Pre-Order Vavle Index Tomorrow + More Info

[The Benjamins]

 

 

Quote

Valve today announced preorders and revealed the specs for its Index PC VR system. Index is not made in partnership with HTC, the company Valve first partneted with on the first SteamVR headset (Vive). It’s a first party product from Valve Corporation.

Index is a PC VR headset powered by the SteamVR platform. It should be compatible with all existing SteamVR games. However older titles may not be optimized for the Index Controllers as they were built with HTC controllers in mind.

Preorders are available tomorrow, and the product will ship some time in June. No games are listed as being included.

 

1440x1600 @ 120hz Per eye

130 FOV

$999 For the whole package (Headset, Controllers, Light Boxes)

 

https://store.steampowered.com/sub/354231/

https://uploadvr.com/valve-index-price-specs/

 

The Price for me is too high for me to get into VR, I am looking for s sub $500 solution. I am looking at the Rift S or the Vive Cosmos.

 

UPDATE:

 

 

10 hours ago, Keystone Nyan Cat said:

Source- https://store.steampowered.com/valveindex

 

 

Steam has a landing page up for their new VR headset and controller package, dubbed the "Valve Index". Pre-orders go live on May 1st, 2019 (tomorrow)

 

FEATURES

The headset features (price $499)-

• Dual Front cameras with pass-through (Valve says computer vision possibilities)
• 1440x1600 RGB LCD (not OLED) screens 
• 120Hz refresh rates, with an experimental 144Hz mode
• low persistence with reduced illumination period of 0.330ms to 0.530ms 
• 20° more FOV than the HTC Vive
• Canted optics- The headset’s displays cant outward by 5 degrees- improving the outer FOV.
• Built in no-ear-contact headset
• Quick-swap antimicrobian face pads

 

The controller features-

• 87 sensors to track hand position, finger position, motion, and pressure
• Squeeze-ability- The controller body is a grip input, with built-in force sensors
• Trackpad- The oval button on the face has force and capacitive sensors
• 7+ hour battery life (batteries don't appear user replaceable)
• Note- listed compatibility only for Vive, Vive Pro, and Valve Index headset

The base station features-

• Laser tracking at 100hz
• 7m range at 160º x 115º FOV
• Note- listed compatibility only for Vive Pro and Valve Index, NOT base Vive/Rift.

 

PRICING

There are 5 brackets/packages-

• $999- Entire Package (2x base station, controller, headset)
• $749- Headset + controller (backwards compatible with Vive/Vive Pro base stations)
• $499- Headset
• $279- Controller
• $149- Base Station

 

My take-This is competitive with the Vive Pro- but doesn't seem to "stand out" in a meaningful way. At over the twice the price of gen-1 VR headsets (Vive, Rift), and about $200 more expensive than the Vive Pro- I'm concerned about how well it will perform; this device is probably best intended for people already with VR headsets and disposable income to upgrade to try something with higher specs. It's also unknown if the controllers will work with the Rift at the moment. They're only listed as having support for the Vive and Index at the moment. Also, given the higher resolution + higher refresh rate- I'll be surprised if the minimum of a 970 will be able to drive this. I'll update this with more articles and content as I find it- I remember reading that Oculus said there's a reason why they're not going to "gen 2", and I think that'd be an interesting read to go along with this story.

 

Here's the article (RoadToVR)- on why Oculus says there isn't a Rift 2 or Pro yet- TL;DR is every VR user wants something different- higher resolution screens, full body tracking, wireless, etc.- these add costs, complicate things, or aren't cross-compatible (higher resolution + wireless); and when everything's included- the device will cost ~$3k. Oculus' goal is to bring as many people into VR with the Rift S as opposed to a Rift 2 that would make some people happy, but fragment development and consumers. They will launch a Rift 2 when they can bring costs down and when enough people have adopted VR and there are enough people ready to move onto a Gen 2.

 

[r2724r16]

9 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

$999 For the whole package (Headset, Controllers, Light Boxes)

That costs more than my PC 

[samcool55]

It's going to be interesting to compare this to a Vive.

Specs seem better, but i'm wondering it's worth the big premium price (Vive is where i live 600 euros, this one on pre-order is 1079).

[VanayadGaming]

uuuuu  this looks amazing. Let's see some reviews...and I might finally get one. Expensive, yes...but this would be the highest end VR headset out there. (refresh wise at least ... and I think that is truly important.)

[TOMPPIX]

almost all pc games for the last 10 years have been on steam, they are literally printing cash and now they shit out this expensive product.... disappointed.

279$ for 2 controllers, i am sure there is some very revolutionary and expensive hardware and software inside.

[Sakkura]

12 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

It's going to be interesting to compare this to a Vive.

Specs seem better, but i'm wondering it's worth the big premium price (Vive is where i live 600 euros, this one on pre-order is 1079).

This is not just better than the Vive, it's also better than the Vive Pro.

 

It looks like a fantastic VR solution... for those who can afford it.

 

This should kind of help explain why the Rift S had various tradeoffs that didn't impress people. Cutting-edge VR is expensive.

 

8 minutes ago, VanayadGaming said:

uuuuu  this looks amazing. Let's see some reviews...and I might finally get one. Expensive, yes...but this would be the highest end VR headset out there. (refresh wise at least ... and I think that is truly important.)

The refresh rate bump is not that important. The controllers are a much bigger deal.

[Drak3]

Now, if only there were enough good games to make buying one worth it.

[Sakkura]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

Now, if only there were enough good games to make buying one worth it.

There are a lot of good games. Valve has also said they were working on some, so they may have one or two big first-party launch titles.

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, Sakkura said:

There are a lot of good games.

There are some good games if we include tech demos. Not many, and certainly not enough for most people to jump into VR.

It's mostly shovelware.

[The Benjamins]

19 minutes ago, TOMPPIX said:

almost all pc games for the last 10 years have been on steam, they are literally printing cash and now they shit out this expensive product.... disappointed.

279$ for 2 controllers, i am sure there is some very revolutionary and expensive hardware and software inside.

The controller handle senses how far away your fingers are from the handle so the game can have full 5 finger tracking, so its not that crazy of a price knowing they are the only ones with that.

[Froody129]

34 minutes ago, r2724r16 said:

That costs more than my PC 

That costs more than my PC and my VR headset with controllers

[Suika]

My Vive's controllers are primarily why I don't play VR games a whole lot as it is, if those controllers are compatible with existing HTC Vive units, I'd love to snag them at some point.

 

The headset sounds nice but is just way too expensive to want to upgrade tbh, that kind of makes this a weird product. It's not cheap enough to suddenly want to get into, and it's too expensive and not enough improved to upgrade from older units... huh. Those controllers tho, still look nice.

[Sakkura]

9 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

There are some good games if we include tech demos. Not many, and certainly not enough for most people to jump into VR.

It's mostly shovelware. 

There are a lot of good games, excluding tech demos.

[Drak3]

Just now, Sakkura said:

There are a lot of good games, excluding tech demos.

No, there aren't. VR games are largely crap. What few good games there are, are typically short and basic.

[Sakkura]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

No, there aren't. VR games are largely crap. What few good games there are, are typically short and basic.

That just isn't true.

[Unixsystem]

4 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

No, there aren't. VR games are largely crap. What few good games there are, are typically short and basic.

VR works best for arcade style games that you play on short bursts. If you go in looking for a traditional AAA style experience, you're looking in the wrong place. I have >200 hours in my Oculus, the vast majority if which was in 30-60 minute sessions. 

 

That said, I have had a couple of 4+ hour marathons, but that only really works when you have an engaging multilayer game. Anything that's story focused is inherently badly suited for VR

[Drak3]

2 minutes ago, Waffles13 said:

VR works best for arcade style games that you play on short bursts

And even then, the selection good, or even acceptable games is pretty bad.

[PlayStation 2]

No major non-holiday TF2 updates for almost 600 days. Artifact has literally no players.

But ah, we should develop a VR headset! Good thinking, Valve. This totally won't turn out like the Steam Machines... and the Steam Controller... and the Steam Link.

[Blze001]

I do agree with Valve's focus on comfort, current headsets are only comfortable if you're what they consider normal, and even then it can be questionable for long periods.

[TVwazhere]

r/WaitForBenchmarks

[Fasauceome]

1 hour ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

No major non-holiday TF2 updates for almost 600 days

Not to mention, VR support was removed from tf2 at some point (perhaps inadvertently by a patch)

[Rune]

Interested in the $749 package. Must try to get one from work when they come out ._.

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, fasauceome said:

Not to mention, VR support was removed from tf2 at some point (perhaps inadvertently by a patch)

I wasn't really around back when Valve made a big deal about VR in TF2 but I think the option itself was simply removed from menus and not necessarily removed outright. I wanna say that, at the very least, the viewmodel option for what VR would use remains.

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

I wasn't really around back when Valve made a big deal about VR in TF2 but I think the option itself was simply removed from menus and not necessarily removed outright. I wanna say that, at the very least, the viewmodel option for what VR would use remains.

Actually it's the contrary, if you enable VR in the launch options, the menu is still there to switch to VR mode but it does nothing.

[sazrocks]

They said they were going to make the ideal premium vr solution first, then make it cheaper; I guess that’s what they did.