Valve to Unveil SteamVR Hardware at GDC

[Tbone]

http://store.steampowered.com/universe

In an interesting turn of events, Valve has announced they will be giving "demos of the refined Steam Controller, new living room devices, and a previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system." Some sleuthing suggests that, at the very least, Valve is going to show their own HMD that's reported to be "two years ahead" of Oculus' current public prototype!

There's been some speculation as to whether Valve was bitter that Oculus sniped some of their top VR employees after getting acquired by Oculus. If this isn't a Valve/Oculus team-up, it's sets the stage for Battle Royal for the new VR gaming market.

[likwidtek]

THIS is really interesting.  I think it could go two ways, it could fragment the market so much that there's not enough quality developer support for either ecosystem (ASSUMING that each company makes their stuff not play well with others)

OR

It could go really well for the consumer.  Think how Apple, Google, RIM, and Microsoft have all competed in the mobile space which REALLY drove innovation and made the mobile devices pretty awesome.

Either way, What I really want out of Steam right now is a nice quality VR launcher. 

Semi-related, I want my Steam controller SO BAD.

[Tbone]

As an addendum, Nvidia is also rumored to be announcing their own VR HMD! It's unclear if there may be a parternship between Nvidia and someone like Valve or if these will be two separate HMDs. At the moment it is assumed they are separate.

[Maglorius]

The HTC/Valve headset video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5XVq4NLnwk


http://www.htcvr.com/

The Visuals

A 1,200 by 1,080 pixel screen in front of each eye, with refresh rates of a blistering 90 frames per second, displays photorealistic imagery that fills your field of vision in all directions, eliminating the jitter common to previous VR technologies and transporting you to another world.

Tracking and Room Scale

A gyro sensor, accelerometer, and laser position sensor combine to precisely track the rotation of your head on both axes to an accuracy of 1/10th of a degree, allowing you to look around the virtual environment naturally. Couple the headset with a pair of Steam VR base stations to track your physical location (in spaces up to 15 feet by 15 feet) – get up and walk around inside the virtual world!

Custom Game Controller

Ergonomic VR game controllers in each hand allow you to use virtual objects and interact with the virtual world. The position of each controller is tracked in space, allowing developers to simulate a wide range of activities and interactions.

[Tbone]

What's interesting here is Valve's commitment to including other HMDs. The base stations that provide the tracking are all Valve's, but the HMD and I believe controllers are HTC-specific. In theory, though, other manufacturers (like say, Nvidia), could make their own HMD and controllers to fit within Valve's SteamVR structure. This would force Oculus to either adopt Valve's tracking system or compete against it.

15x15 tracking complete with input is pretty appealing. I wonder how much all of this is going to COST.