Valve Index - New VR headset to go on sale in May

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AerialShorts
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Valve Index - New VR headset to go on sale in May

Post by AerialShorts »

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/ ... -may-2019/

And that’s all that Valve has really said officially but a lot of other stuff is "probable".

It’s probably going to have high resolution RGB LCD displays (2160x2432) from Japan Display (https://www.j-display.com/english/news/ ... 80510.html). For comparison, the Rift and Vive are 1080x1200 pentile OLED per eye and the Vive Pro/Samsung Odyssey are 1440x1600 per eye - also pentile OLED. Basically a bit more increase than the jump from Rift/Vive to Pro/Odyssey but even more because pentile pixels aren’t quite the same as RGB. RGB is "better". Index also has a significantly wider field of view. So what you get in raw pixel count, you lose some of that back because they are spread over a wider field of view to give even more feeling like real life because of the peripheral vision.

The Index could be the headset we’ve been waiting for and that gets us both the field of view and resolution to take flying in VR to the next level.

And there’s lots more that falls out from higher resolution like 20 series cards possibly being a requirement, etc. Price isn’t announced but this will be another cutting edge headset like they all have been. Valve will maybe want to keep prices down but I just don’t see how it will be low(ish) cost like the gen 1 Rift/Vive. It’s going to be a performance headset so the computer requirements stand to be at least a fair amount more than what is recommended as minimum for Rift/Vive.

But maybe there will be some surprises. Built-in eye tracking for foveated rendering has been rumored but that opens questions about how long before it’s well supported in apps we all run if devs have to accomodate it. But that could help control compute requirements and maybe even the need to use a 20 series VirtualLink port. The front cameras are for AR or hand tracking (maybe both?) And either would also be nifty. Some suspect they are for inside-out tracking but the headset does seem to have lenses for Lighthouse tracking. Maybe that will also be a both, but I am thinking AR and/or hand tracking are more likely. But we’ll find out soon enough.

Lots of questions but this could be a really big deal for VR folks.
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Re: Valve Index - New VR headset to go on sale in May

Post by MarcE »

Sounds promising. However the best headset won‘t help as long as LM doesn‘t make massive steps forward in VR.

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Re: Valve Index - New VR headset to go on sale in May

Post by Lewis - A2A »

Hanging tight to hear the specs, the current gen I find are fine for a lot of things because the immersion out weighs pixel count by quite the margin, but for sure for flight sim in particular it'd be nice to have a higher res. Fingers crossed its not announced and stupidly expensive like vive Pro expensive.
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Re: Valve Index - New VR headset to go on sale in May

Post by Tutmeister »

Yep really looking forward to the specs. Currently am waiting for the rift s as that is rgb with increased resolution and 5 cameras for tracking and only £399. After experiencing inside out tracking with the wmr stuff I can’t wait to upgrade my rift to the new one. If it does come out with a higher resolution then great but so far nothing to indicate that it will be 1000ppi yet. Hopefully they will give us some specs before the new rift comes out so we can decide if we should wait or not.
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Re: Valve Index - New VR headset to go on sale in May

Post by Lewis - A2A »

What will you be going from to the S as the S doesnt seem a whorthwhile upgrade is the feeling and impression everyone seems to have.
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Re: Valve Index - New VR headset to go on sale in May

Post by Tutmeister »

Rift to Rift s as it has better resolution and inside out tracking.
I've been using a wmr and laptop for ease of transport and keeping the rift for home use. The ability to set up a laptop and let someone just pick the headset up and stick it on is great. No need to set up sensors. I literally had someone flying the spitfire in vr in a couple of minutes, most of which was loading p3d! The wmr I have is just the Acer one and really lacks in build quality and finish compared to my rift so that and the 5 camera tracking and the rift hand controllers instead of the wmr ones it was a no brainer.
However today valve announced pre order from may and shipping from mid June and I've just seen a video of the new valve index controllers (final version knuckles) in use. Anyone would be stupid to buy a rift s until they have seen the reviews of the index and associated controllers. I guess I'll have to wait til summer now!
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Re: Valve Index - New VR headset to go on sale in May

Post by AerialShorts »

Some more information that kind of muddies the waters about Index that may be of interest...

The "reveal" and preorders opening for Index is set for May 1 - apparently the day after F8. Deliveries are set for mid-June but as always, take that with a grain of salt. No pricing information yet but apparently there will be bundles of different sorts.

There were various iterations of Steampowered store pages that would appear and disappear April 1st that Valve verified were accurate but added that they were incomplete. The incomplete part is probably important.

Here’s the archived page in question: https://web.archive.org/web/20190401193 ... set/?cc=us

What was on the pages were minimum and recommended specs to run it - minimum being a 970/RX480 and a dual core hyperthreading CPU and recommended being a 1070 or better and a quad core CPU.

Those both seem very low for the initially rumored 2160x2432 RGB TFT LCD panel that JDI said in the press release (link in OP) from last May. It seemed like the panels rumored would also force eye tracking and foveated rendering but now speculation has turned to some kind of upscaling, possibly happening in the headset, possibly on the video card though the low minimums might indicate there is magic on the headset to offload the video card. Pretty much all Blu-Ray players do it with DVDs and that would keep bandwidth low and in the HDMI/single DP range instead of VirtualLink (which 970/1070 don’t even have). The interface spec on the store page that Valve said was accurate but incomplete is DP 1.2 and USB 3.0.

So now it seems the Index is quite a question. Where there was fair confidence in what panels, now there are questions. It may not be as high of resolution as many hoped, or maybe it is. High resolution panels can display low resolution images. And maybe there will be options on cable sets (DP 1.2/USB 3 -or- VirtualLink) that unlock higher resolutions since VirtualLink can go there.

A different web page version also listed "a new tracking method" as a feature so maybe those cameras on the front are for inside-out, but importantly, there was also a Steam product page index for Lighthouse base stations. Maybe it can do both or one augments the other.

There's really more questions now than there were before at least for me. It could end up not being the gen 2 many were hoping for, or maybe it’s a bridge to gen 2. The Vive Pro Eye is about to hit with eye tracking for foveated rendering so hopefully Index will do that too to help get that support going. It’s hard to imaging anyone introducing an also-ran headset at the low or even the mid tier. The secret sauce in the Valve headset may be the ability to be adapted to what user's computers are able to do. That would also encourage users to upgrade computers and parts if all it required to up the headset experience was that and a new cable. What does seem likely, though, are the stacked lenses for less artifacts and wider field of view and an angular pixel resolution at least the same or similar as the Vive Pro which would still generally be considered a worthy upgrade.

It’s all speculation right now and kind of frustrating. We may just have to wait for May 1. I'm less enthusiastic but still hopeful. I really don’t see Valve going through all the trouble to just sell something already available even if it is at the price of Vive Pro or whatever Vive Pro Eye will cost.
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