REPORT ON HTC VIVE

Prepared forSingapore Polytechnic (SP) Learning and Sharing Festival Organising Committee

By

Class: DHRMP/FT/1A/05Team No.: 4

Team Members (Student ID):

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the module

LC0756: Communicating for Project Effectiveness (CPR-Report)CA1 Report Writing

Lecturer: Mr Isaac Quek

Submission Date: 23 May 2017 Word Count: 1,999

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe team would like to express our appreciation to Mr Isaac Quek, Lecturer, School of Communication, Arts and Social Sciences (CASS), Singapore Polytechnic, for his patience, fruitful guidance and support.

ii Contents

Acknowledgements ii

List of illustrations iv

Summary v

1 Introduction 1

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1.2 Background 1

1.3 Methodology 1

1.4 Scope 2

2 Features of HTC Vive 2

2.1 Motion Tracking 2

2.2 Wireless Controllers 3

2.3 Access to many different virtual realities 3

3 Components of HTC Vive 5

4 How to operate HTC Vive 8

5 Users of HTC Vive 12

6 Benefits and Drawbacks of HTC Vive 14

7 Conclusion 14

8 Recommendations 15

References R1/2/3 iii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures

Figure 1: Presenting HTC Vive 1

Figure 2: Using real life world objects for VR motion tracking 2

Figure 3: Wireless Controllers of HTC Vive 3

Figure 4: Job simulator Gameplay 4

Figure 5: Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Gameplay 5

Figure 6: External View of Components 6

Figure 7: Correct placement of the base stations 8

Figure 8: Items needed to install the headset 9

Figure 9: Three-in-one cables from the headset being plugged into the orange side of the link box 9

Figure 10: The HDMI cable, USB cable, and power cable plugged into the non-orange side of the link box 10

Figure 11: Finalized setup of the wires 10

Figure 12: Location of the different buttons on the controller 11

Figure 13: User playing the HTC Vive 12

Figure 14: Developers’ choices on which VR device interests them most 13

Tables

Table 1: Benefits and Drawbacks of HTC Vive 14

iv Summary

This report highlights the innovativeness of HTC Vive to the Singapore Polytechnic (SP) Learning and Sharing Festival Organising Committee. It also recommends improvements that can be made to the technology based on expert and user feedback.The HTC Vive offers a virtual reality experience with sharp visuals, great motion controls and full-room sensing to walk around in virtual space. (CNET, 2016) HTC Vive aims to provide educational aid in lessons and a whole new spectrum of virtual reality games to gamers from all around the world.The HTC Vive has gained much recognition and is well received by many users around the world. Not many people can afford a HTC Vive headset due to its high price, but the HTC Vive has still gained much attention from potential users like gamers, technology enthusiasts, advertisers, educators and publishers. The HTC Vive’s advantages outweigh its disadvantages. This is because its drawbacks, like having a high price, are less significant than its benefits, which include immersive gameplay because of the ability to walk around while playing the HTC Vive.

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Introduction

1.1 Purpose This report emphasises on the innovativeness of HTC Vive to the Singapore PolytechnicLearning and Sharing Festival Organising Committee.

1.2 Background

The HTC Vive (Figure 1) immerses the user in virtual reality (VR) with realistic graphics due to its 1200 x 1080 resolution type AMOLED screen (Vive, n.d.). HTC Vive is founded by Phil Chen, Chief Content officer for HTC. It won Best Gaming Product during the 2016 T3 Awards (T3, 2016), a prestigious award presented to the most innovative gaming products. HTC Vive retails at USD$800 as at May 2017 (Vive, n.d.).

Figure 1 : Presenting HTC Vive (HTC, 2016)

1.3 Methodology This report’s information was acquired from remarkable technology websites specifically Venturebeat, Steam,HTC, and notable online news providers like CNET, and Techradar.

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1.4 Scope This report analyses the features of HTC Vive, its components, how to use it for its technology, its users, benefits and drawbacks, and recommendations for improvements.2 Features of HTC Vive

The HTC Vive has three key features that help users enjoy and stay safe while immersing themselves in the VR world. The features are: motion tracking feature, wireless controllers and access to different VRs.

2.1 Motion TrackingHTC Vive has precise motion tracking to sense and render real-life objects into the virtual world, enabling the user’s presence in the virtual world to merge with reality to prevent reality from disrupting the VR experience.(Vive, n.d.) (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Using real life world objects for VR motion tracking (Youtube, 2017)

A game called “DiamondFX”, puts a baseball bat in your hand and has you swinging against virtual recreations of famous baseball pitchers, providing a real-world scenario in the virtual world. The base stations that track the user’s movements allow the user to make complex movements which would be mirrored in the virtual world. (Holly, 2017)

22.2 Wireless ControllersThe wireless controllers of the HTC Vive offer accurate navigation.The ergonomic design of the wireless controllers allows users to grasp it in their hands and feel at ease. (Figure 3) With 24 sensors in each controller, the controllers give the user accurate control in the virtual world. These controllers allow the user to pick up items in the virtual world. Thus, the user can fully interact with the virtual world.

Figure 3:Wireless Controllers of HTC Vive (Prasuethsut,2016)

2.3 Access to different virtual realitiesHTC Vive offers a wide variety of gaming experiences. With the variety of games in the current market, users can experience these gaming worlds, and each world would be dissimilar from the next. An example of a game is “Job Simulator”. Where robots have replaced all human jobs in the game, "Job Simulator" allows one to experience what it is like 'to work'. For example, serving a customer as a cashier in the convenience store. (OwlchemyLabs, 2016) (Figure 4)

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Figure 4: Player selling items in the convenience store(Owlchemy Labs, n.d.) Another VR game named, “Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades” offers a shooting experience in a firing range. The purpose of the game is to explore the use of guns in a sandbox world, encouraging users to be creative with their gun loadouts and letting them try out weapons that would be illegal to use in reality. (RUST, 2016) (Figure 5)

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Figure 5: Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Gameplay (Gaming Nexus, 2016)

HTC has an advantage over rival VR product-making companies like Sony. Its partnership with Valve; a gaming developer, publisher and distributor for games means that there are already many ready-to-download games for the HTC Vive. (Prasuethsut, 2016) 3 Components of HTC ViveThe HTC Vive headset consists of 15 components; “Camera Lens, Tracking Sensor, Headset Button, Status Light, Lens Distance Knob, Strap, Audio Cable, 3-in-1 Headset Cable, Interpupillary Distance Knob, Face Cushion, Lenses, Proximity Sensor, Microphone, Nose Piece and Lens Distance Knobs”.(Vive, n.d.) (Figure 6)

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1 Camera lens

2 Tracking sensor

3 Headset button

4 Status light

5 Lens distance knob

4 IPD (interpupillary distance) knob

5 Face cushion

6 Lenses

7 Proximity sensor

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1 Microphone

2 Nosepiece

3 Lens distance knobs

Figure 6: External View of Components (Vive, n.d.)

7 4 How to operate HTC Vive

The user must find 2m x 1.5m of free space to move around in (Steam, n.d.). To prevent tripping, the user clears away any objects in the play area. The user sets up his base stations at two opposite corners of the room that have an unobstructed view of the play area. The maximum distance between the base stations is 5m. Additionally, they should be placed over 2m high, as some experiences involve the user reaching above his head, and angled down 30-45 degrees (Refer to Figure 7)(Gordon, 2016).

Figure 7: Correct placement of the base stations (Grubb, 2016)

Referring to figure 8, to install the headset, the user plugs the three-in-one cables attached to the headset into the orange side of the link box (Figure 9). Secondly, the user plugs in the HDMI cable, USB cable, and power cable into the non-orange side of the link box (Figure 10). Lastly, the user plugs the HDMI cable into his computer’s graphics card, the USB cable into a USB port on his computer, and the power adapter into a power outlet (Gordon, 2016). Figure 11 shows the completed setup of the headset. The link box’s function is to transfer data from the computer to the headset. To prevent tripping over the link box while playing, the user places it away from the play area.

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Figure 8: Items needed to install the headset (Grubb, 2016)

Figure 9: Three-in-one cables from the headset being plugged into the orange side of the link box (Gordon, 2016)

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Figure 10: The HDMI cable, USB cable, and power cable plugged into the non-orange side of the link box (Gordon, 2016)

Figure 11: Finalized setup of the wires (Steam, n.d.)

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To turn on the wireless controllers, the user presses the system button (Figure 12), automatically pairing the controllers to the headset via a proprietary protocol engineered by Valve (Steam, n.d.).

Figure 12: Location of the different buttons on the controller (Steam, n.d.) To do room setup, the user installs Steam, a game distributor, and SteamVR, a VRsystem, into his computer. After this, he launches Steam VR, and selects “Room-Scale” on the first screen to set up room-scale play. Next, he stands inside the play area and locates his monitor with the controller by pointing the controller at his computer tower, and holding the trigger button until the controller stops vibrating. For the prevention of tilted flooring while playing a game, the user places his controllers on the floor and selects “Calibrate Floor” on the screen. Lastly, to determine the largest play area, the user drags a controller around the perimeter of the play area while holding the trigger button. (Gordon, 2016) To begin playing, the user wears the headset, and launches VR applications from Steam. (Figure 10)

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Figure 13: User playing the HTC Vive (Grubb, 2016)

5 Users of HTC Vive

The users of HTC Vive include game developers, consumers, and the publishing and education industry.

Currently, many schools in China have partnered with HTC Vive to use VR for educational purposes, like going on virtual 360-degree tours as a class. Students can appreciate history classes by virtually transporting to various places, enabling them to immerse themselves in the virtual world to learn in a fascinating way(Lai, 2017, para. 3). HTC Vive is making a bigger push into the education industry by introducing an affordably priced bundle consisting of 10 HTC Vives, for schools to purchase. During the 2017 Vive Ecosystem Conference, Vive announced the Vive Group Edition bundle, comprising of 10 headsets and 2 base stations, which is priced at USD$7260, a 40-percent saving compared to buying 10 full kits. (Lai, 2017, para.1).

In the game developer industry, HTC Vive is the most sought-after VR device. The State of The Game Industry Survey 2017, where data from 4,500 game developers was gathered, showed that when developers like Google were asked which VR platform they expected their next game would be released on, 40 percent planned to support HTC Vive, 37 percent for Oculus Rift, and 26 percent for PlayStation VR. Figure 11 shows that the interest level of each developer in each of the VR headsets showed the greatest difference. 45 percent said HTC Vive held the most interest, 30 percent stated Oculus Rift, while 29 percent chose PlayStation VR (Graham, 2017). Therefore, HTC Vive will have a constantly growing amount of gaming content, ensuring its longevity in the marketplace.

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Figure 14: Developers’ choices on which VR device interests them most (Graham, 2017)

The response of consumers towards HTC Vive is as good as the response of developers, as seen in Steam’s 2016 survey which analyzed what VR device gamers were using. Steam found that majority of its users used HTC Vives. 66 percent of Steam users owned an HTC Vive while 27.75 percent owned an Oculus Rift. (Khan, 2016) The HTC Vive is the most expensive VR device at USD$800. The Oculus Rift costs USD$600, and the PlayStation VR costs USD$500 (CNET, 2016). Despite the HTC Vive being the most costly, it is still most favoured by consumers.

In the publishing industry, Vive launched Vivepaper, a VR app. The headset’s front-mounted camera scans QR codes on a patent-pending paper booklet. The booklet appears within a virtual world and the user flicks through issues of publications like ‘Vogue’ using gesture interfaces. In VR, 360-degree videos and three-dimensional content will be loaded. When a person reads travel articles, videos of the destination surrounds him (Dent, 2016). This app would change the advertising industry, making advertisements wholly immersive experiences for consumers.

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6 Benefits and Drawbacks of HTC Vive

Table 1: Benefits and Drawbacks of HTC Vive

Benefits Drawbacks

- Trains employees in dangerous environments in VR, diminishing risks of injuries. (Lisi, 2016)E.g. Working with heavy machinery in factories

- Facilitates a simulative therapy experience for patients. VR is used as treatment for mental disorders like social anxiety and has shown promising results when tested in standard exposure and cognitive behavioural therapy.

- Simulates surgery rooms, allowing doctors to have first-hand experiences of surgeries before proceeding with a real surgery. Medical students can perform ‘hands-on’ procedures in a safe setting, allowing for mistakes to be made in an environment where there is no risk to a patient. They interact with this virtual patient, learning skills they can apply during real-life surgeries.

- Too costly for the average buyer.

- Addicted users may find themselves preferring the virtual world to the real one as in the virtual world because users can escape from their problems in reality, allowing a sense of serenity and safety. (Brown, 2017)

- Requires a large play area.

- Using it in its developmental stages is risky and inconvenient as it may fail during an important event and cause a hold up in the schedule. Fixing the gadget would also be expensive.

7 Conclusions

HTC Vive is a VR headset that immerses one into an experience of high-quality graphics. Positive benefits of HTC Vive can be seen in the education, publishing and advertising industry. Demand for HTC Vive will likely increase over the years due to its strong and rising popularity among consumers and game developers.

148 RecommendationsVR can be used by architects and the construction industry to design new buildings. This is done by wearing a headset and panning out the proximity of rooms and levels before

constructing the building, preventing mistakes in the architectural design. VR also allows business partners from another country to view a product from a business that they are interested in by using the headset without having to fly over to the main headquarters, saving money and time.

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