Vive Focus 3 is getting support for a much larger play area, a multi-headset colocation mode, and 6 GHz Wi-Fi.
Focus 3 is HTC’s standalone VR headset designed for businesses, priced at $1299. Until now the maximum play space was 15×15 meters, the same as Meta’s Quest 2 since a June 2021 update. An update will dramatically increase this maximum to 33×30 meters.
A new LBE (Location Based Entertainment) mode will let companies set up a permanent playspace, and a feature called Map Sharing will allow that playspace to be shared to other headsets. All headsets will be tracking in the same reference space, enabling colocation.
Colocation has been rumored for Quest 2 for years, but with this update HTC will be the first to bring it to standalone VR. It has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of multi-user location based VR experiences, which today require a costly external tracking system and/or a backpack PC for each user.
A further update “in the coming months” will add support for Wi-Fi 6E, the new 6 GHz frequency band of Wi-Fi. The higher frequency, compared to the existing 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, allows for higher bandwidth and less interference from other devices – though it can’t travel as far or penetrate walls as well, so you’ll want to be in the same room as the router or access point. 6 GHz is so new to Wi-Fi it hasn’t even been approved by most national regulators yet, so HTC cautions you’ll need to wait for that.
