Varjo XR-4 To Require $2500/Year Subscription For Advanced Mixed Reality Features

From next week, Varjo XR-4 headsets will require a $2500/year subscription for certain advanced mixed reality features.

The subscription will come with the launch of the revamped Varjo Base,the Windows software tool for using and managing Varjo headsets, on March 25. It will see the feature set split into the free Varjo Base and paid Varjo Base Pro.

Varjo Base Pro will support advanced mixed reality features such as chroma key, blend-control mask, developer access to the passthrough cameras, passthrough post-processing shaders, environment cubemap for realistic lighting of virtual objects, 3D reconstruction, and programmatic control of the camera settings. It will also be required to use third party tracking systems other than the built-in inside-out tracking or SteamVR base station tracking, to use motion platforms, and to use eye tracking for purposes other than foveated rendering.

Varjo says that XR-4 headsets purchased before March 25 will still retain all features they previously had, but new purchases will need the Pro subscription for these features.

Varjo Base Pro will be available for $2500/year per headset, or $5000 for a perpetual license.

Separately, Varjo plans to add built-in controller-free hand tracking for all XR-4 headsets for free, not requiring the current Ultraleap hardware accessory, and will share more details on this "soon".

Varjo XR-4: Stunning VR With Disappointing Passthrough

Read our hands-on impressions of Varjo XR-4 Focal Edition, which the company claimed provides VR and MR “indistinguishable from natural sight”.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

You can read our hands-on impressions of Varjo XR-4 here, wherein we describe how the headset lives up to its VR promises, while its mixed reality is disappointing given the price.