Dev Update #40 - VRidge Beta for HTC Vive Focus headset

Recently, we’ve been working with HTC to bring VRidge to their HTC Vive Focus headset. It works really well and now we have started Beta tests of this version.

To join the Beta tests - you will need a mobile VRidge version available at Viveport and special RiftCat Vive Focus Beta client. Everything can be found at http://go.riftcat.com/focus

The Focus headset with VRidge supports full positional head tracking and 3-DOF hand controller that works with VRidge too.

We will slowly merge this Beta with our normal RiftCat client so Vive Focus headset support will become a part of normal VRidge user experience.

This Beta is important for other VRidge users too! 

While working with Focus, we’ve been working on many improvements to tracking algorithms. They are being used in Focus version and we will bring them to normal RiftCat soon so everyone will be able to use these improvements.

Less Jitter
When we were optimizing our streaming technology for higher frame rates, we managed to find several places where we could improve smoothness. We expect that we will see quite noticeable improvements when it comes to the jittery rotational feeling because most of those improvements will also apply to Gear VR and Daydream flavors. We also found several new paths to explore that would improve it even further. 

3-DOF controller support
As HTC Focus has one 3-DOF hand controller included, we added support to it. This required us to create a special “body model” that will be used for further updates. It feels quite natural but the best part is that we can easily use it for other controllers. We plan to apply this model to Gear VR controller and Daydream controller. The controller automatically maps to you left or right arm model, depending on settings in your Vive Focus Viveport Dashboard. Similar option will be included for other 3DOF controller HMDs.

Support for more AIO headsets
With the work that we’ve done to Vive Focus - we prepared necessary groundwork to bring VRidge to other AIO headsets. Oculus Go will probably be the next one so stay tuned!

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Beta for Vive Focus starts now. Go to http://go.riftcat.com/focus to download special client which can be installed side-by-side with regular RiftCat software. The client is compatible only with Vive Focus HMD. We’ll focus on merging the improvements back to main VRidge now so everyone can benefit from improvement smoothness. Once it’s merged, we’re going to look more closely into Oculus Go.