HTC Vive VR headset, which is a collaboration between Valve and HTC, is now available to Developers. The HTC Vive Developer Edition, as expected, is now available for developers to register for and will be issued by Valve to selected developers for free. Yes free.
Unfortunately the HTC Vive Developer Edition is not available to purchase as yet, and is only available via the developer registration process. So if you are not a dev but want to tinker you will have to wait for commercial units to be available at a later date during 2015. Valve explains more over on the Steam Community website:
“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. 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.”
As well as the sign up page, SteamVR discussion pages are now available over on the community site.
The Steam VR Developer Community is for developers with an HTC Vive Developer Edition kit. This Community will be publically visible, so even if you have not received a dev kit, you can read the messages and follow along with development. Posting is for active developers only, so that the information is relevant to developers who are using the same dev kit, sharing their knowledge and helping us work through improvements.
The general SteamVR discussion group is for all things virtual reality and Steam related including other hardware and experiences not part of the Vive program. Everyone is welcome to read and post in this group. “
For more information on the new HTC Vive Developer Edition and to register your interest click here.