04 October 2024
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Zaker Adham
After much anticipation, I finally got to experience the HTC Vive Focus Vision headset, and I’m eager to see what else it has to offer when it officially launches on October 18. This early playtest revealed some promising features, starting with the immersive Sandbox VR Squid Game experience.
The first noticeable convenience was the automatic IPD adjustments, thanks to the headset’s eye-tracking technology, which ensured a clear, crisp view without the need for manual lens adjustments. For those of us who wear glasses, the headset fit comfortably, eliminating the need for costly custom lenses—an often frustrating issue in VR gaming.
Another potential advantage of eye-tracking is its ability to enable foveated rendering, a technique where the headset renders only what you're looking at in full detail. This feature could allow developers to build more graphically ambitious games even with less powerful hardware, but developers need to integrate this feature into their software to fully realize its potential.
After my triumphant victory in Squid Game, I was immediately brought back down to earth when I tried a PCVR racing simulator. While the immersive setup, complete with a racing wheel and pedals, was impressive, my driving skills were not. I crashed into walls, clipped rival racers, and felt like a dangerous, real-world driver. It was a humbling experience, much like having the notorious blue shell in Mario Kart but without its destructive potential.
After finishing my chaotic race, I transitioned to Arizona Sunshine 2 in horde mode, taking my frustrations out on waves of zombies. Compared to my experience playing the same game on the Pico 4 Ultra, the Vive Focus Vision delivered a noticeably enhanced performance and superior visuals, largely due to the headset’s ability to harness the power of a PC.
The DisplayPort mode of the Vive Focus Vision also showed great promise. Though I tested an early version of this feature, the idea behind it is simple: it offers a lossless PCVR experience, giving you the best possible visuals without the latency or compression issues that sometimes arise when using a Link Cable with the Meta Quest 3. However, to get the full effect, you’ll need a powerful PC capable of rendering a 5K-quality image for the headset’s dual 2448 x 2448-pixel displays. Luckily, HTC is including its DisplayPort kit as a preorder bonus.
While my experience with the Vive Focus Vision was overwhelmingly positive, I still haven’t had the chance to fully explore two key features: mixed reality and its standalone capabilities. I’m particularly excited about mixed reality because the passthrough quality on the Vive XR Elite was impressive when I tested it last year. Hopefully, the Focus Vision builds on that foundation.
On the standalone side, I have some reservations. In my previous review of the Vive XR Elite, I found the standalone software less compelling compared to Meta’s Horizon OS, which sets the bar for standalone VR platforms. However, I remain cautiously optimistic, especially considering the significant improvements I’ve seen in the Pico 4 Ultra since its launch. Hopefully, HTC will match those strides in software support for the Focus Vision.
For a more comprehensive review, keep an eye out for our full verdict on the Vive Focus Vision once we’ve had more time to dive into its capabilities.