At Build 2017, Microsoft announced that developers can pre-order the Acer ($299) and HP ($329) Mixed Reality headsets from the Microsoft Store. An Acer headset bundled with the controllers will be priced at $400 (Rs. 25,746 approx. directly converted). The headsets have started shipping to certain developers to get the ball (for content) rolling.
Both the HP and Acer headsets feature LCD displays as opposed to OLED displays that are used in the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. We had a chance to experience the headsets at Build 2017 and they were quite impressive. We will hold off a comparison verdict till we experience the headsets more. Talking to developers at Build, we learnt that the headsets have a refresh rate of 90 Hz, which is quite good for gaming.
Coming to the controllers that were announced at Build 2017, they support full six degrees of freedom and do not require an external camera to track them. There is no information about an India launch of the headsets, but at the keynote, it was announced that we would see more details about them at E3 2017. E3 2017 kicks off on June 13 2017, but Microsoft has its press conference scheduled for June 11 2017, where the company is expected to unveil their Project Scorpio console. No points for guessing that Project Scorpio will support the Acer and HP headset and will compete with the PS4/Ps4 Pro and PS VR headset which are already available in the market.
It's needles to say that Windows 10 supports VR from the get go, and we think Microsoft will have an array of Play Anywhere games that will run on the Xbox and PC and support VR.
At Build 2017, we also had the opportunity to speak to Microsoft about Mixed Reality, and the headsets that will go on sale this holiday season. We learnt that the technology used in positional tracking is something similar to what we have seen on the HoloLens. The headsets feature inside out tracking, which basically means that there are camera’s on the headsets and sensors on the controllers and these two work in tandem to track motion. There is an array of LED’s on each controller which are tracked by the camera in the headset. Microsoft says that there is very low latency when it comes to these controllers. Having no markers required is a big deal. The Oculus Rift has an external sensor which tracks the controllers and the headset. The HTC Vive has sensors that can scale the room and track the headset and the controllers. Even the PSVR uses the light from the controller and headset to track movement via the PlayStation camera, so the exclusion of an external sensor is great for Microsofts Mixed Reality headsets. How this translates in the Virtual/Mixed Reality world is something different entirely.
A thing to note is that it's not just the positional tracking with the camera on the headset that keeping the controllers in place in the virtual world. The human body has limited functions too. For example, if you are playing a game where you are about to pull an arrow, you will put your hand behind your back and this will lead the controller to go out of view of the camera on the headset. Microsoft has kept such things in mind when designing the controller, taking into account the limitations of movements rather than limitation of the controller's tracking capabilities.
Acer and HP headsets were announced at Build 2017, but Microsoft has said that they have announced a partnership with a total of six OEMs – Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, 3Glasses and Lenovo, to launch Mixed Reality capable headsets. The 3Glasses headset that we experienced at Build did have an external tracker, but Microsoft has told us that the next version will implement inside out tracking.