Wireless HTC Vive, Oculus Earphones, and Adr1ft Humble Bundle

$220 Wireless Add-on for HTC Vive by TPCAST. Image Credit: UploadVR

There is something new and exciting almost everyday in the virtual reality industry, here is your update on some of the most notable in the past few days.

HTC Vive Goes Wireless With $220 Add-on

$220 Wireless Add-on for HTC Vive by TPCAST. Image Credit: UploadVR

This one is huge and probably has Oculus VR scrambling to develop something for their fans.

I am of course talking about HTC’s announcement of a wireless add-on that will untether the head mounted display from being anchored to a gaming PC.

The HTC Vive wireless accessory is not actually made by HTC, but instead is made by TPCAST, a Vive X Accelerator participant. The wireless accessory kit is only available on the Chinese HTC Vive website and was available  for preorder on Friday November 11, 2016. The wireless add on is expected to ship sometime in Q1 2017.

Unfortunately it seems like Oculus supporters are always finishing last in the VR race. Hell, by the time the Touch controllers even launch (Dec. 6) it will only even the VR playing field for a month, because then HTC Vive owners will have the option to go completely wireless in January 2017.

This is also unfortunate because the quick adoption of wireless add-ons for VR pretty much decimated the idea of a VR backpack.

Oh well, you cannot win them all.

New Oculus Earphone Attachment

Oculus Rift New Earphones Launch on December 6, and are available for pre-order. Image Credit: Road to VR

The new Oculus Rift Earphone attachment was announced along with the Touch at Oculus Connect 3. Reviews so far have been positive and are priced to sell at just $49. The Oculus Earphones may be pre-ordered from the Oculus Store and Amazon, and will ship on December 6, which is when the Touch is expected to ship.

Below is a wonderful Pro/Con review by Road to VR:

Pros:

• The Oculus earphones are noise-isolating, which leads to not only less distractions from the real world.
• Balanced sound signature comparable to the standard headphones, but at an even higher quality.
• No pressure on the ear lobe (this is if you have a problem with the comfort of the standard headphones).
• Easy to install.
• Great value for the price.

Cons:

• People in your vicinity can have a harder time communicating to you while you’re effectively blind and deaf to them
• Pressure in the ear canal (this is for people who generally dislike the feeling of IEMs or earbuds in their ears).
• More annoying to switch out if you let other people use your headset often.
• Slightly longer ‘setup’ time to use the headset compared to the headphones.
• Can’t be used on their own, since they have a unique connection to the Rift headset.

I highly recommend preordering the Oculus earphones if you are looking for a truly immersive 3D VR sound experience.

Humble Bundle: Unreal Engine (Adr1ft VR for $4.11)

Humble Bundle: Unreal Engine is one of the few Humble Bundles that I have seen that includes a VR game as part of their reasonably priced $10 bundle.

Adr1ft VR. Image Credit Steam

The Humble Bundle: Unreal Engine includes ADR1FT  if you donate over the average donation of $4.11. However for a donation of $10 you get the following games:

• Killing Floor
• Dangerous Golf
• Shadow Complex Remastered
• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
• Adr1ft
• The Mean Greens – Plastic Warfare
• The Culling (Early Access)

The total for this reasonable price is $119 worth of games and can be redeemed through Steam.

Adr1ft is an immersive first person experience that tells the story of an astronaut in peril, as the astronaut floats amongst the wreckage of a destroyed space station.That is all for the time being, check into vrporn.com; periodically for up-to-date content.

Twitter: @vrporn and @trexxxvr