All you need to know about the Vive Cosmos

The Vive Cosmos is the virtual reality superstar of this CES 2019. HTC has been able to create some hype about this device, also because of the rumored features regarding the smartphone integration.

There is a lot of confusion about this device, so let me tell you all that we know about it by answering you all the questions that you may have about it. Information that we have is not that much, but I think it is enough to be hyped.

Is the Vive Cosmos standalone?

No, the Vive Cosmos is absolutely not standalone. It is a headset that you have to tether to the PC. It features inside-out tracking and so you can install it easily by just plugging one cable into your PC. It is more or less like a Windows Mixed Reality headset, only cooler and better.

The connection to the PC should happen with a VirtualLink connector: according to Ars Technica, “HTC has since confirmed that the Cosmos headset will require a USB Type-C connection to its source system“.

To work, it needs a gaming PC, but in the future, it may also work with less powerful PCs, thanks to some black magic by HTC.

As you can see from the video, in the future it may even work in connection with a smartphone.

So, can the Vive Cosmos really work by connecting to a smartphone? And how does it work?

HTC clearly stated that the Cosmos is a device to be used with a gaming PC, but that later on in the future, it may also work with non-gaming PCs and smartphones, but without sharing further details on when and how this should happen.

My personal review hero, Ben Lang of Road To VR, comes to our rescue for this: in this fantastic article, he claims that he has spotted a new Qualcomm prototype exposed at CES, as a prototype manufactured by Acer and Quanta. You may ask why we should care about this and the reason is that this headset has way too many similarities with the Vive Cosmos, so it is highly probable that the Cosmos is a product based on that reference design, exactly as the Vive Focus was based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 VR reference design.

This new reference design for VR headsets shows a USB-C connection (most probably a VirtualLink) that can be plugged into a PC or a smartphone. Ben Lang reports that at CES, the headset was connected to a prototype of a smartphone:

The Qualcomm reference headset was plugged into a Qualcomm MTP-8150 (an early hardware test kit) based on Snapdragon 855 with 5G hardware built in. The device was powering the headset, rendering the content, and handling the processing necessary for the optical 6DOF tracking. Qualcomm had a local 5G network set up which was streaming volumetric video content from NextVR (which looked really impressive on the high res display) as a 5G proof of concept.

So, the idea is that you have your virtual reality headset plugged into your smartphone that becomes its processing unit, exactly as happens with the Lightpack of Magic Leap One, for instance. We all have a powerful smartphone in our pocket, so by using it we avoid having to wear PC backpacks or external units as in the case of Magic Leap: that’s very smart.

Anyway, we have no official confirmation that the Cosmos will be based on that reference design spotted by Road To VR. But… come one, they are almost identical, so we can imagine that this is the truth.

What are the pros and cons of having a smartphone-connected HMD?

As every technological solution, there are pros and cons in using a smartphone-powered headset with regard to using a standalone headset.

Pros:

• We all have already a smartphone in our pockets, so it doesn’t require us to buy another external unit. Usually, nowadays smartphones are also quite powerful and are also able to render virtual reality content (see what happens with mobile headsets). The demo has been made with a Snapdragon 855 phone, that is two generations after the one of the much awaited Oculus Quest;
• It lets us exploit 5G. Think about that for a moment: a headset that is able to exploit 5G virtual reality. 5G will let us stream virtual reality content, and this would mean that, for instance, we will be able to create the Netflix of VR and the Youtube of VR (by streaming VR videos from the cloud) and also the GeForce Now and PlayStation Now of VR (by streaming VR games from the cloud). HTC has already Viveport, that is like the Netflix of VR gaming… you can already imagine what its vision can be. 5G will be a game changer for virtual reality and will empower a lot the technology. The Cosmos shows how the future of VR will probably be: a dull headset, that just streams data from and to the cloud. In this case, it will happen through a smartphone, but then this feature will be embedded directly into the HMD (exactly as it happened with Gear VR: at the beginning, the phone powered the headset and then it has been embedded into a standalone like the Go). This makes the Cosmos the headset of the future, the “GearVR of 5G”;
• It will make phone providers like HTC sell more of the newest phones. Since HTC phone business is not doing very well, this can really boost their sales, especially among technology enthusiasts.

Cons:

• We don’t know how many people are willing to take a USB-C cable with them and plug it into the smartphone to experience VR. When using GearVR, I hated having to plug the smartphone into the device. It introduces friction… and people are lazy;
• What about the battery of your smartphone? We all need to recharge our smartphones once a day. If the smartphone has to spend all the time rendering VR content and/or streaming 5G content, I imagine the battery lasting something like 10 minutes :D. Gear VR was a real killer for my smartphone battery. I’m really curious to discover how the battery will last in this case. People complain of the two-hours duration of the Oculus Go… if it is the expected duration time, it is a problem, because I don’t want VR to prevent me from using my phone because the battery has drained out;
• What about the life of the smartphone? Gear VR overheated my Note 4, that in the end died prematurely. For sure, a continuous 5G streaming and/or rendering of VR will make the life of your phone shorter;
• No one has 5G. Where is 5G now? Maybe in Shenzhen… HTC has it, but here in Turin, there is not 5G yet. So, even if I bought this amazing technology just to experiment the streaming, I wouldn’t be able to exploit it now.

How does the Cosmos compare with the Oculus Quest?

It doesn’t compare 🙂 . As I have already said, this is a headset that is tethered to a PC or a smartphone, while the Quest is a standalone HMD. You can compare the Quest with the Vive Focus, and I have already done that in this post if you are interested.

How does a standalone compare to a phone-connected headset?

That’s an interesting question. These are both two form factors with pros and cons.

The advantage of the standalone is that it is super comfortable: you just take it with you, put it on your head and it just works. No need to setup anything. It’s fantastic, I love it. Furthermore, it doesn’t impact on the life and the performances of your phone. And it doesn’t require you to buy the latest phone (as for instance happened with Gear VR).

The advantage of a phone-connected headset is that you have the processing unit in your pocket and so it is not on your head. Magic Leap One is so light and comfortable because it is just a display. Imagine if the Oculus Go, that is already super light, was only a display, with the processing unit being outside: it would be incredibly comfortable. So, we have more comfort and also a lower price, because the headset has less components in it.

And then there is 5G: with a 5G phone, you would be able to exploit 5G and do amazing things with it. Finally, you can have only one headset working both as a mobile headset and a PC headset, and so you would need only one headset to use VR everywhere at the maximum that you can: if you are next to a PC, you can use its full power, otherwise you can have the portability offered by your phone.

There is not a better solution: it just depends on what you want to do with VR.

How is the Vive Comos headset?

Have a look at the photos: it is a blue headset that seems the child of a Vive Focus that has had sex with a Vive plus Deluxe Audio Strap. It seems having a very polished design.

From the pictures, we can clearly see that it features 4 tracking cameras: two on the front, one on the left side and one on the right side. On the front and on the bottom there are ventilation holes, and this makes us think about an active cooling system. On the left, there is clearly a microphone and an IPD adjustment dial. On the right, there is the button to turn on the device and a status LED. I can guess that on the bottom there is another mic, as in all the VR headsets out there.

The headset goes around the head with a rigid crown, that reminds a bit the one of PSVR or of some WMR headsets. It features a flip-up design, so that you can easily take a pause from VR by just flipping up the display. This is really a handy feature.

You may ask me: where the heck is the cable? I don’t know, it has been removed from all the pictures and it is not even visible in the photos shot by journalists. This makes me think that the headset has a detachable cable… so that maybe you can plug in it a different cable depending on if you have to connect it to the PC (long cable) or the phone (short cable). But this is just a speculation.

Is it comfortable?

No one has reviewed it, so we don’t know. But HTC is stressing a lot on advertising the comfort of this headset, so I think that it will be high. Also the HTC Vive Focus was incredibly comfortable. For sure it is possible to see in the images that there is foam everywhere

Is there integrated audio?

No. The headphones that you see in the pictures, and that resemble a bit the design of the Mantis headphones that are often used by PSVR players, are an accessory that will be sold separately.

How is the tracking of the Cosmos?

The tracking employed by the Cosmos is of type “inside-out”. It tracks its position in space and its controllers using four cameras (two on the front and two on the sides). If I had to speculate, I would say that they are visible-light cameras (monochrome as in the Focus or RGB as in the Vive Pro). The fact that the controllers are lit confirms this suspect.

Looking at the cameras position, we can speculate a tracking FOV that is great horizontally, but not amazing vertically. Anyway, since most problems of inside-out tracking of controllers are given by situations where your hands are more or less lateral to your head (think about the classical bow-and-arrow game), the two additional lateral cameras should really help in making the tracking appear good most of the time.

Regarding the tracking quality, since no one has gone hands-on with it, we don’t know.

How are the visuals?

Officially, we don’t know. But if the reference design shown by Qualcomm represents what the Cosmos will be… well, they are very good.

The Qualcomm reference design features two LCD screens with 2K per eye (2160 x 2160 to be exact) running at 90 Hz. Whoever has tried it has described the visuals as amazing and the screen door as really minimal.

Ben Lang highlights how the FOV is the real Achille’s heel: it seems even lower than the one of headsets on the market, like 85°.

For sure HTC could have improved the FOV a little bit, maybe sacrificing a bit the SDE perception… and may also have substituted the LCD screens with AMOLED ones, as in all its headsets. It has alraedy modified the reference design by adding two tracking cameras, so it may have modified also other characteristics. Anyway, we don’t know.

The lenses are rumored as Fresnel lenses almost everywhere. Someone said that they will be the same as in the Vive, but I really hope not because it would be a terrible choice. In the reference design, there is a new kind of Fresnel that seems better… anyway, some god rays are present, according to reviewers.

How are the Vive Cosmos controllers?

They are very very similar to the upcoming controllers of the Oculus Quest. Even the ring is in a similar position. That is for sure a good news for all people wanting to do a cross-platform title between Vive Cosmos and Oculus Rift.

Every controller features a thumbstick, two buttons + a system button on the top and three triggers on the front (two for the index finger and one for the medium finger… so one more than the ones on the Oculus Touch). The ring gets lit with a tribal drawing that helps the optical tracking.

Do you like the design of the Cosmos?

It is not bad. I think that the headset may be more good looking: more rounded curves would have made it more elegant. The tribal drawing on the controllers is just a no-no-no.

Will it also feature Mixed Reality?

The Cosmos will absolutely feature MR. Mixed Reality is already possible on the Vive Pro, thanks to the SRWorks framework that allows for amazing things and it is also possible on the Vive Focus, where I experimented with Augmented, Mixed and even Mediated Reality.

I think that this is the reason why HTC has not got rid of the two frontal cameras, as Oculus has done on the Go: to allow for any kind of mediated and merged reality to be possible. I only hope that cameras will be RGB as in the Vive Pro, so that it will be possible to do true AR/MR with the Cosmos.

Will it feature eye tracking?

Most probably not. It has not been announced, and since it is a headset for consumers and eye tracking is quite expensive, I think that it won’t be part of this headset.

Maybe it will be released as a separate accessory, who knows.

What does it mean that it will feature “modular customization”?

HTC states this in its website and invites us to wait for further updates on the topic. It surely does mean that HTC will offer a series of accessories to customize your Cosmos. We don’t have further details on this, but my best bet is that you will be able to customize certain parts of the headset to fit your needs. For instance:

• You may choose or not to buy the headphones to have the integrated audio on your headset;
• You may choose the cable to connect the headset to the device of your preference: if you just want to use it with your phone, you can just buy a small USB-C cable; for your PC, maybe an USB-A + HDMI long cable; and so on;
• Maybe you will be able to change the foam, so for instance to have a wider FOV as some people do with the Vive;
• You may choose to change the lenses according to the problems of your eyes or to buy prescription lenses directly from Vive;
• Maybe it will have an add-on for eye tracking;
• That front lid really seems something that can be detached easily, so maybe HTC will also offer the possibility to change the colors of your headset.

These are all speculations of mine, but I really hope that this will be the case. I stress this a lot: if we want that VR devices become something that we use every day, they must be something that can be customized to represent us and this would really be a great step in this sense.

Will it work with SteamVR?

Yes, as almost every tethered headset. But HTC doesn’t want you to make Steam your default gaming environment: it wants you to use Viveport Reality System and Viveport Infinity.

What is Viveport Infinity?

It is more or less the Netflix of VR gaming. Every month you pay a little fee to HTC and then you can play whatever VR gaming in the Viveport catalog.

Yes, the Viveport catalog is not as rich as the ones of other stores and yes, currently Viveport on PC has some bugs that make people on Reddit angry, but if they manage to improve these issues, it can really be an interesting opportunity.

I already imagine it with 5G connection, with all the games already played in streaming from the cloud… but maybe I’m looking too much ahead of time.

What is Vive Reality System?

When you will put your Vive Cosmos on, you will find yourself inside Vive Reality System, that is the foundation of a VR operating system by HTC. Inside it, you will be able to customize your space, invite your friends and play with them, launch apps, browse the web through Mozilla Realities and do whatever you want.

HTC wants it to become your space inside the metaverse, your virtual home, the first thing that you see when you put an HTC headset on. Most probably, in the beginning it will be more or less like Oculus Home or Steam Home.

Isn’t HTC making a mess with all these headsets?

This is an interesting question. I guess that HTC and all the other major VR hardware producers are trying different form factors to see what sticks better with the market. The market is unpredictable: two years ago would have thought that the most popular VR app could have been Fallout 4 VR or a simple indie game where you just break cubes with light sabers? I think you got the point.

Every company is trying different routes with different kind of devices to see what customers really want. HTC is no exception, and this is why it is trying a PC/mobile hybrid headset. Furthermore, HTC is also distributing different devices aimed at different kinds of people. The Cosmos is a device tailored at PC consumers, the Vive is for makers and the Vive Pro / Vive Pro Eye is for businesses. Then there is the Focus, that is for enterprises needing an easy-to-use solution. These are all different lines.

New #Vive family portrait! 👍 #VR pic.twitter.com/h3SSZcDMjU

— Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青) (@AGraylin) January 8, 2019

What may be a problem is the communication of HTC, that is confusing: some people still believe that the Cosmos is a standalone, and this is a problem. Furthermore, it is not clear the path that they want to take in the future, because they have one foot in the enterprise, and the other one in the consumer market. And this also creates confusion, because consumers expect all its products to be cheap, while the prosumers one are really expensive. I think that the Taiwanese company has to improve a lot on this side.

Regarding the confusion… will there be a Vive Focus 2?

Most probably yes… I think that they have in the works for sure a version with two 6 DOF controllers embedded like in the Oculus Quest. The Cosmos is not the successor of the Focus.

I am not so sure about the Vive Focus 3: I think that HTC has to verify if consumers prefer the Focus’s form factor or the Cosmos’s one.

Price and release date of the Vive Cosmos?

Both are unknown. We only know that it will launch in 2019 and that the first devkits will be distributed to developers in Q1 of this year. Road To VR speculates that it will probably launch alongside a 5G-capable phone by HTC. The latest phone, the U12+ has been launched in May-June 2018, so we can imagine that the 5G phone can be launched in Q2 this year and that in that period we will know more about the Cosmos.

Regarding the price, being something for consumers, but offered with the special phone feature, I can guess something around $500. This is the price of the Samsung Odyssey+… that is innovative as well.

Anyway, these are only speculations of mine…

Just a curiosity. The Quest codename was “Santa Cruz”… what was the codename of the Cosmos?

You’ve read it here first. Its codename was “Vive Horus”. This info has been spotted by Daniel Shealey in the Vive media kit and officially confirmed by Mister President.

Yup… aka Vive Cosmos

— Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青) (@AGraylin) January 12, 2019

A final judgement?

The Cosmos seems really a nice headset, with amazing features. The visuals seem amazing, the comfort great, the MR features are a glimpse into the future and the hybrid PC/smartphone design is a game-changing. If it will have the right price, it could really be able to make HTC gain market shares against its competitors again. Of course, we will have to see what Oculus will answer with its Rift S…

Regarding the phone/5G feature, I am really in awe and I am fantasizing a lot. But honestly, I think that maybe it is too much ahead of times: 5G is just starting now and no one has a 5G phone and almost nowhere there is a 5G network. Furthermore, it is not really clear how many people are interested in using their phones as an antenna for their VR headsets. But I guess we will discover that in the upcoming months.

In the meantime, good luck Vive Cosmos!

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(Header image by HTC)