HTC has just announced it has now joined the VirtualLink consortium, with the movement pushing a new VR standard with a single USB-C connector that has already been deployed on NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX range of graphics cards.
AMD, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oculus and Valve are all part of the VirtualLink consortium, but there were eyebrows raised over HTC now being in the ranks. Daniel O'Brien, the GM of Vive in the US said that the company was "working to define not only a connection standard for future VR products but are also undertaking important work to help to define the future of what VR can be".
The news of HTC joining the VirtualLink consortium happened during the 2018 XRDC event held in San Francisco recently. VirtualLink, if you didn't already know, is a next-gen VR standard that will be capable of driving the entire VR experience (HMD, sensors, cameras) from a single USB-C cable. VirtualLink has enough bandwidth for four lanes of HBR3 DisplayPort, 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 for cameras and sensors, and 27W of power.