Vive Pro announced

Being able to read your gauges is pretty sweet. One of the other benefits not mentioned is the fact that you can run with a much lower level of SS; allowing you to turn on more eye candy.
I tried out and passed on both the Rift and Vive. Bought the Odyssey and knew 5 minutes in that it was a keeper. I imagine the Vive pro will be the same. but with lighthouses to set up.

You'll use a smaller ppd (or SS) because you start with an higher resulution, but in the end the number of pixels that your gpu has to render it's almost the same, so I won't be much optimistic on being able to turn on more eye candyness (with the same hardware)

@Doon1 - Lighthouses are trivial to set up. Only takes a moment and unless you move them, only needs to be done once. Setup step takes longer to explain than to do. I’ve only set up a DK2 in Rift land but would guess that it’s also trivial for the Rift. The WMR headsets use inside-out tracking which is more complex computationally and introduces more latency in tracking than either Constellation or Lighthouse. That’s the trade off.

@Blame73 - But if rendering at the display resolution, you do lose the subsampling step. Don’t know how much that adds to the process but I’d bet that rendering at the Pro/Odyssey resolution is going to be expensive enough that it will take Volta or Ampere to get back to supersampling again. I can't wait!

I'll update (from scratch) my hardware just when the new VR gen is released, and it's not going to be cheap...
Until then I'm keeping my 1070 and the 4670k (maybe a 4790k that's the max my MB can handle).

Yeah, VR is an expensive treadmill to be on if you go for the edge. But it’s so damn cool! I’m really hoping gen 2 uses eye tracking and foveated rendering to kind of hold a line on computer requirements. Brute forcing it is tough. I think we’re now at the point where VR will need those kinds of things to overcome the bandwidth limits updating the displays and calculating the images or else it’s going to be really tough to keep advancing after the Pro.

I know what you mean. I bought a 1080ti just for VR. I just hope the next gen will have foveate rendering so I can hang onto this card for a cycle or two.

Hi, really looking forward to the pro but worried this will cost $500 so that means £500 in uk. My reasoning is the oddessy is $350 without the delux style head strap and HTC will just add a little more on etc. Hope I am wrong.

So what price do you think and why ?

Pre-order is up and will ship April 5th at $799 USD!

https://blog.vive.com/us/2018/03/19...re-orders-start-today-price-vive-reduced-499/

If you already got the Vive you could just buy the headset.

Having the Oculus I think I have to wait until 2019, unless as happened with the CV1 they will cut times following HTC and maybe we'll get the cv2 for the holydays...

I priced out the base stations and controllers and it's cheaper to buy the original Vive bundle with the headset than to get them separately with the new HMD. Not sure why they didn't give a bundle price for the HMD as well.

They must be waiting on the 2.0 other stuff to ramp up. My bet would be on the Lighthouses since those have some specialized parts. Probably simpler to get one thing out the door than the full kit. My preference would be the full kit but oh well.

But I made the jump. Can’t wait for the higher res for flying and driving. Now I just need Volta or Ampere and I’ll be good for maybe a year?

I will wait until they make bundle with new HMD, maybe together with wireless adapter.

Right now I don't think I could sell only my Vive headset without base stations and controllers, who would buy that? I first wouldn't..

Anyway, could I get 499 € for Vive bundle bought in 9/2017, 2 bases, 2 controllers, included some VR protective cover and spare foams?

Epic fail, the Vive Pro bundle is $1099 USD and includes the old 1.0 controllers and base stations. Can't imagine the price with the 2.0 controllers and base stations.

https://blog.vive.com/us/2018/04/03...for-1-0-tracking-free-viveport-titles-galore/

So today we’re announcing the Vive Pro Starter Kit available on Vive.com starting April 5. This bundle pairs the Vive Pro HMD and two Vive 1.0 controllers and two 1.0 base stations for $1099 (USD, regional prices vary).

Not really. Apparently the 2.0 Lighthouses aren’t available in quantity yet or it would be a 2.0 bundle instead. The 2.0 Lighthouses are supposed to be a less expensive design to manufacture but that’s not the only consideration in pricing.

HTC has said that the headset-only package was intended to give present Vive owners an upgrade path and allow people to upgrade now if they wanted. The 1.0 bundle and the 1.0 starter pack of Lighthouses and wands are to fill the gap where people who didn’t already have Lighthouses or wands could buy a Vive Pro without doing as some have been and buying a full 1.0 Vive set to get the parts and also buying the Pro.

The Pro is expensive but it’s the best available at this time. The resolution boost is at the sweet spot for simulations - especially seeing dials and gauges in aircraft or turns in the distance and turn markers in cars.

With the WMR headsets and sets like Go and Focus pushing the low end, and so many buying at the low end because of the price, HTC had to realize any new headset, if it was more expensive, would face competition that would cut into sales. It’s only a guess, but to avoid that competition it looks like they are going for the business market with the Pro which is less sensitive to a few hundred dollars price difference if the features are there. While everyone else is going low, they went to the high end and planted a stake. They also dropped the price of the 1.0 by another $100.

I don’t see a fail at all.

HTC has alienated their followers with their pricing and has faced a huge back lash online.
If they had released this bundle for $799 with the 1.0 peripherals, they might have had a chance.
The Pro is definitely not high end outside of pricing and the bump in resolution was not significant and SDE still an issue.
If it was targeted toward the business market they should warranty sweat damage, but they do not. Just more marketing BS to justify their pricing.

The Samsung Odyssey has the same resolution at 1440x1600 and the bundle is $499. The lack of trackers is negligible for seated/stationary sim racing.

With Pimax 5k/8k coming out later this year, HTC will definitely lose market share if they don't do price corrections.

Believe whatever you want, but it’s a unique product in an already small market. Incremental upgrade or not, many people are quite willing to pay $800 for the features it offers. Businesses especially are.

I know you guys think they are ripping you off, but I have a feeling they realize that selling the Pro headset at $399 would get them a lot more sales, a lot fewer people badmouthing them, and a much quicker bump in market share. If they could do that, why wouldn’t they?

There are people that devote their careers to maximizing the profit in a product. HTC is a big company and no doubt has a few of them. Right now, at whatever costs they have to make each unit, my guess is $800 maximizes profits. Something will need to change in their equation for a different price to do that.

The other thing is just the cost to manufacture. In short runs, costs will be higher than long-haul runs. It’s an advanced bit of kit and the molds, fixtures, test stands, etc, to build those is a huge investment. They need to be assured of making that money back. And "but, but, but the Samsung Odyssey", you should know Samsung is making the displays and we don’t know costing to HTC. The rest of the Odyssey is pretty cheap to make and because of that, Samsung can price lower and sell more - further reducing costs to manufacture. Those controllers for Odyssey are just hunks of plastic with LEDs on them so the cameras can follow them. Much cheaper than the Vive wands which have pretty close-tolerance and specialized electronics on each tracking sensor and multiple sensors per wand. Lighthouses are also significantly more expensive than cameras. HTC may not be able to do price corrections.

So, with the Odyssey more in your price range and more suitable to you for simming, it sounds like that’s the best solution for you. But your take on the pricing of the Pro is flawed. They priced it where they priced it, probably out of necessity not out of any animosity to users which sure seems to be the attitude on so many boards.

Their chances may be better than you think. The Pro seems to be sold out in lots of places now. Last I saw Best Buy, Newegg, and Microsoft still had them but that was a while ago. The bean counters may have nailed it.

Mine just got here! Time to go play!

The lack of trackers is unbearable for me (I play 99% sim racing). No tracking makes me puke in no time

I'm also suprised that the price is that high. Its the same as the initial price for the Vive, but without lighthouses and controllers, I was guessing that it would be included at that price, and the Pro headset alone would be about the same price as the Vive package...

If i bought the Pro I probably couln't sell the old one without controllers/lighthouses, and it is two expensive to just be collecting dust...

So I will wait until the price drops or till the true next gen. I am a bit worried for the future of VR, it seems as most people (and reviewers) forget about racing/flying and therefore it looks like VR is dying, which could end up beeing a self-fulfilling prophecy(!)

If i didn't have Dirt Rally or Project Cars 2 i'm sure that my Vive wouldn't be used that much, as there is long between real games...