Improved hand monitoring, PC mixed reality (MR) streaming, monitoring of fiducial markers, and other features are added to HTC’s standalone headgear.
The Vive XR Elite was unveiled by HTC in January, and shipment didn’t begin until the end of March. It delivers crisper MR experiences in a thinner, more compact design, essentially competing with HTC’s Quest Pro. There have been firsthand observations at CES 2023, and Upload VR intends to publish an official review of the headgear shortly.
Recent announcements made by HTC on the Vive XR Elite include a variety of improvements as well as brand new capabilities.
The Quest Pro did not include a depth sensor until very close to the time when it was released, but the Vive XR Elite comes equipped with one out of the box.
A test version of HTC’s room mesh was made available to a select number of developers earlier this month, and the company is now working towards a full rollout in the near future.
The headgear analyses the area and proposes discovered tables and barriers, which the user may adjust to correct any flaws, as shown in the space’s setup video posted above. Comparing that to Quest’s layout, which calls for laboriously laying out surfaces by hand, is a significant upgrade. On Quest 3, Meta apparently intends to automate this procedure later in the year.
The business has made available on GitHub an MR open source showcase titled Jelbee that makes use of this function.
The most recent version, according to HTC, has significant enhancements to the reliability of controller-free hand monitoring, notably with regard to the management of shadowing.
HTC says that the next update will significantly improve the hand monitoring capabilities of the Vive XR Elite, particularly in reflecting environments and across a broader variety of lighting circumstances.
Although not all of Quest’s best-selling hand tracking games are stocked in the XR Elite store, Unplugged is one of the titles that can be found there.
Beginning in the not-too-distant future, the Vive XR Elite will be equipped with the capacity to decipher ArUco code signals.
HTC proposes that this may be utilised for co-location, whereby several XR Elite headsets in the exact same space can synchronise their own digital system of coordinates.
HTC has released a brief video demonstrating its upcoming open-source, shared MR sample software, Shared Space Experience.
HTC is releasing a beta version of its mixed reality headgear for use with a personal computer (PC) and content delivered wirelessly or via USB Type-C cable.
Since Meta is committed to an independent experience, this isn’t achievable on Quest Pro outside of the Unity Editor.
HTC demonstrated the updated Blender functionality. HTC just allows MR to be utilised as a backdrop for PC applications, but they aim to add support for MR meshes and moorings very soon.
