My gut tells me that VR support won't be there at launch, but maybe the following Fall.
I'm starting to think it may be compatible with all Windows 10 compliant VR devices at launch. This will buy them time!
When Hololens V3 (
they allegedly are skipping on V2) arrives possibly late next year or early 2019, that will be the preferred VR/MR device, since it will very likely be a beast. The patents they have filed, which were revealed only a couple months ago, trounce anything we have seen before. It combines 2 viewable planes into one, meaning the concentrated plane in the center of view will remain a higher resolution, called waveguide (what Hololens currently uses), while the peripheral plane, called lightfield, is at lower resolution but retains higher FOV and occlusion.. and yet the two overlap. The proper occlusion (complete blocking of light and any near by objects) can cover the entire viewable area. This is what will allow VR! Nobody else has this tech.
Allegedly, Magic Leap has decided that their method of projecting with fiber optic to the retina is not ready for prime time, so they have been using an
equivalent display, which is now said to be lightfield LCoS from the same exact company Microsoft goes with, Himax. It has in recent reports, been said that the resolution is lower on ML than Hololens, but the FOV is greater and the occlusion is better. Now it all makes sense. This is because Hololens uses a waveguide display, while ML uses lightfield. Magic Leap has done a bait and switch, basically. Sorry, Google and Ali Baba! This is why this patent is so darn important! It's literally the best of both worlds... if it actually works.
The idea is that the peripheral does not need as much detail as your center of vision. Microsoft also has
recently patented some nifty eye tracking that actually reads the shape of your eyeball. I'm not quite sure how this relates, as I don't think that they can actually shift the waveguide display around as your eyes move. Still, this could be a giant step forward for Hololens, as it solves the whole FOV issue, as well as very likely merging VR, making it truly MIXED reality.
I have tried to explain just what this means well enough, but read more about this patent
here.
Sorry to drop all of this here in the Xbox forum, but all the Hololens threads suck! Besides, there isn't as much actual Scorpio stuff to talk about yet.
I know, Hololens is self-contained for AR, but the VR portion won't be. That is exactly how Scorpio (and the Xbox brand) will tie in.