The final time I visited Sandbox VR was in the course of the earlier than occasions. That is previous to the pandemic and its monumental change across the firm’s San Francisco venue. Again then, I went with buddies to take a look at the “Star Trek: Discovery — Away Mission” expertise and strapped on doodads to my wrists and ankles to boldly go the place nobody has gone earlier than.
Greater than 5 years later, the place continues to be acquainted, however the expertise has modified and the expertise has grown higher. I checked out a fast demo at GDC and famous the delicate enhancements. Sandbox VR has simpler straps that snap on with magnets. That they had extra weapons out there with the suitable pressure suggestions to boost the realism.
However the greatest improve was that the demos had been run on Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient, the most recent headset from HTC. The standalone machine acts very like the Meta Quest 3, which means it really works with out being connected to a PC or console. At $999, the machine can also be practically twice as a lot because the one provided from the proprietor of Fb, nevertheless it has a number of options going for it.
The HTC Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient is a standalone digital actuality headset that launched in October. (HTC)
The Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient has the next decision display screen per eye and a bigger discipline of view, which means the screens collectively give gamers a barely wider perspective. The machine has extra storage with an expandable slot. The HTC headset additionally affords auto IPD adjustment, which means that it aligns the lenses routinely with the facilities of the consumer’s pupils. It’s a quality-of-life perk. It additionally has a sizzling swappable battery in order that customers can prolong their play time in VR.
The Quest 3 and Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient produce other comparable options with the power to connect with a gaming PC by way of wires for higher visuals. Once more, the most important distinction is worth with the Quest 3 at $499. Personally, from my expertise on the Sandbox VR demo, I felt the Vive Focus Imaginative and prescient was heavier however extra snug, however the machine’s dual-element Fresnel lenses had been inferior to the Quest 3’s pancake ones. It gave a rainbowish impact at occasions.
We performed by way of a truncated model of Deadwood Valley, the place I needed to fend off a horde of zombies together with three different folks. The expertise had a thrill experience really feel as most of it befell inside a dashing truck the place we shot at zombies chasing us. We had loads of scares as we drove by way of a darkish tunnel and encounters conditions the place zombies would sneak by way of home windows of the truck to flank us on either side.
It’s a much more dynamic and bloody expertise in comparison with the “Star Trek” journey. The Vive headset was an improve over what Sandbox used prior to now. One factor to notice is that the Sandbox used HTC’s latest headset for the media demo, nevertheless it’s not out there in every single place. Most Sandbox VR locations use an older model of the Vive headset. Nonetheless, it was introduction to the machine to see what it may be able to in a devoted setting.
