. It has had several developer iterations, including the Oculus Rift Development Kit 1 (DK1) released in 2013 for their Kickstarter backers and the higher resolution Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 (DK2) released in 2014, before finally releasing the Oculus Rift Consumer Edition in 2016 to many eager VR adopters around the world. There were other unreleased prototypes of the Rift in between as well, but to keep things simple, we'll stick with the ones released to developers!
The Rift itself works by being connected to a PC. It currently no longer supports Mac OS. To be honest, I don't think any of the VR headsets that will be mentioned in this article work with Mac OS. VR apps can be installed via the Oculus Store.
What's the Rift capable of in comparison to other headsets? Here's a simplified list of features which I'll use across all currently available headsets I mention in this piece:
Resolution: 1080×1200 for each eye.
Field of view: 110°
Display tech: One OLED screen for each eye.
Refresh rate: 90 Hz
Headphones: Integrated into the headset.
Seated/standing or room-scale: Most experiences are seated or standing. Extra sensors can be purchased soon (announced in October 2016) that will allow for the ability to walk around a space, however I'm not sure how many Rift games have been built for that. Largely, Oculus have been focused on VR experiences you can have standing/sitting in one place.
Controllers: Oculus Touch handheld controllers available to order since October 2016.
HTC Vive
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The HTC Vive isn't quite as well known outside of the tech and gaming community but it's growing in momentum that is well deserved! The Vive is a partnership between HTC and Valve, which was officially revealed in March 2015. My favorite thing about the Vive is that it comes with "Lighthouse sensors" to allow you to walk around an area of a maximum of 15x15 feet. This ability to walk around is known as "room-scale". It also comes with two handheld controllers. Because of this, a large amount of the Vive VR apps and games out there work wonderfully with full immersion — you can walk around an experience, look at it from different angles and interact with it using both hand controllers. One of my favorite VR applications, Tilt Brush, lets you draw in 3D space. You can literally draw an environment around you, look at it from all angles and (with one of the latest updates) have it react to music! It is fantastic.
Just like the Rift, the Vive works by being connected to a PC. HTC Vive games and VR experiences can be purchased from Steam or the Vive's own store called Viveport. Steam's VR experiences can also be played on other VR headsets, depending on the app's requirements (if it requires Vive controllers, for example, then the app won't likely be compatible).
Resolution: 1080×1200 for each eye.
Field of view: 110°
Display tech: One OLED screen for each eye.
Refresh rate: 90 Hz
Headphones: Requires external headphones to be plugged in.
Seated/standing or room-scale: The Vive is known especially for its room-scale capabilities!
Controllers: The Vive comes with two handheld controllers.
Sony PlayStation VR
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Many people out there don't know this is coming, but by Christmas, virtual reality is going to be in a lot of homes around the world. It works by connecting up to the PlayStation 4 and has its own slightly less advanced controllers. It is priced cheaper than the above two headsets but isn't quite as fully featured. From the sounds of it though, the games on their way for this platform just might make up for its slightly less impressive specs. Sony has a lot of partners in the game development industry. Upcoming titles like Batman: Arkham VR and Resident Evil 7 in VR sound like they'll be a lot of fun! Each game will have a different level of VR compatibility, different controller requirements... etc, which will be listed on each game box.
Resolution: 960x1080 for each eye.
Field of view: 100°
Display tech: One OLED screen split in two for each eye.
Refresh rate: Can switch between 120Hz and 90 Hz.
Headphones: Requires external headphones to be plugged in.
Seated/standing or room-scale: Sony recommends people sit for the majority of their VR experience. There is no capability for walking around like the room-scale of the Vive.
Controllers: Games may use the typical PlayStation controllers, or you can purchase one or two PlayStation Move controllers separately. They also come in a bundle with the headset. A "PS Aim Controller" is also on the way for first-person shooting games.
Google Cardboard
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The Google Cardboard headset is a portable headset that originally was indeed made of cardboard! Of all the VR headsets, this is the one most people who I've come across have tried. Rather than the headset itself doing very much, it is a container for a smartphone that runs the applications. Each VR application displays two images, one for each eye, in a splitscreen view. Those views are looked at through lenses in the Cardboard headset. These are the cheapest and easiest way to try out VR as they originally cost around $20 and can now be even cheaper! There are plenty of stores out there who have been selling relatively inexpensive Google Cardboard-compatible headsets including Aldi, Lincraft, Tesco, Walmart and Costco. This list alone could have been three times as long if I included every Google Cardboard-style headset out there today! Google Cardboard apps can be found in the Google Play store, and WebVR experiences (VR running in the smartphone browser) also are quite easy to try out on the Google Cardboard.
Continue reading %There Are More Virtual Reality Headsets Than You Realize!%
by Patrick Catanzariti via SitePoint
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