The HTC Vive developer edition is now available to teams and projects for free.
Ahead of the HTC Vive release date later this year, Valve has opened up the order forms for developers to request a free headset.
However, it isn’t as easy as simply signing up for a free dev headset. Instead you’ll have to go through a rather lengthy application form process.
Developers will need to tell Valve all about their team and their potential VR project along with the reasons why they should be chosen.
All submissions will then pass through a selection process for headset distribution, which will begin this spring and throughout the summer.
“The sign up form for the HTC Vive Developer Edition is now open. Please use this venue to tell us about your team and project. These submissions will be used in the selection process for developer distribution, which will begin later this spring and continue through summer”, explains the blog post.
“Our goal is to support as many VR content creators as possible and, to that end, we will be distributing dev kits continually, with new units going out every couple weeks. However, supplies may be limited.”
Related: Why SteamVR and HTC Vive will win the virtual reality war
Valve has also opened up the SteamVR Developer Community and the general SteamVR discussion group.
The Developer Community is publicly visible and is for all developers to read and follow, regardless of whether they’ve received a dev kit or not. Only active developers are allowed to post though, so it keeps the content relevant.
Everyone else can use the general StreamVR discussion group though.
The HTC Vive was announced at MWC 2015 back in February and HTC claims it is the only headset capable of creating a “truly immersive” VR experience.
It uses two 1200 x 1080p display with 360-degree viewing angles, and uses special Lighthouse laser head-tracking sensors making it the most versatile and also the most accurate tracking system.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
