Vive delayed until April 2016

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callezetter

C
Htc just announced that Vive is delayed . The new date for the consumer launch is April 2016 now. Their site is pretty pounded right now, but you
can probably check in later: http://blog.htc.com/2015/12/htc-vive-update/

Anyway this is what they say:

In an effort to clear up speculation and misinformation surrounding the launch of HTC Vive this month we are excited to give the community an update
on the status of HTC Vive. We remain committed to delivering the HTC Vive to a broader group of content creators and partners, and remain focused on
delivering the very best experience possible for a consumer release.
Since announcing the HTC Vive in March of this year we have focused on developing immersive content, refining both hardware design and user experi
ence, and building relationships with new partners both inside and outside of the gaming industry. In collaboration with Valve, we have been distributing
the HTC Vive Developer Kits to developers and content creators, and are continuing to work with many other innovative companies to create content that
spans gaming, entertainment, medical, education and retail. This includes hosting a developer conference in Beijing on December 18th, launching the
second generation of the HTC Vive Developer Kit at CES and engaging audiences at key events including The Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, GDC and
MWC while expanding our demo tours.
We will be starting the new year by making an additional 7,000 units available to developers, followed by commercial availability in April 2016. We are
incredibly excited about the future and look forward to sharing more information as we move forward towards launch.
 
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Monk

Monk
Karnath said:
Just change it to an Easter gift instead

I wonder if one of the reasons they have delayed is due to waiting for more powerful GPU's to arrive
Click to expand...
Maybe...but I suspect the limited number of machines that could have run it would have been good for creating a sort of built-in limited release.

On the other side, waiting until more people have beefy rigs (well after the holidays after everyone's parts have arrived and systems built) is good for getting favorable publicity out of the gate.

I think it all weighs on who is getting to the market first. I wonder where this puts them in relation to Oculus release. I really think success, outside of quality and experience, will rely alot first availability and then production (can it keep up with demand).
 

CATPAIN KIRK

CATPAIN KIRK
Actually not that bad - fits my upgrade plan way better. I can play horizons just fine in the DK2 using my 3.5 year old rig. The Vive would have required me to upgrade, but I've decided to skip the 980 and wait for Pascal (presumably released in June '16) and get two of those at release.
 

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE
Karnath said:
I wonder if one of the reasons they have delayed is due to waiting for more powerful GPU's to arrive
Click to expand...

I doubt it. Judging by the wording used I suspect they want more content (and higher quality content) to be available at launch. They know full well if there is no content people will not buy it (obviously we will buy it :), but we are a minority). Plus they are just finishing a US tour so public feedback may have played a part.

Bit disappointed as have just built a new PC but will just have to wait.

Oh and in case anybody missed Ed's tweet:

Capture.PNG
 

RiftFlyer

R
It doesn't bother me all that much. I wasn't planning on buying it anyway but man what a PR fiasco. They've gone from a limited December release to a dev kit 2 in January with general release in April AND they wait till now to tell people. Who'd be a VR developer with nonsense like this. Is it any wonder a lot of developers are holding off on implementing VR.
 

callezetter

C
Yeah, the Vive is great. But its been pretty obvious that it is far from ready for a consumer release. As stated there are WAY to few developers working
on titles for the vive right now. So the desicion to release another 7k developer headsets and give them 5 more months is really smart of them.

It also fits really goods with the timing of the next gen GPUs coming out in Q2-Q3 next year.
 

RiftFlyer

R
callezetter said:
It also fits really goods with the timing of the next gen GPUs coming out in Q2-Q3 next year.
Click to expand...

It doesn't fit well with that at all in my view. Surely if the graphics card was a factor they'd wait until after the next gen cards release and wouldn't have been promoting a 2015 limited release.

I suspected something was up when I heard Jeff Gattis had left. When the Executive Director of Global Marketing leaves and then we hear of a second dev kit and fairly major delay I have to suspect all is not well with the vive.
 

CMDR Rison

CMDR Rison
Well this is awful. I already updgraded my pc. Now I think I'll buy a DK2 on eBay so I don't feel like a complete idiot for 4 months. Hopefully Oculus CV1 comes out in January... (doubt it)
 

callezetter

C
I didnt mean that the delay have anything to do with next gen GPUs, but the consumer base that have good enough hardware will grow very quickly after next gen launches.
In 6 months you can have enough GPU power for VR, at half the price compared to today. That makes the potential VR userbase grow alot.
 

CMDR Rison

CMDR Rison
RiftFlyer said:
I suspected something was up when I heard Jeff Gattis had left. When the Executive Director of Global Marketing leaves and then we hear of a second dev kit and fairly major delay I have to suspect all is not well with the vive.
Click to expand...

There is a theory that the 7000 dk2s just announced was going to be the limited release consumer version and it was just not up to snuff so they decided to release it as a development kit and work on more hardware and software upgrades.

Let's hope this means there will be better specs or at least better optimization on the final version.
 

RiftFlyer

R
callezetter said:
I didnt mean that the delay have anything to do with next gen GPUs, but the consumer base that have good enough hardware will grow very quickly after next gen launches.
In 6 months you can have enough GPU power for VR, at half the price compared to today. That makes the potential VR userbase grow alot.
Click to expand...

Ah Ok. Sorry if I misinterpreted you.

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CMDR Rison said:
There is a theory that the 7000 dk2s just announced was going to be the limited release consumer version and it was just not up to snuff so they decided to release it as a development kit and work on more hardware and software upgrades.

Let's hope this means there will be better specs or at least better optimization on the final version.
Click to expand...

That theory makes a lot of sense. I just hope for the sake of Valve and the vive that HTC are still in business by April.
 
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Wolfox

Wolfox
I looked at this HTC VIVE and yes it has the positive thing about the lighthouses, but after I see only, More cables from your head ,a HMD that will behave like the DK1 on your face, ok the first games show you playing in 2×2mt zone but we know how people get bored fast about all this pretty fast.
I don't know, it doesn't convince me.
It said that IR reading that Oculus uses is not so efficient as lighthouse, but all those who used it really notice the difference?
 

CMDR Rison

CMDR Rison
Wolfox said:
It said that IR reading that Oculus uses is not so efficient as lighthouse, but all those who used it really notice the difference?
Click to expand...
What I heard was that, because the Oculus cameras are less efficient, you get much more computing load every time you add another camera. Where as with lighthouse, you get almost no additional load for every sensor you add. If this is true, you would only notice the difference if you added more cameras (to get better movement coverage) and your computer wasn't powerful enough, you might get frame drops or something...
 

crutonius

C
I'm surprised that people are surprised by this. Release dates announced more than 2 months in advance are rarely accurate. Vr is a pretty new thing. Be grateful there's a customer release in the first half of 2016.
 

[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
Put me in the.... Oculus lightweight cloth design took the by surprise so releasing dk2 and going back to drawing board camp.

Have we seen images of dk2 yet?.
 
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