OSVR Vows To Change Virtual Reality Experience, What Makes It Different?

OSVR or Open Source Virtual Reality has made its debut on Steam. The ambitious project of Sensics and Razer is said to change virtual reality experience across all platforms.

OSVR is currently on sale in Razer's website for $399. The HDK or Hacker Development Kit 2 now comes with an infrared camera for motion detection and the display module was improved. The Dual Display is equipped with 2160x1200 low persistence OLED silver screen, with 441 PPI running at 90 fps, which are a great improvement from the previous 5.5-inch 1,920x1,080 display.

The OSVR's main goal is to enable headsets and game controllers from all vendors to function with all games. OSVR also aims to make it easy for game developers to venture into the world of VR. During the early days of OSVR's announcement, the feedbacks from developers and critics who were able to get an exclusive hands-on experience with the Hacker Kit were not that great.

Razer introduced OSVR to the public in January 2015. The Oculus Rift was still on development phase during that time but was already accepting pre-orders from interested customers. The OSVR at that time carries the price tag of $200 versus the $349 price of the Oculus Rift. The OSVR was said to be compatible with the Oculus Rift's Development Kit 2 and any experimental VR software running in Linux and Android.

OSVR is also supported by big names in the peripheral development area, companies like LeapMotion, Sixense, Untold Games, Bosch, and Virtuix. Game developers Ubisoft and Nvidia Gameworks VR was also confirmed as supporters of the project. Luca Di Fiore of Razer states that: "We don't want to compete with Oculus, we want to support Oculus. If a developer wants to use our platform to support Oculus, he can - already today you can do that," based on an interview by Wearable.