StarVR Prototype Mini-Museum at E3 Shows Glimpse of Development History

StarVR, the recently reborn super-wide FOV VR headset from Starbreeze Studios, have put together something of a mini-museum at their E3 booth commemorating a number of development prototypes.

Starbreeze Studios, the team behind the Pay Day franchise, made some noise earlier this week when they revealed StarVR, a 210 degree FOV VR headset sporting 5K horizontal resolution split across dual 5.5-inch QHD panels. The team at Starbreeze claim this results in highly detailed scenes with no visible screen door effect.

The headset was formerly being developed independently under the name ‘InfinitEye’; after the team had gone into stealth for more than a year, it was just revealed that they’d been bought up by Starbreeze Studios to create the headset in-house.

See Also: InfinitEye 210 Degree VR Headset Reborn as ‘StarVR’ with 5K Display

The mini-museum ostensibly displayed the full history of the device, from its beginning steps as a gargantuan gaffer tape-clad setup on hinges, to Starbreeze’s more ergonomic device of today.

This is the earliest of the headsets on display at the booth, built largely out of foam-core (and plenty of tape) and using large 7-inch displays. The dots on the front are either fiducial or IR reflective markers for positional tracking.

Here the team began experimenting with IR-LEDs for positional tracking and the display housing is beginning to take form beyond a mere foam-core enclosure. The headband is also refined beyond the earliest prototypes.

This prototype shows continued progress toward something that could be manufactured and sold. Still featuring IR-LEDs for positional tracking, the aesthetics resemble something between the Sony Morpheus 2014 prototype and Samsung’s Gear VR.

The latest StarVR prototype is shown here. Fiducial markers are currently in use for positional tracking and the mounting mechanism has been completely redesigned, offering a surprising level of comfort. This version is using 5.5-inch displays which make the headset smaller and lighter. In fact, the unit feels lighter that the Rift DK2 despite its dual screens and more significant head mount. There’s also an eye-relief mechanism which can allow the visor portion to flip up for a quick view of the real world without removing the headset.

Starbreeze is showing off StarVR with a demo based on The Walking Dead, created by the company’s subsidiary, Overkill Software. We’ll soon be delivering a full hands-on impression of the experience, which had players wielding a shotgun motion controller and riding through the level in a wheelchair.