HTC Vive First Impression: Transports You to Another World

| Updated: Friday, March 6, 2015, 12:37 [IST]

HTC partnered with Valve to bring us a true next generation virtual reality (VR) headset, the HTC RE Vive .

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday, that was the 1st of March. HTC recently launched the Vive alongside - the flagship successor HTC One M9 and the company's fitness band HTC Re Grip.

While most of you would be thinking that HTC Vive is a direct competition to Samsung's Gear VR, well let me tell you, it's not. Both of them are way different from each other when it comes to technical set-up.

After seeing HTC's creation we were absolutely awestricken, after strapping on this headset you will not only view a different world but actually feel yourself transported into the VR world.

Yes! It's that immersive. And yeah, if the point of virtual reality headsets is to transport their wearer into another world, then HTC's Vive VR is already a success.

Other VR headsets in the markets such as the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR also give you a feeling of being present in another world altogether but the felling is evanescing when it comes to HTC RE Vive. These devices cannot track your body, thus as you move you are no longer in wonderland ie. the illusion is shattered.

But the Vive is one of it's kind!

The HTC Vive headset looks and feels precisely like any other of its kind on the market right now. What's unique about this new piece of headgear is that it promises to create an experience that spans the scale of a full room, allowing you to walk around a simulated 3D environment and interact naturally with the objects within it.

If you're wondering what all the odd little glass plates on the front of the headset are about, they are light receptors that work as part of a laser-based motion-tracking system. HTC and Valve remain cagey with the full details about the inner workings of the Vive VR, but they promise to set out the full "hardware story" over time, including explaining how the pair of wireless controllers will work.

Unlike the Samsung Gear VR which uses a smartphone to replicate the movements in the device into a form of virtual reality, the HTC Vive needs to be hard-wired to a PC and make sure, the PC better be a powerful one.

The best part is that it will also have a developer's edition for the ones yearning for it very soon. The Vive consumer edition will be released this spring ahead of a commercial launch before the end of the year.

While the beta versions of the Vive Developer Edition have already generated from some of the world's top game developers including Vertigo Games, Bossa, Barry -Fireproof, Dovetail Games, Wemo Labs, Google, Steel Wool Games and Owlchemy. HTC also confirmed, that the Taiwanese tech giant will be
showcasing Vive to developers attending the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, CA

Take a look at sliders below:

HTC Vive

Vive offers the most immersive experience of any VR package, plunging people into other worlds at a moment's notice.

HTC Vive

HTC and Valve have introduced a Full Room Scale 360 Degree Solution with Tracked Controllers, letting you get up, walk around and explore your virtual space, inspect objects from every angle and truly interact with your surroundings.

HTC Vive

The HTC Vive headset features high quality graphics, 90 frames per second video and incredible audio fidelity.

HTC Vive

HTC is also introducing new wireless VR controllers that will make you feel one with your virtual environment. The new HTC VR Controllers come in a pair and are designed to be so versatile that they will work with a wide range of VR experiences.