Valve has unveiled their first consumer VR device, and their partner for it – HTC Corporation. Introducing the Vive.
The Vive is significantly powerful tech, a notch higher than Oculus Rift. It can display video at 90 FPS, uses two 1200 x 1080 screens for HD graphics, and has 70 sensors, including a gyroscope, accelerometer, and laser position sensor.
Aside from games, the device has several applications, including a demo called Steam VR base station, and partnerships with the likes of HBO, Lionsgate, and Google.
Taiwanese company HTC rose in profile in recent years for sales of its Android phones, but concedes a significant gap to its largest rival in the market, Samsung. Samsung, of course, partnered with Oculus VR for an earlier VR product, Samsung Gear VR.
Clearly, this deal benefits HTC more than it does Valve, but Valve has also smartly chosen a partner capable of manufacturing and distributing enough VR units to the mass market. As a result, they are visibly ready to bring Vive to market sooner than Oculus.
One of the games demonstrated in the Vive reveal was Cloudhead Games’ The Gallery, which went through Kickstarter. The game is also coming to Oculus Rift, but it seems that we will be playing the game on the Vive first. You can see screenshots of the game below.
