HTC is betting on virtual reality being “the next big thing.” While Oculus VR has been showing of prototype and developer units of Oculus Rift for a few years now, HTC and Valve is planning to have a commercial version of the HTC Vive ready by the end of this year. While beating the competition to market by a few months may not be huge, HTC’s unique Vive motion controllers which track both hands give the HTC Vive a unique advantage.
While VR may be intriguing for games who want to be completely immersed in a virtual world, virtual reality has traditionally been a lonely place as users haven’t been able to have any meaningful interactions with other people in a virtual environment. We’ve tried a few multi-user VR demos at CES, but all of them required you to sit and use a standard controller to move around. Since HTC Vive can track users in real space, a multi-user VR experience may look like the latest demo put together with Real Virtuality.
The demo shows two people walking around and exploring a virtual Egyptian Tomb while using a motion controller as a virtual torch to light us their surroundings. HTC and Valve have not confirmed that the HTC Vive will support a multi-user VR experience, but we expect it’s definitely on their road map.
If you want to test HTC Vive for yourself, be sure to check out the HTC Vive global tour schedule.
That’s crazy!!!!! Wow mind = blown