The Vive XR Elite system interface receives direct touch mode

HTC has just released a software update for the Vive XR Elite that includes a new direct beta touch mode.

The Vive XR Elite is HTC’s latest standalone headset, and it’s aimed primarily at consumers rather than businesses. It was released earlier this year at a price of $1,100. The XR Elite has the same basic small pancake lens as the Vive Flow 2021 and uses the same Snapdragon XR2 chip that’s also used in the Quest 2. It has color pass for mixed reality, but the view is not correct in depth and its scale. Off

Back in May, we reported on HTC’s first major software update for the XR Elite. Added a mixed reality room setup that uses the headset’s depth sensor, improves hand tracking, adds real-time pointer tracking, and adds the ability to stream PC apps to mixed reality on the headset.

Over the past month HTC has released software updates to 6.0 and now 6.5. The new features of the title are a direct beta touch mode and the ability to run 2D Android apps in landscape mode.

Direct Touch Mode, which HTC just calls “Touch Controls,” makes the system interface much smaller and much closer to you, so you can directly tap and navigate with your hands as if it were a touchscreen. . Currently it only works with hand tracking.

Meta added Direct Touch as an experimental option to Quest in February and has recently integrated it fully, without the need to enable the option. With both the Quest and Vive XR Elite, you can continue to use point-and-pinch interaction any time you’re away from the interface.

HTC’s new update also adds the ability to run regular 2D Android apps in landscape mode, like a tablet, instead of portrait mode. Pico also improved its usual support for 2D Android apps in its October software update, something the Meta has supported for years. A recent attempt to improve on this may come from the upcoming Apple Vision Pro, which will be able to run nearly all iPad apps from the App Store.

The Vive XR updates also bring a number of minor improvements, including stable space anchors for developers, a ruler in mixed reality settings for measuring objects, and the option to automatically update system software overnight when plugged in.

The Vive XR Elite doesn’t seem to have been a big hit with consumers, being overshadowed by the Quest Pro, Pico 4, and now the Quest 3. Its app store includes only a fraction of the titles available on Quest and Pico. Its hardware offers no compelling reason to pick it up at $1,100. However, like most previous Vive headsets, it’s been a hit in businesses, and it’s still HTC’s main focus in the XR space.