Hands-on review: CES 2015: Razer OSVR Hacker Dev Kit

Virtual reality has existed in various states over the years but with its recent comeback in the form of Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus, more companies are joining up with the hope of bringing VR into the living room.

OSVR (Open Source Virtual Reality) coupled with the $199 (about £130,AU$246) OSVR Hacker Dev Kit - the head mounted display created in-house - is Razer attempting to standardize the Wild West of VR.

Announced during CES 2015, the open platform will allow third parties to design and build their own apps and hardware across any operating systems, including Windows, Android and Linux. Design schematics for the hardware will even be available to print out if you have a 3D printer.

The sensor hub is integrated with an accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. There is an external USB 3.0 connection for additional accessories and two additional USB 3.0 connections for internal expansion. You can also plug headphones into a "belt box" which is also where an HDMI connector plugs into. According to Min-Liang Tan, CEO and co-founder of Razer, the belt box was inspired by the radio frequency transmitters attached to lav mics; the small form factor is intended to be light and less cumbersome.

The OSVR software is free and available to some developers now, with public access arriving later in 2015. The OSVR HMD will be out June 2015 in the US and globally later in the year, though keep in mind, it's an SDK similar to the SDK1 device first released by Oculus.

That being said, I was told the OSVR HMD I tried wasn't the version the company will release in the summer. Rather it was a prototype that still required several improvements even before developers get their hands on it.

The first thing you notice is how much the design resembles the Rift and even Samsung Gear VR (which makes sense since Oculus helped create Gear VR).

All three designs have adjustable elastic straps on the sides of your head and one on top plus a large goggle-like display. The goggle portion houses a 5.5-inch 1,920x1,080 display board with 60 fps and 401ppi - and can be replaced with a phone like Gear VR.

I wasn't able to wear my glasses with it which always worries me when I use VR devices because I have horrible vision. But also like Gear VR, there's an independent adjustment (inter-Pupillary Distance and Diopter) for use without glasses - meaning you can move the optics module closer to your eyes in order to see better.

The addition of the diopter had me pretty happy at first but the adjustment process was far more tedious than Gear VR's simple and effective dial. There are two knobs on the bottom of the OSVR HMD that slide to adjust to an individual's eyes. You can make the optics closer to see better and spaced out to match the distance of your eyes.

I ended up twiddling with the two optical knobs for what felt like an embarrassingly long time, and was finally able to see. This part of the kit can definitely be improved and likely will be in the future otherwise people will have a really difficult time figuring out how to get the best experience.

The headset itself felt comfy on my head and wasn't too heavy. It remains tethered though - like the other PC HMD devices - so I wasn't able to walk around too much with it on.

There was a Leap Motion tracker taped to the front of the device to allow hand tracking which is something the Oculus Rift and Gear VR lack and where the Morpheus uses Move controllers. It's definitely a different and thoroughly enjoyable experience being able to use your hands playing virtual reality games.

The demo game involved flying skulls that circled 360 degrees around you which you had to shoot with either ice or fireballs - from your hands, hence the Leap Motion sensor. The game, created by indie developers on Razer's platform, worked fairly well as an introductory VR game.

The sensors didn't always pick up on my hands or my skull-killing throws, and the frame rate jumped around a bit. The latency however, was surprisingly low compared to the Rift's early days and I was able to walk away without feeling sick.

Early Verdict

The OSVR headset really can't be fairly compared as competitor to the Oculus Rift or Sony's Morpheus just yet, or perhaps even at all. The device is uniquely Razer in that it is attempting to make VR an open platform for anyone to create their own VR hardware - similar to the concept of last year's modular PC, Project Christine. People then can do whatever they want with the end result - including sell their creations.

I don't know whether future iterations of the OSVR headset will have long legs, but I can see the potential due to it's modular capabilities. The silver lining may lie more in the OSVR software platform. The ability to come together and agree to share various software and hardware technologies to build a feasible VR experience simply has been lacking. An official standardization process hasn't been discussed since the ITA's (Immersive Technology Alliance) conference during GDC 2014;

With Razer's rabid, supportive fanbase that seem eager to see where OSVR will end up, and with the space still growing, it doesn't hurt to see another company throw its hat into the ring. Regardless of what happens, I'd like to see the next version of the Hacker SDK and the evolution of the OSVR platform as a whole simply because it means we're one step closer to having virtual reality at home.

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