Adventure Dream Pro experience: blowing the whistle of the second half of the first year of VR

Original link: https://www.ifanr.com/app/1491676

Meta, which is far from the other side of the ocean, constantly uses news such as new product exposures and offline store openings , and spares no effort to promote the beautiful vision of the Metaverse; ByteDance has also shown interest in this new thing, through the acquisition of Pico VR. Layout related fields.

But in fact, there is still a big player in China. It has already smelled the potential of VR, and through the resources it has accumulated in the field of film and television content, it has fed back its shortcomings. Now it has become a force that cannot be ignored in the field of VR.

This player is iQiyi, and when I experienced their new Qiyu Dream Pro VR all-in-one machine, I saw their potential to compete in the international front line.

Unremarkable appearance, full of thoughtful details

The Adventure series is divided into two series lines, namely the digital series and the Dream series. The former is mainly aimed at advanced players, while the latter is more inclined to entry.

Now the Dream series has added a “Pro” suffix at the back, splitting a new track between advanced and entry-level to satisfy more players. I compared the adventure digital series with the Dream series and found that The resolutions of the two are slightly different, and the biggest difference is that Qiyu 3 uses a Fresnel lens, while the two Dream headsets use aspheric lenses.

The advantage of this difference is to expand the effective viewing range of the lens. The Fresnel lens looks like a large lens, but the line of sight is fixed. As long as the pupil is not in the center of the lens, the line of sight will become blurred, and the visual edge will be blurred. The distortion will be more serious, and I have been wearing the Meta Quest 2 for many years.

The Qiyu Dream Pro uses an aspherical lens, and the user’s pupil does not need to be fixed in the center of the lens at all times, so it does not need to move the lens to accommodate the interpupillary distance, and it is ready to use.

In fact, when I was wearing the Dream Pro, even if the headset moved due to large movements, it didn’t affect my line of sight, and it was still usable, saving me a lot of trouble of straightening the headset.

In addition, Qiyu Dream Pro is not much different in appearance from the mainstream VR headsets on the market.

There are four infrared cameras on the front, which are used to locate the relative position of the human and the handle in space, which is the basis for realizing 6DoF. 3.5mm audio jack, USB-C charging port and cooling vents.

The bigger one is the headband that connects to the main body of the headset. It adjusts the tightness through the wheel, which is fast and labor-saving. The front and rear parts that are in contact with the head are all glued to the headband with Velcro, which is easy to remove and wash.

The most useful is this expansion design. When you need to leave the metaverse and return to the real world for a short time, just move the main body of the headset up, and there is no need to take off the whole headband, just like the one in “Ready Player One”. It reduces the number of times of taking it off and putting it on again and again. This design is small, but it is this kind of design that is piled up little by little, so that the VR headset can be “available” from the early stage to the “available” stage now. It can evolve to the stage of “easy to use”.

It is worth noting that the headband itself comes with a battery, which not only adds power to the headset, but also acts as a counterweight. The body and headband have achieved a weight ratio of nearly 50:50, and users no longer feel top-heavy.

Of course, the weight that the neck needs to bear will be a little more than similar products, but only a little more, because Qiyu has made many other efforts to improve its comfort, just like an electric car spends a lot of money to build it with lightweight materials The frame is the same just to plug in a bigger battery, although the final weight is still the same, or even heavier, these thoughts are worth it.

Qiyu Dream Pro also basically follows the design rules set in the HTC VIVE era. A positioning ring and a control panel form the overall appearance of the handle. Different from the full shape of the Meta Quest 2 handle, the handle of Qiyu Dream Pro is relatively slender. It is more in line with the palm engineering of Asians, and it will not get tired after holding it for a long time.

Having said that, the VR controller has finally returned to what the word controller should be.

The handle has a built-in vibration motor, which is powered by a AA battery. According to the habit of playing for two hours a day, the battery needs to be replaced every ten days. I am used to it and I don’t think it is wrong, but my colleague Mr. Liang asked: Why? This kind of handle does not have a built-in lithium battery? It is not environmentally friendly to always change the battery.

I tried to put it off with the excuse of “that way, there are too many charging ports for this device,” but in hindsight, it was a clear pain point.

Perhaps it is similar to the use of a replaceable battery design for an Xbox controller. When you are enjoying the game and suddenly the controller runs out of power, you are willing to wait an hour or two for it to be fully charged, or spend 10 seconds to change a battery to continue playing Woolen cloth?

I don’t know if this can answer the doubts in your heart, but at least I have convinced myself that I am used to the design of the handle only to remove and replace the battery. By the way, the whole machine is equipped with a large-capacity battery of 5500mAh, which can last for about 140 minutes on a full charge.

Exclusive advantage in function

In terms of functionality, Qiyu Dream Pro can be regarded as keeping up with the pace of mainstream devices. Every time I enter the device, I have to set up an electronic fence and encircle myself, mainly to protect myself, and to protect the people around me and objects from being damaged by me walking around blindfolded.

As long as you walk out of the range of the virtual fence, the picture inside the head-mounted display will become the real scene outside the mirror captured by the four infrared cameras, helping the user to see the surrounding environment. More serious, fortunately, Qiyu Dream Pro can directly lift the headset manually, and there are not many cases where users use the real scene picture.

After the fence is framed, I officially enter the metaverse. I can choose to sit on the sofa in the living room or jump to the space universe. Qiyu has designed several sets of main interface scenes for users to choose and replace. Just change it, this is the benefit of being in a panoramic virtual world.

The main menu UI is simple and concise, with four main icons at the bottom: app store, online theater, app library and settings. Click to enter the specific interface, similar to the car system, the hierarchical structure is simple and clear, and it is direct and efficient to use.

It is worth mentioning that although Qiyu Dream Pro does not use gesture operations, most operations must be performed with the handle, but in the scene of watching a movie, Qiyu introduced a set of voice control solutions.

Similar to the voice assistant on a smart TV, the user speaks a command to pause/fast-forward/increase or decrease the volume of the video, and I was able to put the controller down briefly to watch the movie more immersively.

Chasing dramas on the big screen at home

Nowadays, the hardware specifications of VR products are more homogenized. The mainstream terminals use the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 chip. With the configuration of 4K resolution for both eyes, content has become the key to breaking the game.

Fortunately, the Qiyu series is backed by iQiyi, so content consumption is the strength of Qiyu Dream Pro.

It is said that the iPad is “productive before buying, iQIYI after buying”, but Qiyu Dream Pro is the real iQIYI artifact. Wearing it, you can experience the feeling of chasing “Feng Qi Long Xi” on the giant screen of the home theater. After that, the 65-inch TVs at home have become unpleasant.

As long as the Qiyu membership is opened, the content of “Game + Movies and Dramas” will be fully opened, and entertainment will definitely not worry. If you are a fan of the Mist Theater, then using Qiyu Dream Pro to chase dramas is even more immersive.

iQIYI created the iQUT video standard for Qiyu Dream Pro, which projects a nearly 3,000-inch screen in the headset, and supports HDR, Dolby Atmos and other formats. I recently used it to chase “Feng Qi Longxi” , the gripping plot and the soul-stirring soundtrack, I am very satisfied.

The only problem may be wearing it, it’s not very convenient for you to cry when you see the plot.

In the film and television library, Qiyu also provides many 3D movie resources, including blockbusters such as “Avatar”, “Alita”, “Ip Man”, etc. In today’s dilapidated theaters, if there is no condition to watch movies offline, we as fans At least you can still experience the coolness brought by the big screen in this way.

To be honest, compared with comprehensive film and television content, game content has become a more obvious shortcoming of Qiyu. At present, Qiyu’s application library has more than 60 games, including “After Death: Winter”, “Joyful Future” and “Crisis”. There are more than 10 relatively delicate games such as Action Team, Exploding Racket: NX, Fruit Ninja, etc. Most of the rest are games that you will never play again after you have played them once.

This is also one of the most prominent disadvantages of domestic VR headsets. At present, most VR games are developed by foreign studios, and the servers are also overseas. It is difficult to introduce them. Now the domestic VR market is experiencing a similar situation of mainland video games 20 years ago. ‘s predicament.

But in the final analysis, this is a question of “the chicken or the egg”. When the Chinese market emerges and the user base increases to a certain level, more and more studios will naturally develop more high-quality games for this blue ocean market. .

According to the latest data released by IDC, the current domestic market share of the Qiyu series has reached 22.5%, and the sales in the fourth quarter of last year have reached the first position in China. The equipment has finally begun to take shape.

Aside from the games in the mall, Qiyu Dream Pro supports PC streaming. We connect it to a computer with a higher configuration and can also play Steam’s high-quality VR games, which can be regarded as a way to save the country through the curve.

During the specific experience, I found that I still prefer to use it to play some sports games with simple pictures. It can not only play games but also exercise to lose weight. This may be the biggest advantage of VR games.

Take “Burst Racket: NX” as an example, it packs the squash with the play of arkanoid, hits the bricks on the wall with the ball, and after completion, you can enter the next level, adding different props to achieve different visions and tasks The effect makes the process of exercise less boring. In fact, every time I play for half an hour, I am completely unconscious.

To say “Which one is better to kill time”, it has to be a VR game.

whistle sounded

iQIYI grasped both hardware and software, and finally created Qiyu Dream Pro with a very high degree of completion, supplemented by punch-in rewards. Within a week of listing, it has received more than 2,000 reviews on an e-commerce platform.

When my friends don’t know what to give someone for their birthday, they ask me how I’d like to get a VR headset, and my answer was usually no, but now I’m starting to change my mind.

The bench has been sitting for a long time, and it’s time to play. Wearing the Dream Pro, I could hear the whistle of the second half of the VR evolution.

This article is reprinted from: https://www.ifanr.com/app/1491676
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