HTC Vive has kept the specifications of the Vive Cosmos under the blanket for some time now, but a recent tweet from the company makes us think we are going to be getting a big chunk of news very shortly. Even with the headset launch within the next few months, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding this headset. Will be a direct competitor with the Oculus Quest? Will the tracking stay consistent? How good will the gaming be on this headset? All of these are questions that we won’t know until we get our hands on this headset.
For some, that time is coming up shortly. Developers will now be getting their hands on this product. This is always a big step for getting a product on the shelves, and the timing is exactly what we would expect for a product launching in the third quarter of 2019. There has been some questioning if this product would be ready by the promised time frame. Fear not, HTC has this under control.
If you are a developer and you are planning to launch a title on the Cosmos, or are looking to update and enhance your game for the HTC Vive Cosmos, the portal is ready for you. Simply go to the Vive Developer site and click on Getting Started with Vive Cosmos Development. From there, you will receive a guide of your next steps. Whether it be building or polishing a game or experience, there will be step by step details to follow.
The Vive Cosmos will be fully backwards compatible with all SteamVR games on the market, but developers are encourage to take time to work on optimizing their game for the news consumer-friendly HTC Vive headset.
To ensure that the submitted games and content are optimal on the Cosmos, the Vive team and certain partnerships will be “committing the next 2 months to comprehensive testing.” This will certainly help devs fix certain bugs that they were not aware of yet.
Although this sounds like a little extensive for Vive to do this for all developers, it is hard for developers to run their own tests without the hardware in hand, and without much knowledge of the software and power of the Cosmos just yet. Until we get a better idea of how to optimize this headset on our own, we will continue to rely on the teams at Vive to help us developers out.
If the Vive team is putting the next two months towards making promising content great, then we (may) have a time frame for this headset. Although August is two months away, it would make better marketing sense to release this headset in September. This would allow the Quest to cool down a goof amount, along with the ability to wait until holiday shopping. September- November is when the most hardware is bought, so waiting until then might just be in the best interest for HTC. Overall, developers should be happy and excited about selling on a new and improved platform.
What we do know about this headset is slim. We know that the headset will be tethered, it will feature inside-out tracking, 6DoF controllers will be included, and the headset will offer a great hinge. It is starting shape up more as a competitor for the Oculus Rift S more than anything else. It may blow the Quest out of the water.
We also know that there is a wireless adapter in store for this headset somewhere down the road. We aren’t sure if this will be available upon release (or included with the headset), but we know that it will be featured.
The Cosmos is only a matter of months away from hitting shelves. We are still patiently waiting for the specs to be released, but time is ticking to release them for a timely launch of the headset. Time will only tell how good this headset can be.
