Florida based SynergyWiz is designing a third-party head-mount for the HTC Vive which uses a PSVR-stlye ‘halo’ mounting design for added comfort, and offers the much desired visor flip functionality.

Among the three major headsets out there, not one offers what seems like an obvious convenience: the ability to flip up the display assembly for quick viewing of the real world around you.

We noted the other week that Lenovo’s VR headset is making use of this design and it’s certainly something we’d love to see on other headsets. Thanks to SynergyWiz’s rEvolve head-mount for the HTC Vive, that will become a reality, making putting on headphones and picking up controllers after donning the headset much easier.

snergywiz revolve htc vive head strap mount (3)Furthermore, the accessory brings a very different head-mounting approach to the headset, one which puts the majority of the weight on the top of the forehead rather than pressed against the eyes like a pair of goggles. This type of head-mount design has been seen in the consumer market on the PlayStation VR and is has recieved much praise for its comfort.

snergywiz revolve htc vive head strap mount (2)After removing the original straps, the rEvolve head-mount attaches to the existing mounting points of the Vive’s display assembly.

SynergyWiz says they’re wrapping up the design phase of the head-mount and have taken to Kickstarter to crowdfund the remaining development, charging $85 for each rEvolve head-mount.

rEvolve Kickstarter

The project has surpassed its modest $5,000 goal with 80 backers and is currently projected to triple that figure in the remaining 22 days of the campaign. SynergyWiz expects to ship the completed rEvolve head-mounts in April. The company has done one other unrelated small scale Kickstarter project in late 2016 that’s purportedly on track to ship on time in January.

snergywiz revolve htc vive head strap mount (1)REvolve definitely adds some desired features to the Vive head-mount, though the prototype looks rather bulky and, like head-mounts of similar design, may not comfortably fit some over-ear headphones. The project’s small scale also leads us to think the end product may not be significantly different than the prototype. Still, for some Vive power-users this could be money well spent.

Those interested in rEvolve may end up torn between the third-party head-mount and HTC’s own recently announced Deluxe Audio Strap which still uses a goggle-style head-mounting approach, but has a much more rigid structure with ratcheting adjustment and built-in headphones. Pricing for the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap hasn’t yet been announced, but the company plans to begin shipping in Q2 of 2017.

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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."
  • Joan Villora Jofré

    Why has HTC not added something like that to the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap?

    • Bryan Ischo

      I don’t know, I would like to venture a guess that they’re just not that good at innovating, more at following design innovations of others and productizing/manufacturing. I don’t think that HTC really had anything to do with any of the technical innovations of the Vive, that was all Valve, and probably only contributed minor refinements to the overall design, with Valve likely leading the way.

      And so then they come out with a replacement strap system that doesn’t even think beyond the PSVR’s design, they just look at whatever is considered the best and refine/copy that. It will take I guess another generation for them to catch up to/mimic whatever the best ideas are coming out now, such as flip-up headsets.

    • Get Schwifty!

      It’s all about step-wise improvements for constant income…. like most phone manufacturers they will deliver incremental improvements at a premium for each step… I expect both Rift and Vive to both implement very similar designs in their v2.0 designs at least the hanging design, the comfort level is apparently a no-brainer compared to the current designs.

      Wouldn’t surprise me a bit to see HTC announce a new design similar to this if this actually gets close to real production…

      • John Toner

        Fair synopsis, but I couldn’t help but read your comment in the voice of Rick.

        • Get Schwifty!

          Just make sure you burp enough lol :)

      • Dunnlang

        I will say that most manufacturers, actually probably all of them, do not hold anything back for the sake of selling upgrades in the future. You’d be shocked how not ready to launch most hardware devices are just a few weeks before launch.

        Feature sets need to be locked in 8-18 months before launch. If a new technology comes along after the device is locked, it is very rare that it could be incorporated into the design, regardless of how simple, quick or incremental you might think it is.

        What you might see as incremental improvement at a premium is actually improvement at the price it costs to improve. Hardware development is fantastically expensive. Only a few companies are able to absorb that cost at a low enough margin to still turn huge profits. Most everyone else in the industry is barely holding on.

        • Get Schwifty!

          I am not saying they necessarily hold back features intentionally in every case, but I do believe they push products prematurely to market as an overall plan, counting on users to buy it and be excited to buy something new down the line, knowing they will make improvements later and sell into the same market.

          You only have to look at the wand controllers in Vive and now the move to the clearly better design of a Touch-style controller. HTC had started work on the designs before releasing the wands, and now are all too happy to sell on top of the wands, a pretty clear example of a sort of built-in pattern of obsolescence and revenue generation.

          Again, they all do this, its not unique to HTC, but they definitely plan on incremental releases as part of an ongoing revenue cycle, and I would disagree that they sometimes don’t hold back features, this is pretty common in automotive circles, I am pretty sure the design that goes out the door is a compromise of timings with production and market necessities rather than a feeling it’s perfectly suited but in some cases and they plan on this being a V2 or V3 add-on to generate interest while not disrupting their schedules.

        • Robbie DeRoo

          I would like to see a viable way of purchasing the straps (and any of the other odds and ends) instantly, and have the rest 3D printed for you by any number of 3D printing services. You can assemble the product yourself. Potentially doable for this type of product?

    • David Herrington

      So as Bryan has already mentioned, the flip up is possible for this design as it doesn’t hold fast to your face like the original headstrap and the new Deluxe headstrap. HTC were obviously concerned with the rigid mount as it interacts with your head and so choose to instead provide a solution that is much more stable when moving about. This makes sense as they are pushing TPCast like solutions that encourage more movement.

      Would it be best to include a flip-up feature? Of course, but not at the cost of stability and light bleed. I imagine in the future that something like you describe will come out but I think it will take more time.

  • brubble

    Jesus, what took so long?…this should have been a no-brainer right from the start.

  • user

    does it work with tpcast?

    • John Toner

      Yes sir, we will support TPcast and additional wireless VR platforms that will be coming out in 2017. This is covered towards the end of the Kickstarter video.

      https://youtu.be/OBhc4UhU8NM?t=2m43s

  • Bryan Ischo

    True, but consider that the PSVR is basically the same system without the flip-up capability. The PSVR headset also hangs from the forehead strap rather than being held to the face via strap pressure. The only difference here is whether the headset can flip up or not. Maybe just having a flip up mechanism reduces structural rigidity in a way that compromises fit. I doubt it, but it’s possible. I guess we’ll see when these things ship and can be tested.

    • John Toner

      Understandable skepticism, we will be releasing videos soon showing the flip up mechanism in action. I can assure you that it does now affect the structural rigidity.

  • TheVillasurfer

    Reading this article as applying to all current vr hmds…..Seriously, are people actually excited by this?! I’ve been regularly using my friend’s Rift since July, and subsequently used my own Rift every day for the last 3 months and it’s no trouble to lift it to see the outside world, or find my controllers! It’s also not uncomfortable. When did a millisecond hand movement become a problem that requires a solution?

    • OgreTactics

      A few hundreds/thousands are. The billions of others humans aren’t, not even the few millions necessary for this market to exist.

    • Doctor Bambi

      Hmm, that’s an interesting point. I too have the Rift and from my experience, lifting up the headset requires keeping one hand on the device to keep it from slipping back down onto my eyes. Which makes quickly getting at mouse and keyboard a bit of a pain. Also, I wear glasses sometimes and taking the headset off with them on is a real pain. If they implemented a flip up design, both of those problems would be solved eloquently.

      It’s not revelatory enough for me to buy a new head strap, but I hope Oculus is considering something like this for it’s second generation headset.

      • You actually have to hold it up

      • TheVillasurfer

        No my headset sits securely on my forehead; like you can with a pair of glasses. Perhaps I have it tighter than you, but it’s not what I would call “tight”, and it’s still very comfortable.

        Your point about glasses is a good one. I hadn’t taken that into account even though I have tried with glasses. It’s still fine imo, but yeah, not for the one-handed method!

  • Damien Wilson

    They need to add integrated earphones/earbuds… otherwise I’ll purchase the upcoming redesigned harness by HTC.

    • John Toner

      There are competing features the Deluxe Audio Strap from HTC has it’s name brand and over the ear headphones while the the rEvolve offers a flip up display, forehead weight distribution and ear buds that rest just outside your ears when not plugged in. However, it is up to each consumer to decide what’s important.

      • JustNiz

        Why would HTC branding on the headphones even be considered a feature? thats the dumbest thing I’ve heard in ages.

    • NooYawker

      I tried searching for Vive redesigned harness and coming up empty. Do you have a link? I’d like to see what they have in mind.

    • Icebeat

      I hate the stupid integrated design.

  • VRgameDevGirl

    May just have to gey this. Was going to get the HTC audio strap, but I love the hanging design. So much more comfortable.

  • evo_9

    Here’s the actual link if anyone was looking for it (am I missing it, is it I the actually article? sorry massive head-cold…).
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1552002329/revolve-for-vive

    • benz145

      Nope but that was a mistake! Thanks for pointing it out, fixed now.

  • Mario

    My one concern, other than looking like a bobblehead lol, is the hinge wearing out after a while. What I mean is eventually when you tilt your head forward to look down, the HMD will separate from your face. I doubt it will hold a solid seal with your face after a while. I hope of all things, aside from comfort, they use top quality parts.

    • Rogue_Transfer

      They say that it locks into place both up and down – so not just a hinge. It would be useful to see a close-up photo of how robust that mechanism is.

  • Sch@dows

    I’m still a bit skeptical about this system.
    I tested PSVR and although it is more confortable than my default Vive strap, I was eventually disappointed.
    The headset was “hanging” in front of the eyes but wasn’t in perfect contact with the face, meaning some light could slip in through the sides, and the headset was leaning farther from the face if I was looking down, meaning more light and more distance with the lenses/screen hence more tunnel effect.

    • Get Schwifty!

      Interesting problem – you would think that could easily be corrected with an adjustment to pull the HMD closer to the face?

      • Sch@dows

        Of course, it may remove the “easy to put/remove” aspect of current rEvolve solution, but would surely help regarding the aforementioned issues while keeping the confort of resting the weight on the forehead instead of the nose.

      • David Herrington

        Pulling the unit closer to the face is the fix, but how to implement it appears harder to employ. I’m not saying its impossible but just difficult to design since the part of the Vive that needs to be free floating to flip up is also the part that needs to be constrained to the face.

    • OgreTactics

      PSVR were just the first one to do it, but they missed the spot by a few: the headset doesn’t clad to your face and leaves a random gap. The Lenovo VR Headset that takes cue from this design seems to fix that.

  • youareme7

    I’m glad it was a sucessful kickstarter and I’m going to bookmark their site but I just have to wait to see what the final product ends up looking like. I’m pretty particular about my over ear headphones so I need to see the real thing and how it looks with those but does look like it could be very nice! I don’t find the headset uncomfortable now but having to adjust it when I have friend’s play is a PITA

    • maiskorn123

      same here

  • OgreTactics

    And…little by little we realise that Vive and Oculus are non-products because they don’t make sense as Virtual Headsets. And thus you have indie nobodies doing the job of multi-millions budget companies…

    • Duane Locsin

      Didn’t Oculus start as an indie nobodie who crowd funded initially?

      • OgreTactics

        They not only started as an indie nobodie, but it’s also the only times they actually innovated with this initial plastic lense headset face with a mobile screen split in half with image warping for VR. A great if not revolutionary. And then it got bought by a giant corporation, they vaporbuyed 13th Lab and Nimble VR which where the next and most importantly still necessary step toward a consumer headset, and instead they didn’t iterate shit and release the same initial concept-based and overprice VR Headset that didn’t sell shit because it’s not an actual finished, practical and usable consumer product.

  • 144Hz

    If this was around when I had my vr headset I probably would’ve kept it for a bit longer.

  • evo_9

    What is the anticipated ship date to backers?

  • Mr. New Vegas

    Good idea but I rather wait for Gen2 VR, starting with MS collaborated products with inside out tracking that should start to come out in March if im not mistaken.
    In any case, if my only option for PC vr is Rift or vive, I’ll got for the company that has Thumbsticks

    • Ghosty

      I hate thumb sticks… Simply because every controller I’ve ever bought with thumb sticks gets drift… You end up having to hold the thumb pad in the middle and can’t take your thumb off it or you start to move… Horrible… At least with the Valve thumb pads I get zero drift!!

      • Mr. New Vegas

        Drift only happens after years of use, its mechanical parts so it wears out.
        If you use MS or Sony gamepads it can take many years to happen, good controller last longer.
        Touch pads are not accurate and slow, good enough for web browsing but not for games where you need fast and accurate motion.

    • JustNiz

      Microsoft aren’t even doing VR they’re doing AR, and by all accounts the reality of MS visor sucks ass compared to the marketing promises they make. I wouldn’t expect anything from them for years yet, and their visor has the whole computer in it, which means both that it won’t be cheap, and that it won’t be able to keep up with AAA gaming-level graphics like your desktop GPU+Rift/Vive can already do.

      • Mr. New Vegas

        I said MS Partnered VR, not MS Made.
        Different companies like dell, asus and more will be making VR headsets (real VR not AR) using MS inside out tracking tech they used in their AR headset.

        These will be at different price points and resolutions, most look like PSVR style, windows 10 only etc

        Quote:
        “Microsoft’s partners will ship a new line of virtual reality headsets to
        take advantage of Windows 10’s VR and holographic capabilities. At
        today’s event, Microsoft said that the headsets will start at $299 and
        will include inside-out tracking sensors, obviating the need for
        external cameras or laser systems like those on the current Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus, and Acer are all listed as
        partners.”

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd287297fdd2ca903da52480a650456902a88513420a957fe59150bc5775515f.jpg

  • perfectlyreasonabletoo

    Get rid of the fúcking newsletter popups

  • Andrew Jakobs

    I wouldn’t be surprised if HTC and Oculus aren’t planning something like this for their next incarnation.

  • Sam Illingworth

    It must be amazing – look how happy that bloke is!

    • NooYawker

      I think he’s delirious from joy.

  • NooYawker

    The Vive is really heavy, if you flip the who thing up it will start sliding down the front of your face, in the video the guys is either holding it up with his fingers or standing very still.

    • Duane Locsin

      Unless you also have the PSVR mounting head set design the visor will not go down like mentioned.

  • Duane Locsin

    With all these new straps, mounts and wireless attachment augments, perhaps VR could do well to go modular.

    So as to change and upgrade any of the components, instead of having to get whole VR headsets completely every year.

    -visor
    -head mount,strap
    -peripheral attachements -wireless connectors, audio earphones, cameras

    It’s great there is improvements done with the visuals, audio, tracking, peripherals and physical comfort departments, I would still like to see movement being tackled in the way of treadmills like the Cyberith and Omni Virtualizer.

    Actually walking around FallOut 4, with your arms completely free and independent to do other things would be incredible AND give you a physical appreciation of how large the world is since you are actually walking it, while also getting you fit and healthy.

    • JustNiz

      Dude it already IS modular. TPCast is an add-on as is the new headstrap. And you can already use your own headphones or get others.
      Also, no-one will be forcing you to buy a new headset every year.

  • JustNiz

    Whats with the bit that goes at the back of your head sticking out so much? It looks retarded.

  • Robert Carr

    Please stop him from smiling for so long… it’s eerie.

  • JustNiz

    Many people have already been making their own version of this simply using a welders mask strap like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221557344647 and it actually works very well.