Valve Index reveal: The best of VR's first generation-but is it worth $ 999?

BELLEVUE, Washington-The Valve Index, a new virtual reality system from the creators of video games like Half-Life and Portal and the mega-popular Steam game store, is an aspirational product. Valve staffers, revolves around the VR experience of tomorrow.

Headset specs
	Valve Index	HTC Vive Pro
Display	2880 × 1600 (1440 × 1600 per eye) Fast-switching LCD panels	2880 × 1600 (1440 × 1600 per eye) AMOLED panel
Refresh rate	90Hz, 120Hz, or 144Hz	90Hz
Field of view	130 degrees with integrated FOV "eye relief" knob	110 degrees
audio	Near-field off-ear speakers with 3D directional audio support; built-in microphone	Integrated adjustable earcups with 3D directional audio support; built-in microphone
PC connection	Custom single-piece cable	Custom single-piece cable with PC junction box
Optional Bundled Accessories	Two wireless motion-tracked controllers with rechargeable batteries, two SteamVR 2.0 room-scale tracking stations	Two wireless motion-tracked controllers with rechargeable 960mAh batteries, two SteamVR 1.0 room-scale tracking stations
modularity	Front trunk ("frunk") expansion port with USB 3.0 connector; front-facing stereo cameras	Front-facing stereo cameras
Price	$ 499 ($ ​​999 with two tracking stations, two controllers)	$ 799 ($ ​​1,099 with two tracking stations, two controllers)

That's a nice way of saying that Valve is going for features and dreams rather than affordability with its $ 999 Valve Index kit, which ships "by the end of June" after "limited" pre-orders go live "in May" for users in the contiguous US and most of Western Europe (the UK is left out for now).

But through the race of Valve's reveal event, its aspirations for VR's future has become abundantly clear-and abundantly conservative. If you saw last month's news about Valve's VR headset and dreaming big, today is the day to scale those dreams back.

The Valve Index does not read your brain waves, does not track your heart rate, and does not track your eyeballs' motion. The Valve Index does not innovate with an "inside-out" tracking system. It does not include an array of secret cameras or does not allow you to use sound waves via hidden or embedded speakers. The Valve Index does not use a shrunken, "infinite pixel" panel or come with a revolutionary new take on foveated rendering. The Valve Index does not include a built-in processing unit. It must be connected to a gaming-caliber PC with a long cord trailing from the back of your head.

Also, the Index is not a new video game. We learned in February 2017 that three Valve VR games are on their way, but this week's index was not used to premiere any of them. In fact, that's bad news: only one Valve VR game is slated to launch by the end of 2019, and we did not get to see or test it. (For better or worse, this game will not be an exclusive index.) Valve's Doug Lombardi says there's "no announcement" on the other two games "at this time."

So what is Valve's big aspiration for the future of VR as far as the Index is concerned? The answer is long-term comfort. In Valve's Eyes, that goal does not include any of the following features, such as reducing the clutter of an average PC-VR experience, dropping the price, optimizing performance with eye-tracking systems, or liberating users with true, cordless freedom. Valve wants to convince us that they are going to get a $ 999 price point in 2019 and it delivers $ 999 worth of quality in 2019.

"Oftentimes with virtual reality, people want to say what is 'good enough,'" one Valve representative said during an informal Q & A. "And their sample size for 'good enough' is five minutes [of VR use]. One of the driving factors for our game teams, and externally for our partners, is that we want long-form VR experiences. "

Another Valve staffer interrupted, saying, "I do not use VR for 30 minutes a day. hours a day. This is where we ended up. What's good enough for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, is dramatically different than one hour, two hours. We think tracking, optics, displays, ergonomics, input fidelity, the comfort of your hands-all.

"They're all coefficients, too!" an engineer added. "They're all related."

But Valve did not have a complete index, a "long-form VR experience" (like, you know, an in-development Valve game), and a time to put that hypothesis to the test. Until that day, we're left with spec sheets and an odd series of hands-on, eyes-on impressions.

Field of view of dreams

Index of interesting elements are as follows: a pair of fast-switching, custom-made LCD panels, with a combined pixel resolution of 2880×1600; an increased field-of-view (FOV) compared to most VR headsets, up to 130 degrees; new handheld controllers, finally launching after years of public teases; a pair of floating, above-the-ear speakers; an empty front-of-headset compartment, which includes a USB 3.0 Type-A adapter and no promises of attachments to come; and a reliance on "lighthouse" tracking boxes already used HTC Vive. (We're also familiar with Vive VR territory with the dangling cable plugged into a gaming PC.)

Valve 's staffers described at length. Instead of a single OLED panel, Index comes with a pair of fast-switching LCDs that have been custom-fabricated with an emphasis on subpixel density. They have been seen to spread the visible VR FOV more than in any consumer-priced VR headset we've ever seen. And they are rated to run at incredibly high frame rates. In addition to the Vivid-like rate of 90Hz, the screens can clock up to 120Hz or 144Hz.

Most consumer-grade VR headsets use a single display panel, which is then translated by a pair of large, curved lenses. The Valve Index twists this convention by using a pair of LCD panels, each sporting a 1440×1600 resolution. That does not make them a combined 2880×1600 panel. Instead, the panels are loosely separated, then individually angled at a roughly 5 degree angle.

The result is a wider peripheral distribution by default, but the system also allows for a new type of slider. Valve insists that no matter what face shape or pair of glasses you bring to the Index, you can turn an "eye relief" knob to bring the Index of lenses as close to your face as comfortably possible, and the device does so in that way guarantees a greater effective FOV. After describing most FOV sales pitches as "dishonest" due to many users' faces or glasses obstructing that full FOV potential, Valve insists that its eye relief knob will guarantee a "20 degree" increase in FOV for all users compared to traditional "110- degree "systems.

In addition, Valve insists that its SteamVR platform will be adjusted to a different level of vision.

What does it mean for me? The demos are experienced on front-and-center content-likely because of the need to be compatible with other 110-degree headsets. No, it was a VR movie theater moment, where I almost sat down and watched 1080p movie trailers streamed directly from YouTube. That's not a great resolution to beam into a high-res VR headset, made worse by YouTube's compression. Yet I was taken aback by this video's full widescreen ratio, as opposed to being letterboxed into a tighter 16: 9 square.

I could see most of the virtual cinema screen, as if I was sitting in a comfortable real-life theater. I needed to glance a bit to the left or right side, but otherwise, I could comfortably take a giant image at all times. That is not how most VR headsets work. This time has been helping me realize how awesome it's been to go back to where I've been, and it's always moving my glances in direction to take a full movie-to-image ratio.