Valve's VR Headset is "Vive", And is a Collaboration With HTC

[AstaresPanda]

lol i have a feeling Valve might delay this shit maybe HTC should have waited before they put out a trailer lol silly HTC, but then again the work load is shared. But like Kameburger has said i think im over what ever it was i loved valve for. I mean really they made great games and steam and were just all around good. Now its been how long since waiting for HL3, they seem to be starting all these wonderful things that get delayed and its like we've yet to see anything from all this.

Still waiting for...
HALF-LIFE 3
Steam Machines and Controller
Left 4 Dead 3
Portal 3
And NOW a VR Headset.

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

I can't wait to play Half-Life 3 with this fancy VR technology.


OH WAIT A MINUTE....

I think the only clue that we're all trapped inside a computer program will actually be the release of Half Life 3. So be careful what you wish for.

 

[Lightknight]

I'm not sure what sort of difference it'd be to have a 15 by 15 space to move around in. That's not really much space so I guess I just have to see what someone may do with it besides create games with a rail shooter that takes place with you on a 15 by 15 platform. I guess it would allow for some pretty kickass sword fighting.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

So HTC is trying to regain market space anywhere it can... by partnering with the game company known for taking forever to finish it's projects (and possibly ruined the concept of the Steam Box for some people by letting overpriced OEM builders tack the name onto the same outrageous PCs that they've always sold). I wish them lots of luck.

The free roaming idea better not be a major selling point. Except for the few people with a large enough spare room with no furniture, it will not matter to most people. They might as well market that feature to those video game activity centers let you play PC games without needing your own equipment.

I also wish all of these VR makers would standardize an API for running games. I can't wait to find out there are porting issues and one game only works with Vive, while another released at the same time only supports Oculus.

 

[Lightknight]

So HTC is trying to regain market space anywhere it can... by partnering with the game company known for taking forever to finish it's projects (and possibly ruined the concept of the Steam Box for some people by letting overpriced OEM builders tack the name onto the same outrageous PCs that they've always sold). I wish them lots of luck.

PCs are expensive to build. Especially if you want cutting edge. So overpriced is relative. There were some $2,000 steam boxes that were well priced.

Consoles have the advantage of economies of scale and everything that comes with it. The cost of entry into the steambox market was so high that any significant scale would have required one brand name rising above all the others in an already red-ocean market.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

So HTC is trying to regain market space anywhere it can... by partnering with the game company known for taking forever to finish it's projects (and possibly ruined the concept of the Steam Box for some people by letting overpriced OEM builders tack the name onto the same outrageous PCs that they've always sold). I wish them lots of luck.

PCs are expensive to build. Especially if you want cutting edge. So overpriced is relative. There were some $2,000 steam boxes that were well priced

That was the problem with many of those "Steam Boxes." They were packed with latest high-end hardware. The price of that, along with the system builders' fees made many of them hit or get close to the $2000 mark. That's what irked me about them is they went against the original Steam machine concept, which from what I understood, was supposed to be a $500-$700 mid-tier machine (that is fully upgradable) that would have one or maybe two configurations, not the two dozen we saw months ago. They were just trying to drum up extra sales from the name. Anyone who was interested in a Steam box as a way to jump into PC gaming, and likely doesn't know how to build their own or what is price for what they need, probably was turned off by the swarm of different configurations and the price point of many of them. I do remember some being close, in both price and power, to what I would have expected a Steam machine to be.

Ah, that's all in the past, anyway. I don't even think the super high-end systems have the name slapped on them today, just the reasonably affordable builds. Hopefully, by Wednesday this time, we will know exactly how Valve really wants a Steam Machine to work. (I'm also hoping to hear a little about Steam OS. I might experiment with it in my next build (which will be ridiculous by virtue of water-cooling), until Win 10's post-retail beta testers prove it is stable.)

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Edit: Sorry, once again the Captcha proves it worth as an annoying pest.

 

[Lightknight]

So HTC is trying to regain market space anywhere it can... by partnering with the game company known for taking forever to finish it's projects (and possibly ruined the concept of the Steam Box for some people by letting overpriced OEM builders tack the name onto the same outrageous PCs that they've always sold). I wish them lots of luck.

PCs are expensive to build. Especially if you want cutting edge. So overpriced is relative. There were some $2,000 steam boxes that were well priced

That was the problem with many of those "Steam Boxes." They were packed with latest high-end hardware. The price of that, along with the system builders' fees made many of them hit or get close to the $2000 mark. That's what irked me about them is they went against the original Steam machine concept, which from what I understood, was supposed to be a $500-$700 mid-tier machine (that is fully upgradable) that would have one or maybe two configurations, not the two dozen we saw months ago. They were just trying to drum up extra sales from the name. Anyone who was interested in a Steam box as a way to jump into PC gaming, and likely doesn't know how to build their own or what is price for what they need, probably was turned off by the swarm of different configurations and the price point of many of them. I do remember some being close, in both price and power, to what I would have expected a Steam machine to be.

Ah, that's all in the past, anyway. I don't even think the super high-end systems have the name slapped on them today, just the reasonably affordable builds. Hopefully, by Wednesday this time, we will know exactly how Valve really wants a Steam Machine to work. (I'm also hoping to hear a little about Steam OS. I might experiment with it in my next build (which will be ridiculous by virtue of water-cooling), until Win 10's post-retail beta testers prove it is stable.)

The problem is "steam box" was never trademarked. Valve would have to become their own hardware producer and even then it'd just be yet another console. I mean, at that point, how much better would it actually be than a console?

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

The problem is "steam box" was never trademarked. Valve would have to become their own hardware producer and even then it'd just be yet another console. I mean, at that point, how much better would it actually be than a console?

Yes, that was the main issue. They didn't just let that happen, either. Gabe Newell introduced all of those "Steam Machines" at CES 2014. I don't even think anyone involved, including Valve, knew, or might know now, what it would take to compete directly with a console or if it really is possible. Thinking back on it now, I guess they just tried to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. They've doing that with all of the revisions of the Steam controller and now will probably try the same approach with this new VR headset. (At least the controller and VR won't be made by 12 different companies.)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

That's cool, but can I play Half-Life 3 on it?

 

[Strazdas]

you know there was a joke about technological leaps. HL1 introduced a bunch of technological stuff. HL2 introduced a new engine and a while lot of stuff. there was a joke that HL3 will come when we all get VR and HL3 will be what sells VR. im starting to dread that Gabe Newell has a sense of humour.

 

[Uhuru N'Uru]

All of you don't get it VR is proven tech now, the motion sickness issue is was solved long ago. That's just a matter of precision, which Valve solved and gave the research to Occulus Rift and probably others.
The problem now is making the commercial product small enough and cheap enough to sell.
Gamers may be the early adopters, but we're not the main target.
This will revolutionize every visual medium, they will all use this tech.
TV, Movies, Computing of every kind.

Facebook didn't buy the Occulus Rift to use for gaming, Just like this room tech isn't aimed at Gamers, despite being the guinea pigs.
It's basically a holodeck as far as the user is concerned, just a virtual one.

Once the Gamers have Beta tested it, The flat screen will join the CRT on the obsolete scrapheap.

 

[Lightknight]

The problem is "steam box" was never trademarked. Valve would have to become their own hardware producer and even then it'd just be yet another console. I mean, at that point, how much better would it actually be than a console?

Yes, that was the main issue. They didn't just let that happen, either. Gabe Newell introduced all of those "Steam Machines" at CES 2014. I don't even think anyone involved, including Valve, knew, or might know now, what it would take to compete directly with a console or if it really is possible. Thinking back on it now, I guess they just tried to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. They've doing that with all of the revisions of the Steam controller and now will probably try the same approach with this new VR headset. (At least the controller and VR won't be made by 12 different companies.)

Honestly, I'm not sure if this is a solvable problem without a company approaching this as an actual console and marrying it with the steam platform. The problem is that where most companies can treat consoles as a neutral asset (loses money up from and should at least gain that loss back by the end of life) since they make money on software sales, this hypothetical company would be either unable to treat it that way or would need to reach a deal with Steam to acquire some of the profit when games are purchased from their consoles. In any event, it's such a big risk that they'd practically have to charge face value plus operation costs on the consoles just to make sure they don't get put under.

So I don't think it's all that viable. I also don't know that it's all that necessary. It's inconvenient but there's really no reason we can't slap our computers in our living room from time to time.