HTC is releasing its PC-powered Vive Cosmos VR headset next month. Originally unveiled earlier this year at CES, the Cosmos is HTC’s latest bid at a mainstream VR headset. Unlike the original HTC Vive, the Cosmos doesn’t require external sensors and uses fully tracked motion controllers. HTC has also upgraded the LCD panels, with a combined 2,880 x 1,700 resolution, a 110-degree field-of-view, and even a 90Hz refresh rate.
Vive Cosmos is HTC’s premium PC-based VR system created with a focus on making virtual reality more accessible, easier to use, and higher quality. It is a wired headset with better resolution, and so it is moving in the opposite direction of low-cost, wireless headsets like the HTC Vive Focus and Facebook’s rival Oculus Quest.
The headset can change over time through a modular faceplate design that can add functionality, such as the newly announced Vive Cosmos External Tracking Mod. That mod uses the external laser-based sensors that shipped with the original HTC Vive. Normally, the Vive Cosmos uses inside-out tracking, with sensor cameras on the headset itself, rather than the external tracking. But the mod is available for those who believe that the tracking via the six cameras on the headset is not accurate enough.
“We wanted to address it with our hardware technology and what we could do there, giving a simpler, easier product to set up and use; a better and easier software experience with the Vive Reality system, an experience of being able to move between worlds; and a third area around a robust content offering,” said Daniel O’Brien, general manager of the Americas at HTC Vive, in an interview with GamesBeat. “It will work with your entire Steam library. It will work with your Viveport library, as well as Viveport Infinity” subscription offering.
HTC has developed a redesigned user interface dubbed Lens that lets owners navigate XR Viveport Infinity apps. HTC is also bundling a 12-month Viveport Infinity subscription if you preorder the Vive Cosmos by October 2nd. HTC is opening up preorders immediately, and the Cosmos will ship on October 3rd priced at $699
