HTC Vive XR Elite: Updates improve hand tracking and more
HTC is looking to improve the Vive XR Elite on several levels. In addition to improved hand tracking, there will be some new developer features.
HTC launched the Vive XR Elite to position itself in the consumer mixed reality market. Promising previews were followed by mostly sobering tests. In the end, the HTC Vive XR Elite proved to be a good argument for a Quest Pro. But at least on the software side, HTC is working diligently to make improvements and tweaks in various areas.
HTC tweaks hand tracking
HTC plans to improve hand tracking significantly for the Vive XR Elite headsets. In particular, the next FOTA update will make tracking more robust against occlusion and more reliable in different lighting conditions.
In the future, the HTC Vive XR Elite should also be able to support tracking by setting ArUco code markers. According to HTC, this will be especially useful for co-location when multiple XR Elite headsets are used in the same room.
Mixed Reality Streaming from PC
HTC is now enabling streaming of Mixed Reality content from a PC to the headset via Wi-Fi or USB-C. For now, only developers and businesses can use this feature. The latest update, v1.11.3 initially includes the Mixed Reality Passthrough Underlay.
HTC plans to make additional features such as OpenXR support, mesh and anchors available in future versions of VIVE Streaming. The WaveSDK (v5.2 or higher) also now supports Direct Preview for Unity and Unreal editors.
Room scaling enhancements
Last month, HTC enabled the depth sensor as part of a beta program. This is used to sense the physical environment and automatically detects tables, walls and other objects in the room, as well as their distance from each other.
HTC plans to make the feature available to all users soon. An open-source demo for developers is already available on GitHub. The link can be found below in the source code.
Note: Links to online stores in articles can be so-called affiliate links. If you buy through this link, MIXED receives a commission from the provider. For you the price does not change.
