Unlike its forebear, the Vive Cosmos had a very shaky start in 2019, never rising to the same heights whilst struggling against rivals Oculus Rift S and Valve Index. But HTC Vive has continued to roll out improvements for the headset, the latest arriving this week, unlocking more PC performance.
Vive Cosmos has received several updates to ensure a smooth virtual reality (VR) experience such as an upgrade to DirectX 12 for NVIDIA GPUs which the company claim: “gives your computer’s CPU an average of 15-20% improvement.”
Latency is always a concern when it comes to VR, if it’s poor then a videogame is likely to get uncomfortable. So the update has: “optimized frame timings offering 10% better latency.” VR content should also look a little better because HTC Vive: “refactored our runtime which improves your computer’s graphics processing by 10%.” All of which should mean a better VR experience even for lower-end VR-capable machines.
And to top this all off, the Vive Cosmos has seen a new chaperone to passthrough behaviour introduced. This will reduce interruptions so there’s less chance of losing that feeling of immersion whilst still maintaining a safe room-scale area.
HTC Vive’s collaboration with the OpenXR standard means that developers can get under the hood and play. “We are releasing beta access to OpenXR, offering you an opportunity to let your imagination turn to action. OpenXR support will also be coming to Vive Wave later this year,” notes the Vive team.
The standard Vive Cosmos with its inside-out tracking, modular faceplate and funky motion controllers currently retails for £699 GBP and comes with a 2-month Viveport Infinity membership. There’s also the Vive Cosmos Elite for £899 which does away the inside-out tracking in favour of the external Steam Lighthouse Base Stations and the normal Vive controllers.
There’s a possibility that 2021 may even see a new Vive headset appear. Early last year the company unveiled its Project Proton concept which showcased two designs. For all the latest HTC Vive updates, keep reading VRFocus.
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