It’s fair to say that virtual reality has gone from a flashy wonder technology of the future to something we’re simply used to. New VR headsets are trickling out all the time, and while some are making waves due to their exorbitant price tag (looking at you Apple Vision Pro), they have yet to deliver on the space-age promise of the technology that will see it penetrate the mainstream.
Now HTC is here with their latest VR headset: the HTC Vive Focus Vision – and they invited us to London to see it. How will it compare to the best VR headsets on the market? Let’s find out!
If Road to VR points out that many of the key specifications of this new headset overlap with those of the Vive focus 3an enterprise-oriented headset that HTC released in 2021. It has the same Fresnel optics, the same 5K screens (2448 x 2448 pixels per eye) and the same controllers. It’s a hybrid headset that can work on its own, or as a PC VR headset connecting via WiFi, USB-C, or DisplayPort. One of the big new additions to the Focus Vision is the integration of color passthrough, which uses a combination of cameras and depth sensors to deliver an ‘augmented’ reality experience, where you can see the real world with VR stuff on top of it. .
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Forget all that, though. We didn’t go to London to talk about the specs and features; we are here to play some games. Squid gamesspecifically, like Netflix has collaborated Sandbox VR to bring his excellent dystopian sci-fi survival thriller to life as Squid Game Virtuals. However, this is not a VR game that you can buy at home: it is a tailor-made group experience.
The demo event took place at Sandbox VR’s London site, a space-age-esque looking place Room-scale VR location packed with special VR play areas for large groups and an honest robot bartender. It wasn’t as creepy as the one in Passengers, so I ordered a mocktail, thanked the machine (then Skynet takes over, I want them to know I was one of the good guys), and went to the demo.
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Myself and three other players were escorted to our play area, where an instructor helped us slide into our game setups. This included external sensors for our hands and feet, a haptic vest and of course the HTC Focus Vision. Here the Focus Vision took its first opportunity to amaze me with its automatic adjustment of the interpupillary distance (IPD). On most VR headsets you have to manually rotate the eyepieces until everything is in focus, but here there was no fuss. There’s also generous space in the headset for glasses wearers — I have small frames, but another participant (BigFuzzyYak) had a larger cat-eye frame and she said the headset fit over them with no problem.
So we’re all ready to play, but what does a Squid Game VR game actually look like? Fortunately, it’s a much less gruesome version of the show, with players competing in a series of mini-games to rack up points. It looks a lot like a video game version of Takeshi’s Castle of Wipeout.
We started with a digital recreation of the show’s iconic “Red Light, Green Light” game. Everyone had to collect coins that appeared in the air and drop them into a giant, golden piggy bank. The catch? You have to freeze on the spot when the angry robot lady shouts ‘red light’. Failure to do so will result in a painful ending for your avatar (and a loud rumble from the haptic vest to let you know you’ve made a mistake).
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This is exactly the situation that wireless headsets like the HTC Focus Vision are made for. Even in the relatively large space we had, the four of us were constantly surrounding each other trying to steal coins. If you tried this with four wired headsets, you would end up with an HDMI cable with a Gordian knot on the end of it.
As we went through the rest of the minigames, we got to put various claims and features of the HTC Focus Vision to the test. In “Make A Shape”, a series of walls move towards the players, and you each have to manipulate your bodies to fit through oddly shaped holes. This ‘human Tetris’ put limb tracking to the test, and as much as I’d like to blame my lack of dexterity on technical issues, the tracking lived up to the bargain perfectly.
By default, Focus Vision uses an infrared spotlight and four cameras to track your hand movements, but you can upgrade the experience Vive ultimate trackers to follow your arms and legs. During all gaming sessions, there was only one player who lost tracking on the headset, and the issue was quickly resolved.
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We continued with the rest of the games, including ‘The Pendulum’, where we swung sharp pendulums of death at each other, and ‘One of Four’, where we had to catch piggy banks to find out which floor tiles were safe. to get up at the end of the round. I’ve heard accusations that I stood in the wrong square until the last second and then walked away, leaving my trusting compatriots to their deaths – that’s fake news, folks.
We wrapped things up with “Catch and Match,” which gave the Focus Vision one last chance to impress me with its tracking. We had to quickly catch shapes fired at us and deposit them into the corresponding holes, while dodging bombs from other players (and firing a few from my own). For this one I became one with the machine, using both hands to rip the geometry out of the air and throw them into the bins – it was like Neo had taken part in a game show instead of fighting cops. Even more impressive than my sick movements was the headset’s ability to keep up. I even found some best VR headsets I have a seizure if you move your arms too close together or too fast, but I had no such problems here.
I emerged from my Squid Game ordeal physically exhausted, sweating profusely and triumphant! I was very impressed with Squid Game Virtuals and the whole setup at Sandbox, but that wasn’t ultimately what I went there to see. HTC’s latest foray into VR certainly makes a great first impression. It’s super comfortable to wear, partly thanks to the ergonomic design and mountains of foam, but also because the weight is well balanced. Other headsets can often feel very heavy, making extended gaming sessions a strain on your neck, but HTC’s focus on comfort has certainly paid off.
The automatic IPD was also a big win for me: it removes the barrier of boring stuff and lets you just get stuck into it. Just put on the headset and boom, you’re ready to go. In many ways the HTC Vive Focus Vision feels like the perfect VR headset for places like VR cafes and group venues, but how well it will fit into the VR home market remains to be seen.
With an asking price of $999 / £999it’s $350 more than the Meta quest 3 – a headset with the same processor, a higher refresh rate and even a superior pancake lens compared to the Fresnel lens in the Vive. Under the hood, however, the HTC has some real technological and ergonomic advantages, and if you were to offer me either headset for free, I’d drop your arm for the HTC. In a world where the Meta Quest 3 often retails for as little as $500, it will have to surprise users to justify that cost.
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Looking at the images and language on the store page, it’s clear that HTC is trying to position this as a multi-purpose device that can be used for work, creativity and gaming (although that’s hardly a unique angle in VR these days). Either way, we’ll review the HTC Vive Focus Vision later this year, to see how it handles some of the issues best VR space gamesso keep an eye on it.
The HTC Vive Focus Vision is now available for pre-order and cost $999 / £999. It will be released on October 17th and if you pre-order before the release date you will receive a Vive wired streaming kit (DisplayPort mode compatible) worth $149/£159 and over 7 games for free.
