Here’s an early look at the first version of Rapture, the VR headset you’ll use when you enter The Void virtual reality attraction, opening to the public next year. Packing dual curved OLED displays, it’s a serious looking piece of kit.

We’ve been following The Void, a virtual reality entertainment destination, from the start. We brought you breaking news of the attraction’s existence earlier in the year and then the first hands-on taste of what to expect when you step inside.

See Also: First Hands-on: The VOID, a Mixed Reality Experience That Blends Real and Virtual

Up to now The Void, which aims to fuse both virtual and physical experiences played out in custom-built arenas, has been demonstrated on retro-fitted Oculus Rift DK2 headsets. The Void’s custom tracking system being tacked onto the player’s backtop-powered experience whilst the company worked quietly on perhaps one of their biggest selling points: a custom designed and built VR headset which aims to deliver what the company hopes will be a superior VR experience. It’s called Rapture and the company behind the new hardware has released the first image of a working prototype, in all its naked glory.

Rapture-NAKED-full

The Void presented recently at Dutch VR Days conference and went into some of the technology behind the experience, so we know some details about the VR headset.

Ken Bretschneider, founder of The Void, says he personally contributed $250,000 into the development of Rapture, a device he’s clearly quite proud of. Packing dual curved OLED displays, the headset purportedly delivers a 2K per-eye resolution and with that unique display form factor, a claimed 180 degree field of view. Although it’s impossible to accurately compare, as methods for measuring such things are yet to be standardised, the Rift DK2 offers an FOV of around 100 degrees. An impressive upgrade if the optics can thwart what must be some extreme optical challenges.

In order to deal with artefacts of their unusual display setup, the company says they’ve developed custom dual-lens optics. Bretschneider claims that the combination of displays and optics deliver stereo overlap of 53 degrees.

The video below shows Bretschneider sharing some details of the headset at the Dutch VR Days (starting at 53 minutes):

Speaking to the advantage The Void has over consumer hardware—namely, a lack restrictive retail price target—The Void’s designers packed ‘high end’ headphones, in this case from Bang and Olufsen, which deliver binaural audio to the player. Integrated microphones top off the hardware list, important for The Void’s intended multi-player experiences.

See Also: VR Theme Park ‘The VOID’ Begins Beta Testing, Reservations “Sold Out within Hours”

The Void is trialling beta experiences right now, although reservations for the remainder of the year’s sessions sold out within hours of going on sale. It’s not yet clear if those trials will include the new Rapture headsets as part of the experience.

This hardware is still in prototype form as The Void team continues to create its ambitious inaugural VR attraction based in Salt Lake City, Utah, due to open at some point in 2016. No precise dates on when you’ll be able to book your first date with the Rapture VR headset, but we can’t wait to get a taste of a VR backed by hardware built without the restrictions of consumer pricing.

Additional reporting provided by Chris Madsen

 

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.

  • I’ve done some Void beta experiences, and even with the DK2 it was absolutely stunning. For me, I’m never quite able to get past the limited resolution and SDE of the DK2 or Gear VR. However, because of the awesome experience that the Void provides (exploring a massive 1:1 world that perfectly matches what you’re seeing, even though you’re in a relatively small room) caused the resolution/SDE to completely disappear for me in the first minute or two. From then on, I mostly forgot I was wearing an HMD. It’s really compelling. If they can get a substantial visual quality improvement with their own headset it will be mind-blowing, and the specs sound promising. Can’t wait to try another beta experience with the new HMD!

    • Raphael

      Problem is it’s something u have to travel and pay to use for a short time. My experience with Oculus is the opposite. The only thing I’ve found to be unplayable because it needs increased resolution is DCS world. Everything else looks amazing with Oculus DK2.

      • It’s not a competitor for the CV1. Obviously, people will want home-based units (myself included.) However, I like the idea of a location-based “VR Theme Park” that is pushing the limits of what’s possible, and can overspend on the HMD and test out experiences that cannot be achieved in the house. Some of the ideas and concepts they develop (like wider FoV) will eventually filter down to less expensive home HMDs, while others (large-volume room tracking, redirection, etc.) won’t. I’m fine with that.

        • Raphael

          Agree. I do think such theme parks can only be a good thing for the future of VR. I believe Disney will be introducing VR to their attractions in the future.

  • Denis Koroskin

    Why not use Vive+laptop-on-a-back combo for a 100% untethered experience? Developing custom headset is such a huge waste of money!

    • Proyb P

      Have you been as a Void beta tester before claiming a huge waste of money? Why not saying Morpheus and Oculus Rift are wasting money too?

      Out of production for Vive and having no part to repair will be a huge waste of money if you knew how Abbey Recording Studio works.

      • Denis Koroskin

        I am not saying their product will be bad, I’m sure it will be awesome! Just because they need an HMD doesn’t mean they need to develop one themselves. What if they needed a tablet? Would it make sense to develop custom OS, custom UI, custom hardware, too, or grab one of the thousands Android/iOS tablets available for no R&D cost?

        • Bryan Ischo

          Yes, it would make sense for them to develop their own tablet if a) the state of the tablet industry was nascent and there were no adequate tablets in production, and b) their entire success hinged very heavily on the quality of the tablet they used.

          While the state of the tablet industry is not as described in (a), the state of the VR industry is. And while their success has nothing to with tablets as in (b), it has everything to do with VR headsets.

          Your hypothetical actually supports their actions.

          • Jetch Vargas

            i have to agree with @deniskoroskin:disqus. Not only do they have to develope hardware that will cost a fortune to make ( compared to mass productions of the rift, valve,etc.) they also have to make special software for it. How many games or interactions do you think they can make in a year? what will be the cost per entrance for them to recover the investment. You dont see Apple or Samsung making every chip and electronics they go out and find what is available in the market. And by the time they finish making a game and all that they need there will probably be an oculus rift 2 or something.

          • Bryan Ischo

            You did know that Apple makes their own mobile CPU right? And that the argument could have and was made in opposition to the idea that they needed to make their own when there were already stock ARM chips they could use.

            No, not every company fabricates every component they need for their product. But when there is no ready-made component that fulfills the core need of your business, it’s perfectly rational to make one.

          • Proyb P

            We aren’t sure but for sure, there are many keyboards and proaudio gears. For hardware engineers, hardware is an easy part, they might have licensed some hardware that are ready made and can be customize, a know a few of the most advanced technology that is not willing to announce in the market.

            I think if some are truly talented inventors, they can develop something that differential from competitors.

        • brandon9271

          You’re looking at this the wrong way.. They plan on charging admission for the experience. If it was an off the shelf VR headset that anyone can go buy then nobody would pay them for the experience. Is has to be custom hardware and software that is inaccessible to the public through any means except them. It’s like someone else said about video arcades of the 80s and 90s, the $199 home consoles at the time couldn’t provide the same gaming experience as a $10,000 arcade machine. The Void is aiming for that type of experience.

          • Proyb P

            I see they can earn back from franchisers models once they plan to have a spot in every parts of the world. Let them try, if they success then they get it, if they failed then we know what consumer wants, if you never try, you never try.

    • JD

      The Vive is made for consumers to purchase. The Vive and all consumer VR headsets have to make sacrifices to make it cheaper for the consumer. The void headset is probably never to be sold to consumers, but if it was going to it would be $1000+. There is no limit to the cost of the headset due to it never being sold, and as such there’s no sacrifices made to it. They can make it 10x better than any consumer headset just by buying higher quality parts and spending more money.

    • Sibbo

      In the hay day of the the Arcades we we had our spectrums, Amigas, Megadrives etc emulating an arcade experience at home at a lower level but still gave enjoyment. For a social, full on, moving cabinet, state of the art experience we went to the arcade and paid money to do it. As hardware got cheaper and more powerful the reason for going to the arcade died.

      I see parallels with something like this. Buy a Vive or Oculus for a compelling home experience that will always have certain limitations but for an uncompromising, fuller, immersive experience, visit a place like this as it really is something that cannot truly be experienced at home and therefore will not necessarily go the way of the arcades.

      A similiar concept worked for a while with laserquest but that always had a limitation to the experience it could offer. There are no such limitations with VR, you can get any experience you want.

    • Mark

      Rather than creating a ~$300 dollar headset they can create one that is much much better, they’re not looking to target a consumer price they are trying to make the best technology possible. Oculus and Valve have both stated they have HMDs vastly better than their first consumer products. If you only need to make a few you can make something superior.

    • ThreeRing

      Because their idea is to move around a completely custom maze type environment, the Vive and Rift are probably just not good enough for them. They need to provide a SUPERIOR VR experience that you can’t afford to own but can afford to use.

  • TC_Orygun

    These guys seem really on top of it, with lots of great ideas. I really hope they can put it all together.

  • mellott124

    They should sell the HMD. Regardless of the price it’s the only game in time with those kinds of specs.

    • kalqlate

      I’d like that too, but then that would be a whole other business for them as content for The Void would not translate easily or at all to just the HMD. They’d have to create and manage a separate company the size of Oculus with all the content relations. Further, to properly power two 2K displays at 90 to 120 Hz, you’re talking two top-of-the-line GPU cards at minimum, upping the price of entry considerably, and thereby lowering market potential significantly. Not a profitable proposition.

      • mellott124

        That could be true for some but plenty of us have high end machines. Content generation isn’t always a problem either. Especially for companies who could afford to buy this HMD.

        • kalqlate

          Sorry, but “plenty of us” is not enough for a company to make projections of profitability on. That’s why you’ll just have to wait for Oculus, Valve/HTC, and others to evolve their consumer-market products over time as the cost of high-end systems required for the higher spec HMDs continues to lessen in price. Expect Void quality in the consumer marker in three to five years.

          • mellott124

            I disagree. They’re already likely in a low volume high cost market if the plan is to do simulation centers. There are other markets/applications outside of consumer that could also purchase their HMD. This would only help them with cost of their current product and help accelerate the technology to the consumer sector.

          • kalqlate

            “low volume high cost” …high use, low cost of operation, high profit.. “market”. There, fixed that for you. The same as for amusement parks and facilities of all kinds. You can’t associate or equate the business models of amusement parks and movie theaters with VR headsets. They may entertain in similar ways, but the business models are very different.

            “I disagree.” OK.

    • HKtechnician

      If other companies like Oculus/HTC/Void/etc. took a look at emerging innovations that are currently available, solutions can be found. For example: The FOVE HMD Kickstarter. If these big name companies incorporate Foveated Rendering into their products, then they can drastically reduce the horsepower required to produce very high resolution dynamic images, simply by altering and prioritizing the rendering scripts.

  • arnold475

    I wonder how their custom built HMD stacks up to StarVR’s headset. By the looks of the provided specs it doesn’t seem to be that much better, and maybe even a little worse than StarVR.

    • kalqlate

      Your eyes have overlapping field of view all the way to the bridge of the nose. Curved screens can give you more of an overlapping field of view (as they curve into the bridge) than flat screens (that can’t curve into the bridge).

  • Kurt has given me a tour/demo of the Void experience at their offices in Lindon. I was extremely impressed with their overall hardware vision. Nearly all aspects of their platform are proprietary and I can guarantee that they will find additional ways to monetize the hardware (military, commercial simulation etc). Their body tracking solution is quite precise as well and from the sounds of it, it is only getting better with continual modifications/upgrades. I can’t wait to try the HMD (I only tested with the DK2) as the ‘alpha’ experience was already much better than what I anticipated. I do believe Kurt’s team will be seen as pioneers pushing Oculus, Sony, HTC to up their game on the hardware side. Eventually the consumer brands will need to bite the bullet and treat the hardware as a loss leader (similar to the base consoles) and deliver the market a $600 HMD for a $399 price tag.

  • Pinky Toes

    100% support this kind of development. fpv needs this 2 years ago.
    wish he could have said the name of his product right. Rapture, not Raptor.

    • Pinky Toes

      ‘periphreals’ OTL