As much as we love the HTC Vive , we're still annoyed by the long, thick wire required to connect the VR headset to a PC tower ( backpack laptops notwithstanding ). A Bulgarian VR startup is promising a fix to the problem, though, saying that an untethered, wireless solution for the HTC Vive will be ready for demonstration sometime this fall.

Quark VR says it realized the importance of taking the Vive wireless after a public demo in Sofia, Bulgaria left most players "quite disturbed by the cables in their feet or above their head." From there, Quark met with Valve representatives during a recent stay at a Silicon Valley incubator, and the company says Valve was "more than happy to cooperate with us on the task... we’re incredibly happy the guys from Valve are so open to cooperation and improving their amazing creation." (A Valve representative was not immediately available to comment).

Quark's setup isn't entirely "wireless," if you want to get technical about it. There's still a large wire running from the headset to a small transmitter "gadget" that sits in the user's pocket. Quibbling over wording misses the point, though, which is that this prototype means no more worries about tripping over, twisting, or pulling the cables out of the computer as you walk and turn around your VR room.

If there's one reason to be a bit skeptical of Quark's efforts at this point, it's the fact that their wireless solution uses Wi-Fi. Sure, an in-home Wi-Fi network might do a decent job streaming a PS4 game running in another room, but producing convincing VR is another matter entirely. To avoid nauseating VR latency, your networking hardware will have to wirelessly stream a 2160x1200 image at 90fps, while also responding as quickly as possible to positional and angle data sent by the headset and its wireless controllers.

In its announcement, Quark acknowledges that "getting the experience to feel seamless through Wi-Fi, keeping in mind the inevitable connection delay, was a huge challenge." That said, the company insists it's "getting extremely close to being able to show it in action!"

We're certainly hopeful that they can pull it off, since removing the bulky connection to the high-end PC tower will definitely be a big factor in making room-scale VR more appealing to potential users. Next up, maybe we can do something about the price and bulky form factor of these PC headsets...