Monday, November 12th 2018
Valve Seemingly Preparing Their Own VR Headset; Hints Point to Half Life VR Bundle
In June 2016 Valve announced 'Destinations', a Steam workshop not easy to find anymore, that allowed the end user to enter real and fictitious scenarios through the magic of virtual reality. The idea was intriguing, but the media was not completely sold and judged Valve's proposal as both "the best and the worst of VR". From all this, however, came a singular discovery: those who reverse-engineered its code discovered in it the HLVR acronym, which initiated a wide debate about the potential appearance of a Half Life VR (HLVR) version specifically developed for VR headsets.
Lending further credence to this hypothesis was Gabe Newell's announcement in February 2017 that Valve was preparing three big titles for virtual reality- two of them based on Source 2, and one of them based on Unity. More such signs appeared in the summer of 2018, and everything was pointing towards this project being indeed real, that it would likely be based on Source 2, and that it would offer a full-fledged blockbuster title that this generation of VR has been desperately seeking. We now have more data courtesy a "leaked email" to Reddit user 2flock that suggests Valve's work is apparently going beyond just VR game development, as images of a prototype device seen below confirm that Valve is also working on its own VR head-mounted display (HMD), one whose development would also be more advanced than initially suspected.
What you see has been making the rounds in the VR community, with many digging up component details and then some. Indeed, UploadVR was able to confirm independently that this is an upcoming Valve VR HMD with a 135° field of view, which is far beyond the ~110° FOV afforded by the current PC VR flagship HTC Vive Pro out of the box. Accompanying this is lens resolution that is said to be "Vive Pro resolution" which would be 2,880 x 1,600 total. No word on refresh rate yet, which is another key factor for VR, and the padding on the headset suggests support for the Valve Knuckles controller which was detailed earlier this year.
There is no word on whether any form of hand and/or eye tracking will be supported, which disappointed some who initially thought there was spacing for a Leap Motion unit. But we do see SteamVR tracking diodes beneath the plastic for a clean look, as well as two separate cameras and an integrated headset. Valve being as secretive as they are, do not expect to hear any official details about this device until sooner to launch. We do not know when that will be, but surely Oculus's plans for the successor of the Rift will play a role here too.
No, Half Life 3 is still not confirmed. But, as Valve News Network so succinctly points out in the video above, Valve may well be working on the Half Life VR game which, bundled with the new virtual reality headset, would make for a lucrative launch title. This plays well with what we know of Valve being jealous of Nintendo for being able to combine their hardware and software titles in a cohesive manner, thus leading to combinations such as the Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Half Life VR, if it is not vaporware, is speculated to be a prequel to Half Life 1 and may possibly explore more about the background of everyone's favorite silent protagonist. This title could well be powered by Source 2, with Artifact already being developed on the engine and Dota 2 having received an update patch to be ported over.
Source:
Reddit user 2flock
Lending further credence to this hypothesis was Gabe Newell's announcement in February 2017 that Valve was preparing three big titles for virtual reality- two of them based on Source 2, and one of them based on Unity. More such signs appeared in the summer of 2018, and everything was pointing towards this project being indeed real, that it would likely be based on Source 2, and that it would offer a full-fledged blockbuster title that this generation of VR has been desperately seeking. We now have more data courtesy a "leaked email" to Reddit user 2flock that suggests Valve's work is apparently going beyond just VR game development, as images of a prototype device seen below confirm that Valve is also working on its own VR head-mounted display (HMD), one whose development would also be more advanced than initially suspected.
There is no word on whether any form of hand and/or eye tracking will be supported, which disappointed some who initially thought there was spacing for a Leap Motion unit. But we do see SteamVR tracking diodes beneath the plastic for a clean look, as well as two separate cameras and an integrated headset. Valve being as secretive as they are, do not expect to hear any official details about this device until sooner to launch. We do not know when that will be, but surely Oculus's plans for the successor of the Rift will play a role here too.
No, Half Life 3 is still not confirmed. But, as Valve News Network so succinctly points out in the video above, Valve may well be working on the Half Life VR game which, bundled with the new virtual reality headset, would make for a lucrative launch title. This plays well with what we know of Valve being jealous of Nintendo for being able to combine their hardware and software titles in a cohesive manner, thus leading to combinations such as the Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Half Life VR, if it is not vaporware, is speculated to be a prequel to Half Life 1 and may possibly explore more about the background of everyone's favorite silent protagonist. This title could well be powered by Source 2, with Artifact already being developed on the engine and Dota 2 having received an update patch to be ported over.
28 Comments on Valve Seemingly Preparing Their Own VR Headset; Hints Point to Half Life VR Bundle
At least I wish HLVR would have a lower HW requirement. Once thing that made Half Life 2 good was that it ran well on most PC configs, not just top of the line ones, without sacrificing major story line problem. Unlike Fallout 4 VR which was unplayable on A LOT OF GPUs when it first launched.
I just hope I can upgrade my Graphics card when it happens. I need Valve to start making GPU's for cost as well.. lol
Also, I have to add that I saw this news Friday night when it leaked. I have to say this is the reason I bought my Vive. Now of course it's the reason I will sale my Vive to buy Valve's new HMD.. lol I hope they announce it next week for Valve's 20th anniversary. Who am I kidding, I hope they announce it this week.. lol
And lastly the cables can be annoying too. But all in all it is a great experience just not easy to set-up and play.
I'll wait for the holodeck ;)
I expect Valve to give us something great considering how successful The Lab is atm. It truly blows away everything in terms of using VR to its potential.
That doesn't actually matter though IMO. What matters is the individual player.
That is to say, for example, some people can sleep through a thunderstorm and some people will wake at the smallest sound or typically have a hard time getting to sleep in the first place. Everyone is different.
In this case, VR shows those differences in the individual players. Some people simply cannot see past the flaws inherent in the current state of VR such as God Rays, SDE, narrow FOV and so on. Others may not ever be accepting of anything other then traditional keyboard and mouse (monitor) game play.
From my perspective, I've been playing video games for a long time. As such, I have seen a lot of flaws in games (and I am not talking about bugs). 26 years ago, I didn't stop playing Doom because the graphics were blocky and jaggy. While I knew there was room for improvement and had hoped for better games / graphics in the future I was still able to play / enjoy what are now classic games.
To me its a little like the princess and the pea. Some people are bothered to distraction over something relatively small while others can acknowledge that it is there but realize that they really cant feel it.
I've been hearing since this past Friday that Valve's HMD is rapidly evolving with them having the ability to manufacture it in-house. If you can't tell I'm excited over this news... lol I don't think any HMD will push VR. It will have to be Software that pushes it and I think Valve knows how to make that software.
Doesn't matter... it's still the most amazing gaming experience I have ever had in my entire life. After having experienced it, I'd have paid twice what I actually paid for it. Maybe more. Even knowing that it would spend most of its life sitting on my shelf, I'd still buy it. I'm hoping the Oculus Quest has some multiplayer titles that are cross play with the rift... If so, I'll buy one. Hell, I'll probably buy one anyway. VR is the future. No question about it, regardless of market share and profitability. Just needs to be refined.
Here's some more stuff to add.
Latest Knuckles firmware corroborates leaked Valve HMD images
Also, this is an image that's on Valves site.
30 years ago we didn't have multiple VR HMD makers, but happily, we live in the present. Also, I like the new Steam chat UI I don't even know where that came from?
I see no hype here. Unless it is in reference to VR not being a thing because it is indeed a thing, such as it is.
What exactly is your issue with it? So far all you've told us is vague things like "It's not ready for prime time." What do you mean by that? You mentioned one specific, and that's cost. You're not willing to front the cost to experience it. Ok, fair. Does that mean lamborghinis aren't "ready for prime time" because you're unwilling or unable to pay for one? The fact that it's either unreachable or not worth it to you is not a reflection of the quality of the product.