Innoactive has answered the call of nomadic VR developers on-the-go with a super slick portable pop-up, self-powered Vive station in a case, it’s called the VR Suitcase and it’ll put a serious dent in your wallet.
Whilst the HTC Vive offers incredible room-scale VR experiences, no one could ever describe the SteamVR powered package as compact. In fact, anyone wanting to travel with a Vive system and the requisite PC to power it faces a substantial pile of kit to not only carry, but to setup and tear down for each demo session.
Innoactive saw this as a challenge they wanted to tackle and set about designing and building a portable solution which will allow anyone to travel with and then quickly pop-up a room-scale demo station wherever they are, without the need to search for a PC to hook it all up to or indeed the numerous power outlets to plug it all into. Their solution is now available to buy, is extremely slick and very, very expensive.
The ‘VR Suitcase’ tackles a series of problems with neat solutions. Firstly, delivering a VR Ready laptop, one with a GPU powerful enough to drive a VR experience at the requisite 90FPS. In this case an MSI laptop packing an NVIDIA GTX 1060 GPU.
Next, two telescopic SteamVR base station mounts (either of which can be attached to the docking station for a desk-based sit down configuration). These are not only crafted from lightweight carbon fibre but also include batteries mounted in the base to drive the laser base stations independently for up to 8 hours.
There’s the Vive headset of course, and this plugs into a custom built, battery-packing docking station an integrated Vive link box for it all to plug in to (also encased in carbon fiber). Finally, you of course have the SteamVR controllers. All of this folds neatly into Innoactive’s custom packing base.
It’s a pretty impressive and extremely slickly conceived package all told, but before you get too excited, the VR Suitcase is targeted firmly at businesses. That along with some expensive weight-saving build materials is reflected in the price. If you’d like to own a VR Suitcase, you’ll need to shell out EUR 8499 (around $9500) + VAT + Shipping. Even considering the undeniably expensive included components, that’s a hefty sum indeed. However, Innoactive are clearly confident the undeniable practicality of the system will win out and it’s certainly unique, we’ve not seen another company attempt something similar just yet.
Our only concerns other than the price are that the GTX 1060 GPU included in the MSI laptop may be borderline in its ability to power some of the more demanding VR experiences out there.
If you’re interested, head over to Innoactive’s website here to check it out.
