Virtual reality has become one of the hot topics in science and technology in the past two years. Not only has it been widely used in the gaming industry, but also e-commerce, film and television, medical and other fields are using virtual reality technology to explore new ways. Under the premise that the VR headline market is gradually becoming saturated, it seems that peripherals have become another opportunity that major manufacturers scramble to occupy first. The new audiovisual experience brought by VR technology makes us refreshing, but we still get rid of VR Can not connect to the host on the line. The disappearance of this line has become the top issue that many vendors are trying to solve. VR backpacks have also emerged.
HP Omen X VR Backpack Host
HP Omen X VR Backpack Host
Although HP is not very willing to put the detailed hardware configuration of this VR backpack to full publicity, they still revealed some rough information: a quad-core Intel Core i7 (algebra unknown), and a performance test in Steam VR. Go to 10.8 graphics card. The backpack is about 4.5kg in weight, as claimed by HP when it was first announced, and the sense of weight is within the acceptable range. The entire system has a modular design idea, and the strap is removed. It can be used as a desktop computer; it is equipped with a strap, which is a VR world carrier that does not hinder the movement.
Regarding the power consumption of the computer, Hewlett-Packard Co. said that the current prototype used a belt pack equipped with two batteries and was connected to the backpack host by cables. And the battery uses a hot swap design, which means that you can replace the battery without interrupting the game. The battery life of a fully charged battery is about 1 hour.
MSI Backpack PC
MSI Backpack PC
At this year's 2016 Taipei Computer Show, MSI also exhibited a backpack host, mainly for VR device design, on the other hand, in the hardware configuration of MSI's this piggyback PC with Intel Core i7 processor, and SSD solid state Hard drives and NVIDIA 980GTX graphics cards have driven the mainstream mainstream high-end VR headlights with little problem. As for how they will perform in terms of energy consumption and battery life, that is another problem.
The weight of this backpack host machine is about 4.5 kilograms, which is much higher than that of a normal laptop. In the actual experience, the back of the host did not feel particularly heavy. After wearing the HTC Vive helmet, you can play a variety of VR games. Compared to using the HTC Vive to connect to a desktop computer, there is no feeling of freedom of the connection cable. You can easily experience the excitement of the game without having to worry about the complicated connection cables between the host and the host.
Sotec ZBOX Mini PC
Sotec ZBOX Mini PC
Sotec's backpack host was released in April. Compared to other similar backpackers, the ZBOX Mini PC is actually a set of powerful mini-hosts, and hosts and batteries are packed in special backpacks.
The host is said to be equipped with an Intel Core i5-6400 processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 notebook graphics card, and an extension cable that supports USB 3.1, USB 3.0, DisplayPort, HDMI, and Ethernet. This petite host with a size of only 9x8x5 inches even has a built-in SD card reader. In addition to the above specifications, this host will also be equipped with a set of water cooling system to ensure the temperature of the host, including a built-in 120 mm fan radiator, liquid channels, heat pipes and heat sinks. In addition, this backpack is another feature is the use of high-capacity batteries, battery life of up to 2 hours, although for VR game players is still far from enough, but it has exceeded the same product.
Alien Backpack Game Host
Alien Backpack Game Host
At the E3 video game show in Los Angeles this year, Dell Aliens, known for its high-performance gaming notebooks, exhibited a backpack host for VR games. In fact, the aliens demonstrated a game that supports VR games. The host computer, and equipped with a matching backpack for this computer, allows players to experience the VR game on their computer, so that they can get rid of the connection cable between the VR helmet and the host computer.
The underlying system of the mainframe is an upgraded version of the alien Alpha. It was designed by the aliens and Zero Latency's VR company. The power scheme and operating mode were improved, and the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift helmets can be used to run large VR games. However, the mainframe is still in the conceptual stage, and there is not even a specific name. The Alpha host is equipped with Intel i5 processor and the graphics card uses the NVIDIA 960M. However, in order to be able to run VR games, the new backpack mainframe should be upgraded in hardware, nowadays Aliens have stepped up cooperation with AMD, so this backpack host is likely to be equipped with AMD's new Polaris RX480 graphics card, which can comfortably deal with large-scale VR games.
Although these backpack hosts were designed to allow players to experience VR games while escaping the connection cables between the VR helmet and the desktop system, there are still significant problems with the above four backpack PCs:
Throughout the release of the backpack PC, graphics cards are mostly GTX970 and GTX980, some models use the GTX960, experience may be lacking, the processor can generally meet; weight is generally around 4-5kg, also Is about 10 pounds; in order to endurance, most of them are equipped with dual batteries, but battery life is only less than 1 hour, we can imagine the backpack PC usage scenario is this:
You carry a few kilograms or even a dozen catties (the weight of the whole game simulates the weight of the game). You will experience VR in a relatively narrow place. You also need to avoid furniture and other obstacles, although most of the time you are standing still. The body twisted and twisted, behind the back of the host has been hot, ten minutes on the exercise breathless, and good physical are playing fun, I'm sorry, no electricity ...
In terms of price, generally speaking, according to the VR Ready or HTC Vive, Oculus Rift official configuration requirements, buy a passing PC computer, the cost needs at least 1,000 US dollars, equivalent to 6575 yuan, this price is also considered a high price , willing to buy such a configuration of the computer Xiaobian players feel really love. According to currently available backpack computers, the selling price needs to be more than 2000 US dollars, which is equivalent to about 13,000 yuan, which is not an easily accepted sale for an ordinary VR player.
At present, although backpack PC is not the ideal VR experience device, it can be said that it is already the best VR solution, and this form will exist for some time, and it is very likely to become the standard for a certain scale VR experience hall. It will take time for the more ideal wireless transmission method to be officially commercialized. At this stage VR can play cool, but it can not be fun.