the Windows 10 fall creators update is here and with it comes a bunch of mixed
reality stuff like paint 3d and the
mixed reality viewer along with some new
partner developed hardware to support these mixed reality experiences and that
is what we're checking out today the acer Windows mixed reality headset
is the first of a wave of compatible headsets all of
which have similarly brutal names but just what is so mixed about it and at
four hundred dollars can it compete with incumbent vr
heavyweights like the htc vive and oculus rift
the meteor xr series from roseville features a black exterior with white
interior accents a detachable five and a quarter inch bay and more check it out
at the link below okay first things first the acer Windows mixed reality
heads you know what i'm just gonna call it armor looks more like a mixed reality
play set its glossy plastic finish can
best be described as power rangers-esque and its overall feel
is less premium than either the rift or
the vive i mean nobody ever looks cool with clunky
headgear but this one is probably among the uncoolest that i've
seen yet and it has some issues with fit as well
the padding around the goggles plugged the nostrils of almost everyone in the
office who tried it and the headset's sole adjustment point which to their
credit is super easy to use tightens the headband without pulling
the goggles themselves closer to your face
so it's designed this way so that you can
flip the goggles up which is great for taking a quick look
at the real world or having a conversation with a colleague but the
result is that the bottom edge of the goggles is further from your face than
it needs to be making it difficult to get everything perfectly in focus
let's talk screen now compared to the rift and the vive armor uses a
significantly higher resolution screen
2880x1440 this results in a noticeably
sharper image and reduced though still noticeable screen
door effect with that said don't get too excited unlike the rift in the vive
armor uses an lcd display instead of an
OLED display so even just wandering around in virtual
space there is noticeable smearing behind even moderate speed objects with
the effect most noticeable against contrasting backgrounds almer's biggest
claim to fame though is its inside out tracking so what this means is that the
system's awareness of its position is all done in the helmet itself
rather than having it rely on a constellation of motion trackers placed
strategically around your desk this means that setup time
a significant pain point with other solutions now takes just a couple of
minutes but this does come with some drawbacks
if the controllers are moved beyond the field of view of the front-facing
cameras they may glitch out for a second while they recalibrate
and well traditional
outside-in tracking will always be more accurate especially if you're using
three or more satellites so this
combined with the lcd display already
disqualifies armor for gamers and probably high level content creators on
the subject of the controllers let's take a look at them you can actually
save a hundred bucks if you don't want them but a lot of the experiences
definitely worked better with them they're designed by microsoft so you can
expect other upcoming mixed reality headsets to use them and
overall while they won't win any ergonomic awards your thumb rests sort
of between the trackpad and the joystick rather than on either of them and the
handles don't taper toward the end for some reason the build quality is okay
and they're small light and pretty simple to use i'm actually genuinely a
little annoyed though that they use double a batteries rather than charging
over usb that said the fact that the Windows home
button takes you to a literal Windows home definitely delights me
okay then i'm glad to hear you're delighted Linus
but so far all you've shown is a vr headset isn't
this the acer Windows mixed reality
headset how does armor let you interact with both the real world
and the virtual world at the same time
that is a long and wonderful question
it doesn't
no no there's there's no funny
punch line here it just doesn't
and i'll be honest with you this confused us a little bit too in fact
truthfully i i probably wouldn't have requested one of these from acer if i
had fully understood what it was or more
accurately what it wasn't so after some
digging it appears as though Windows mixed reality is more like
aspirational branding for a platform
that will eventually support ar vr
and mr tools like the microsoft hololens
then it is a description of the actual products that are labeled with it today
so despite the name headsets like this one are pretty much
last year's hardware with a higher resolution display
on next year's platform which makes it
kind of hard to understand why exactly someone would buy them back in april
when acer first announced this product pricing was going to be the big
advantage but then oculus hardcore used that facebook money to
kill that when they slashed the price of the rift which even includes headphones
and a bunch of games at the same price of 400
so should anyone buy this then
okay actually maybe inside out tracking
makes armor way more portable than other
flagship vr systems since there's no satellites to cart around and then stick
on tripods and then plug in the wall and then calibrate blah blah blah no it's
basically plug and play and there will be lots to play the theater experience
is legitimately better thanks to the intuitive navigation and higher pixel
density and by the end of the year wmr
will support steamvr so assuming your gaming rig has the horses you'll be able
to play most of the same games as everyone else with some tracking and
pixel response compromises so all told
then auburn isn't a terrible product
and for the person who needs portability it or samsung's upcoming OLED competitor
is a much better experience than a phone-based google cardboard or whatever
but for an enthusiast like me i mean i
was already a little disappointed when it didn't have the next-gen vr feel that
i would have expected over a year after the launch of the rift and the vive
and then when it didn't even begin to deliver on the promise that was right in the name
and didn't manage to undercut existing offerings enough to be a budget
alternative i mean that was just the cucumber icing
on a gluten-free cake so i'll be waiting to see what's coming from oculus and htc
in the coming months but before that happens i'll be telling
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