Back in January HTC revealed a new high-end VR headset, the Vive Cosmos, but it was really just a tease. Now the company has revealed the final design and resolution of the system, which we'll be playing with later this year.
The final version, shown in a video on the company's Facebook page, looks a little different to the headset we saw at CES 2019, with a new vented front to presumably keep the insides (and our faces) as cool as possible. Since we last saw the headset HTC has also added two additional cameras to the visor, one facing upwards and one facing downwards, which we expect will aid the six-degrees-of-freedom tracking.
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Speaking of that visor, you'll be able to flip it up for moments you need to temporarily jump back into the real world. HTC also says the pictured headphones are detachable, should you prefer to switch in your own.
Since we published this story, HTC has revealed that the Cosmos will have a combined resolution of 2880 x 1700, which is 88% higher than the original Vive headset and slightly more than the Vive Pro, which sports a resolution of 2880 x 1600.
HTC also says games will run at a 90 frames per second, and that its RGB panels, which use subpixels for improved clarity, will reduce the screen door effect that plagues some headsets.
What's clear is that HTC isn't skimping on the tech; the Cosmos will require a PC to run, although HTC has vaguely hinted at the possibility of being able to run the headset off a mobile device. This is a premium, high-end system to compete with the best of the best.
HTC has previously said the Cosmos is a brand new product line, and it's not meant to replace the Vive Pro, which is still the most technologically advanced headset in its arsenal.
Cosmos will also be the first HTC headset to run Vive Reality System, which is a brand new user interface. It essentially drops you into a world called Origin, which has continually updating art galleries, games, tools to create things and - naturally - your friends. From there, you can jump into apps and games with a new feature called Lens, which is basically an oval pop-up window. It all sounds a little like AltspaceVR, but as the center of the HTC Vive experience.
The Cosmos is slated to ship in Q3 this year.
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By Hugh Langley
Now at Business Insider, Hugh originally joined Wareable from TechRadar where he’d been writing news, features, reviews and just about everything else you can think of for three years.
Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider.
Prior to Wareable, Hugh freelanced while studying, writing about bad indie bands and slightly better movies. He found his way into tech journalism at the beginning of the wearables boom, when everyone was talking about Google Glass and the Oculus Rift was merely a Kickstarter campaign - and has been fascinated ever since.
He’s particularly interested in VR and any fitness tech that will help him (eventually) get back into shape. Hugh has also written for T3, Wired, Total Film, Little White Lies and China Daily.