For all you fans of exquisite and high-quality sim gear, there is something new to look out for. FormulaVR, a company dedicated to creating “the best possible formula1 style racing simulator”, launched HelmetVR on social media today.
What is HelmetVR?
Sim racing is all about the immersion, most importantly when racing in VR and even more importantly when you do so in a motion rig. Although virtual reality headsets do offer a very unique experience, strapping a monitor on one’s head is not really what you would call comfortable. The headset puts a lot of weight on one’s forehead and can take away the immersion for some people, especially when racing in a rig with all the bells and whistles.
To tackle this problem, FormulaVR partnered up with Arai Helmet and Oculus to create HelmetVR, which is probably the first of its kind. Both brands are amongst the market leaders in their industries and allow FormulaVR to offer a tailor-made product, matching your needs.
Modified Arai GP Series helmets will be used, which will be specifically optimised for use with the Oculus Rift. Above, you can view a trailer of HelmetVR in action.
Want one?
If you think that this is the final piece for achieving ultimate immersion and really want one, then do not expect it to be on the cheap side. It is a high-end product and the website estimates a rough base-price of 2.459,- €, excluding shipping and VAT and FormulaVR also says itself on its website that HelmetVR is meant for “professional race driver training, sim-room experiences and sim racing enthusiasts” and not consumers.
However, we can most likely expect the idea to be adopted by others and as a result we might see some mid to low-end solutions in the future.
Below you can view some impressions of HelmetVR being presented in a FormulaVR F-VR 1 simulator.
