One of the early pioneers of omni-directional treadmills for virtual reality (VR) gaming, Virtuix’s Omni Pro has found its way into hundreds of commercial venues around the world. Today, the company is looking to break into the consumer market with a smaller, lighter, more streamline device, the Omni One.
Like any omni-directional treadmill built for gaming, the Omni One aims to provide players with that ultimate sense of freedom in VR. That ability to physically be able to run, jump and crouch inside a virtual world without feeling any nausea because you are actually performing the movements rather than pressing a button or directional stick.
The new design does away with the Omni Pro’s attachment system, swapping it instead for an adjustable arm which fixes to the back of the player via a sleeveless jacket. The arm then spins around the 4ft diameter base to that the player can move freely.
“Omni One is like nothing else out there – it’s a breakthrough in omni-directional treadmill technology,” said Jan Goetgeluk, founder and CEO of Virtuix in a statement. “Compared to Omni Pro, Omni One no longer has a support ring. So, it gives users unrestricted freedom of movement, including crouching, squatting, backing up, and even jumping. You essentially become one with the machine.”
Launched in 2021, the Omni One will be available in two versions. For $1,995 USD (or $55 a month with a monthly payment plan) you can get the complete entertainment system including the treadmill, a standalone VR headset and operating software. Currently, Virtuix hasn’t confirmed which headset(s) will be part of the package.
Or for those who already own a headset there the ‘Dev Kit’ option for $995. This is just the Omni One, so you’ll need a PC to connect the device to. Additionally, the Omni One will have its own content store with 30 titles available at launch. Some will come from third-party developers whilst Virtuix will develop its own Call of Duty and Fortnite style videogames.
Ahead of next year’s launch, Virtuix is also launching a Regulation A funding campaign. This will allow anyone to invest in Virtuix and receive shares in the company, plus investors will get an Omni One discount. Invest $1,000 in the first week and you’ll get a 40% discount worth $800, otherwise investors will receive a 20% discount (worth $400) when purchasing the treadmill.
“Moving around virtual worlds by pushing buttons on a controller feels unnatural, static, and limiting,” Goetgeluk added. “You can’t experience true virtual reality while sitting down or standing in place. You need to walk around virtual worlds as you do in real life – by using your own feet.”
As development continues and further details are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.
Electric ATVs and UTVs have arrived, and riders are discovering all the advantages these innovative vehicles offer when taking them off-road. By getting rid of the big, clunky engine, electric ATVs and UTVs use rechargeable lithium ion batteries to power their motors. And along with great power and speed, electric quads and side-by-sides are cost-effective, easier to maintain, and environmentally friendly. To help you fully understand the advantages of electric before making your next off-road vehicle purchase, ATV Trader is sharing eight benefits of electric ATVs and UTVs.
Electric ATVs and UTVs don’t compromise when it comes to power, and in some cases they outperform other off-roaders running on fuel. Some models top out at about 60 mph and have over 350 hp, while certain makes can get up to 100 miles on a single charge. The electric motor also gives you immediate torque, instant acceleration, noticeable towing power, and an overall responsive vehicle.
2. You Will Save Money with an Electric ATV or UTV
While they can be more expensive up front when you buy a new ATV or UTV, electric quads and side-by-sides will end up costing less in the long run than vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine. All heavily used ATVs and UTVs will eventually need maintenance and repairs, which can be costly, and you’ll also be paying to refuel your vehicle. You can say goodbye to all of these costs with an electric off-roader.
3. Electric ATVs and UTVs Are Enjoyable to Ride
Without an internal combustion engine, electric ATVs and UTVs weigh much less, which makes them more enjoyable to ride. Their light weight makes it easier for movement on tough terrain and gives you more ability to maneuver around obstacles. More freedom on your quad makes for a greater riding experience so you’re able to appreciate your outside surroundings while you ride.
4. Electric ATVs and UTVs Are Less Noisy
With a battery powering the motor, electric UTVs and ATVs have eliminated the loud noise that comes from the engine. Less noise also improves the riding experience, letting you leave your cares behind when you ride. Now you can take off on your vehicle and enjoy nature, with the sound of the wind hitting your helmet as you splash dirt on your tires.
5. Kids Can Ride Safely on Electric ATVs
Friendlier for families, smaller makes of electric ATVs can be great for kids learning to ride. Electric ATVs are lighter and easier to move around, which presents less hazards with the vehicle rolling over. They’re also easier to operate, with a straightforward design and vehicle controls, featuring LED displays and just a few switches.
6. Electric ATVs and UTVs Are Easier to Maintain
When you go electric, you can expect less complicated mechanical parts, less maintenance and repairs, and less headaches. Electric ATVs and UTVs run on batteries, controllers, and a motor, and that’s about as complicated as they get. Without an engine, oil, or fluids to maintain, you’ll have more time to enjoy riding.
7. Charging Your Electric ATV or UTV is More Convenient
You won’t have to worry about making a trip to the filling station to refuel your electric ATV or UTV. All you have to do is plug in and power up, conveniently from your own home garage. When your battery is fully charged, you’ll be ready to ride.
8. Electric ATVs and UTVs Are Eco-Friendly
Electric ATVs and UTVs are much cleaner to ride and maintain, doing away with carbon emissions, dangerous fumes, and oil leaks. Battery-powered vehicles take less energy to run, making them better for the environment. Going electric promotes eco-friendly ATV riding and shows you care about your natural surroundings and the earth you’re riding on with your powerful vehicle.
Electric ATVs and UTVs are emerging on the market and represent the future of off-roading. Built for excellent performance, they’re also cost-effective, family-friendly, and better for the environment. If you’re shopping for a new or used ATV or UTV, be sure to check out the nation’s largest inventory onTr.com.
The RTX 3090 is a slightly confusing GPU. It represents the current pinnacle of Nvidia’s Ampere architecture, which powers its latest line of RTX 30-series graphics cards. We’ve already taken a look at the RTX 3080, which offers a significant performance improvement gen-on-gen for a relatively low price, but it’s no question that the RTX 3090 towers above it in both performance and price. But it should inspire some thought over whether that balance is correct for you.
Part of the reason the RTX 3090 can be divisive is because of what it really is on the inside. In the past, Nvidia made a point of differentiating its gaming-focused GPUs and its more “all-round” performance cards with the Titan moniker. That is gone in the RTX 30-series line, with the RTX 3090 representing what would have been Ampere’s version of the Titan. That means off the bat it’s difficult to think of it as a pure gaming card, which helps put into perspective both its price and relatively small performance difference over the RTX 3080.
That’s not to say it isn’t an impressive feat of engineering in its own right. The Founders Edition designs for the RTX 30-series cards is a complete overhaul from Nvidia, and it truly shines with its RTX 3090. It’s a monstrous triple card design but with clean black and sliver metal finishes and rounded edges that just give it an absolutely classy look inside any chassis. This is Nvidia’s best FE design thus far, exuding professionalism while also making a statement in a windowed case. The white lit GeForce RTX logo on the side and thin but elegant RBG strip on the top don’t let you go overboard with lighting, but they blend beautifully into the rest of the hardware’s design language.
That configuration creates an innovative new cooling solution from Nvidia, which exhausts air both out the back of the card as well as upwards towards any top-mounted exhaust fans. This does put hot air directly in front of any intake you might have for your CPU cooler (if you’re using air cooling), which might initially be cause for concern. But in practice this hasn’t really resulted in measurable worse performance in my specific build. It has managed to keep the card itself incredibly cool though. The RTX 3090 never peaked above 70 degrees Celsius in any of my testings at its stock settings, while also providing passive and silent cooling when idle.
Noise levels under load can be slightly bothersome, however. The RTX 3090 is a quiet card most of the time, with only the noise of moving air kicking up the decibels as soon as you start stressing it. In some sustained cases the card did kick its fans up to its highest settings, which did result in a lot of noise. The cause of this was perplexing, however, as the reported core temperature was regularly below 70 degrees in these instances. This suggests another component in the card getting hotter than is usual, triggering the high fan curve. But without sensors on anything other than the core, it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what it might be.
Given the hardware obscured by the giant heatsinks and twin fans, and the colossal 350W TDP, it’s quite impressive that Nvidia’s cooling does work as well as it does. This is Ampere unhindered, with a base clock speed of 1395MHz, boosting up to and beyond 1800MHz in most cases. That’s a touch lower than the RTX 3080, but with more Tensor cores (328), RT cores (82), and CUDA cores (10496), it has much more to offer on paper. Couple that with a massive 24GB of GDDR6X memory (compared to the 10GB on the RTX 3080Ti), a wider 384-bit memory bus, and a theoretical 6 TFlops more computing performance, and it’s easy to see why the RTX 3090 might have once worn the Titan name in any previous generation.
All of this gives the RTX 3090 nearly 20% more potential performance in games, according to Nvidia, but the results don’t always show it. The VRAM, for example, is hardly stressed in modern games, and it will be difficult to find anything below native 8K rendering that really starts stressing it. That means that at even 4K, the RTX 3090 is relying on its memory bus speeds (at least until resizeable BAR support) and raw clock counts to deliver better framerate, which doesn’t always translate into the performance boost you’d expect from the retail prices.
That isn’t to say performance is disappointing. Far from it, in fact, as the RTX 3080 alluded to in our previous review. The Ampere architecture allows for massive performance leaps in both traditional rasterization workloads and even more impressive leaps when stressing the cards RT cores, both of which can be clearly seen in the benchmarks below.
Testing Setup:
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X (clocked to 4.6GHz)
MSI Mortar B550M Motherboard
32GB Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz CL16 RAM
Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler
2 x 140mm Noctua NF-A14 Intake, 2 x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A exhaust
Fractal Design Meshify C Chassis
When buying into an Nvidia card, rasterized performance is only part of the picture. DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, is an exclusive feature that the company has been making good use of on its RTX cards, and the RTX 3090 is no exception. Looking at taxing workloads at 4K in Control and Cyberpunk 2077, it’s clear how DLSS can turn playable but sub-optimal framerates into extremely smoothed out experiences, especially if paired with a monitor that supports G-Sync in some capacity (either hardware or software wise).
When stacked up against the RTX 2080Ti, Nvidia’s flagship from the last generation, it’s immediately clear how big a stride forward Ampere is. Especially when you consider the $1200 price of the RTX 2080Ti (which has already been brutally undercut by the RTX 3080), even the value proposition between it and the RTX 3090 is a no-brainer. Locally the price disparity between the two is far more profound (on average a premium for R20,000 for the RTX 3090) the performance benefits you’re getting outside of the non-gaming capabilities make for a far more compelling argument.
If you are just looking for gaming performance, the discussion leaves behind the RTX 2080Ti but becomes more challenging within the Ampere line-up. Looking at the results below there’s no question that the RTX 3090 is better across the board, but the degree of its edge brings into focus its price. The RTX 3080 is a stellar card, perhaps only letdown slightly but its 10GB of VRAM as opposed to the 24GB in the RTX 3090. But in real-world gaming performance right now that doesn’t translate to a massive difference, which makes the RTX 3080 a much smarter choice if that is your only use case.
To round things out, the RTX 3090 just chews through synthetic benchmarks, even the most grueling ones offered up by 3DMark.
It’s also a pity that Nvidia does not stock the Founders Edition locally, but if you’re able to get your hands on one it’s unlikely you’ll find a more clean and pristinely designed GPU to act as a showpiece for your build. It might come at the expense of the most optimal cooling, handled by sheer airflow force in other cards, but the innovative new design that Nvidia has introduced with the RTX 30-series line of Founders Editions helps make these cards much cooler and quieter than any before. Even if it’s still not as quiet as it could be when under intense stress.
