Thursday, August 31st 2017
Lenovo Announces the Explorer Windows Mixed Reality Headset
Lenovo's take on the Windows Mixed Reality platform, which we covered a few days ago as featuring Steam VR support and a still-in-its-infancy Halo VR experience, has just been named. The Explorer MR will set you back $349 for just the headset, or $449 for the headset plus a pair of 6-DoF (Degrees of Freedom) controllers.
Lenovo didn't say how much the Explorer HMD weighs, but the usual "comfortable and lightweight," and "finely tuned for perfect balance" have been mentioned. A flip-flop visor allows you to quickly remove the dual 1440x1440 displays from your face, should you need an emergency look at the real world around you. The Lenovo Explorer features inside-out spatial tracking, just like the other Windows MR devices, with two front-mounted cameras handling environment tracking. Trackable space on the Explorer should be around 3.5 x 3.5 meters, likely constrained by the fact that the HMD is tethered via USB and HDMI (tethering that is par-of-the-course for this VR generation.) Specs still haven't been finalized, but pricing is, so we shouldn't look to any substantial differences between the announced and final specifications.
Source:
Tom's Hardware
Lenovo didn't say how much the Explorer HMD weighs, but the usual "comfortable and lightweight," and "finely tuned for perfect balance" have been mentioned. A flip-flop visor allows you to quickly remove the dual 1440x1440 displays from your face, should you need an emergency look at the real world around you. The Lenovo Explorer features inside-out spatial tracking, just like the other Windows MR devices, with two front-mounted cameras handling environment tracking. Trackable space on the Explorer should be around 3.5 x 3.5 meters, likely constrained by the fact that the HMD is tethered via USB and HDMI (tethering that is par-of-the-course for this VR generation.) Specs still haven't been finalized, but pricing is, so we shouldn't look to any substantial differences between the announced and final specifications.
8 Comments on Lenovo Announces the Explorer Windows Mixed Reality Headset
The specs are definitely something to consider, however, I wouldn't make a decision on specs alone. Experience is something that can't be discounted. One can definitely make prediction based on the specs but I wouldn't simply assume sight unseen that a slightly higher resolution on the Microsoft MR HMDs will be a significant improvement over the Rift and Vive. Likewise the more narrow FOV may not be too damaging to the immersion but then again it might.
I've used the PSVR and the Oculus Rift extensively and the one thing that I suspect will always be untenable is poor controller tracking. Overall the PSVR controller tracking is fair IMO but the song camera at a fixed point has its understandable limitations. I honestly don't see how HMD mounted cameras can adequately track controllers in many typical gaming use cases (reaching behind you to pull arrows from a quiver or reaching down to your sides to pull guns from holsters). This can likely be worked around with respect to the mechanics of a given game but it is an inherent issue with the hardware that likely can't be made "unnoticeable". Seamless transitioning between the inside-out tracking and the controller's onboard sensors is a big ask.
Still it's something I would like to try before condemning it.
Ideally I want bulletproof tracking or as close to it as one can get. Theoretically, with good independent tracking systems one can replace their HMD for one with a higher resolution for example without having to replace their entire setup.