New features in HTC Vive Plus, an answer to competitor Oculus, which is owned by Facebook
The Vive Focus Plus is HTC’s answer to the Oculus Quest. It’s a new version of the Vive Focus standalone headset. Without having the trouble of constant recalibration, the Vive Focus Plus comes with two 6-Degrees of Freedom (DoF) controllers unlike the Vive Focus that came with the 3-DoF joysticks. These 6DoFs’ controlled six degrees of freedom unlike the three degrees by the former controller, thus enabling better motion tracking.
With greater upgrades including pressure sensitive analog triggers for its controllers, the head set also features a more comfortable head rest design. The rest of the features were not altered and remain the same, including the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, the inside out tracking camera and the 2,880 x 1,600 AMOLED display.
The Oculus Quest, expected to land this spring, represents tough competition for HTC. In response, HTC has not only focused on mere hardware changes, but also on its Vive Wave platform which powers the Vive Focus family makes it easy to port VR titles from the PC. In addition to this, HTC unveiled its VivePort Infinity plan which lets its users have unlimited VR subscriptions. This was also termed by the company as the “Netflix of VR.” Its users would be able to gain access to content from the PC Vive systems and the Wave powered headsets.
Oculus Quest is expected to complete their first generation of Oculus products according to Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. With an aim to bring wireless design, virtual hand controllers and full positional tracking together, Facebook’s goal to create an ideal VR system seem attainable. Oculus Quest is a combination of the Oculus Rift and the low-end standalone Oculus Go.
The Vive Focus Plus pricing has not been officially announced. Its distribution would include 25 countries including USA, Canada, UK, Australia and Japan.