Hands-on: LG’s SteamVR headset is a Vive clone with a high-res, flip-up screen - gallagherthly1983

What's in a name? That which we call a Vive, by whatsoever other name would smell as sweet.

Okay, it's not a clean metaphor—the HTC Vive probably doesn't tone particularly great—but you get the idea. Endmost week at GDC we got the accidental to go active with LG's new SteamVR-power-driven headset, the first plus to the ecosystem since the HTC Vive's reveal in 2015. And you know what? It's unusually Vive-like.

VR 2.0

I should caution: What we proverb is just a prototype, and everything is guinea pig to change before release—details of which were non forthcoming. No price, no date. It's probably afterwards this year, but WHO knows? Hell, it doesn't even have a catchy cite up to now.

If you're wondering "Why LG?" though, the resolution in all likelihood lies in the fact that LG's manufacturing the display inside. We were told the resolution is 1280×1440 per optic, Beaver State 2560×1440 total, with a refresh charge per unit of 90Hz. That's bettor than both the Optic Rift and HTC Vive, which each run 1080×1200 per eye.

Also better: the athletic field of take i, at least in writing. Some the Falling ou and Vive tout an FOV of 110 degrees. LG's headset goes to 120 degrees, with one caveat—that's only when you puuuuush the headset in until it's 10mm from your eyes. At 12mm, the outdistance just about people volition use, it's bow out to 110 degrees.

And as far as I can tell, LG's headset eschews the Fresnel lenses used by the Rift and Vive. That's non a Brobdingnagian alteration, but it should resultant role in fewer of the ray-streaking issues seen on those headsets. That's just supported my brief clip with the headset though, so I could be wrong.

Those are the settled improvements o'er the Vive. LG's VR headset design itself is a more distal move. Cross the Vive with Sony's PlayStation VR and you'd receive something similar to LG's headset. Instead of exploitation elastic straps corresponding the original Vive or rigid plastic like the upcoming Vive Deluxe Audio frequency Whip, LG's headset uses a welding helmet-manner intention. You rest your forehead against a pad, cinch the rearwards against your head with a button-press, and that's it—you're locked in. From there, you pull the headset down and (as I mentioned above) push it in to the desired distance.

There are a a couple of benefits to this design. Populate with glasses should have a much easier time with it than they suffice with either the Vive or Eye Rift. And if you undergo to deal with real-world issues, you can easily flick the headset out of the way without removing the entire twist. The innovation also spreads the weight of the headset better than the Vive or Severance.

On the else pass on, I'm wont to making last-minute alignment adjustments on the Vive and Rift, wiggling the headset up and shoot down until everything is crystal-clear. With LG's headset that process is slightly more toilsome, with the headset a trifle more resistant to changes once donned. Information technology's sure enough more well-fixed than the stock Vive, but I think I prefer the Vive's new unadaptable strap for pure ease of use.

Closing down LG's VR headset, there's a single audio jack reinforced into the right on-hand side, in maybe the most unmanageable spot imaginable. The Vive has adopted Optic's built-in headphones designing, so I'm a bit disappointed LG's keeping the separate audio old salt, and particularly combined that seems so cheap. We'll understand if that aspect changes ahead release.

LG VR's Beacon light and controller

The residuu of the hardware is more familiar—almost Bizarro-Vive, if you bequeath. The Lighthouse base stations are small dishonourable cubes so similar to the Vive's that I actually thought they were identical, until an LG rep told ME they were designed in-house.

The breakout boxwood is smaller than the Vive's, and with a utilitarian all-black contrive. Noteworthy, though, is the fact information technology only features DisplayPort to the PC (no HDMI) and USB-C to the headset itself.

The controllers are just the Vive wands with a somewhat variant shape—an unpaired, edgy diamond on the remnant instead of the smooth circle/hexagon intermix I've come to know so well.

LG's triggers look a moment snappier than the Vive's, and the adhesive friction buttons a second grippier, but other than non more than has changed. There's a slimly different button layout, with all three inhabited above the touchpad, but this is still recognizably a Vive-way wand.

That's a bite of a disappointment, what with Optic's Touch controllers already free and Valve prototyping the same sort of hand-tracking technoloy. I confirmed with LG that any of its ironware should seamlessly interface with the Vive, so you could, for instance, use a Vive headset with LG's controllers. This was LG's chance to ostentate a Touch-style comptroller for the SteamVR ecosystem, but instead we're getting other baton. Non bad, intrinsically, but boring. With No substantial differences between the two, there's no real reason to lift up LG's controllers if you already have a Vive.

Bottom line

In any case, I didn't get a ton of time actually wearing LG's headset, nor was the demo I played in particular psychotropic—it was a reasonably clumsy wave shooter. But it's a nice piece of hardware, with more or less intriguing differences that set it, if not above the Vive, at any rate on par and with an attract to a somewhat different hearing. I definitely think LG's set bequeath be great for eyeglasses-users, and if the price comes in under the Vive's $800 tag that could give LG straight broader reach.

That latter tur is strictly hypothetical, perchance implausible, but LG necessarily something to surpass. With zero set down release date, LG's greatest competition is the epithet lettre de cachet HTC's already built with the Vive—it'll be hard for LG to overcome being seen as the "criticise-off Vive" even if the headset has meliorate specs.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/412290/hands-on-lgs-steamvr-headset-is-a-bizarro-vive-with-a-high-res-flip-up-screen.html

Posted by: gallagherthly1983.blogspot.com