“Everyone said that 2015 is the first year of VR. From the Oculus DK2, I have experienced a lot of benchmark-level VR products, but in 2015, VR products are mostly with strong experimental temperament, destined to not be able to become a rhythm The first generation of emperors; but in 2016, the major manufacturers have iterated their hardware to the consumer version, consumer VR market finally showed a year of Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry and Dopod are blooming and competing scenes, which makes people feel The era of consumer VR is finally coming."
Pico Neo DK Edition VR One Machine Standard Edition Set (Orange helmet with handle)
For VR enthusiasts, 2016 is an exciting year. Each product is worthy of a good taste. The recently received Pico Neo DK is also such a product. After a few days of use, the most suitable appraisal I can give to this machine seems to be "ambition".
Out of the box: lovable appearance, creative design ★★★★☆
The style of Neo's outer packaging basically follows the style of a Pico 1 package on Pico. The main black color is matched with the color of the product. The square box has a clear corner, the front printing is still simple, and the outer layer material is in the rubber paint. Between the plush fabrics, it feels good and it is easy to leave fingerprints.
Printed product details on the back, not much to say
Open the box, is a round portable leather bag, the bag is today's evaluation of the deity Pico Neo Developer Edition, helmets, handles, extension cords, manuals, chargers, membership cards, wiping cloth, readily available.
Together
Add one more parameter:
Snapdragon 820 2.2GHz
32G eMMC 5.1 ROM
4G LPDDR4-1866 RAM
2K screen
1K Hz nine-axis sensor group
102°FOV
0-800° myopia adjustment, support for wearing glasses
Pico Neo's shells all use a very pleasing matte material, fine particles, matte feeling is just right, matte black nature is wild, matte orange also makes the original very jumpy color is a bit calm and calm . Looking a little further, Neo's black and orange colors, its thick and round shape, and its matt tone, lively and visual styles, and a sturdy gas field. This is the first time Pico Neo has been picked up. Feelings - superior feel and apparently thick material, people feel very calm.
Coupled with the slightly wrapped foam and reasonable fabric material, it's fair to say that although the product's local style still has room for further polishing and unification of details (what product isn't?), the overall degree of completion is already Very high, it is a "hand drawn" work.
One of Neo's most impressive designs is the so-called split design of the helmet and the handle. The processor, memory, flash memory, and battery are all put into the handle. The helmet contains optical modules, sensors, and screens. The two are connected through a drop-out design interface, and the insertion and removal are smooth.
As a result, the handle has become the real computing part of the all-in-one machine, but a very stimulating design makes it easy to forget that he is actually Neo's "brain." At the bottom of the handle, there is a Micro-SD card slot similar to the sim card slot. There is a charging & data transmission interface at the top of the handle, which is also Type-C.
The visual adjustment roller on the top of the helmet feels like a rubber material. It is said that it can support up to 800° myopia and the damping feels just right.
Of course, the benefits of splitting are of course "light", the helmet does not have to be stuffed into the processor's memory flash memory, and the battery that occupies the place can be made more lightweight; on the contrary, the handle itself requires quality and volume. Not so strict. Neo's helmet was one of the lightest heads, but Pico apparently didn't go for a split-based quest for further weight loss on the material, compared to many thin plastic films. Feelings (Sony I'm talking about you), Neo's obviously more solid; the handle feel heavy in his hand, quite a few years ago the style of the smart phone (Nokia I'm talking about you), long time holding hands , Falling feel just, but will not let the wrist discomfort. This split design, and the balance of weight, also seems to leave room for thinking about the subsequent product, of course, also brought about a considerable improvement in the current generation of DK version of the experience, and then we slowly talk about.
The topic talks about product industrial design. We simply say something about this topic. Although consumer-level virtual reality is still at a very early stage, it is probably due to the influence of the fruit plant values. Today's technology companies are willing to talk about more and more designs, and they want to take the lead in designing products. More and more, and the result is that the products of different manufacturers began to appear more and more clear brand temperament - for example, Huawei's party and government organs middle-aged uncle style, millet's world a big copy style, ham sausage three backs The line maliciously sells Meng style, Sony Dafa's a look you can not afford the style ... ... For a few big VR headset manufacturers in terms of the first generation of products, the style is also very strange: Oculus Rift looks like what hacking tools, HTC Vive is like a lab research device, and Pico Neo's style is similar to that of Sony's PS VR. The sleek style, boldness and conservative color match convey a kind of "neutral publicity", which is a bit like N. The HP Touchpad was very long ago.
it's him! The two products were released six years apart – six years ago, in the consumer electronics arena, this is also regarded as a face-to-face encounter.
Said the appearance of the old half-day, then VR products look so important? I think that, for any consumer electronics product, appearance is one of the things that must be considered - it must first be something that you are willing to buy, willing to hold in your hand, or even wear it on your head. The lack of external beauty, it is estimated that few people have the patience to tap the inner beauty, right? So looking good is really a big deal.
After watching the appearance, the next product to use up, have to resist the next son to measure their own test. Compared with mobile phone running data and subjective objective evaluation indicators of mobile phones, VR products, especially mobile VR products, lack similar evaluation methods. If one evaluates a VR product, then there is only one question that needs to be asked: immersion. Is it home? And the big question of "immersiveness" can be divided into:
1, wearing comfort - during the game, can you really forget about the existence of the device?
2, visual/auditory/tactile fidelity – is it true to restore the feelings of each real world?
3, delay time - is not able to react sensitive enough to reduce the "simulation"
4, interactive input and interface design - is it easy to use, easy to use, as close as possible to "intuitive operation"?
5, fever, life - is not able to immerse into the application, forget that you need to charge regularly, do not need timing to pick it down to cool?
6, content - games, video and other content is not enough? Isn't something rich enough to play?
Next we will follow this list carefully.
One, Comfort: Absolutely a Surprise ★★★★☆
Pico Neo is visually a wearable product that is not terribly felt. This first impression was fully confirmed when the first impression was taken. Pico Neo mask part of the soft silicone + foam combination veneer level is extremely good, soft and very comfortable, large curvature of the package structure to the face "stuck in" the feeling of wearing. At the same time, the material of instant noodles does not have a face, or it can easily stick to the skin like a protein skin material.
An upwardly-raised design on both sides of the strap was designed to avoid the ear. If the hair style was not considered, the design was quite in place. After wearing it on the head, it just passed over the ear. The straps on the top of the head do not have the same design as the Gear VR. In practice, the straps on the top of the head do not have the same strength as the Gear. The helmet seems to be fixed on the face by wearing the head on both sides. However, taking into account that the weight of the helmet is only three hundred grams, it is lighter than when many mobile phone boxes do not put the mobile phone. This small weight on the weight distribution does not affect the overall wearing comfort. After wearing on the face, there is absolutely no feeling of discomfort. This is even better than I had expected. It is not an exaggeration to say that Neo’s head was taken alone and could be used directly as sleeping goggles and used during company naps.
Thick, tight wrapping brings both good and bad side effects. Anyone who has used Oculus Rift knows that the lack of gasket leaks on the nose has plagued many Asian users who are not so three-dimensional on the face (Oh, my nose is very weird), Neo's tight wrap has effectively improved this problem. . But after all, the helmet is a device that needs to be moved. When the weather is hot or when the movement is slightly intense, the problem of lens fogging and facial sweating seems to be inevitable. In actual use, playing a half-hour dance-style music action game continuously, the lens has been covered with mist, and the face wrapped in a mask has already had a sweat. For this problem, it seems that the passive ventilation holes on the mask are difficult to solve. The only way at present is to pick it up and rub it off when it's fogging, remove the foam for a new one or wash it, or simply use the anti-fogging vial spray.
But overall, with clever split design, lightweight helmets, excellent masking, high quality veneer material, and comfort, Neo gave a very pleasant response. In the headband using the T-strap, Neo may be the most comfortable one I've ever used (don't ask me how I got Dafa's PS VR, but I just got it).
Second, interaction and operation: smooth and succinct, but the details need to be polished ★ ★ ★ ☆
1, software interface:
Pico Neo DK is equipped with Android 6.0 and Pico's own user interface called PUI. After booting, the PUI will provide a concise novice guide to help you get started faster. In fact, the significance of novice guidance is not great, PUI's operating logic is very simple, after entering the interface, the first thing to see is a panoramic room, in front of me about 3-5 meters away from the position, suspended with a tiled interface, The center of the screen is a mouse-like cursor. This actually resembles the mainstream smart TVs and game consoles currently on the market, except that the operating interface has been moved from the TV screen to a large virtual room in front of them.
If you want to click on the content in front of you, you will naturally use the head to see the position of the corresponding content, and the cursor in the center of the screen will also follow the head and move. The A key is used to confirm with the handle, the B key is used to return, the arrow key is used to slide the menu, and the home key is used to return to the main screen. The basic operations can be achieved through the combination of these basic keys. In other words, in the PUI, we turn the head into a mouse, and use the handle as a mouse button and keyboard, which is basically the same as the interactive language design logic chosen by most domestic and foreign companies. If you have used xbox, Playstation or other game consoles before, or played oculus home and steam VR, then the process of this operation completely without learning, you can quickly get started.
Come back to the scene. Similar to Oculus Home, PUI's main screen equivalent to a computer desktop is a large open-space room with a bright environment. The decoration style is mainly pearl white and blue. The whole room seems to be in a stationary orbit with the Earth. The sphere satellite, looking to the feet, can also see the clouds slowly drifting outside the glass floor and the meteors that are occasionally crossed outside the window. The elements in the entire main interface are quite rich. Although the furnishings are slightly cluttered and do not highlight the space sense well, it is still easy to get used to watching. The fluency of the main interface is very good. The screen shakiness and stagging that often appear on the mobile phone box have never appeared during the whole process of use. The power consumption control is also satisfactory, and the main interface has been rotated 15 times. Minutes, Neo's handle doesn't have a noticeable fever.
Compared to Oculus Home's half-day decoration, the PUI's main interface style is obviously more modern, but there are still room for further improvement in texture materials, light processing, and other details; the blue and white colors are being created. A virtual reality scene is also slightly monotonous. But in fact, in the current situation, the user interface can be clean and tidy, clear and logical, not cluttered, and easy to use. It is sufficient. If Pico can launch more desktop scene selections in the future, it will even open the main interface scene to third-party developers. Those who develop more different styles of "VR skin package" will have higher playability of PUI scenes - of course, this is the next step to be considered.
In general, the functions of an Android system are basically lacking in PUI (however, there is no screen capture function, and it is inconvenient, and it is hoped that manufacturers will make up as soon as possible). In addition, the interface optimization for VR applications will be used as a whole and experience. qualified.
2, the input device:
Pico Neo cleverly built the mainframe part into a small gamepad. After putting on the helmet, the handle became the main controller of the device. The layout of the handle buttons is traditional and simple. Basically, the key design of the classic red and white machine is used. The front side is the ABXY button, the cross direction button, the return button, the menu button, and the Home button. Each side also has a trigger button.
Before starting the game, I had some concerns about the functionality of this handle. With such a simple key design, I don't know if I can hold a very complex operation in the VR world? But it turns out that fears are superfluous, and Pico has done a good job of adapting the platform game. The simple handle and the head control can well take care of all the operations in the game. The advantages of simple handle design are also shown after wearing a helmet: in the case of invisible handle keys, the simplest design in blind operation is the most friendly design.
For this handle, the only problem that can be singled out is that, although the shape of the handle is small, in actual games, the handle that is too small is actually uncomfortable to hold. Instead, the big game handle is more suitable for long-term grasping. The small handle design, some for the sake of beauty at the expense of the feeling of the feeling, some regrets, but it does not hide.
At the press conference in April, vendors promised to launch a location tracking suite for use with Pico Neo this year to provide Pico Neo with a certain amount of spatial positioning capabilities. Worth looking forward. In addition, according to the manufacturer, the Micro-USB interface underneath the Neo helmet is designed to be compatible with third-party interactive input device designs. Is it possible to use a light stick device such as Ximmerse directly in a helmet?
There is no similar device to try on hand, but generally think about it, now the VR solutions are different for each family, there are many types of interaction programs, and different interaction programs also need to have compatible content to use, this set of compatible The design of third-party interactive devices probably lacks the content that can be used together, but the starting point is good—this is also the significance of the existence of the developer's version, and provides a hardware access standard for the home platform, after all, if even the basic None of the access methods exist. Then what "content ecology" is to say next is also empty talk.
3, an egg: 2D application compatibility mode:
PUI is based on Android development. In principle, it seems that all Android applications should be able to run on Pico Neo. Trying to install a knowledge, it can actually use.
PUI has an eclectic solution for 2D applications: opening a large TV-like screen in front of it is equivalent to opening a 2D picture-in-picture in the VR screen, and normal applications can run directly inside. How is this experience experienced? Stealing that can only be used to save an emergency, practicality is not strong, in addition to want to use a third-party file manager, or need to open the browser to search for something occasionally, 2D application compatibility mode is clearly not the current stage Pico most want you Experience the PUI function; however, in any case, joining the compatibility mode is also a manufacturer's intentional performance. It can be considered a kind of egg.