HTC Ponders Selling Up...

djkav · 25 Aug 2017 at 22:44

Rumours around are that hard strapped cashed HTC is considering selling it's mobile arm, or it's VR arm, or even the company as a whole.

Source

hyperseven · 25 Aug 2017 at 23:08

Wasn't they going to spin off the VR arm last year?

melmac · 26 Aug 2017 at 00:20

hyperseven said:
Wasn't they going to spin off the VR arm last year?

Maybe they couldn't get anyone to buy it? Current price drop might be clearing out all unsold stock before selling.

FlukeRogi · 26 Aug 2017 at 10:53

melmac said:
Maybe they couldn't get anyone to buy it? Current price drop might be clearing out all unsold stock before selling.

I doubt it's anything more than them reacting to the Rift price. They had to - general gaming media, VR podcasts, and even people on r/vive, were saying they couldn't recommend the Vive at the old price compared to the Rift. They had to drop it.

Bishie · 26 Aug 2017 at 10:55

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/6w1xog/what_do_you_guys_think_should_i_buy_vive/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/6w1x7o/what_do_you_guys_think_should_i_buy_vive/

Palmer Luckey is considering purchasing the Vive rom HTC apparently.

FlukeRogi · 26 Aug 2017 at 11:37

Bishie said:
Palmer Luckey is considering purchasing the Vive rom HTC apparently.

It did make me laugh when I saw that, but in reality, I doubt he doing anything more than having a bit of an ego trip.

I can't help but wonder - and I don't mean this as a derogatory comment towards the Vive hardware - why would anyone buy it as a going VR concern? The Vive is based off of Valve's reference design, and all the tech is Valve developed. HTC don't seem to own anything great or innovative as far as VR IP goes, and there are competing SteamVR systems on the way. I can't see any value there IP/patent/research wise that would be worth the cash.

kration · 27 Aug 2017 at 22:07

FlukeRogi said:
The Vive is based off of Valve's reference design, and all the tech is Valve developed... there are competing SteamVR systems on the way.

I'd be interested to now what's coming next re. VR.

Screen resolution is obviously a big issue, but to increase that you'd need an increase in GPU power (which seems a bit of a stagnant area at the moment).

Where's the impetus for the next gen of VR coming from?

FlukeRogi · 27 Aug 2017 at 22:17

kration said:
Screen resolution is obviously a big issue, but to increase that you'd need an increase in GPU power (which seems a bit of a stagnant area at the moment).

If they can get eye tracking working flawlessly in a consumer HMD and can use it for foveated rendering, GPU power suddenly becomes much less of an issue, even with a substantial increase in resolution. I'd be surprised to see a jump to something like 4k panels without foveated rendering being included.

mid_gen · 29 Aug 2017 at 14:32

kration said:
I'd be interested to now what's coming next re. VR.

Screen resolution is obviously a big issue, but to increase that you'd need an increase in GPU power (which seems a bit of a stagnant area at the moment).

Where's the impetus for the next gen of VR coming from?

The coming wave of Windows Mixed Reality headsets at lower price points and with inside-out tracking doing away with the need for cameras and lighthouses is '2nd gen' I guess. Not really an appreciably better experience, just QoL stuff.

AR will be the truly 'next gen' of VR, while VR matures as a niche product imo. Plenty of room for both.

Shiari · 30 Aug 2017 at 00:09

FlukeRogi said:
If they can get eye tracking working flawlessly in a consumer HMD and can use it for foveated rendering, GPU power suddenly becomes much less of an issue, even with a substantial increase in resolution. I'd be surprised to see a jump to something like 4k panels without foveated rendering being included.

I'm not so sure about "suddenly". It would need very low latency (probably not too much of a problem if they can keep the rendering limited), but it would probably also need support on the rendering side. I doubt it's something that can be simply implemented in headset drivers and it would just work out of the box with every game.

FlukeRogi · 30 Aug 2017 at 02:38

Shiari said:
I'm not so sure about "suddenly". It would need very low latency (probably not too much of a problem if they can keep the rendering limited), but it would probably also need support on the rendering side. I doubt it's something that can be simply implemented in headset drivers and it would just work out of the box with every game.

I expect it would be implemented at the SDK level for the likes of UE4 and Unity, as it would give developers control over the size/rendering detail of the foveated area.

Shiari · 30 Aug 2017 at 07:51

FlukeRogi said:
I expect it would be implemented at the SDK level for the likes of UE4 and Unity, as it would give developers control over the size/rendering detail of the foveated area.

Yeah, possibly even requiring graphics driver support (to make it easier on engine devs and to make the feature more consistent), enabled in the engine by the developers, to eventually then come out in games. Still leaves people in a bind for games where it hasn't been enabled yet though, which would be a shame.

FlukeRogi · 7 Sep 2017 at 19:59

Looks like they're selling the phone side of the business: https://www.phonearena.com/news/Rep...regarding-sale-of-smartphone-business_id97829

varkanoid · 8 Sep 2017 at 13:25

kration said:
I'd be interested to now what's coming next re. VR.
......
Where's the impetus for the next gen of VR coming from?

Noticed the ex purple shirts now black shirts have the Dell and Lenovo MS VR kit for pre-order on their website. Good starting price too. Also got the Star Wars AR too.