A year has passed, but there are still people who remember watching the World Cup last year. The game process is really exciting, but I found that the game is more exciting is that many friends are upgrading **equipment before the game, in addition to changing to a larger and clearer TV, VR equipment has also become a popular option, I also borrowed a pico 4 to watch a game, although the result is a little lost, but **The experience is really good.
This year, PICO has released a new product, PICO 4 Pro, compared with the previous PICO4, the upgrade is still quite big, such as a comprehensive upgrade of eye tracking (ET), face tracking (FT), support intelligent stepless interpupillary distance adjustment and multi-person interpupillary distance memory, in view of the previous feeling of PICO 4 was not bad, so this time I also bought a PICO 4 Pro, let's share it today, if you have any fun, you can also share it in the comment area.
For people who haven't had much in-depth contact with VR, it may be difficult to distinguish the difference between VR and AR, in fact, VR and AR essentially belong to the category of XR.
The so-called "XR" can be understood as "extended reality", that is, a combination of real and virtual and human-computer interactive environment generated by computer technology and wearable devices, under which it can be divided into VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), MR (mixed reality).
Virtual reality can be understood as reconstructing an environment that is independent of the real world in the field of vision, which can be unaffected by the outside world, which is basically the same as the game scene in the hit movie "Ready Player One" a few years ago.
Augmented reality, on the other hand, refers to the superimposition of virtual elements on top of the real environment, such as adding images, sounds, and other sensory enhancements to the real-world environment in real time, which is essentially a nesting.
VR technology and AR technology are different in the creation principle, naturally there are huge differences in function, experience, and characteristics, in order to facilitate everyone to have a basic understanding of the two, I tried to simplify the information, and made the above comparison chart, I hope it can help.
Objectively speaking, there is no superiority or disadvantage in the technology itself, mainly depending on the use scenario and needs, for the average user, usually the main thing is to play games, watch live broadcasts or 3D movies, in these scenarios it must be VR equipment that is more in line with our needs.
Although the application prospect of VR technology is very broad, it is limited by technology, so at presentVR equipment is mainly used in home entertainment, and PICO is undoubtedly the head of domestic VR equipment manufacturers, from functional design to product manufacturing, all aspects are perfect, after the accumulation of previous generations of products, PICO 4 Pro has also been improved a lot, and the experience is more mature.
Let's take a look at the packaging first,Although the picture is not beautiful enough,But it can be seen that the packaging of PICO 4 Pro is a simple style from the inside to the outside,The top of the envelope of the packaging box is the product name,The back is the main product information,The front is the VR host and handle renderings,The packaging box is pure white,There is no pattern decoration,The temperament is still quite strong。
When you open the box, you can see the PICO 4 Pro host and handle, and there is also a white carton, which contains the user guide (manual), nose pad, charger + data cable, handle lanyard, and magnetic bracket.
There are a total of 14 function buttons on the left and right handles, in addition to the optical 6DOF joystick and A, B, X, Y game buttons on the front, there are also menu buttons, home buttons (one on the left and right) and screenshot screen recording buttons, the trigger button in front supports confirmation of operation, and the inside of the handle is the grip button.
In terms of holding,PICO 4 ProThe handle line is still quite suitable for one-handed control,If the posture is correct, the front 5 keys can be controlled with the thumb,The trigger button is controlled with the index finger,The grip button is controlled with the middle finger,The handle supports a broadband motor,The feedback on the game is quite delicate。
The top view of the PICO 4 Pro body is as follows, the top is an adjustable strap, the overall appearance is still a simple style design, the factory comes with a face foam, which can be used with the magnetic bracket on the front, especially when wearing glasses, it can improve the comfort of wearing.
The front of the PICO 4 Pro helmet is designed with a light gold reflective mirror, the main color is still white, it looks cool, there are a total of 8 cameras on the front, bottom and left and right sides, the middle of the front is a 16MP perspective camera, and there are 4 monochrome cameras on both sides, mainly used to identify the external environment.
The three cameras on the inside can track the direction of the eyeballs and real-time expressions, i.e., the aforementioned eye movements and facial tracking, and with the help of these cameras, it is possible to automatically adjust the interpupillary distance and capture facial expressions.
In addition to the knobs on the back of the helmet to adjust the left and right straps, a layer of head cushion is added on the inside to improve the comfort of wearing, and if you lie down, you will not hit your head because it is too hard.
The PICO 4 Pro helmet weighs only 304 grams (excluding straps and batteries), and uses a balanced front and rear design, with a well-balanced weight distribution, whether you are playing sports games or sitting and watching movies, it will not bring too much burden, which is one of the important reasons for the popularity of this product.
VR equipment needs to be controlled with the help of a controller, but when using a helmet, you can't look directly like a mobile phone, so a simple and fast functional interface and operation logic are very important. Although the PICO 4 Pro uses the Android system, it has been highly customized for VR scenes, and it truly plays VR like a mobile phone.
Whether the IPD is suitable is directly related to the wearing experience, PICO 4 Pro's intelligent stepless IPD adjustment supports the adjustment of the range of 62-72mm, and the automatic IPD adjustment function can also be turned on in the system settings.
After turning on the automatic adjustment of interpupillary distance, with the help of the eye tracking camera, the system can automatically pop up a pop-up window to adjust the interpupillary distance according to the wearing situation, and only need to let the gaze move with the small green dot on the screen to complete the adjustment, which is much faster than entering the system to set up manual adjustment.
In terms of image quality, PICO 4 Pro supports binocular 4K+ resolution and has a 105° ultra-wide field of view, and after wearing a helmet, you can also adjust the size and position of the window according to your Xi.
The way to adjust is also very simple, you only need to position the handle on the window, and then press and hold the grip button on the inside to move, whether it is up and down or left and right, how convenient and how to move. Press and hold the grip button while pushing the joystick back and forth to zoom in and out of the window screen, and push left and right to pan.
Like mobile phones,PICO 4 Pro also has a shortcut taskbar,Position the handle to the time icon at the bottom of the screen and press the trigger button to call out the shortcut taskbar,In addition to checking the helmet and the power of the handle, you can also turn on and off Bluetooth、WiFi or screen projection、Screen recording、Screenshots, etc。
Click the library in the bottom taskbar to see your installed apps.
In the laboratory interface set by the system, you can also turn on functions such as reclining use, 90Hz refresh, fast perspective mode, intelligent sound optimization, image quality enhancement, gesture recognition, etc., to further improve the user experience.
In addition, PICO 4 Pro also supports AI-assisted space calibration, which calibrates the real space in the virtual world to avoid being affected by real-world objects during the immersive experience. Based on my experience, I think the control logic of PICO 4 Pro is similar to that of a mobile phone, but the interaction is stronger than that of a mobile phone, and the interface is similar to that of a computer, but the viewing angle is wider than that of a computer.
Many people know that watching 3D movies with VR equipment does not require a lot of space to get a great picture, but in fact, the real attraction of VR is its content ecology, although the hardware configuration of PICO 4 Pro is already excellent, but I think the content ecology is its real advantage.
With the help of eye movement, face tracking technology and self-developed triple expression fusion algorithm, users can map their expressions to the avatar in real time in PICO 4 Pro, and have 24 customization options including hairstyles, makeup, etc., and more than 500 materials support, and can also pinch the face of the virtual character.
I tested the tracking effect, and I can catch it by opening my mouth, blinking, rolling my eyeballs, etc., and the feedback is very timely. PICO has opened up the tracking technology in the form of API in the PICO XR SDK, and the "Light World" and "Drop Dead" launched on the PICO App Store support expression capture mapping, which can achieve more realistic interaction, and applications such as "Orchestra of Light" are also being adapted.
In addition, PICO's gaze interaction feature is also fully reflected in Realm of Dream. "Dream Land" contains cute and rich characters, poetic scene atmosphere, delicate background**, and an extremely strong artistic atmosphere. In the process of the game, you can adjust the flight path of the elf through the line of sight, and the sense of interaction is very strong.
PICO itself has a strong technical team, and with the continuous increase of users, more and more developers have begun to join in PICO's content creation, for gamers, there are now more VR large-scale games to choose from, "MOSS", "Labyrinth VR", "Space Pirate Trainer", "Crossing the Radius", etc.
In addition to experiencing the in-depth interaction and interesting plot brought by VR games, you can also use PICO 4 PRO to immerse ** live e-sports events and game commentary live broadcasts, not to mention live sports events, you must know that many people bought PICO 4 to watch the Qatar World Cup.
In the PICO app store, there are many apps that provide VR resources that can be installed by themselves, and you can also live broadcast VR in Douyin VR to further enhance the real experience of interacting with the anchor.
In addition, through PICO 4 Pro, you can also **star VR virtual concerts, and you can get close to your favorite stars without going to the scene. For sports enthusiasts, action games such as "Super Burning Moment", "Les Mills Fighting BodyCombat", "Orchestra of Light", and "All-in-One Sports VR" can also move the body well while relaxing the mind, and exercise while playing.
There are two main factors that affect the experience of VR devices, one is hardware technology, and the other is the content ecology. In terms of hardware technology, PICO 4 Pro not only has binocular 4K+ resolution, multiple tracking cameras, 8GB LPDDR5 running memory, 512GB storage capacity and 6000mAh large-capacity battery, as well as support6DOF spatial positioning, eye interaction, expression tracking of intelligent interactive system, not to mention the content ecology, set VR sports, ** entertainment, creation in one, richness can be said to be far ahead in China.