Xiaomi unveils Mi VR headset

this is a step in the right direction, soon the market will be flooded with cheap VR headsets,

price will fall and soon one will be able to buy one for not more than a nice smartphone these days....
 
eg2505 said:
this is a step in the right direction, soon the market will be flooded with cheap VR headsets,

price will fall and soon one will be able to buy one for not more than a nice smartphone these days....
Click to expand...

You currently buy them for not more than a nice smartphone.

In fact much less than most fancy smartphones.
 
eg2505 said:
this is a step in the right direction, soon the market will be flooded with cheap VR headsets,

price will fall and soon one will be able to buy one for not more than a nice smartphone these days....
Click to expand...

There seems to be a bit of confusion in here so I'll try and clarify.

There are basically 4 categories of VR headsets around.

  1. Cellphone headsets
    These are all those sub R500 headsets you see available locally, and they're pretty much all based on the Google Cardboard design. The headsets are basically just plastic shells, some sort of clip or tray to hold your phone, and lenses. The VR tracking depends on the sensors in your phone. If you can get one of these for free, they're okay to fool around with for an hour or two.

  2. High end cellphone headsets
    This category is pretty much only the Samsung Gear VR and this new Xiaomi. The difference to the above is that the headsets have their own sensors (intertia measurement units) built in to the headset. These help reduce your VR headset subtly drifting off in a random direction while you're sitting still and looking forward.

  3. Stand-alone/all-in-one headsets
    These are headsets with built-in screens that you don't need to plug into a PC. Prime example being the upcoming Oculus Go, with a plethora of no-name brand models of dubious quality available for import from China. The cheaper models are basically budget-tier cellphones glued into one of the cases above, and come with the same pitfalls. The Oculus Go at least will almost certanily be paired with higher refresh rate screens that will help eliminate ghosting and blurring.

  4. PC/Console VR headsets
    These are your Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Sony PSVR, Windows MR and Pimax headsets. They all have superior lenses, screens with high refresh rates purpose made for VR, dedicated motion tracking units and the option of having positional tracking (tracking not just where you are looking, but where you are physically moving).

Personally I'd avoid wasting any money on #1 and #3. If you already have a flagship Samsung or Xiaomi, their headsets might be nice to play around with but I don't have any personal experience with them. My recommendation would be to save your cash for #4.

falcon786 said:
I find the screen resolutions to still be too low with VR which results in that screen door effect,when are we getting some proper HD VR experiences?
Click to expand...

Samsung's Odyssey HMD due next month promises 1440x1600 res per eye. Pimax has two upcoming models, the 8K with 3840x2160 per eye and the 5K with 2560x1440 per eye screens, both with a whopping 200° field of view. Whether they can deliver on their promises is of course another question. Schedule release date is end of December for backers, so we'll find out soon enough.

In comparison, the PSVR has 1920x1080 across both eyes, and the Rift and Vive both have 1080x1200 per eye, with the Vive having slightly wider FoV at about 110°.
 
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The current Pimax model works with SteamVR, and they're claiming the new models will offer support as well.

The Microsoft headsets currently have SteamVR support working for developers, with that being rolled out to everyone "before the holiday season".
 
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