StarVR today revealed the StarVR One headset at SIGGRAPH 2018, an upgrade to previous StarVR headsets which incorporates SteamVR Tracking 2.0, eye-tracking, and a slew of enhancements.

Made for the commercial and enterprise VR markets, the StarVR headset’s defining feature has been its ultra-wide field of view (claimed at 210 degrees horizontal and 130 degrees vertical). The newly revealed StarVR One brings significant upgrades, according to the company, including eye-tracking, AMOLED displays, SteamVR Tracking 2.0, and a new headstrap. A variant of the headset, the StarVR One XT, has built-in optical markers for use with tracking systems other than SteamVR Tracking.

The headset’s new AMOLED displays have a resolution of 1,830 × 1,464 each (3,660 × 1,464 across both eyes), which StarVR says use an RGB-stripe subpixel structure for less screen door effect. The displays also bring the headset up to a 90Hz refresh rate, from 62Hz previously.

As far as we know, the previous StarVR headset had a total resolution of 5,120 × 1,440, which would mean the latest headset is actually a downgrade in resolution, though the company says the StarVR One has up to 16 pixels per degree, which doesn’t seem to add up with the specifications the company has provided. We’ve reached out to StarVR for clarity on this apparent discrepancy.

Image courtesy StarVR

The StarVR One comes with SteamVR Tracking 2.0 (the same tracking system used by the HTC Vive) built in, which supports a tracking volume up to 10 × 10 meters (33 × 33 ft.) using four base stations. A variant of the headset, the StarVR One XT, has built-in active optical markers which can support a variety of existing optical tracking systems through plugins provided by StarVR.

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The eye-tracking module uses IR LEDS (the small white dots around the lens) to illuminate the pupil such that an internal camera can track its position. | Image courtesy StarVR

The headset now includes eye-tracking technology by Tobii, which supports foveated rendering as well as automatic (software-based) IPD adjustment, StarVR says. Beyond foveated rendering, eye-tracking has the potential to greatly enhance the VR experience; we wrote recently about why we believe eye-tracking is a game changer for VR.

Image courtesy StarVR

The StarVR One, which weighs in at 450 grams, now has a semi-rigid head mount which replaces the soft headstrap of the previous version. Most major VR headsets have moved away from soft headstraps to semi-rigid head mounts for added comfort through better weight distribution and balancing, though the headset still relies on a separate pair of headphones for audio. The StarVR One XT variant uses a soft headstrap like the prior version of the headset.

StarVR hasn’t revealed pricing or availability of the StarVR One or StarVR One XT just yet, but the company will be showing off the headset for the first time at the SIGGRAPH 2018 conference this week, so we expect those details to come in the not too distant future. Considering the headset’s positioning toward commercial and enterprise sectors, we’d expect it to fall somewhere in the $2,000 to $10,000 range.

Image courtesy StarVR

To power the StarVR One, the company recommends a minimum of a GTX 1080 GPU, Core i7-7700 or Ryzen 7 2700X CPU, and 16GB of RAM. Through the StarVR SDK, the company says the headset supports a dual-input VR SLI mode—ostensibly dedicating one GPU per eye for rendering—which could substantially boost graphical fidelity.  The StarVR SDK is “designed to be familiar to developers working with existing industry standards […],” according to StarVR.

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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."
  • Data Soul

    *Reads Specs* : My body is ready.
    *Reads Estimated Price* : My body isn’t ready.

    • Vegeta785

      IKR

  • Vegeta785

    $2,000 to $10,000 Oh my GOD

    • Tomas Sandven

      That’s a *guess*, for the *enterprise* version.

      • James Cobalt

        There is *only* an enterprise version.

    • Bryan Ischo

      $2,000 is $167/month for a year. And then you never pay another dime for it.

      People spend much more than $167/month on other hobbies.

  • mellott124

    Bound to be expensive if Tobii eye tracking is integrated.

  • Teiji

    Damn, that price and minimum PC requirement. Definitely not for the average consumers.

    • dogtato

      It’s not for average consumers because it’s not for consumers. The price is just a number that roadtovr guessed at for “how much is too much for consumers”

  • Facts

    Where can I try this

  • Resolution is a bit dissapointing, but it is what it is, welcome the new king! I can’t wait for the first informations about eye tracking, and it it’s a polished technology.

  • Raphael

    When the countdown gave u hope of a starVR home unit and what you actually get is another location based blah blah way out of reach.

    “We made something for you” << No you didn't. You made another thing for VRcades and pro sector.

    • brandon9271

      Yeah, this is totally underwhelming. Most location based VR I’ve been to are using HTC Vive rev 2. I think StarVR should mass produce these. Pimax has proved the demand is there

    • Arv

      There are two different SKUs- the StarVR One for home consumers and the StarVR One XT for businesses.

      • Zerofool

        Unfortunately, the wording make it look like both are for business/enterprise, for now. The main difference is in the tracking system used, as well as the strap, and probably the price (but not huge diff, I’d imagine).

      • Raphael

        Aha! So then it really comes to pricing of the home user version.

      • James Cobalt

        StarVR One is not for consumers. The press release even refers to the headset as a “commercial solution” for “high end enterprise applications.”

    • Bryan Ischo

      Whatever. People used to pay $5,000 for barely functional computers when home computers first became a thing. It’s the price you pay for being on the forefront of a new technology. It’s only people spoiled by the incredibly reduced prices of mass-marketed electronics that don’t understand that if you are truly interested in being at the forefront of new tech, you have to pay.

      If this thing is really good, I’d pay $2,000 for it. VR is my hobby; I can afford $2,000 per year for my hobby, just like people did for 8-bit computers in the 1970’s.

      • Bronson

        It’s unlikely to be $2000 though. Will you pay $8000 for it?

        • Bryan Ischo

          No; that is too much even for me.

          • Raphael

            You’re a cheap-ass!

      • Raphael

        My brother built his first computer… a kit.

      • Jerald Doerr

        “People used to pay $5,000 for barely functional computers”

        Yup… I did that… To think my phone can do more than that 5 Gs masterpiece of love I had… 6 times more ram.. 80 times more hard drive space… 2-3 times more resalotion… All in my hand…. VR is going to be much more amazing 10 years from now.

  • brandon9271

    I really wish the consumer space would advance to this point. Many think that VR market stalled because it’s too expensive. Maybe so, but i think it’s because the experience just isn’t as compelling as it could be. Resolution and FOV are far too low. Also, publisher really should be releasing more VR ports like Skyrim VR. It’s the cheapest way to get a fully fleshed out VR game to market. Although, i think a price point of $29 would be more fair for a lazy port of a game most people have already played

    • Bethesda really is screwing us over with their full-priced Skyrim and Fallout VR’s…. but they are also the biggest draw to VR I’ve experienced lately, bar none. I had to switch over to a sitting Oculus setup, over my older VIVE and roomscale, just because I’ve spent so many hours in Fallout I need the additional comfort. I think I’m getting the $39 worth (summer sale price). I’m humming the Fallout radio tunes. It’s a mad addiction. I’m thinking about playing it… RIGHT NOW……

      • brandon9271

        I want to buy them both but I really think they needed to give discounts to people that already own them. Honestly, the VR should’ve just been sold as DLC for the original game.

        • Tharny

          I bit the apple and payed the full price for both of them. Honestly, it was truly truly worth it. No other VR game i have has been played as much as those two titles. Beeing in those large beautiful open worlds in VR is amazing.

          • brandon9271

            I could see paying full price for a newer games like Fallout 4 but Skyrim VR shouldn’t be $59. Especially when it’s just VR slapped on the vanilla game. If they’d added multi player or something else I could see it. It’s just the principal of it really. I already paid them for the game once.

          • Bryan Ischo

            Well you have a choice: sit there doing nothing with your principles, or pony up a few bucks to reward the developers who made a game that will give you dozens or hundreds of hours of first quality entertainment. If you live your life worrying about fairly insignificant amounts of money instead of spending your time enjoying yourself, you’re probably living it wrong.

          • prg4mer

            Or lay down your morals and buy it for like 20$ from a Keyshare site.

          • brandon9271

            I already “rewarded” them by buying the game TWICE already. I’m not going to spend full price for what amounts to a 7 year old game with a VR mod. They should be rewarding their customers who already purchased the game with a discount. I owe them nothing. I’ll wait until it’s on sale.

          • Bryan Ischo

            I know it sucks in principle to spend more money on a game you feel like you already bought, but consider that your other purchases were for a game that was also purchased by tens of millions of other people, so the costs to produce the game were distributed over lots of people. But adapting the game to VR took real work and the number of people who potentially will pay for that work is at least two orders of magnitude smaller. So if you want the additional features that come with the VR version, you have to pay more to get them.

            My basic point was that yeah it sucks to have to pay some more money, but the amount of money isn’t really significant, and why not enjoy yourself with a game you will love playing instead of worrying about some tens of dollars that you’ll never really miss?

            Of course, everyone gets to make their own choices about value so it’s your call … I’m just saying how I see it.

      • Bryan Ischo

        My back used to hurt after 6 – 8 hours straight of Fallout 4 VR. By the end of the night I’d pick non-combat based missions to complete (like talking to all the people in the Institute) and lay on the ground, virtually “slithering” from place to place and talking to NPCs who would look down at me while they talked, not seeming to care that I was laying on the ground while talking to them.

        I finished the game and stopped playing, but had I kept going, I would have bought a back brace.

        VR makes you do weird things, for sure.

  • Tyler Soward

    I want one. But I don’t want to pay 2,000-10,000 range for one because I’m not a crazy person. Maybe when I receive my inheritance from the wealthy uncle I’ve never heard of. Pretty sure that check should be rolling in any day now

    • Arv

      Ben mentioned that figure for the XT SKU I think, he just didn’t make himself clear. The SKU for home consumers will probably be around a grand or maybe 1100.

      • gothicvillas

        If they price it the same as Pimax… oh, I need to grab some popcorn.

      • Tyler Soward

        That would be a bit easier to digest LOL

      • James Cobalt

        There is no consumer version of the headset at this time.

      • ArSh

        The XT is simply the one without SteamVR tracking. Neither is headed for the consumer market.

  • HybridEnergy

    It’s got worse resolution than the Vive Pro.

    • Zerofool

      Actually, that’s 16% more pixels than the Vive Pro / Samsung Odyssey, and 58% more sub-pixels (RGB vs Pentile). On paper, pixels per degree will be lower, yes, but the subjective image quality could be close, thanks to the higher sub-pixel count. We need some hands-on impressions from the SIGGRAPH demo.

      • Tomas Sandven

        Technically it has more pixels, but lower resolution. Technically. c:

        • Zerofool

          Technically, it’s got lower angular resolution, which is different and should be explicitly stated ;)
          “Resolution” commonly refers to spatial resolution, the number of pixels the underlying display has.

      • HybridEnergy

        PPI is really where it’s at. The image clarity in-front of your pupil. The reason I or anyone I would assume wants to increase resolution in VR is to increase PPI. It seems to have a lower vertical resolution and while a large horizontal resolution, when you factor in the FOV it’s lower. RGB is heck nice though, really the PRO should have been RGB already, you can tell it helps out the PSVR resolution.

        • Zerofool

          >> The image clarity in-front of your pupil
          That’s the PPD (pixels per degree, or angular resolution), not PPI, which is a measurement of pixel density on a flat surface. To determine the sharpness of an image, you need to know the distance from your eye to that flat surface, in order to calculate the PPD.

          Regarding the second part of your post, StarVR has apparently calculated that these trade-offs are worth making. I’d reserve my judgement until reading some hands-on impressions or potentially trying it out myself someday.

  • Arv

    This has to be incorrect. At that resolution a minimum spec GPU of a 1080 is just plain ridiculous. Either they’ve released the wrong information here or Tobii’s foveated rendering is a pile of old pants.

    • dsadas

      lol yeah… foveated rendering is supposed to decrease the resolution up to 10x without losing image quality… asking for gtx 1080 and 16 gb ram is insane and make absolutely no sense.

      • Jim Hall

        Let’s not forget the SLI mode. Should of bumped the res a bit higher.

      • The benefits of foveated rendering are theorized, never proven, and this product is for business, the games will be dedicated, limiting the video card is a nonsense, with high specs you’ll simply make better games

    • Zerofool

      Doesn’t seem to be wrong – it says 16M sub-pixels on the site and the numbers add up. It probably comes to super-sampling preference, and headroom to mitigate bad cases of latency spikes.
      I have a GTX 1080 and a vanilla Vive, and there are many games that don’t run smooth at the super-sampling settings where I feel the image is not blurry or aliased. In that line of thought, I’d say that 1080Ti/2070 is actually the minimum for that kind of resolution (Vive Pro / Samsung Odyssey). And StarVR One has 16% more pixels than these.
      What I’m saying is that I guess it comes down to some sort of graphics fidelity bar that they’re aiming for. I’m not sure that foveated rendering will work without developer involvement (meaning each game/experience must integrate it explicitly) and I guess 1080 is required for the cases where it’s not engaged.

  • MW

    Great. We have private jets and helicopters for decades. So what? It doesn’t mean nothing for average Joe transportation problems. Those inventions are interesting, but prices of hardware (HMD and GPU higher and higher in every generation) will never allow them to be popular.

    • dsadas

      you are stupid… a oculus rift is 399 now and will be 299 next year. Also the prices don’t increase , tech always gets cheaper if you account for inflation.

      • MW

        Am I? Will see. But believing in flying cars seems to be more stupid for me (on what kind of fuel those cars will be? Because oil will end in next 20-30 years). For now i’m right, and your are dreaming.

        • Tomas Sandven

          Future-batteries!! :)

        • dk

          when the rift came out with controllers and 2 extra cameras it was 960…..than later it was 350 for a summer(2 extra cameras 120) and now it’s 400
          and all u need is an ok pc with a 1060
          and winmr headsets r around 230 on promotion ….and they r pretty excellent for that price

    • dsadas

      and about jet and helicopters…. flying cars are coming in the next 20-30 years, which will mean everyone will have a jet/helicopter, but MUCH BETTER and practical.

      • MW

        Yeah… Take your pills in the morning man. When I’m listening guys like you, I have new understanding for religious fanaticism. It’s the same – blind faith against the facts.

      • Zerofool

        I agree with Elon Musk’s explanation why flying cars will never be something other than a niche thing – imagine a vehicle 100x louder than a drone, now imagine millions of them flying around and above you for the bigger part of the day. This isn’t the future I’d like to live in :)

  • I think you guys might want to chill over the price, it’s just a guess based on the word “Enterprise” they overheard. They have no idea what StarVR is actually asking. The article’s author is clear this is just a guess. We know who StarVR is. So far, this company has been VERY friendly towards consumers with their prices. They’d sell these to everybody and their mother if they could. I’m certain, if the cash was there, they’d make a version for dogs. Everything they’ve done thus far shows they are keen on undercutting the market.

    • James Cobalt

      “Everything they’ve done thus far shows they are keen on undercutting the market.”

      Can you offer some examples?

  • dsadas

    lol how could this have foveated rendering if the minimum specs that you need are a gtx 1080 and 16 gb ram? I mean if it really had foveated rendering it should have work even on a gtx 580 and 4 gb ram. What is this bullshit.

    • Tomas Sandven

      Well, it “supports” foveated rendering, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s available yet, or supported in every game.

      • brandon9271

        This is key. I would say foveat render support is extremely limited at this point so i’m assume these requirements are factoring it in very much or not at all.

    • JJ

      Even with foveated rendering, a gtx 580 would not be enough. its not magic just a reduction of computational pixel density

    • HybridEnergy

      A 580 gtx? um no. Foveated rendering is a decent % boost but nothing like that. You can use it with out tracking in batman VR Arkham , built right into it. At max gives about a 15-20% boost when it’s set to medium/aggressive.

    • MosBen

      As others have said, foveated rendering isn’t magic, it just allows a PC to render a scene more efficiently, using slightly less resources. But if you increase the demand for resources, but, say, having a 210 degree FOV, then you’re still going to need beefy hardware to render it, even with foveated rendering.

      • Xron

        The higher resolution, the more power will be saved, but at this res, Fov just does not give much.

  • JustNiz

    Only 1830×1464 pixels per eye and not even available to consumers? Wow what an anticlimax after all the hype. i guess Pimax really aren’t gonna be even slightly worried by this announcement after all.

    • dsadas

      it would not be that big of a deal if it had for example 140 fov… but at 210 fov that res is terrible.

      • Tomas Sandven

        That was my thought as well, but as the article mentioned that doesn’t really add up with the pixels-per-degree number they gave. Seems like a weird choice to downgrade the resolution for the next generation, I hope that was just miscommunication.

    • kool

      The AMOLED screens have 3 subpixels on each pixel. So it won’t have the screen door effect. I think that is what bothers people the most when they talk about resolution.

      • dk

        yes it has a slightly better matrix which would be neat if it had a good resolution….it will be really similar to a rift/vive sde ….at that massive fov it needs a much higher resolution to get a better looking sde

    • NooYawker

      Why did Pimax release something? Or did they make more announcements that they’re releasing something? Maybe a 50k headset.

  • Zerofool

    I still hope that they’ll change their minds at some point (when they saturate the enterprise market with their product) and release a gamer-oriented version. If the image quality is good enough (in terms of SDE, focal sweetspot, “god rays”, etc.) I’d gladly pay 1500 Euro for a kit containing this HMD, a pair of knuckles controllers, a wireless adapter, and 3 SteamVR trackers for full-body presence.

  • HybridEnergy

    A lack of integrated headphones seems like a step back and the resolution is disappointing.

    • James Cobalt

      I believe since the focus isn’t exclusively gaming, not including headphones may have been the right choice… though… they could have just done flip-out or detachable muffs.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Fuck that headstrap ergonomic crap instead of crown/band, not considering it.

    • JJ

      im a bigger fan of headstraps like this than bands. so no dont fuck headstraps and do consider it

      • Bryan Ischo

        You have a point. I think the Vive DAS is more comfortable than the Vive Pro, because the DAS doesn’t try to hang the headset off of your forehead like the Pro does. I have never felt actual discomfort with any headset until the Pro — my forehead ended up very sore because the Pro chooses to essentially focus all of the weight of the headset there rather than resting any of it on your cheeks/nose. I have no idea why – spreading the load around (like the DAS) is much more comfortable.

        I am assuming that headsets that hang the weight off your forehead *can* be comfortable, because the PSVR does it (and that’s probably what the Pro design is based on — they probably started the Pro design when the PSVR was getting rave reviews for comfort so they decided to go with a design like that), but I think the PSVR has a much larger padded forehead region than the Pro.

        In terms of comfort, I would rank them from best to worst:

        1. Vive + DAS
        2. Vive + straps
        3. Vive Pro

        • R FC

          This is the most interesting and overlooked aspect of Magic Leap Creator headset – 2 different size headsets, and each headset comes with a nose and headband kit with multiple pieces for further customisation.

          Headset ergonomics are typically based on a specific head model; whereas in other head gear (for example cycling helmets) you will have multiple sizes per model, and different brands actually have a different “fit”.

          There a lot more to headset fit than using a rotary dial or velcro strap to change circumference, “fit” options would make a huge difference, and its not hard to design a modular headset which could have several fit kits or even different styles of harness to suit head types.

          Another aspect I’ve been doing some R&D on is 3D face scanning leading to a 3D printed face cushion, within a retail setting.

        • kool

          I think it depends on your head shape. I have a peanut head so the psvr is perfect. My homies head is shaped like a big block 450 so he likes the Vive fits!

  • MosBen

    Based on the geniuses that I’ve been bumping into in the comments lately, StarVR could sell this for $500 if they wanted to, but are just being greedy. /smh

  • Zerofool

    @benz145:disqus StarVR was running an OpenXR demo through UE4 in collaboration with the Khronos Group at SIGGRAPH. Did you get the chance to see that demo? Can we expect a hands-on impressions article?