Virtuix Omni

Virtuix Omni
Basic Info
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Type	Input Device
Subtype	Feet Tracking, Locomotion
Creator	Jan Goetgeluk
Developer	Virtuix
Release Date	December 2015 (first unit delivered); mass-produced units reached the United States in fall 2016
Price	$699 (pre-order price from 1 February 2015 until 10 October 2016)
Website	https://virtuix.com/omni-pro
Versions	Omni (consumer), Omni Pro (commercial), Omni 2.0 (used in the VR Arena / Omni Arena attraction)
Successor	Virtuix Omni One
Device
Sensors	IMU-based tracking pods attached to the shoes (production model)

Virtuix Omni is an omnidirectional treadmill Input Device for Virtual Reality. It is developed by Virtuix. The Omni tracks the movement of the user's feet on a treadmill-like surface. Users can walk or run on the Omni treadmill and have their movements reflected within a VR game or world. The device has a low-friction concave platform, shoes with low-friction pads, and a support ring and harness that keep the user upright.

Omni completed a successful Kickstarter campaign in July 2013. Virtuix founder Jan Goetgeluk began developing the treadmill in 2011. The Kickstarter campaign ran from 4 June to 22 July 2013 and raised US$1.1 million against a goal of US$150,000. Deliveries were planned for January 2014, but the first unit was not hand-delivered until December 2015, and mass-produced units did not reach the United States until fall 2016.

In 2016 Virtuix shifted its focus from consumers to commercial venues such as VR arcades, and in December 2016 it cancelled its international consumer pre-orders. The company sells the commercial version as the Omni Pro and says it has shipped more than 4,000 Omni Pro units, installed in more than 500 entertainment venues in 45 countries. Its consumer successor, the Virtuix Omni One, was announced in October 2020.

Reviewed 27 September 2026. Checked the lead, infobox dates and prices, and every History and Features claim against the 15 cited sources (Road to VR, Tom's Hardware, TechCrunch, GamesBeat, AllThingsD, Vending Times, Virtuix pages, SEC offering circular). About review dates.

History

Prototype and Kickstarter

Goetgeluk worked on the Omni at night while employed as an investment banker in J.P. Morgan's natural resources group, and put his life savings into developing it over three years, according to TechCrunch. Palmer Luckey of Oculus VR and others tried the Omni at SXSW in Austin in March 2013, and Luckey agreed to endorse the Kickstarter campaign. Road to VR reported in April 2013 that Goetgeluk had tested the Omni with an Oculus Rift developer kit for the first time, and described the Omni, the Rift and a hand controller such as the Razer Hydra as a combination that could make immersive VR affordable for consumers.

TechCrunch reported that the campaign drew 3,000 backers. During the campaign, the "Omni All-In" package (treadmill, rack, one belt strap and one pair of shoes) cost US$539. Road to VR reported that early-bird pricing started at US$349. Virtuix opened pre-orders in August 2013. AllThingsD reported that month that a single unit cost US$500 and a two-unit pack US$1,019, with delivery estimated for March 2014.

Goetgeluk presented the Omni on season 5, episode 11 of the television show Shark Tank, asking for US$2 million for a 10% stake, and left without a deal. Mark Cuban, who had turned it down on the show, later joined a US$3 million seed round announced in April 2014 alongside Tekton Ventures (Partech), Maveron, Scout Ventures, StartCaps Ventures and other investors.

Production and delivery

At CES in January 2015 Virtuix showed the production design. It replaced the prototype's capacitive tracking with IMU-based tracking pods on the shoes, added a height-adjustable safety ring and a redesigned harness, and was easier to collapse for storage. At the time, pre-orders cost US$499, rising to US$699 on 1 February 2015. In November 2015 Virtuix demonstrated the Omni with the HTC Vive, whose Lighthouse tracking let players walk in one direction while looking and aiming in another.

Virtuix delivered the first Omni in December 2015 to Fred Wood, a backer who had supported the campaign on its first day, and planned to deliver 50 more units to early backers and partners in January 2016. From late 2015 Virtuix shipped pre-production units to a select group of "Pathfinder" testers to finalize the production version. In July 2016 Virtuix sent the first 35 units from its high-volume production line to early backers, and in September 2016 the first shipment of production units left the assembly facility in China for the United States. Virtuix then announced it would move from pre-orders to a build-to-stock model with a higher price from 10 October 2016.

In December 2016 Virtuix cancelled its international pre-orders and refunded those customers with 3% interest per year, compounded monthly. The company said shipping the device in its large wooden pallet box (about 80 kg), international regulatory compliance and global parts support were too costly for a small U.S. startup; Virtuix also said the Omni's production cost had grown to more than three times its initial estimate. In August 2017 Virtuix announced that it had finished shipping to Kickstarter backers, more than 3,200 Omni units in total, and had started delivering to U.S. pre-order customers.

Commercial focus

By 2017 Virtuix was aiming the Omni at out-of-home venues such as VR arcades. In April 2017 it became a hardware partner of HTC and announced native Omni support in Arizona Sunshine, The Bellows and Quell 4D. Virtuix stopped international consumer sales but continued to supply commercial installations abroad through distributors, including Nous GmbH in Germany, Immersion Motion Solutions in France and Ortombo in Turkey. Virtuix says it moved toward commercial venues in 2016 and made the Omni Pro its flagship product.

In November 2018 Virtuix and Funovation announced VR Arena, a four-player esports attraction built around four Omni 2.0 platforms, for demonstration at the IAAPA Attractions Expo in Orlando (13-16 November 2018). It occupied 375 square feet (35 square meters), was designed for one attendant per four players, and had a US$50,000 annual prize pool for weekly and monthly contests. At that time Virtuix said it had deployed more than 3,000 Omni systems to over 500 venues in 45 countries, with 18 games on its Omniverse content platform. Virtuix now calls the attraction Omni Arena. TechCrunch reported in April 2023 that Virtuix had sold about 70 Omni Arena units to U.S. arcades.

Warner Bros. obtained two Omni units for Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of Ready Player One. Goetgeluk told TechCrunch they "were used as the model for the CGI in the movie."

Successor

Virtuix announced the Omni One in October 2020 as its return to the home market. Unlike the Omni Pro, it has no support ring around the user's waist, which lets players crouch, kneel and jump. TechCrunch reported in April 2023 that the Omni One was ready to ship at US$2,595 with a bundled headset.

Features

• The Virtuix Omni is a "slip-mill," a passive treadmill that has no moving parts except for the player and functions by making the player's feet slip back to the center with every step. It requires specialized shoes with a couple of large slippery nubs on the bottom.

Virtuix's 2016 offering circular describes a proprietary low-friction concave platform, footwear with proprietary low-friction pads, and a support ring with an untethered support harness for safety during fast movement. It lists compatibility with PC-based and mobile headsets, including the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR. In 2013 AllThingsD described the Kickstarter-era design as four feet tall and 110 pounds. It turned walking, running, jumping and crouching into in-game movement for PC games that use keyboard input.

The production model tracks the user's feet with wireless IMU-based pods clipped onto the shoes. These pods replaced the capacitive tracking used on earlier prototypes. At CES 2015 Virtuix demonstrated analog speed for the first time, so that faster running in real life produced faster movement in the game. With a headset such as the HTC Vive, head and hand tracking are separate from foot tracking, so users can move in one direction while looking or aiming in another.

See also

• Virtuix Omni One
• Omnidirectional treadmill
• KAT VR
• Cyberith Virtualizer
• Infinadeck