The ZED Mini’s image is substantially sharper, given its 720p resolution over the Vive Pro’s 480p. You can buy the Vive Pro as a standalone headset for $799 if you already own the base stations and controllers by buying a Vive, but in that case, you only need to spend $449 to add AR to your existing headset. If you own no previous VR hardware, then the cost of the required starter kit ($1,099) exceeds the combination of the ZED Mini with either compatible headset. Ignoring VR purposes, the ZED Mini is technically more cost-effective. SRWorks is also restricted to NVIDIA GPUs and likely for the same reasons. As we built the ZED SDK around NVIDIA CUDA, you can only use ZED Mini with NVIDIA GPUs. This is because, with higher resolution and more features, the ZED Mini is simply doing more at once. You need a minimum of a GTX 1060 to use the ZED Mini, but only a GTX 970 for Vive Pro AR. There is no mounting process, and the headset is more comfortable than either headset that the ZED Mini supports. It does not require a separate attachment or USB cable.

The Vive Pro’s form factor is perhaps its biggest advantage. The one exception is vertical field of view, which we’ll examine later. The ZED Mini excels on nearly all AR-specific qualities. SummaryĪs you can see, the Vive Pro’s advantages as an AR headset primarily come from its strength as a VR headset: it’s comfortable and integrated, and it’s great if you also do VR development. Now that HTC released their SRWorks AR SDK, we tested Vive Pro AR and ZED Mini AR side-by-side. Since HTC’s Vive Pro launched with two front-facing cameras, many developers have asked us how using those cameras for pass-through augmented reality would compare to using our own ZED Mini.

Vive pro