-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Valve Index Available June 28 ($499.99 VR Headset Only, $749.99 Headset + Controllers, $999.99 Headset + Controllers + Base Stations)
- Thread starter Schierke Mori
- Start date
Price is whatever but I need wireless. My TPCast has been such a massive improvement for my Vive... I'm not going back. C'mon guys...
Hmm, a bit more expensive than I'd hoped. Will be interesting to se Rift S and how it compares since it's probably around half the price.
Considering the tech, the price is worth it, but still eye-watering. I mean, sure, there are headsets for half the price, but they're nowhere near as awesome as this.
You get what you pay for, and right now VR is super expensive technology. If $1000 is too much for VR, Oculus has more consumer friendly products. Valve's approach seems to be pushing the boundaries, making a high tier for Steam VR devices, and that's fine.
Personally speaking, I can't afford it. I want to, but there's no way I can justify it. Looks like it's Rift S for me when I get into PCVR.
You get what you pay for, and right now VR is super expensive technology. If $1000 is too much for VR, Oculus has more consumer friendly products. Valve's approach seems to be pushing the boundaries, making a high tier for Steam VR devices, and that's fine.
Personally speaking, I can't afford it. I want to, but there's no way I can justify it. Looks like it's Rift S for me when I get into PCVR.
I hate to break it to you, but you'll need to buy the lighthouses too. So it'll cost 580 dollars (plus the cost of Steam controller USB dongles).
You can use Vive/Knuckles with WMR. You just need the controllers, lighthouses, and a couple Steam controller dongles (for the USB data transmission).
EDIT: You could try and find a deal on used lighthouses, but it still won't be a cheap proposition.
As an upgrade I wouldn't be sure either. The interactions with the controller won't translate very well to the other controllers. The headset on the other hand, I'd be tempted to stick with the Vive / Vive Pro. For me though, I can splurge easily and the investment will justify itself. I've been working with Vives, but haven''t needed to own one. Now looks like the right time to step in. Good speced headset, reasonable price (though questionable on the base station price), tons of good games to get. A valve title on the way is nice icing, but it sounds like (unsurprisingly) it may not launch along side the headset - which wouldn't surprise me if they missed their intended timeframe
Definitely more than I'd hoped, but that was kinda expected
After seeing what SL0 is doing though, I need to check out VR, and I definitely need to try the knucle controllers out
After seeing what SL0 is doing though, I need to check out VR, and I definitely need to try the knucle controllers out
It's a hilarious set of comments from folks who never had an intention of even participating in this end of the spectrum. At least there are very well justified comments from others on this topic whether for or against.
This didn't fit into my Ars impressions article, but I wanted to highlight it for VR's biggest dreamers at ERA:
This is the hardest part to see the advantage for. Accuracy is already great with V1, you get extra range and reduced interference with V2, but I would have thought changing to single rotor would have been a significant saving on BOM... apparently not though
Except you remain completely wrong. PCVR Sales are following level predicted by each platform holder, engine vendors and hardware teams.... all except analysts (surprise surprise)
And you continue to completely ignore the breadth of variety of VR hardware on PC.
This is what really gets me about the whole release. Valve stated somewhere that the new basestations were around 60 dollars or so to manufacture and would sell to OEM's around that price. Asking for more than double that for a single unit is just wrong. The full package should've been 150 dollars less.
Same. The fact they didn't even mention the possibility of an add on down the road has me so bummed. Who knows how far out one could be at this point.
Well its a question I'd be interested to see Valve answer, and to clarify whether they are selling near cost or making a profit from the hardware.
Maybe it's a bandwidth thing? Does the TPCast have more bandwidth than the official add-on? Somebody made a really detailed breakdown of the official adapter on Reddit a week or so ago. The official adapter is decidedly low bandwidth. Which probably explains why a lot of Vive Pro users complain about artifacting. Now take that resolution and go to 120 or 144hz and it gets even worse. I'd imagine it's a very difficult thing with current tech.
Yeah, I too find most of what valve says these days are empty, but I still hold hope they have valid reasons behind their actions sometimes even though it may always be clear. To me as a company, even though we get those articles about how valve structure could be chaotic and not managed properly, they are a company that spends a lot of time experimenting and pushing things. Of course, that doesn't mean they always succeed (steam machines), but their try everything approach always feels nice to see, and always tries to benifit the PC community.
It does definitely seem like a failure that they didn't release a more consumer friendly price. Facebook/Oculus has properly entered that market and are really pushing for it. I guess that means Valve's intention is to currently still be in the high-end side of things. I do hope the Inside-out tracking doesn't die as I really believe that's the best technology for the best VR.
I've been trying to imagine really what next gen VR looks like. Reading the impressions it seems like a huge improvement already over Vive, and as expected its all in the range of resolution/refresh rate/FOV -> Fidelity. Is that what next gen about? If so, then until I experience it fully then I will never understand.
I'd be perfectly okay with wireless being limited to 90hz.
Is the Index's resolution that much higher than the Vive pro?
My first thought is to mount a pair of (lightweight!) 120mm case fans in front of the thing and have them ramp up based on velocity / turning, would be awesome!
That's the only reason I can think of. I'm just going to be extremely sad if we have to wait another year or two before we can get it for Index. That's more important to me (and literally everyone who's tried my Vive before and after I got the TPCast) than a higher refresh rate at the moment.
Yeah, same. I'll even take a bit of a resolution hit. The fact is when people come over to play Beat Saber (or hell, when I do) and I give them the option of a slightly higher resolution/fov and a higher refresh rate with a wire attached, or something that takes a hit to all those specs but is wireless, they're probably going to go with the wireless option.
Same resolution. Just the 90 vs 120/144 and the fact the official adapter doesn't really handle Vive Pro all that great.
Yeah this is terrible on Valve's part. I think Ars has mentions US and "western Europe" with uncertainty on UK.
Store page access might be the best indicator of current status as well as SteamDB, which indicates UK, EU, Poland and US
Who knows though. They really need an FAQ for these sorts of things
VR sales will "continue to suffer" (they haven't been suffering) because one company offers a higher-priced high end product? Your logic seems odd to me.
I'd guess that the headset itself is probably basically breaking even, and that they are making a bit of money with the base stations.
Price is a bit higher than I expected, I was thinking €700-800 for a kit. Specs and impressions on the headset itself are also a lot better, I definitely didn't expect more than 90Hz and the impressions on both display and audio quality make it sound like a sizeable upgrade even from the Vive Pro, so it seems justified. I'll be pre-ordering day 1 to replace my aging Vive.
If you subtract VAT it's €900, which in today's USD is $1010. And it has double the warranty length.
If you subtract VAT it's €900, which in today's USD is $1010. And it has double the warranty length.
Double the warranty and nice health insurance to go with the VAT. As an American, I'd happily make that trade.
I wonder if there will be a more splashy launch tomorrow or they'll just update the page to take pre-orders? I was hoping for a cool YouTube video... maybe a surprise game teaser too...
I think they're leaving that for third parties. The UploadVR web breakdown and the Tested impressions on Youtube are both well worth checking out.
Thanks, I'll check this out. Been out most of the day so I've missed a lot... Figures.
Now we're talking.
I was hoping for a $700-800 price point for the index ... $999, hmmm. I mean, I WANT it - but I'd want a crazy good VR game first before I make the plunge.
You absolutely can compare similar products from multiple vendors, and often align then with generations of hardware. Not always, but I feel fairly safe to do so here.
The headset without anything else (controllers, base station) costs $500. I have no problem with that if it's bringing some fresh things to the table, but by itself, it seems very similar to existing products on the market. Valve's been talked up a lot for their VR experimentation over the years, so it's disappointing that there isn't something strikingly fresh and unique about this. The ear cups, perhaps, and they've obviously put great pains into improving the optics, which I grant is obviously a major focus of VR. But yes, I wanted a hook. I don't want to keep getting slightly better Vives for the next 10 years. I'd hoped Valve would bring a little more to the table.
Hyperbole... I'm not asking for "every single peripheral". I'm asking for something that justifies why that big empty spot is there. Did they just have the space in the design and figured "why not"? I know they said it's for tinkerers, but it just seems awfully elaborate for that. It's weird that they don't have anything for it themselves.
And wireless is clearly a big deal to VR users. That's not a "nothing" subject. I expected Valve to have some kind of solution out of the gate, even if it was optional and partnered with another company.
The refresh rate and the new backlight persistence numbers are a pretty big deal.
There will be less eye strain for a start, this thing has the potential to be much more comfortable on the eyes overall, as long as the lenses don't get in the way.
That's not just 144hz, that's 144hz low persistence. ULMB, Lightboost, whatever the heck else you want to call it. This will be amazing for Racing games and character focused narrative games with subtle movements. This shit is going to be clean as hell.
Going down the list of common refresh rates, rounded down:
144hz=~6.94 ms (Index)
120hz=~8.33 ms (Index, PSVR - only a few games support 120fps@120hz, i.e. Fantastic Contraption on Pro)
90hz=~11.1 ms (Most other PCVR, WMR Headsets)
82-85hz= ~11.76~12.19 (Pimax 5k BE/XR)
80hz=12.5 ms (Rift S, Pimax 8k)
72hz=~13.88 ms (Oculus Quest, Oculus Go higher bound)
70hz=~14.28 ms (XTAL)
60hz=~16.67 ms (Gear VR, Oculus Go lower bound)
This is distinct/independent from controller/headset tracking. The Vive's specs are:
1000hz IMU measurement (1ms)
500hz transmission (2ms, every other hz basically)
60hz correction (16.67ms)
Additional software prediction done by Steam VR. Beatsaber players out performed this correction, so it was improved recently.
As a minor side effect of this upgrade (pretty much just these 2 games, them being PS2 ports and all):
There will be less eye strain for a start, this thing has the potential to be much more comfortable on the eyes overall, as long as the lenses don't get in the way.
That's not just 144hz, that's 144hz low persistence. ULMB, Lightboost, whatever the heck else you want to call it. This will be amazing for Racing games and character focused narrative games with subtle movements. This shit is going to be clean as hell.
Going down the list of common refresh rates, rounded down:
144hz=~6.94 ms (Index)
120hz=~8.33 ms (Index, PSVR - only a few games support 120fps@120hz, i.e. Fantastic Contraption on Pro)
90hz=~11.1 ms (Most other PCVR, WMR Headsets)
82-85hz= ~11.76~12.19 (Pimax 5k BE/XR)
80hz=12.5 ms (Rift S, Pimax 8k)
72hz=~13.88 ms (Oculus Quest, Oculus Go higher bound)
70hz=~14.28 ms (XTAL)
60hz=~16.67 ms (Gear VR, Oculus Go lower bound)
This is distinct/independent from controller/headset tracking. The Vive's specs are:
1000hz IMU measurement (1ms)
500hz transmission (2ms, every other hz basically)
60hz correction (16.67ms)
Additional software prediction done by Steam VR. Beatsaber players out performed this correction, so it was improved recently.
As a minor side effect of this upgrade (pretty much just these 2 games, them being PS2 ports and all):
- REZ Infinite (the base game) won't stutter from being forced to run at 90hz/60fps anymore! Area X should be fine already.
- ZOE2: MARS VR could also run at 120hz/60fps now and not break anything, but the jury's out on that - the port is weird and it currently runs 45fps/90hz for me on Vive, while other people haven't had problems (???).
Last edited:
Honestly, you'll probably be pretty happy with the Quest. It'll be a huge step up from the Gear VR and have all the same freedoms of it.
Yeah, no way did I think it would be $1000 for the package without some big feature nothing else had. The refresh rate doesn't seem enough to justify the price.
I honestly can't get across how unappealing this pricing is, considering my expectation that the goal would be a more mainstream product.
Having base stations at all makes this unlikely to enter my home. Valve feels like a company I have very little reason to give the benefit of the doubt this decade. Fingers crossed this has the lasting power to work its way into a broader growth role, rather than landing for enthusiasts (at best).
Having base stations at all makes this unlikely to enter my home. Valve feels like a company I have very little reason to give the benefit of the doubt this decade. Fingers crossed this has the lasting power to work its way into a broader growth role, rather than landing for enthusiasts (at best).
Last edited:
That doesn't even matter tbh. The knuckles represent the biggest jump in VR tech for me yet. Oculus touch controllers are head and shoulders above standard Vive for me. But even standard Vive controllers put my moves to shame. Knuckles are the real deal.