Coming in July from the Open Source Virtual Reality Consortium, the Hacker Development Kit 2 virtual reality headset matches the stats of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive for only $US399 ($540).
Co-founded and organised by hardware makers Razer and Sensics, OSVR is an open source virtual reality software platform that aims to set an open standard for virtual reality devices. With next month’s release of the HDK 2, that standard looks to line up with the two most popular pieces of PC VR hardware.
As you can see in the table below, the HDK 2 has the resolution, refresh rate, field of view and requirements of the Rift and Vive. It doesn’t come with controllers, but it can use any OSVR compatible hardware or standard game pad. It also features an image quality enhancer that promises to reduce the VR screen door effect, delivering less distortion.
Now all it needs is for everyone to support OSVR so we don’t even need the other two, or something like that.
“The HDK 2 allows us to meet the needs of VR fans and gamers and provide developers with affordable open-source hardware to innovate with,” says Christopher Mitchel, OSVR dead for Razer via official press release. “With the HDK 2 being able to deliver a visual experience on par with industry leaders, we will now be able to represent hardware agnostic VR media and games in all their glory for future headsets to adopt through the open source ecosystem.”
The HDK 2 will be available to demo at E3 2016 this week. You can read more about it (or buy one) at OSVR.org.
Comments
8 responses to “New OSVR Headset Delivers Rift And Vive Specs For $399”
Given that both the Rift and the Vive have tracking systems dependant on the headset, what tracking system are you going to use?
So it’s not really up to “spec” in that department.
Huh? Specs say tracking area 8″x9″. Looking further it uses IR tracking and can come with an optional Leap Motion faceplate as well.
Yup, HDK2 comes with IR tracking kit including an IR camera.
Oh Wikid, bout time!
Im glad more people are challenging the big 2x, should deliver some decent competition to refine the market
Weird that it says Vive doesn’t have a built-in mic. I mean it’s pretty shitty, but it’s still there.
Will be interesting to see just how closely it actually matches the others in performance, compared to numbers on the page.
Considering how toxic the Vive vs Rift battle has become, this may be the headset of choice.
As bad as it may sound, I don’t care if the headset is rubbish or fantastic, all I really want from this is for the idea of software being for all headsets to catch on. It’s like the Android market, you have high end phones and low end phones but everyone is able to enjoy the same content (More or less).
and then next year yet another company will come out of the woodworks announcing that they’ve created a new universal standard