Oculus isn’t the only virtual reality headset in town. Valve has been working on its own VR unit, and t’s come a long way since we first saw it back in 2012.
Back then, it was as prototype as a prototype unit could get.
Fast forward to 2014 and it’s looking a lot more polished.
This pic was snapped at a recent event in Boston, where a few lucky folks got to try it out on a range of experimental demo software.
While users were impressed with the hardware and performance of Valve’s headset, perhaps most interesting is some of the stuff they reported Valve is working on outside of direct gameplay.
Reddit user jonomf writes:
Talking with the Valve guys about that Portal office experience, they mentioned offhandedly that they have a Dota 2 VR experience where you see the entire game arena sitting on a table in front of you and can bend down to inspect any piece of the action. I really, really want to see that. They also mentioned a life-size Dota 2 VR experience where you’re hanging out in a lane watching the heroes fight; they said it was very scary.
If you’ve ever wondered how esports could improve its “packaging” to make it more entertaining for the average person, Valve is wondering harder.
If you want to read some of the more technical impressions, you can check out the full write-up below
Pics and impressions of the Valve HMDs at Boston VR [Reddit]
Image: roadtovr
Comments
4 responses to “Valve’s VR Headset Looks (And Sounds) Really Cool”
Somthing about hl3 confirmed…
Innovative games company is innovative.
In all seriousness though this looks good so far, it’ll be interesting to see how good they can make it spec wise for what ever the price. I would love, absolutely love to try out that Dota 2 VR spectator mode they mentioned, it sounds fantastic.
This coming from a company that takes forever to do things… Innovation when 2 major names are also doing or done it is not massive news.
Game controllers have been around for 20 years and have been tried and tested gaming peripheral and they cant even design and release a Steam Box controller without going back to the drawing board twice.
Steam VR coming 20XX!
Hmm.. I’m pretty sure I read that Valve said they won’t continue making a VR when they and Oculus Rift guys got together for a meeting.