Today’s most immersive virtual reality systems, like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, rely on a bothersome tether to send power and high fidelity imagery to the headset at low latency. But everyone agrees a dangling cable is not only annoying, it’s an immersion detractor. The demand for a solution to this issue has spurred the creation of no less than seven solutions (and counting) hoping to make a wireless link between the high-end host PC and the headset.

Update (1/2/18): A new entrant to the wireless VR space, Amimon, debuted their AMN 2130/2230 chips for wireless VR at the end of 2017. We’ve added their pitch to the list.

Update (4/28/17): When this article was originally published we hadn’t heard back from TPCAST. The company has since reached out to tell us more about their approach to wireless VR in their own words, and we’ve added that information to the list below.

First Published (3/24/17), Updated: Eliminating the tether on high-end VR headsets is an obvious desire with no obvious solutions. The issue comes down to three major factors: bandwidth, latency, and price; needs unmet by prior wireless video technology, which is why the big three high-end VR headsets that hit in 2016—Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PSVR—all rely on a cable which runs from the headset to the host machine.

Vive-Consumer-Macro-detail (5)Unfortunately, the tether also keeps us connected to reality (the one we’re trying to escape with VR). Especially in room-scale VR—where you’re walking around, stepping on, or over it—the cable keeps us from completely detaching from the physical space we’re in; somewhere in the back of your head your brain is tracking the (virtually invisible) cable and deciding when you need to step over it, twist a different direction, or avoid hitting it with your arms. Ridding our headsets of the cable would mean deeper immersion and physical freedom within the virtual world.

Now at least seven solutions are hoping to rise to that challenge, using a variety of technologies to make high-end VR wireless. This article is designed to give a broad overview of some of those proposed solutions & claims, and understand how each technology is being positioned. We reached out to several companies working in this space to tell us in their own words about their approach to making VR wireless and what they feel is their unique advantage.

– – — – –

Amimon

Netanel Goldberg, Sr. Director of Products

Photo by Road to VR

Amimon’s patented VR technology operates on the 5GHz band to deliver an unparalleled robust link, capable of supporting any environment, including large halls and advanced multi-user scenarios. Amimon’s advanced video modem on 5GHz supports crowded environments with multiple users using it simultaneously, and finally overcomes 60GHz band line-of-sight & blockiness limitations. The technology is compatible with most VR headsets, including Oculus, Vive and PSVR. The advanced video link system has an embedded chip that supports VR resolution of 2K at 90fps, similar to the Oculus and Vive, as well as 1080p at 120fps, like Sony’s PSVR.

IMR – Immersive Robotics

imr-immersive-robotics-2
Photo by Road to VR

Daniel Fitzgerald, CEO

The difference between IMR’s wireless technology for HMDs and other companies is that IMR have been designing a VR standard designed specifically for VR devices that will allow VR video transmission between any VR device. More specifically, other solutions popping up on the market appear to use H.264 or similar chip solutions. The problem with this and what differentiates IMR is we don’t do frame to frame comparisons which immediately add at least 11ms latency (@ 90fps) and our solution doesn’t therefore introduce the frame-to-frame motion artefacts that you see with this older technology. The IMR VR compression standard was always designed for VR from the start so the result now is something special. We achieve 90-95% compression and the user is hard pressed if not impossible to tell the difference running through our system and the original.

IMR has developed an algorithm and hardware that enables wireless transmission and streaming of VR video over the leading wireless standards. The algorithm and hardware was developed to resolve more than one challenge i.e. wireless VR, but rather produce a standard which the entire VR industry can use; this extends far beyond what most people are thinking for just VR applications, including UAVs and robotics. The algorithms and overall technology IMR has developed for this VR standard can be used for transmitting VR data between any VR capable device—HMD, PC, Laptop, phone, camera, etc.

The new VR standard provides both the required video data compression and ultra-low latency for virtual reality and 3D remote presence applications now and into the future. The following is a description of its capabilities:

  • Rapid Data Transmission: The 95% compression rate allows IMR’s technology to compress and decompress with a record breaking introduced latency of less than 1ms. This translates to zero perceived latency by the player, preserving user comfort due to the elimination of motion sickness that latency causes in VR play.
  • Image Quality: The quality of the decompressed image is indiscernible from the original with no motion blur or introduced artefacts.
  • Eye Tracking: IMR’s algorithm utilises single pass dynamic compression schemes, including foveation, tuneable parameters and offers support for eye tracking. Furthermore, the algorithm’s built-in flexibility facilitates further custom compression.
  • Versatile: IMR’s technology can leverage both the 802.11ac and 802.11ad wireless standards as well as other wireless communications that have sufficient bandwidth. This enables current generation HMDs to be supported via the AC standard, and futureproofs the technology by enabling it to handle up to 2x 4K VR video transmission over the AD standard.
  • Multi-faceted Application: IMR’s compression standard facilitates peer to peer data transmission between devices, to and from PC’s, HMD’s smartphones, 360 cameras and other VR enabled devices.

Our technology is designed to operate across all VR and telepresence robotics applications and each has their own requirements for the wireless. Our technology provides the necessary compression/decompression at ultra low latencies for ALL these applications, and we are working with and looking to partner with different wireless manufacturers and communication link suppliers to push this technology into each area.

KwikVR

Xavier Cavin, CEOPhoto courtesy KwikVR

KwikVR’s unique advantage over other wireless competitors is hard to tell, because we have not been able to test our competitors’ solutions. They are all claiming an impossible one or two millisecond latency overhead, so I would say our main advantage is to be honest. Also, our solution does not use 60GHz Wi-fi at the top of the head of the user, which might be better for health reasons. Using 5GHz Wi-fi is also less prone to obstruction issues when it comes to the Wi-fi signal. We believe that our latency overhead is close to optimal, but only the customers will be the judges.

NGCodec

Oliver Gunasekara, CEOPhoto courtesy NGCodec

I think you can classify Wireless VR into what type of radio it uses and what type of compression. Of course all systems have to deliver under a frame of round trip latency.

Various Radio Types:

  • WiFi 802.11ac 5GHHz & 2.4GHz
  • WiFi 802.11ad 60GHz
  • 5G LTE cellular for cloud VR (various frequencies)
  • Proprietary radio in unlicensed frequency (e.g. 5GHz)

Our solution uses WiFi 802.11ac and LTE. This has the benefits of not needing line of sight transmission. 60GHz transmission suffers from large attenuation when propagating through physical barriers including humans. 802.11ac can travel much longer distance than 60GHz and provide multiple room coverage. 802.11ac is also much cheaper and requires much smaller wireless antennas than 60Ghz. Placement of the transmitter is not important with 802.11ac unlike 60GHz. 802.11ac is also lower power giving longer battery life of the HMD.

Various Compression Types

  • JPEG (Intra frame) with 3:1 compression
  • JPEG 2000 (Intra frame) with 6:1 compression
  • MPEG H.264 (Intra and Inter frame) 100:1 compression
  • MPEG H.265 (Intra and Inter frame) 200:1 compression
  • Proprietary Compression

Our solution uses MPEG H.265/HEVC compression which provides 200:1 compression. E.g. a source of 1080p60 requires 3,000 Mbps to transmit uncompressed. We compress this to 15 Mbps a compression ratio of 200:1. This allows headroom for error correction and higher resolutions and frame rates as well as data rates that can be delivered from the cloud over 5G LTE and fibre networks. Standards based systems also allow off the shelf mobile chipsets to be used to build into mobile HMDs. We will adopt future H.265 profiles which can provide even better compression using tools like multi view and screen content coding tools.

Nitero

Sven Mesecke, Co-founderlogo_500

While other vendors are focused on bringing wireless accessories to today’s HMDs, Nitero is the only company developing an integratable solution that will support the aggressive requirements of future VR HMDs.

The solution’s novel micro-second latency compression engine provides royalty-free, visually lossless encoding, adding end-to-end latency of one millisecond. At power below one Watt, it can be integrated into future headsets without the need for expensive heat sinks or vents. In fact, adding Nitero’s wireless solution will be significantly less expensive than cables, resulting in an overall cost reduction, which is critical for VR adoption going forward.

Interoperable with WiGig, Nitero has customized for the unique challenges in the VR/AR use cases with advanced beam-forming that supports NLOS at room-scale. Additionally, back-channel support for computer vision, eye-tracking, 3D-audio and other forthcoming technologies can be supported simultaneously with the VR display, without needing another chipset.

Some of the industry leaders that have supported Nitero via investment and collaboration include Valve Software, Super Ventures, and the Colopl VR Fund, along with others not publicly announced.

Update (1/2/18): Nitero was acquired by AMD as of April 10th, 2017.

QuarkVR

Krasi Nikolov, CEOPhoto courtesy QuarkVR

We use a combination of video compression and proprietary streaming protocol that allows us to stream high resolutions to multiple headsets. Our solution is designed primarily for Theme Parks and Arcades that want to put two or more people in the same tracked space.

Our thesis is that in the future you will always need some amount of compression, either when resolutions get higher (4K and above. We need 16K for retina resolution), or if you try to put the server outside the local network. Ideally, you could put a GPU farm in the cloud and have all the content available immediately thus even eliminating the need of a PC at home! I think that in five years the only computer you would need at home would be a small mobile chip, probably built into the headset itself.

Of course, any sort of compression introduces latency. However, there’s been a lot of development in the past two years to go around that. We’ll be releasing a network aware technology similar to Spacewarp that’s used by Oculus. And companies like Microsoft have done a lot of research on reducing latency by doing predictive (also known as speculative) rendering. Project Irides, for example, is able to compensate for 120 ms of network latency in their demo. We’ve been talking to one of the lead researchers of Irides for a while, and we’ll release similar technology in 2017. So I would say that the future of wireless VR is very bright!

TPCAST

David Jian, Co-founder & VP

Photo by Road to VR

The advantage of TPCAST Wireless Adaptor is near-zero latency, and no compression of image. We believe these two characteristics are key standards of high-end wireless VR. Any noticeable image compression is not acceptable in VR, due to its high requirement of image resolution.

The biggest difference between TPCAST and other companies is that our device is not a prototype or model, but a product, which is the world’s first commercial tetherless VR product.

In the last four months, over 1,000 people have experienced TPCAST WIRELESS ADAPTOR for VIVE personally on VIVE X demo day (BEIJING), CES, MWC, GDC and GUANGZHOU VRAR SUMMIT. Almost all of them felt no difference from tethered Vive, especially the near-zero latency. These positive evaluations means a lot to us.

Here are the specs of TPCAST Wireless Adaptor for Vive:

  • Video Format：HDMI2.0
  • Video resolution：2K (2160*1200)
  • Video Frame Rate：90Hz
  • Latency: <2ms
  • Transmission range >5m 360°
  • Power Consumption：4W

– – — – –

These are not the only companies working on wireless solutions for desktop-class VR, but this survey we hope shows a breadth of approaches to the problem. Another notable solution is an Intel and Vive wireless VR initiative which the company has said is based on WiGig.

We’ve had a chance to test out a number of these technologies, but not yet in appropriately controlled conditions. Expect more coverage to come as these products get closer to market-ready.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Magnar Johnsen

    Add Rivvr and Citrix to the list

    • Ethan James Trombley

      Rivvr tested very very poorly a few months ago. I’m assuming their tech is so far behind that they will get to market way after these solutions or that they just dropped out completely.

  • OgreTactics

    “The 95% compression rate allows IMR’s technology to compress and decompress with a record breaking introduced latency of less than 1ms.” What? Impressive.

    Also the upcoming AV1 codec from the AOMedia consortium (which is a stable evolution of the VP9 codec to compete with H.265) might change the game completely.

    What is certain is that, no-wireless = no headset for me from now on. Having cables on a head-mounted device is a conceptual non-sense, I’ve found that in the cognitive hierarchy of VR incentives an untethered mobile-headset far outweights that of a supposedly higher-end one.

    • RFC_VR

      @Lucidfer:disqus “What is certain is that, no-wireless = no headset for me from now on. Having cables on a head-mounted device is a conceptual non-sense”

      Exactly why I sold the second Vive I’ve owned last week; the tether was the deal breaker, several weeks of experiment with “roomscale plus” convinced me that the regular immersion breaker was either the tether itself causing outside stimulus from contact against the body, physical entanglement, or simply causing the HMD harness to shift on the head and alter the setup causing a shift in the optical sweetspot

      Experimenting in a small team, we got pretty good working as “tether assistant” to help the VR user have as transparent an experience as possible, but its not possible/practical to have a helper always at home:)

      As soon as a reliable tetherless system for PC VR comes to market, I’ll be first in the queue. It’s fantastic to see a number of companies working on this, bringing different solutions to market. Happy hunting!!

      • J.C.

        I don’t really have an issue with the tether, but mine is extended and suspended from the ceiling. It’s still an issue with games that expect the user to spin around a lot, and you’re never completely unaware of it. It’s SIGNIFICANTLY less noticeable than when it’s on the floor. My setup is only truly viable for those willing to set up in their garage though; wires hanging from the ceiling are pretty ugly inside the house.

        I’m interested in these solutions, but I think wireless will have some struggles for a generation or two. Tethers will likely still be offered as an option, and will drop in popularity as wireless transmissions improve. A direct line, like Ethernet, will always offer the best signal. The compromises just have to be minimal enough to make it worth dropping the cord.

  • Dave

    A lot of these have a belt for the battery – batteries are never good things are they? I mean the electric car isn’t exactly flying off the production line… I don’t do much in room scale but I would say a cable is at least better than a belt. The reason I love my Oculus is that it’s so easy to put on. The moment I put a belt on as well it goes back to being a prototype and gimmick… thats rubbish!

    • NooYawker

      Think of it like this, remember the Motorola brick phone? Or better yet, the ones before that where you lugged around a car battery attached to a phone. It’ll all get smaller, lighter and better in a few years. If you choose to participate in early adoption is your choice.
      If you don’t use room scale much then this product is obviously not for you.

      • Dave

        I hope so, I guess I’m just a stuck in the mud! To me battery means weight and weight and VR don’t mix. Lets see what they come up with and yeah if the battery can last for 4 hours at least and is fairly discret to use then maybe but it’ll still be expensive…

        • Master Pok

          I already intentionally strap weights to my arms and legs while in room-scale VR. Battery belt would be next to nothing.

        • Caven

          Weight is not automatically bad. A battery could actually serve as something of a counterweight. It would help balance an otherwise front-heavy headset and require less strap pressure to keep a headset from sagging on the user’s face. Counterweight is a big part of what makes the PSVR so comfortable to wear, despite being the heaviest of the major tethered VR headsets. The headset is evenly balanced on your head, not hanging off the front of your face with tight straps trying to keep it from falling off. If the weight of a battery can give me wireless capability on the Vive and weight distribution comparable to a PSVR, I’m all for it.

    • johngrimoldy

      Agreed Dave. A battery belt is only marginally better than an umbilical to the computer. Certainly not worth hundreds of dollars.

      • Strawb77

        yep, no belt and no wires- tpcast seems the only choice for me atm

    • Tags I812

      i would go wireless with the rift if i had the chance. i out extenders on mine and though i have much more freedom i hate getting wrapped up and always thinking about the cable while in there. so ya buy a 5 hr battery, there cheap.

    • killdozer

      >batteries are never good things are they?

      No, they are not. Thats why i dont have one in phone, flashlight, watch or vive controllers. Oh wait…

    • Graham J ⭐️

      Batteries are great when wires are not. See your phone as an example.

  • Why TPCAST is relegated at a simple link at the end of the article? It’s the most famous one at the moment and some devices have already been sold

    • benz145

      They didn’t get back in time for the article to go out, but we still wanted to make sure they were mentioned because as you say they are fairly known at this point. If they come back with a response we’ll update the piece.

  • Shawn Blais Skinner

    It’s really impressive seeing all the competition on this front. When VIVE first launched a year ago, I thought it would be 4-5 yrs before we’d see wireless video, and it looks like we’re going to get a number of decent solutions in year 2. Can’t wait to try em out!

    I guess the big question is, how long until these can get integrated into the main unit, at a decent price point. Once we can get untethered room scale VR, at the $499 pricepoint, I think that’s when we’ll really see it take off among PC enthusiasts.

    • Smokey_the_Bear

      I think we’ll reach that point next year, when the Vive II releases.

      • JustNiz

        Where did you see that there will be a Vive 2 releasing next year?

        • Smokey_the_Bear

          Nothing. Just a gut feeling.
          I owned a Vive, but sold it due to lack of content, but the cord was pretty annoying. I’m looking forward to getting a Windows HMD in a few months, the Lenovo one looks pretty nice. It has a cord still, but at least it’s one smooth cable, unlike the one that came with my Vive, which made it a pain to unwrap.
          I do miss my Vive from time to time, I’ve learned that I shouldn’t sell my headset, unless it’s being replaced by a better one, I won’t make that mistake again.

          • RFC

            I had two Vive’s and thoroughly enjoyed a few months of exciting VR exploration on a somewhat “raw” and buggy system, although very impressive for 1st generation.

            The tether was a regular immersion breaker for roomscale VR, especially roomscale plus, making it prescence felt all too often.

            We found the best solution was gaming in a small group and having your buddy act as “tether assistant” but that assumes you have that luxury of extra help

            Wireless solutions are much needed (I would argue much more important than a big jump in resolution or better controllers), which is why there are so many companies coming to market with wireless solutions.

            Don’t regret selling my systems, although I miss VR from time to time and look forward to next year! Vive 2 is coming in MY18 alongside other steamVR systems like LG’s VR

          • RFC

            I had two Vive’s and thoroughly enjoyed a few months of exciting VR exploration on a somewhat “raw” and buggy system, although very impressive for 1st generation.

            The tether was a regular immersion breaker for roomscale VR, especially roomscale plus, making it prescence felt all too often.

            We found the best solution was gaming in a small group and having your buddy act as “tether assistant” but that assumes you have that luxury of extra help

            Wireless solutions are much needed (I would argue much more important than a big jump in resolution or better controllers), which is why there are so many companies coming to market with wireless solutions.

            Don’t regret selling my systems, although I miss VR from time to time and look forward to next year! Vive 2 is coming in MY18 alongside other steamVR systems like LG’s VR

          • Pre Seznik

            I fear that if you didn’t feel there was enough content you may never be satisfied with VR. It’s best use was and IMO always will be in simulation type games with cockpits (driving, flying, mechs, etc). Some new genres are emerging now, but other than shooting games nothing beats the primary use of my VR headset (above mentioned).

          • laughingboy9000

            VR hasn’t even begun. I ain’t close to satisfied yet but I can see what’s on the horizon. Gonna be bigger than the printing press.

          • Pre Seznik

            I fear that if you didn’t feel there was enough content you may never be satisfied with VR. It’s best use was and IMO always will be in simulation type games with cockpits (driving, flying, mechs, etc). Some new genres are emerging now, but other than shooting games nothing beats the primary use of my VR headset (above mentioned).

        • Smokey_the_Bear

          Nothing. Just a gut feeling.
          I owned a Vive, but sold it due to lack of content, but the cord was pretty annoying. I’m looking forward to getting a Windows HMD in a few months, the Lenovo one looks pretty nice. It has a cord still, but at least it’s one smooth cable, unlike the one that came with my Vive, which made it a pain to unwrap.
          I do miss my Vive from time to time, I’ve learned that I shouldn’t sell my headset, unless it’s being replaced by a better one, I won’t make that mistake again.

      • Walextheone

        Probably not next year and probably not that cheap

      • Walextheone

        Probably not next year and probably not that cheap

  • DisplayLink Marketing

    DisplayLink just showed wireless VR at Bothe CES and MWC running over 60GHz demonstrating live gaming at both shows. They have also just announced reference designs for PCB level and headset level with integrated battery modules and an expansion pack that can be belt mounted to take 3 hours battery life to 8 hours.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig6soZHbYgg

  • towblerone

    I cannot wait for wireless. It’s going to be amazing.

    • Arlan Pierce

      I am looking for, maybe waiting for nitero. From what I’ve read it is going to be the best for coast. These will be a big upgrade, that is for sure. You’ll be able to play with out thinking about wire entanglement. Nitero may be worth a short wait to buy, cost wise, at least.

      • towblerone

        I’m almost certain that generation 2 headsets will have all of this stuff built-in but I don’t know if I want to wait.

    • Arlan Pierce

      I am looking for, maybe waiting for nitero. From what I’ve read it is going to be the best for coast. These will be a big upgrade, that is for sure. You’ll be able to play with out thinking about wire entanglement. Nitero may be worth a short wait to buy, cost wise, at least.

  • Mack Bolan

    Why did you overlook VRstudios? Their VRcade platform is totally wireless. They have been delivering systems around the world for 18 months. Truly untethered, free-roaming, multi-player games can be experienced in ways this article inaccurately describes as available only in the future.

    • AnnoyedAnonymous

      I also recall a British startup called Vizuality with their wHMD who were at SVVR in 2016. IIRC, they said that they had had four people interacting in a VR world simultaneously during testing. If so then that is a first.
      Haven’t heard too much from them recently but I hope they are still developing.

  • Joan Villora Jofré

    TPCAST CEO Michael Liu: “TPCAST uses a compression algorithm.”

    • benz145

      Where’s this quote from? I have asked them to clarify.

    • Lucidfeuer

      ALL wireless transmission technology use compression algorithm. It’s like saying warning, X SSDs use memory compression algorithm…

  • Pre Seznik

    While I thoroughly enjoy my OR I definitely can’t imagine doing anymore room-scale tethered. It just doesn’t make sense, conceptually. Bring on wireless.

  • ✨EnkrowＸ✨

    Wireless is interesting, but I think it’s a waste of time to develop for consumers at the moment. When we get higher resolution displays and wider field of view, these solutions probably won’t be able to keep up and we’ll all be tethered again.

  • ✨EnkrowＸ✨

    Wireless is interesting, but I think it’s a waste of time to develop for consumers at the moment. When we get higher resolution displays and wider field of view, these solutions probably won’t be able to keep up and we’ll all be tethered again.

  • Skippy76

    The cord really isn’t that much of a distraction. For me it’s the maximum room size and poor field of view. My headset is clipped to my belt then mounted on the ceiling with a retracting dog leash. I never get tangled or trip. but i hate the feeling of looking at everything through googles. also. The blury vision If you move your eyes to look anywhere but straight forward.
    That being said… I still really enjoy playing on my Vive. I never play games on my monitor anymore.

  • Skippy76

    The cord really isn’t that much of a distraction. For me it’s the maximum room size and poor field of view. My headset is clipped to my belt then mounted on the ceiling with a retracting dog leash. I never get tangled or trip. but i hate the feeling of looking at everything through googles. also. The blury vision If you move your eyes to look anywhere but straight forward.
    That being said… I still really enjoy playing on my Vive. I never play games on my monitor anymore.

  • psuedonymous

    “Also, our solution does not use 60GHz Wi-fi at the top of the head of the user, which might be better for health reasons.”

    FFS. Not only is the hoopla about non-ionising EM completely baseless, but trying to sow FUD over a WiFi RECEIVER is just pure lunacy.

    • Caven

      But hey, at least they can claim to be “honest” while they lie about the safety of 60GHz, the location of the transmitter, and the viability of low-latency video transmission.

  • psuedonymous

    “Also, our solution does not use 60GHz Wi-fi at the top of the head of the user, which might be better for health reasons.”

    FFS. Not only is the hoopla about non-ionising EM completely baseless, but trying to sow FUD over a WiFi RECEIVER is just pure lunacy.

  • CazCore

    wireless isn’t worth the drawbacks, unless you’re a room-scale fetishist.

    but in 30 years when everyone has VR, room-scale will STILL be a niche thing.

    • killdozer

      found rift user

      • CazCore

        wow, you’re a real genius.
        i got the space for room scale in my house. had the money to buy anything i want.
        but i know its totally niche and unsustainable. SOME people didn’t buy into valve’s hype (it’s their ONLY differentiator)

        • sfmike

          Don’t agree. Room scale is just more involving even in a smaller setup.

          • CazCore

            even if most people agreed with you, it would still be niche. preferring something doesn’t magically give everyone an extra 15×15 dedicated VR space in their bedroom/house. not to mention, from the development side, the small amount of game types that room scale limits you to (sure you could make literally any game into room scale, if you’re just trying to prove me wrong).

          • WyrdestGeek

            Exactly. Also the $$. And the time.

            For my part, I would love to have roomscale, but I can’t currently justify the expense of the computer graphics card and also the rig for something I will only have time to use maybe once a month.

          • Caven

            The big benefit to going wireless (not getting tangled in the cable), isn’t limited to roomscale. I’m perfectly fine standing in one spot during an entire VR session, but 360 degrees of rotation is important to me. Going wireless means never having to worry about which direction I need to turn to unwind the cable, or worry about stepping on the cable. Those annoyances aren’t too bothersome in slow-paced games, but fast-paced games like Doom VFR benefit significantly from not having to simultaneously react to in-game threats and a real-world trip hazard.

            Any game that doesn’t rely exclusively on forward-facing gameplay can benefit from wireless, and even with forward-facing, wireless can still be helpful. Ever since going wireless, I haven’t had to worry about running over the cable with my chair whenever I want to test something while doing VR development. And despite the TPCast still having a cable to run to the battery pack, I find its short length tends to avoid snagging on my chair’s arm rests–something that was a common issue with the Vive’s cable.

            Just on the basis of 360-degree standing scale, I’m a definite fan of wireless VR, which means I’d also recommend it for the Rift. After all, while the Vive may support a larger play area, the Rift is still perfectly capable of 360-degree gameplay.

      • Foreign Devil

        Not really. . I have a rift and 3 sensors and play room scale almost exclusively. . even if I don’t move around the room I prefer to stand. Rarely play VR sitting in a chair.

  • Lucidfeuer

    I would add or rather distinguish something in the VR linguo: Wireless is NOT untethered and vice-versa.

    I don’t know when we started accepting this confusion, but wireless means without wire, and untethering means not being tied to a system.

    This is important because once the wireless challenge has been tackled, the headsets will still be -tethered- to the system they’re installed on, running on, and that the beamer and tracker are attached too.

    Except once inside-out tracking is implemented (actually positional/head tracking THEN inside-out environment tracking, which should be and will be two different things), and any machine can be equipped with beaming technology (single or dual wifiAD beaming), then there will be no point in a VR headset being tethered to one system, and you’ll be able to switch from a PC, to a TV, to a PS4.

    Remember that VR headsets/glasses are not meant to be fucking system device, but new visual and interactional devices, and since when are TVs, controllers, keyboards, mics etc…tethered to one proprietary platform? Yup, that’s why all-in-one device headset don’t, and will never make sense.

  • O Boy

    Good summary. I hate to focus on the grammatical errors here, but there is one confusing phrase that I think is just clumsy wording. “VR video transmission between any VR device.” That almost sounds like IMR technology lets VR devices transmit directly to each other. Is that what you meant? I suggest a bit more editing in future.

  • Tom Allen

    It would be interesting to compare the wireless and untethered solutions here with the Microsoft HoloLens, which has had those features for a couple of years now. Of course, it is an AR system, not VR – more practical for truly untethered wireless apps where you are wandering around the room, or building, or the outdoors.

    Yes, it costs about $3000 and is a developer or commercial product (not consumer). But it is still a very meaningful data point for comparison.

    • Cl

      I think this is completely different from hololens. Hololens has all the hardware on the device and doesn’t need a computer right? That would be more comparable to the upcoming all in one vr headsets or phone vr.

      Even then, the way hololens overlays onto the real world is much different than the way vr works and has different challenges. Unless I’m out of the loop on what hololens does.

      • Tom Allen

        Yes, HoloLens is AR and solving a different problem than VR. And it has excellent inside-out position tracking, so it doesn’t need the room to be set up in advance with additional sensors like many of the VR solutions do. But these are some of the same challenges the wireless VR vendors in this article are trying to address, so it would be an interesting comparison.

        • JMB

          How are they similar challenges to wirelessly tethered VR? They are similar challenges to wirless-standalone VR, but that’s not what this article is about at all.

          • Tom Allen

            You are right, @CI and @JMB. This article is very specifically about literal wire-replacement radio solutions for video transmission. HoloLens moves the computation to the headset and does not need wireless video transmission. Sorry for my confusion about the article topic.

  • Icebeat

    Why all this model put their stupid receiver on the head, is it not enough with a heavy HMD?.

    • Caven

      Positioning the receiver on the head is of critical importance for the 60GHz designs. Radio waves in the 60GHz band have terrible penetration ability. For instance, a person’s hand is enough to severely degrade or block the signal. For 60GHz to work well, unobstructed line of sight is absolutely needed. For the purposes of VR, the head is the part of the body least likely to be occluded by anything else–especially if the transmitter is ceiling mounted. Putting the 60GHz receiver anywhere else virtually guarantees frequent signal drops.

      For what it’s worth, the TPCast receiver is very light. I’ve been known to experience discomfort on the top of my head just from wearing padded headphones too long, but I find the TPCast receiver to be completely unnoticeable while using it in VR. It helps that the battery and the 5GHz transmitter used for positional and controller data are on a separate module that can be worn on the waist or kept in a pocket or whatever.

  • Fk You

    Lots of things to fix with VR than making them wireless. Owned a DK2 and a Vive and they are Boring the games are crap and the visuals are crap so why make it wifi ?

  • Rafael

    It sounds like adding lag if we use wifi.

  • David Brown

    As somebody who wants to use wireless VR in a enterprise environment is anybody thinking about security?

  • Cables I can live with, but the weight and discomfort need to go. Also, how about some eye tracking? I think wireless is about 4th or 5th on my list of VR concerns.

  • disqus_BuIvBxA9rc

    TPcast’s solution is utter shit and the price is almost as much as an entire VR headset /equipment.

    They’re just raking people over the coals.