Home Business CES 2016: HTC’s Vive virtual reality headset introduces a front

It’s called the HTC Vive Pre and it includes a smaller design, better fit, and a camera that lets you bring real-world objects into your virtual environment. The VR displays now use brighter panels, and have received mysterious unspecified “image refinements” that should make virtual reality even more immersive.

Taking a page out of Samsung’s playbook with the Gear VR, the Vive Pre is set to feature interchangeable foam inserts and nose gaskets, allowing the headset’s lining to be frequently changed.

HTC has unveiled the Vive Pre, the company’s next step into the world of virtual reality, though it’s only available to devs for now. The controllers on the Vive have also been enhanced with updated ergonomics and softer edges, greater balance, grip pads and new textured buttons.

Rounding off the changes are upgrades for the control system, which is now said to be smoother and longer-lasting thanks to integrated batteries. Importantly, The Verge states that the switch between the virtual world and the actual world that surrounds the headset is “seamless” when the user is wearing the HTC Vive.

HTC also had a little surprise in their demo area – besides the normal Vive demos, they also had a Vive-powered version of Elite: Dangerous to give us a taste of some VR space dogfights. As the CEO of HTC, Cher Wang, has stated, “today we stand on the precipice of a new era”. Both of these have also been updated with the Vive Pre, and according to HTC, the base stations are more compact, quieter, and offer better tracking. The headset boasts around 4 hours of gaming on one single charge.

This is the technological breakthrough the company was referring to when it pushed the Vive’s launch from 2015 to April, 2016.

Though it features plenty of improvements, the Vive Pre isn’t the final consumer version of the VR headset that will launch in April.