Valve today confirmed to Road to VR that the company is planning a full reveal of Index on May 1st, accompanied by pre-order availability of both the headset and Knuckles controllers. The company says the actual release date of the headset and controllers will come some time in June.

Update (April 1st, 2019 – 2:16PM PT): Following the leak of the Steam product page for the Valve Index headset (detailed below), a spokesperson for Valve tells Road to VR that the information “while not comprehensive, is accurate.” The spokesperson also said that the company is targeting May 1st for a full reveal of the headset which will include pre-orders, with shipping planned some time in June (though the exact date is not yet confirmed). Knuckles will also be sold alongside Index, and Valve plans to call them “Valve Index Controllers” going forward.

Original Article (April 1st, 2019): Last week’s teaser reveal of the Valve Index headset came with very little information save for a single picture of the bottom of the headset with a tagline “Upgrade your experience. May 2019.” Now, an apparently leaked Steam product page reveals a new rendering of the headset and a release date of June 15th.

Twitter user Wario64 appears to have uncovered an official Steam product page for Valve’s Index headset; though the page has already been taken down, screenshots remain. As it’s April 1st, we’re on full alert for jokes and outright fakes, especially with regards to a highly anticipated product about which little official information has been released. However, SteamDB—a massive third-party database of everything in the Steam catalog—confirms the existence of the Valve Index page with the very same header photo, lending credibility to the authenticity of the screenshots.

As the page was apparently not supposed to be published this early (obvious from the ‘Lorem ipsum’ placeholder text), the information may not be final, but here’s the most interesting bits:

  • “Ships June 15th”
  • “Displays. Optics. Audio. Ergo. Experience the infinite virtual worlds of Valve Index”
  • Mention of pass-through camera feature
  • GTX 1070 GPU “recommended,” GTX 970 “minimum”

The page also notes “Controllers, Base Stations, and PC required, suggesting that the headset will be sold on its own, which would be useful for users who already own controllers and Base Stations from their previous Vive purchase.

Image courtesy Valve

The render on the page also shows something curious—the big rectangular pocket in the front of the headset (seen also in previously leaked photos) still appears completely open, even if hidden behind the semi-translucent cover. It’s possible that this opening is filled in with some component which simply wasn’t part of this particular render, but it increasingly seems like the cover may be removable and the gap may be reserved for aftermarket add-on modules, especially considering the USB 3.0 port on the right side (spotted in the leaked photos).

Brightened for detail

It would be somewhat surprising for this to be the case, considering Index seems by all accounts to be a consumer focused product and not a development kit, but it may be Valve’s effort to future-proof the headset against VR’s rapidly changing sensor landscape.

A placeholder page for Valve’s upcoming Knuckles controllers was also spotted, though it contained almost no information beyond the fact that the page was titled ‘Valve Index Controllers’, which suggests that the company may drop the Knuckles name when it comes time to ship.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • NooYawker

    Looks like a cylon, the original Cylons from 1978. Not those sexy ones from 2009 years ago. Yea I’m old.

    • impurekind

      I’m starting to think it might actually look rather sexy, if I’m pickup up the design properly from the various official and leaked images I’m seeing.

    • brubble

      Yep, that was a religious show for me as a little kid.

  • Simple O’Rourke

    Not sure about the outside in

    • Play-plug-game Gaming

      it really is better, if inside out loses tracking or gets confused it has to manually be reset because it has no anchor points like external cameras.

  • MosBen

    I wonder if you’ll be able to use *both* inside-out and outside-in tracking. Obviously, outside-in has some limitations with weird arm movements, but maybe if you supplemented the HMD’s tracking with a single outside-in Lighthouse you’d have a good compromise that provided really good tracking, but with minimal setup and reduced cost.

    • kuhpunkt

      It has cameras for pass-through, not tracking.

      • MosBen

        Huh, looks like the article was updated since I saw it, or maybe I just missed the “base stations required” bit. That seems like a weird design decision to me, but thanks for the correction!

    • NooYawker

      I would LOVE to have something where I can go sit in my living room if I want to maybe play a casual game or watch a movie with minimal inside-out tracking. But also have full room scale with my lighthouses in my game room when I want.

      • MosBen

        Also, if you had something like the Xbox Kinnect as your outside-in tracking solution it might be able to provide full body tracking in addition to reducing the dead zones from inside-out tracking system.

    • dk

      inside out will eventually be far better than external satellites …..when in 2 years the equivalent of the 2017 sd835 is dirt cheap and some of the high end setups get controllers with inside out themselves ….external satellites being better no matter what is a false idea….just saying

      • MosBen

        I don’t doubt that inside-out will improve, and may even eventually be indistinguishable in quality from outside in, but I don’t think that it makes sense to say that it will ever be “better”, at least if we’re talking purely in terms of the quality of the tracking. The problem with any tracking is that that wherever you’re tracking from can only see a field of view in front of it. For outside-in that means some arc in front of a sensor or camera seated on a desk or platform a number of feet from the user, and for inside-out that means an arc in front of a camera mounted somewhere on the user. The nature of camera placement on the user makes it easier to find areas in space that aren’t in the field of view of one of the cameras, which is why the Quest has some dead spots despite having four cameras, while the Rift and Vive are able to achieve solid tracking with three external sensors.

        Maybe in the future we’ll have HMD with a dozen inside-out tracking cameras/sensors mounted somewhere on the user, creating a flawless tracking solution. But inside-out introduces some computing overhead, so improved tracking will only come as hardware becomes so powerful that adding additional tracking doesn’t impact processing power.

        The nice thing about having a single outside-in sensor is that it wouldn’t, as far as I understand it, significantly add to the tracking overhead but would significantly reduce the deadzones for the inside-out tracking, especially if it was located in the nominal read of the play space. It’s entirely possible that I’ve missed a technical detail that makes this impractical, but it at least seems like it could help, and if it was something like the Xbox Kinect it might be able to provide for full body tracking as well.

        • dk

          it will be better in terms of it’s unlimited it’s not a volume defined by the satellites and obviously the advantage now of moving the sistem with no setup and it will work under a table or various occlusion scenarios

          • MosBen

            Yes, there are benefits to inside out, like portability and the ability to set up bigger and irregular play spaces, which is why I specified “purely in terms of quality of the tracking”. Outside in has a mechanical edge on inside out because it’s simply easier to see what a body is doing when you’re viewing it externally. And yes, it may be possible that we’ll get full body tracking by using several sensors placed around the user’s body, but just as inside-out tracking requires 5 or more sensors to approach the tracking quality of 3 external sensors, a single external sensor tracking body movements would likely do as good of a job as multiple sensors placed on the user’s body.

            And the primary benefit of inside out is simplicity of setup, but once you start introducing multiple sensors placed over the user’s body for body tracking then the system is super complex and a pain for someone to start using. A single external sensor would be pretty easy to set up and fairly portable.

          • dk

            again I’m talking about inside out headset and inside out controllers with multiple cameras that is unlikely to all get blocked ever

            I’m talking about inside out indistinguishable in capability from a system with satellites …..while having all the flexibility and convenience ….making it a far better system

            the disadvantage would be that the controller would need a reasonably big batter battery and it will last 4-6 hours of tracking …and the cost of the controller would be something like double the cost of a controller relying on cameras on the headset for tracking …..which is why only a small percentage of high end headsets would employ this at the beginning

            I mentioned body tracking only because people again think that outside in will always be better no matter what in that scenario too ….which is a false idea ….and no it’s not complex that’s how people r doing it right now with vive trackers only they r dependent on the external satellites …..far less people r using a kinect for that …..or a different way to do it is clothes sensing the change in the material stretching and compressing …..but anyway this was about the excellent accuracy and flexibility of a system with inside out controllers and inside out headset not about body tracking

        • Rogue Transfer

          The Vive(and Index) controllers both use a couple dozen IR sensors inside to track the external Lighthouse IR light spreading out across the play space.

          The Lighthouses(just like in real-life) don’t track anything – it’s the devices(headset & controllers) that do the tracking from their inside-out. (Imagine ship captains ‘inside’ boats looking ‘out’ to determine where they are by an external Lighthouse. The Lighthouse only provides external reference).

  • ArA

    its predator sexy

    • Żéñ Źdźbło

      Totally looks like predator. I thought the same thing.

  • Zach Mauch

    So would a 1060 be compatible?

    • Cybis Z

      Well, if a 970 is indeed a minimum, then yes your 1060 should be okay. I’m on a 1060 as well. I’m definitely thinking about upgrading to an RTX card, but damn they are painfully expensive.

      • MosBen

        I think that that’s precisely why both Oculus and Valve seem to be going to a non-huge hardware upgrade. These things need to run on systems that aren’t crazy expensive, and that wouldn’t be possible with 8k per eye screens.

      • Zach Mauch

        At some point I’ll upgrade to a 1070, 1080, or 1080ti. There is a glut of them out there due to the crypto crash.

        • Cybis Z

          Ouch. I wouldn’t do that. Video cards that were running at their peek speeds 24/7 for months are *very* likely to burn out soon.

          • Bryan Ischo

            How do you know? Do you have data to back that up or are you just repeating what other people who also don’t have any data are saying?

    • JDawg

      A 1060 is on par or above a 970 so I would say yes.

    • ¥DK¥

      Yes a 1060 will, but a 1050 will not

    • 1060 6GB version will meet the minimum.the 1060 also has 3GB version that will be harder to meet the minimum.

  • impurekind

    Interesting. And, despite looking kinda funky, it doesn’t look as bad as I thought. Because the lines are all a bit quirky, it actually seems to work as a whole, I think.

  • impurekind

    So it that some kind of semi-transparent visor section we’re seeing on the front, almost like a detachable plate, and then we’re seeing behind it so some of the details that normally wouldn’t be visible are noticeable? Its hard to tell exactly what’s going on there. Also, it looks like it has one of those adjustable headband ring things similar to the one on the new Oculus Rift S and PSVR.

  • daveinpublic

    I hope Valve does some work on outside in tracking. I think that will eventually be the way the industry goes.

    • Cybis Z

      Most of the industry has gone inside-out. Is that what you meant? Despite the two cameras on the front, the Valve Index is certainly NOT an inside-out tracked headset like WMR. The Knuckles controllers at least are already lighthouse tracked.

      • OkinKun

        Valve’s tracking system has always been “inside-out”. The Vive headset has little sensors all over it. Lighthouse boxes are not sensors, they’re just projectors that paint a grid over the room, to make it easier to track by the inside-out tracking sensors on the headset.
        Outside-In requires external cameras that view where the headset is, relative to them. Inside-out just means the headset is tracking the world around it, rather than being tracked by something external.
        Even their controllers have tracking sensors built in, and view the outside world in order to figure out where the controllers are. No external camera is viewing them. Lighthouse boxes do not send tracking data back to the computer.

        • Simple O’Rourke

          We get it but that’s not what the laymen’s meanings are. Vive is outside in and Oculus Rift S is inside out to 99% of the world.

          • OkinKun

            I understand the misconception the average users have, in this regard.. But the point is people are bashing the Rift S for using Inside-out tracking.. Claiming that it is somehow a lesser capable tracking format, when in reality, by every technical definition of how this technology works, the Vive and the Index use inside-out methods.
            The difference in quality between the Rift S, and the Vive or Index’s tracking, is that with Vive/Index, the controllers themselves have cameras/sensors built into them, so it is the controller that sees the real world to track itself, rather than the headset’s inside-out cameras also having to keep track of the controllers. That is the only real difference in quality between Rift S and Index’s methods, but in most cases, the Rift S’s 5 camera layout ensures that it will never lose track of your hands. So it’s really shouldn’t matter either way. These systems all have perfectly capable tracking these days, this isn’t the same as the early days of VR tracking.

        • GunnyNinja

          That doesn’t explain the controllers does it? Inside out means the headset is tracking the controllers.

          • Rogue Transfer

            No, the Vive controllers track themselves from their sensors inside, looking out for Lighthouse(s) too.

            When controllers are tracked by a headset(e.g. WMR), the controllers are tracked from the outside-in(the headset with the sensors are outside them, looking ‘in’ to track the controllers).

          • GunnyNinja

            I decided to quote what you originally said so that people will stop listening to you…
            “Rogue Transfer
            No, the controllers track themselves from their sensors inside, looking out for Lighthouse(s) too.
            When controllers are tracked by a headset(e.g. WMR), the controllers are tracked from the outside-in(the headset with the sensors are outside them, looking ‘in’ to track the controllers).”

        • care package

          You’re just splitting hairs. You know what people mean by ‘inside-out’. Proving lighthouse is ‘technically’ inside-out helps nothing.

    • OkinKun

      Outside-in is what the RIft uses with it’s external USB cameras. Vive was more an inside-out headset, since it’s tracking sensors were onboard the headset itself, it’s external devices were not sensors, just projectors.
      The VR at-home game-industry is gradually dropping outside-in VR, because it requires too much external hardware and wires, and is instead moving to more advanced Inside-Out tracking systems, thanks to processing hardware that can now handle that more difficult form of tracking.
      Outside-in tracking will probably remain for VR arcades or movie motion capture, but for most everything else, Inside-out is more convenient and just as capable for consumers.

      • Firestorm185

        Isn’t that only semi-inside-out though? Inside out is when the environment is tracked, not special equipment.

        • care package

          good point.

        • Rogue Transfer

          No, “inside-out” only specifies two things: where the sensors are located and in what direction they are monitoring. It doesn’t define what or how they track, just sensor placement and direction.

        • Baldrickk

          That “special equippment” is the environment, as far as the sensors for lighthouse tracking is concerned.

      • Moe Curley

        When people say “Inside Out” they are talking about self contained tracking within the headset. The Vive was not “Inside Out” by any definition.

        • dk

          vive base stations r just markers in the room ….and the headset and controllers r looking inside out for the lasers from those markers
          it’s the same as a phone camera looking at a qr marker but that marker is passive
          it’s inside out tracking but it’s using dedicated active external markers

        • Rogue Transfer

          It is by the technical tracking definition of where the sensors are and in what direction they track. That’s the correct(and meaningful) definition.

          The common usage to mean self-contained is inaccurate, as the term ‘inside-out’ doesn’t specify or cover that. Even using the common English definition of the term, it doesn’t make sense to mean ‘self-contained’. It’s just become mixed up with that meaning, as it is often part of it.

      • Downvote King

        If your tracking system requires the room itself to be painted by a complex system of lasers, it can hardly be called inside-out tracking. Outside-inside-out maybe. It’s a hybrid really, and a high performance one, but true inside-out is self-contained.

        • Rogue Transfer

          No, the term ‘inside-out’ doesn’t defined whether the tracking is self-contained or not(just sensor placement and direction to what’s tracked).

          It is better to just call a tracking system either self-contained or not self-contained, as that’s the meaning most want described.

          • Downvote King

            Disagree. Inside-out implies that all the necessary tech components for tracking are inside the device itself, therefore by definition being self-contained. If you need outside tech to paint the room with lasers it is just plainly something else.

    • kontis

      This is like telling Canon and Nikon to start making smartphones, because this is how the industry moves forward and how 99% of photos are made today.

      Computer vision is the future – sure. But self-contained tracking will NEVER be an ultimate solution for everything. All the big guys are super interested in 4D full body scanning and tracking for telepresence (just look at Microsoft’s AR demos). You need an external sensor for that.

      • MosBen

        Sure, but what I’d like to see is inside-out tracking units that handled most of the movement-related tracking paired with a single outside-in sensor like an Xbox Kinect that would both reduce the deadzones from the inside-out sensors and also possibly provide skeletal body tracking.

        • Rogue Transfer

          Until you turn partly side-on to said external sensor and it can’t predict your back foot’s angle/kick or if that leg is up/down, because it’s blocked fully by the other half of your body.

          • MosBen

            Yeah, it’s not perfect, but the outside-in portion, at least in my hypothetical, isn’t about creating a perfect solution. After all, the tracking is mostly relying on the inside-out system, which should cover the vast majority of circumstances. The outside-in addition just reduces the number of times that that parts of your body would be occluded and also theoretically adds some value by doing body tracking. The point of inside-out is to simplify setup, but it comes with some drawbacks in occlusion. Pairing that with a single external sensor reduces some of the drawback without significantly increasing complexity. We could add a second sensor or a third, but then we’ve just set up a full external tracking solution.

      • Downvote King

        Telepresence could go a long way just with predictive algorithms coupled to eye and face sensors inside the HMD, and Leap Motion style cameras on the outside. Gaming requires much more precise reproduction of your body’s exact movements than telepresence, and even then the tech to do that has existed in the form of Kinect and similar devices, yet creators and gamers seem content with controller and headset tracking so far.

    • Rowdy123

      I may be reading your post incorrectly (I mean that in all honesty) But given everyone in the industry (essentially) is moving the opposite direction how are you coming to the conclusion outside-in is the future? Inside-out keeps getting better and better. It is already great. Frankly, except for some people who complained about windows mixed reality tracking (largely because they seem to keep saying they play a lot of games where they shoot arrows) – the windows tracking (with just two cameras) is great. And Oculus Quest is even better (with four) … and Rift S (with 6) with even better! Etc….etc. In 2 years no one will be talking about outside-in.

      • daveinpublic

        Meant to say inside out, my bad lol

    • zeef

      Isn’t the lighthouse model already outside-in?

  • HybridEnergy

    970 min with 1070 recommended? Yea 3k screen max.

    • ale bro

      RTX 2060 in today’s money

      • bmichaelb

        Or a GTX 1660.

        • ale bro

          Vega 56?

          • bmichaelb

            I’m an Nvidia guy, but looking on Newegg(ca), Vega 56’s are going for $640-$787 CAD, while the GTX 1660’s are only $300-$430 CAD, with higher clock speeds. On top of that, the 1660’s are Turing, and have the Variable Rate Shading that Vive’s using for their foveated rendering with the Vive Pro Eye. Valve hasn’t announced eye tracking, but other headsets like Pimax are also coming out with it. It would be better to upgrade with the future in mind.

          • ale bro

            £250 here in the UK

          • bmichaelb

            For the Vega 56? Newegg UK has them from £250 to £360 for the same cards I priced in Canada, and the GTX 1660’s are £180 to £250.

  • impurekind

    You know something, having looked at this image and some of the other images, I’m wondering if that rectangular area in the centre of the headset, which is empty in the prototypes, is maybe for some kind of optional Leap Motion-type attachment module? Or maybe it’s for an optional additional fan possibly? But basically some kind of optional or interchangeable module.

    https://roadtovrlive-5ea0.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/valve-mystery-headset-4-1.jpg

    Much like this:

    http://blog.leapmotion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/3djamhero-blog1.jpg

    • Electric Blush

      Leap motion was the first that came to mind, but then i thought it might be a possible spot for a wireless module as well. (This would probably require that the tech improves from current iterations.)

      • HybridEnergy

        “wireless module”

        I wish

        • Electric Blush

          Unlikely, I will grant you that. But hey early leaks is the time for dreaming.

      • Charles

        Interesting idea, but there’s no way they would put that directly on the front. That would completely mess up the weight distribution and make it extremely uncomfortable. The ideal placement for a wireless adapter is on the back of the strap, or on the middle of the strap on top of the user’s head.

    • It’s definitely for an expansion module considering it has a USB port there. Kinda like how the Vive has a USB port on the top of the headset for whatever people can think of in the future. I wonder what type of accessories people will come up with for this in the future. Leap Motion style hand tracking sure. Maybe some sort of 3D Camera so you can scan in real life objects into your VR environment?

      For future development absolutely.

      Actually Someone needs to make a LCD panel there so that you can have some glowing eyes for all those folks watching you play. lol

      • Moe Curley

        The glossy front portion looks like it may be attached with press in friction fit posts like a removable speaker cover to access the accessory port.

  • HybridEnergy

    “the page also notes “Controllers, Base Stations, and PC required, suggesting that the headset will be sold on its own”

    Good news then if we can get the Knuckles separately too.

  • OkinKun

    Told ya, no possible way they were shipping this thing in May.

    • bmichaelb

      I’m not so sure…I’ve been clicking the link, and it just opens the main Steam Store page, but the /sale/valve_index page still shows May 2019. Unless it’s because I’m in Canada, and that page is only shown in the US right now(?).

      • Play-plug-game Gaming

        it’s been confirmed that may is when they will announce more info and open pre-orders. Headsets won’t start shipping until some time in june

        • bmichaelb

          That makes sense.

    • Sven Viking

      May *is* June in Valve Time. At best.

  • HybridEnergy

    It is April 1st, I’m scanning for where it’s also announced that it makes you breakfast when you get up.

    • benz145

      It’s good to be skeptical. In this case, this info is all confirmed legit by Valve.

    • Phreak

      I read a story once and in it they called that “A Girlfriend”(or boyfriend)

  • That pocket on the front is about the right size for a Leap Motion….

    • Jistuce

      Or an LED screen. We can all be Daft Punk.

      • johann jensson

        I want to be neither daft nor punk.
        I wanna be cyber! :-P
        :2077:

    • John

      Why would you want that. It is complete junk and makes the whole thing a gimmick.

      • dk

        it works excellent now and every single vr headset should have the option for hand tracking ….but that’s most likely something else u can do hand tracking with the 2 front cameras

      • NooYawker

        Are you sure you’re not confusing Leap Motion and Magic Leap? I do it often. But Leap Motion is a hand tracking device. Magic Leap is a Hololens clone but with a lot of bullshit hype.

    • eckehard

      we had screens or skizzes many months ago and planning reports about leap-motion -I remember …………. Fantastic – I hope so !!

    • dk

      the dimensions don’t look right …also the newer better sensor they have has a completely different shape …pimax have it as an add on …also u can do hand tracking with the 2 cameras that r already on the front

    • Robert Heinrich

      That’s the first thing I thought when I saw that lol, hopefully it is because that would make fitting it when necessary pretty easy and cable-less.

  • Schadows

    I don’t see this headset supporting inside out tracking. Maybe cameras a very well hidden, but I don’t see anything on the sides, which would make controllers tracking unreasonable.
    Not that I need it (I’m perfectly happy with my basestation), but lot of other players do.

    • Tabp

      It’s using knuckles and lighthouses, so the controllers themselves are inside out.

      • Schadows

        if it’s using lighthouse, it’s not inside-out, but outside-in tracking.

        • kuhpunkt

          Lighthouses are technically inside-out tracking.

          • Schadows

            My bad, you’re right.

  • Simple O’Rourke

    Any guesses on price for a complete kit? I’m assuming outside in and Vive Pro res. Sounds like controllers are extra.

    • iThinkMyCatIsAFlea

      Half-Life 3
      Left 4 Dead 2
      Portal 2
      TF2
      —————–
      $3,222/£2,463
      —————–

    • Jistuce

      Any guess is good, though I’d wager “less than a Vive Pro set”, because otherwise it doesn’t make sense to release it.

  • mfx

    The graphist for Valve is not as bad as the one from Vive (Cosmos presentation is astonishingly ugly) but, could be better. The fist reveal image had clamped brightness on the hands and this one has basic overlay fake reflection layer.. come on..

    • Rosko

      Its poorly cut out as well but i guess final image may be better.

  • Geoffrey Goffman

    Do you think the controllers will be separate, because that would be a real dick move

    • laurenz

      they will ship different versions I suppose. One for people who already have the vive stuff and one that contains the full kit, which will be more expensive obviously

    • Popin

      The leaked product page for the Valve Index that was taken down had a link to a product page for the Valve Index Controllers which didn’t load. These pages were also found in the SteamDB along with several bundle references.

      Valve will most likely have the HDM, the Controllers, and the Base Stations available for sale separately and will have multiple bundle options for things like HDM+Controllers, HMD+Base Stations, HMD+Controllers+Base Stations, etc. so that people who already have some components will be able to purchase only what they want/need.

  • John Abraham

    I definitely will take you seriously since you used so many emojis.

    • iThinkMyCatIsAFlea

      There are reasons for them. Which are pretty obvious.

      • John Abraham

        Yes they really help to illustrate your comment. A package, a key, a joker card, and a banknote. I would have had no clue what you were talking about without them.

        • Sven Viking

          Just in case anyone actually wonders, he’s meaning to reference paid keys for loot crates and paid card packs.

  • Lucidfeuer

    “Index” is a great marketing word for “standard”…which it won’t be if it doesn’t have wireless no outside-in tracking. And I’m not even talking about the specs, in fact I don’t care about resolution bump at this point, but if they manage to finally push the FOV° they might have an argument.

    • laurenz

      Inside out tracking (I guess that’s what you meant) is shit for high end VR. Its okay for low end casual vr players, but to get a true room scale vr experience, you have to go with light house tracking, which this uses. Its rumored to have a 135° FOV which would be a massive bump from the 90 degrees that the the vive/rift have. This is the new bar that other companies have to reach.

      • Nepenthe

        I thought the Vive was around 110 degrees.

        • Baldrickk

          That might be diagonal, I’m not sure

      • Lucidfeuer

        If you’re really that sensitive to exact tracking, then I get the lighthouses are the solution but only because those corporations didn’t figure better. So I guess an hybrid solution is the way to go.

        As for FOV° if it doesn’t have 135° it already won over Oculus hands up, especially since I don’t have to push for it with most brands or companies.

        Also the design is okay, that Vive Pro horror crap though…

  • care package

    So it’s still using lighthouse more than likely.

  • realtrisk

    Still a 970 as a minimum? Ouch. That was not what I wanted to hear. I was hoping for higher res and wider FOV than Vive Pro… that makes it sound highly unlikely, unless they’ve cracked the Foviated nut…

    • gothicvillas

      Same here. I will laugh so hard if they come out with same FOV and practically Vive PRO. Until they do though, hype train is real.

      • Shozou

        Even if it comes out to be just Vive Pro, if it comes cheaper with lighthouses and Knuckles, it would already be a great deal.

        • Marcin Stachowiak

          Yes, Vive Pro is pretty good, especially with the wireless adapter and thinner face cushion .

        • GunnyNinja

          Not if they haven’t improved the lenses.

    • RavnosCC

      I thought they said 1070 as a minimum…or have I just decided that “recommended” is now minimum.

      • GunnyNinja

        No. Yes.

    • Brandon Parker

      Then get a Pimax 5K XR….how anyone can expect to use anything but a 2080 or 2080TI card and get good FPS is beyond me.

  • The pic is adjusted to highlight the compartment, will look more like this I’d imagine. Excuse quick/poor paint effort. You can see the outline of the visor in the original pic. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/22e43faafaf69ef33735a78beed8cbc0f0d59dfa8bd6c52e0a6038268deca7fb.png

  • That’sright

    If the field of view is the same then it’s basically a vive pro with a new look.

    • david vincent

      but maybe at a reasonable price this time !

  • Moe Curley

    I hope they look at it like a Razors and Blades proposition and sell the headset reasonably to sell more software.

  • Moe Curley

    Wouldn’t they have had to have made some major leap in tech to be able to run this on a 970? I had a Vive and yes it ran on a 970 fine but this is supposed to have larger panels.

    • Foveated rendering could help regards that…Whether they’ve somehow implemented that though remains to be seen. Fingers crossed.

      • Navhkrin

        Foveated rendering / Adaptive Shading coupled with vr optimizations (instancing / resubmitting buffers) could really put VR and monitor rendering to almost same levels of performance.

        A proper foveated rendering could even make VR more efficient than standard rendering. Since traditional rendering renders everywhere at full resolution , and with VR we can know where the human is actually looking at.

        The biggest problem here in my opinion is, there is alot of optimizations that can be made and they are not easy to implement. But hopefully, new VR standards, such as OpenXR will automatically handle these and devs wont have to spent time implementing these optimizations manually.

        Valve has been working on these optimizations for a good while now, they have even made presentations and released some acedemic papers about this. This is why i am extra excited for their VR release.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Expect it to run on 970 only with everything at minimum, and even then it might not run nice..

      • Moe Curley

        Wasn’t the 970 the minimum spec for the original Vive?

        • Andrew Jakobs

          yeah. So it could also just be that they’ve taken the original productpage of the vive.. But who knows, 1 may, then we’ll know exactly (damn, that’s still a long time, haha)..

          • Moe Curley

            Just…can’t wait!

  • oompah

    IPD adjust ; great
    1070 required; gasp
    We all need standalone VR
    SD 835 will do
    anyway good effort
    but can I play candy kingdom on it?

    • jj

      if you dont have a 1070 by this point, thats on you. standalone is coming with the quest, so you’re just being ignorant or dumb. pc based will always provide a higher definition experience, so no the 835 will not do for the games im trying to play.

  • Weston G

    Time to sell csgo skins and buy new vr toys lul

  • Behram Patel

    Thats quite a…Storm Trooper. I like

  • VR4EVER

    Kiss of Death for Oculus Rift S

    • Simple O’Rourke

      Why? If I have to use outside blocks setup around my room no way will I get the Index. Rift S in that case.

      • jj

        do some research. it has inside out tracking so no “blocks” if you mean base stations. so this is perfectly viable in comparison to the rift for that issue.

        • Simple O’Rourke

          It has base stations so…. yes.

          • jj

            You’re right, I had it backwards because i jumped to conclusions without doing enough research, which is what i accused you of doing.

          • NooYawker

            Real men admit their mistakes.

      • brandon9271

        It’s a trade off really. Easy of setup of the Rift S/ WMR style tracking but with sub optimal controller tracking. One would be great for a portable rig to take to friends and family and the other for a more permanent solution. The WMR inside out camera tracking is fine for most VR content but archery games in particular it’s crap.

      • Trenix

        Real gamers want 360 tracking.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Real gamers don’t know what they want….

          • Trenix

            Children don’t know what they want, nor do adults who haven’t grown up.

        • TheHitman1982

          LOL “Real Gamers” dude just shut up.

          • Trenix

            Go play on a mobile phone, casual.

      • Żéñ Źdźbło

        Index is a far more advanced piece of tech than Rift S.

        • Toothlover

          yeaaaaaaaaaa, advanced enough like their old flopped cousin, AKA, Steam Machines!

    • Andrew Jakobs

      All depends on pricing… if it’s like $499 including basestations and controllers, yeah, than you’re right. If it’s $499 headset only, then be sure the complete package is about $699, and then NO, it won’t be a kiss of death for Oculus Rift S.

      • Marc-André Désilets

        It looks like inside out tracking, so there would be no base required at all. Also looks like there is only 2 ar led on it, not enough for outside tracking.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Because it has 2 camera’s doesn’t mean it is inside-out tracking. the image also states ‘basestations, and pc required’.. And with the current image I don’t see ANY IR leds (those white dots aren’t IR leds). Also the knuckles are lighthouse based.. And in previous brigthned photo’s of the teaser image there were clearly multiple IR leds visible.
          I don’t think valve is betting on inside-out tracking (through camera’s) with this version, I think that’ll be the next when the controllers themselves can also do decent insideout tracking (without the need of basestations).

        • GunnyNinja

          IR LED’s emit light. These HMD’s receive light.

        • Popin

          Lighthouse is Inside Out tracking, and this, with very little doubt, will be using SVRT2.0

          Using Optical CV is not the the only way to do Inside Out tracking, nor is Inside Out tracking == to Optical CV

      • VR4EVER

        We all know by now how Valve can change the game in an instant, if they really care. And GabeN cares for VR. So I expect the whole Index/Controller/software bundle will be nothing short of mindblowing and I expect every enthusiast to instantly buy into this unique experience. No matter the pricepoint. We are a niche but an important one.

        • MOT

          PSVR has shown that you can sell a decent number of units (4 million) if you have already have a strong customer base playing your games. I think this will be the same for valve if the pricing is right. It would have to be poor to be as disappointing as the rift s which is such a mediocre spec.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          ah, that’s why steamlink, steamcontroller and the vive (which in reality is just a valve product) are such good successes..I don’t doubt that the valve index will sell pretty decent, but if what you’re saying would be right, the vive would be the largest percentage on Steam, not the rift.
          And personally, I’ll propably buy the Index too, but it all depends on the pricing..

          • VR4EVER

            …you could‘ve also mentioned steambox… but didnt catch my drift: when Valve really cares. Btw. The Vive is afaik, the most used headset in professional usecases (car development and such) due to the precise roomscale tracking. But what do I know. ;-)

          • Andrew Jakobs

            I explicitly left out the steambox, as it wasn’t a succes. but “but what do i know” is based on your own experience, not actual statistics. Don’t get me wrong, I love the vive too, and IMHO the lighthouse is the easiest/better external tracking (due to easier to setup and requiring less resources).

          • GunnyNinja

            Are visuals important? Just curious. Vive was less than optimal…

    • MOT

      Amything that helps push facebook away from vr gaming is ok with me.

    • Icebeat

      The are going to change the name to RIP S.

    • Brandon Parker

      Yet Pimax is leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else on the market with no signs of that changing anytime soon.

  • gothicvillas

    it will run on 970? Well, what about DOS machine then?

  • RadRAW

    Does “DisplayPort 1.2 and USB 3.0” means Index will be using RTXs VRlink port or is it something completely different?

    • kuhpunkt

      It means it’s using DP1.2 and USB 3.0. They might release an adapter for VRLink, though.

      • Tesla

        It sucks. Thick, heavy cable still in VR headset.

  • TwinFire

    *Puts HP Reverb order on hold*

    Lets see the specs then…

    • Simple O’Rourke

      May 1st!

  • Lunatic

    How to not do teleporting? You mean… Like… Games that use standard movement? Because the only games I’ve played on my Rift that have teleporting (Skyrim and Fallout 4) both have the option to use teleporting OR smooth motion, depending on preference. I have mostly stuck to teleporting, but you can do it smooth if that’s what you want.

  • Trenix

    Hopefully it’s less than 1k, otherwise it’ll just be another vive pro. At maximum, I’d spend $800 for base stations, headset, and controllers altogether. Otherwise it’s just another enterprise product that very few can afford. A headset shouldn’t be the price of a computer, specially since it requires a computer to be powered.

    • impurekind

      Yeah, if it’s not sub $500 then it’s priced just for the most hardcore VR guys or elites imo, especially now that Oculus has a somewhat competitive PC VR product at $400.

      • mirak

        That’s bullshit because a set of 500$ monitor keyboard mouse and controller is not hardcore elite gamer.

    • Kevin Fitzpatrick

      i wouldnt over spend that on a vive pro. Valve will not rape ppl over the coals like vive did with the pro.

      • Trenix

        I hope so.

    • mirak

      Actually you can buy a monitor keyboard mousse controller for 800$.
      It will be high-end.
      What you say is that it should be possible to buy that stuff for less.
      It’s possible and it will be lower end, like what is wmr rift and vive.

  • dogtato

    but when can we buy new lighthouses

    • mirak

      Useless if you don’t have a V2 complete set.
      Is that your issue ?

  • brubble

    Looking to finally get into VR, speaking for myself here, I wonder if this thing will bring enough interesting tech to the table to warrant whatever the price tag will be of the hmd along with controllers AND lighthouses. Price isnt really a huge deal but it still has to hold value for dollar. Curiosity is peaked.

  • Hype Hype Hype

  • Da Mo (JFlash)

    Does it come come bundled with Half Life 3 VR?

  • Pablo C

    Power adapter???: Why this would need that…? I mean, if this is wireless and FOV=135, as the rumors say: good bye to the Rift S!!

  • doksilver
  • david vincent

    Knuckles will also be sold alongside Index, and Valve plans to call them “Valve Index Controllers” going forward.

    Yeah no let’s keep “knuckles”

  • Phasedragon

    Teleporting has been dropped for awhile now. Any game that has teleport as the only option is either a no go or soon to be modded.

  • TheHitman1982

    You have obviously never done sim racing.

  • Trenix

    Someone got butt hurt.

    • TheHitman1982

      LMAO

  • Kevin Fitzpatrick

    valve will try and sell it for 1500 and go out of business….

  • Octopus Rift

    The recommended specs don’t seem too painful. A 1070? Not unreasonable, remember the Vive was released in 2016. Seems like a good refresh.

    https://www.octopusrift.com/valve-index-pc/