Wireless Upgrade Come to the HTC’s Vive

The latest upgrade to HTC’s Vive VR headset adds a peripheral that enables a completely wireless experience.

The HTC Vive is a joint development between HTC and Valve to provide a “room scale” virtual reality experience for use with SteamVR. However, until now that room scale experience has required a cable connecting the Vive headset to a PC for power and data. TPCast, a company working internally at HTC as part of the Vive X Accelerator program, has now removed the need for that cable by developing a tether-less upgrade kit.

eady set up to be used and tracked in a room, only now that can be done without fear of tripping on a cable. It also makes multiple Vive wearers in the same room a much more viable proposition.

HTC released footage of the Vive with TPCast upgrade kit fitted being used. You’ll notice there is no physical link between the Vive headset and the PC on the right running the VR game.

TPCast’s kit replaces the wired connection with a wireless link and adds a battery pack to the headset for power. According to UploadVR, the kit does not introduce additional latency to the system while also “greatly improving” the virtual reality experience. The HTC Vive ($799 at Amazon) was already set up to be used and tracked in a room, only now that can be done without fear of tripping on a cable. It also makes multiple Vive wearers in the same room a much more viable.

HTC released footage of the Vive with TPCast upgrade kit fitted being used. You’ll notice there is no physical link between the Vive headset and the PC on the right running the VR game.

The HTC Vive  isn’t cheap, as most gamers already know. on top of the price of the vine, you need a PC powerful enough to support its use (Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM, GeForce GTX 970/Radeon R9 290 minimum), the headset with two wireless controllers and two base stations included costs $800. The TPCast upgrade kit is expected to cost an additional $220 complete with a headset battery thought to offer 90 minutes of play time. A larger battery will be made available that is carried in a Vive wearer’s pocket, but again, it will add another cost.

You’ll have plenty of time to save for the upgrade kit purchase it seems. Initially, HTC will take pre-orders in China with very limited quantities shipping in Q1 2017. Launching the kit in other regions hasn’t been discussed yet, but I’d be surprised if we didn’t see North America and Europe getting release dates for mid to late 2017