Varjo, RAVE Hold Virtual Reality Demonstration

To support the recent launch of the new XR-3 and VR-3 virtual reality headsets, Varjo and RAVE Computer are holding a Demo Days Powered by RAVE event March 17-19 in the Metro Detroit area.

Varjo and RAVE Computer will conduct live, personal demonstrations of the XR-3 and VR-3 headsets and the RAVE RenderBEAST HMD workstation at the Defense Corridor's Center for Collaboration and Synergy in Sterling Heights, Mich. According to the company, the demos will be held using COVID-19 precautions including social distancing, masks, COVID pre-screening of attendees and Cleanbox Technology sterilization. Groups will be limited to five people per session.

“There will be several different demo stations for both the HMDs and the RAVE computers, using VRED and Unity,” said Stacy Ferguson, RAVE president. “There will be an automotive demo, along with an art studio demonstration, and a human anatomy demonstration, and they feature the large field of view of the new HMDs, and show off the crispness of the images, the improved hand tracking, and the combination of the virtual world and physical world in a really powerful mixed-reality experience.”

Varjo and RAVE previously held a prototype demonstration of the new headsets in Florida in February, but this will be the first live demonstration of production units.

According to Ferguson, having a major product launch during a pandemic has been challenging. There are supply chain contractions, and just getting the product out to people has been a challenge, she says. “We have had to be reactive in terms of conducting demonstrations and using things like Zoom to help walk people through this,” she says.

The demonstration will feature the RAVE Computer RenderBEAST HMD, a compact workstation built for VR applications. The workstation includes an Intel Core i9 processor and the new NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU. The computer is offered as part of a bundle with the Varjo XR-3 and VR-3 headsets. 

RAVE Computer and Varjo will provide multiple VR demonstrations to attendees at the upcoming event. Image courtesy of Varjo.

According to Karl Rosenberger, RAVE CTO, the new XR-3 HMD is lighter, has a wider field of view, and supports USB3 rather than relying on Thunderbolt 3.0 for connectivity. This has opened up the headset for use with a wider range of workstations. “With the Varjo XR-1 we built the RenderBEAST HMD workstation specifically for the application. With the XR-3, you have other options,” he says.

Rosenberger says that response to the demonstrations has been positive, and tha product development is a key application for the devices. “The ability to do ray tracing inside of an HMD is a real enabler for product development. In the automotive industry, we worked with a major automaker to do real-time ray tracing and illumination, but we had to use a whole cluster to get the necessary compute power. Now you can scale that  back and still have a useful experience in that application with a workstation.”

You can register for the Michigan event here.