Zotac stuffed a PC into a backpack for untethered VR gaming

One of the biggest limitations around super high-powered virtual reality headsets is that they have to be tethered to some type of computer, which not only adds to the cost of the VR setup but limits mobility. Fortunately, computer hardware maker Zotac has come up with a solution: Mobile VR, a ZBOX mini-PC stuffed into a backpack.

"No longer will you need to worry about tripping over cables or tangling your legs up as you finish your graceful 360," the Zotac Mobile VR blog post reads. A YouTube demo video shows both the tethered VR experience and the untethered experience side-by-side. On the left, a man struggles to move around while wearing his headset. The wires, they are holding him back. On the right, another man wears the HTC Vive and uses its controllers with exceptional aplomb, because he is free. He wears a ZBOX mini-PC on his back, and all of the wires slither neatly from his headset into the backpack.

The Zotac Mobile VR backpack is equal parts brilliant and geektastic, a marriage of tech accessories like no other (backpack, meet headset). Zotac, which is based in Macau and offers a range of products, from graphics cards to mini-PCs to serious gaming rigs, didn't reveal many details about the Mobile VR backpack in the press release it put out. We don't know when it's coming out, how much it weighs, or how much it will cost. Will future generations simply have VR headsets wired to their spines? That we don't know either.

For now, however, Zotac is promising to take VR to the next level with a "truly mobile room-scale VR experience."