No G3? HP leaves VR Market?

[YoYo]

See this. It has two side. The first it could be, HP leaves the VR market (they will finish support of G2) or the other side - the reason is not announced G3 yet (but till now no any info about new headset from HP officially). We’ll see, however fingers crossed for the second option!

https://mixed-news.com/en/hp-allegedly-wants-out-of-vr-rumor/?amp=1

[RealDCSpilot]

Whatever will happen, it was already announced a couple months ago:

 

[Gun Jam]

They out... and by out I mean gone. 

[YoYo]

34 minutes ago, RealDCSpilot said:

Whatever will happen, it was already announced a couple months ago:

 

Thx, however something is under the hood, in the last time (means in the last 2-3 days) I saw this info in few IT portals.

[Supmua]

AR/XR seems to be what large tech companies betting on these days including Meta, Samsung, Apple, Google, etc., and I think that’s the next logical step or evolution for VR headsets.  Companies that are just focusing on VR products will be left behind unless they have strong ecosystem with software support and user base (Sony).  We might still see future headsets from HP but I think they’re more likely to be AR/XR which I think of as VR HMD with extra functionality.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Supmua

[Willie Nelson]

Such a shame, they did such a great job. 

[SharpeXB]

The printer cartridge market was just too lucrative by comparison…

[YoYo]

If its true it could be a pity, this is my opinion about direction of market:

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by YoYo

[YoYo]

 

[ironhard]

On 2/3/2023 at 6:24 PM, YoYo said:

Thx, however something is under the hood, in the last time (means in the last 2-3 days) I saw this info in few IT portals.

Nothing is under hood. HP makes tons of money from public bids and the enterprise market. Their least concern is the PCVR niche, especially after AAA VR titles completely failed to materialize.

 

[Baldrick33]

5 minutes ago, ironhard said:

Nothing is under hood. HP makes tons of money from public bids and the enterprise market. Their least concern is the PCVR niche, especially after AAA VR titles completely failed to materialize.

I think much the same. The VR division was a tiny little experimental offshoot. All the big companies wanted to keep a toe in the water, games were initially ahead of commercial use but I would guess their focus is squarely on the commercial market now.

The G1s were notoriously unreliable - I had four plus a cable under warranty so I doubt they made much profit if any. The later G2s supposedly fixed the issues but I still see lots of cable issues on forums. For me in the UK, HP have been great at swapping stuff out though it is clear speaking to the support guys the VR stuff is a real niche for them to deal with and most VR enthusiasts will know a lot more about them!

If HP are looking to tighten belts then consumer PCVR would seem a rather obvious casualty unfortunately for us.

[Glide]

There are a couple of newcomers to the VR field that have specs similar to the G2.  They could have sold their IP.  MS should buy it too and make a headset.  I bet mbuccia could make a pretty good product.

[edmuss]

I'm intrigued by the somnium VR1 and the meganex, however I suspect that both are going to be a fair chunk more than the G2

[Supmua]

1 hour ago, edmuss said:

I'm intrigued by the somnium VR1 and the meganex, however I suspect that both are going to be a fair chunk more than the G2

The MeganeX is $1699 while the Somnium VR1 will be “cheaper than the Aero”.  I wouldn’t expect the Somnium HMD anytime soon though, it’s a lot easier to show specs and prototype unit but to actually make a completely finished product that is consumer ready in mass quantity is a different ballgame.  The MeganeX was supposed to be ready last year, and then it wasn’t. 
It’s crazy how we are still lacking affordable next gen PCVR headsets after all these years, and it’s not like we don’t have the technology to make it happen.  Slap a DP connection on the Pico 4, for example, and it’ll likely become the goto PCVR headset for mass as the resolution is great, pancake optics are much better than fresnel, form factor is modern enough, pricing is great, etc.

[edmuss]

According to the somnium devs they're looking at Q2 this year for the first releases

I had seen the price of the meganex, I think for that much I'd rather get the aero as it's more mature.

My hope for the somnium is that it's possible to print the large majority of the components and buy a kit of parts for what you need. For example if you could customise it so there's no hand tracking module (already got a leap) and no eye tracking to reduce costs then that would be a bonus.

[Mr_sukebe]

2 hours ago, Supmua said:

The MeganeX is $1699 while the Somnium VR1 will be “cheaper than the Aero”.  I wouldn’t expect the Somnium HMD anytime soon though, it’s a lot easier to show specs and prototype unit but to actually make a completely finished product that is consumer ready in mass quantity is a different ballgame.  The MeganeX was supposed to be ready last year, and then it wasn’t. 
It’s crazy how we are still lacking affordable next gen PCVR headsets after all these years, and it’s not like we don’t have the technology to make it happen.  Slap a DP connection on the Pico 4, for example, and it’ll likely become the goto PCVR headset for mass as the resolution is great, pancake optics are much better than fresnel, form factor is modern enough, pricing is great, etc.

Agreed.

If they added a DP to the Pico 4, they could even simplify its internals, as a PCVR unit wouldn’t need the battery, storage or video processing capabilities, so should in theory be lighter, easier and cheaper to build.

[edmuss]

Basically we need HP to open source the G2 and someone to switch the lenses to pancakes and figure the correct distortions

Edited February 8, 2023 by edmuss

[dburne]

2 hours ago, Supmua said:

The MeganeX is $1699 while the Somnium VR1 will be “cheaper than the Aero”.  I wouldn’t expect the Somnium HMD anytime soon though, it’s a lot easier to show specs and prototype unit but to actually make a completely finished product that is consumer ready in mass quantity is a different ballgame.  The MeganeX was supposed to be ready last year, and then it wasn’t. 
It’s crazy how we are still lacking affordable next gen PCVR headsets after all these years, and it’s not like we don’t have the technology to make it happen.  Slap a DP connection on the Pico 4, for example, and it’ll likely become the goto PCVR headset for mass as the resolution is great, pancake optics are much better than fresnel, form factor is modern enough, pricing is great, etc.

 

I would not consider Pico a serious contender until they opened up a NA market. And yeah provide a native display port connection and quit with this compressing signals through USB crap. If they want to do stand alone fine, let them do a seperate standalone device in addition to a native PC-VR device. Like the original Rift and Quest devices.

[Baldrick33]

18 hours ago, dburne said:

I would not consider Pico a serious contender until they opened up a NA market. And yeah provide a native display port connection and quit with this compressing signals through USB crap. If they want to do stand alone fine, let them do a seperate standalone device in addition to a native PC-VR device. Like the original Rift and Quest devices.

Unfortunately for us I think mainstream tethered dedicated PCVR devices are an unlikely direction for new development, the Rift and Quest is a good example, with the former obsolete. Tethered PCVR is seemingly becoming a more niche, enthusiast product with the pricing to go with it I am afraid. I hope I am wrong though!

[Zebra1-1]

That's really too bad if true. The G2 is a great headset for the money. My only complaint with the G2 is the headstrap.

Having an improved G3 in the $750 to $1000 range would have been nice. Maybe a deeper collaboration with Valve as a Index and G2 replacement, to come in under the Varjo and new Pimax offerings.

The next Valve headset looks like it be geared toward Meta, which I really don't care for. That's why most of the other headsets don't appeal to me. I only use for Sims.
Not needing base stations is nice too.

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