Virtuix Omni One Preview: A Complete VR Solution with a Custom Pico Headset Sets a New Bar | MMORPG.

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Virtuix Omni One Preview: A Complete VR Solution with a Custom Pico Headset Sets a New Bar | MMORPG.com

VIrtuix recently hit the VR market with an upscale all-in-one VR Treadmill and Headset that intends to get players in the game faster than ever. After several hours with the system, here's how it compares with the KAT Walk C 2.

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Ridrith

It's these kinds of things that continue to prove to me that VR will only ever be a weird, novel tech that will never matter when and where it concerns games.

Let's face it. Porn simulation and MAYBE some workplace applications could be cool, but I think the tech begins and ends in those spaces. I've never seen a single killer app that would ever make me want to rush out and purchase a VR headset. Let alone have goofy shit like this in my house. LOL.

Angrakhan

Yeah, well "goofy shit" opinion aside, I think if VR is going to move forward it's going to be with a solution like this because room VR, no matter how big the room, is finite. Can you walk 3 miles in one direction in room VR? Yes if you have a room 3 miles long with VR sensors able to follow you around. That seems unlikely for even the enthusiast gamer. Maybe Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk. However, this makes that realistic for non-billionaire gamers and opens the possibility of playing something like Light No Fire in VR.

I'm pretty sure this setup will always be in the enthusiast category. My guess is it will be several thousands of dollars. For it to be less than that you're talking Walmart quality parts and that just won't stand up over time with full grown adult size players especially with multiple players in a household using it.

This solution solves a number of my "must have" features that I will insist upon before I buy another VR setup. I was an early adopter of the first HTC vive and the things this solves for me are:

1. It fixes the tethering issue because the Pico supports wireless connection to the PC. I'd look at upgrading to the Pico Ultra for the 3Gbps throughput with as low as 2ms latency.
2. From reading up on the Pico it looks like it handles self calibration without going through complicated steps. Even if you have to calibrate, since the play area is fixed due to the Omni One platform it should be a calibrate once, set it and forget it affair. Having to set up your room, calibrate, then tear everything down every time you play was a big demotivator for me once past the 'ooh ahh' honeymoon period of VR. Just too much hassle.
3. Should be** high enough resolution to reduce screen door effect to the point it's ignorable. On the original VIVE it was BAD and very distracting.
4. Integrated sound which ties into the tethering issue, although you could solve that with ear buds.

Anyway, I'm for sure interested in the final review. I'm assuming you could pair the Omni One with any HMD. Let me know if that's not the case. It doesn't look like there's any physical connection between the Omni One and HMD, so that's why I'm making that assumption.

aslan132

I am very happy to see new products in this space. The $2500 pricetag is much higher than the Kat series of treadmills, but makes sense as this is a fully complete game system. Sadly, the $2500 is just an introductory rate, and it goes up to $3500 next month. I also own a quest 2 already, but this does not support using your own headset. You are stuck using their hardware, which to be fair, their modded Pico Enterprise is technically better than the Quest 2 anyways. If the introductory rate ran through the holidays until the end of the year, I would probably pick this up. Hopefully more competition will move the VR industry foward at a faster rate, and we can see more economic as well as more professional setups in the future. And maybe as haptic gear becomes more refined and usable (gloves are still very unstable and non compatible with almost any game) we will see some integration for those as well.

I would be happy to drop $2500 on a system where I could change out the headsets to use my own and my wife could use hers, so we could use our own sets when we play instead of sharing. This covers alot of the problems I had with the much cheaper Kat C2, but also introduces new ones of its own. Oh well.

Samhael

But does it have the x1 boots and microfiber crotch in there?