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HTC Vive pre-orders open February 29th
If you've been jonesing to try HTC's room-focused take on virtual reality, the Vive, you won't have to wait long to plunk down some cash. Following a tease late last year, HTC has confirmed that pre-orders for its VR headset will begin on February 29th. There's still no mention of the price you'll pay when the device ships in April, although the recent Oculus Rift sticker shock is a reminder that the Vive probably won't come cheap. And we'd add that the biggest obstacle isn't necessarily the cost. For this to work, you'll need both a sufficiently beefy PC and a room large enough to wander through virtual worlds. If you have the funds and free space, though, you now have a firm date to put on your calendar.
HTC Vive to demo a 'very big' breakthrough in VR at CES
Regular folks who are eager to get hold of the HTC Vive would have been bummed by the news that it's been pushed to April 2016, but in return, we'll actually be getting a much improved version. At today's Vive Unbound developers forum in Beijing, CEO Cher Wang teased that two weeks ago, Valve and her team made "a very, very big technological breakthrough" with their virtual reality system, so big that they decided to just skip the original version and ship this new one, albeit missing the Q1 date. "We shouldn't make our users swap their systems later just so we could meet the December shipping date." That said, Wang remained mum on what this upgrade is all about, except that it'll be unveiled at CES early next month.
Explore the surfaces of planets in 'Elite: Dangerous' beta
The expansion pack for Elite: Dangerous, the one that lets you go planetside and explore the surface of places like Europa, is out now. Sort of. The Horizons Planetary Landings beta, teased in a video released last week, does exactly what it says assuming you've pre-ordered Horizons itself. Everyone else needs to wait for the official release sometime before year's end. Driving the all-new Surface Recon Vehicle, players can discover signals, crashed ships and mineral deposits, vastly expanding the range of gameplay. Creator David Braben recently showed off the expansion in a demo (below), and said that certain features, like textures and frame rates, might still have issues.
Here's what it's like to play Valve's VR 'Portal' experience
Sure, people can wax poetic about using HTC's Vive virtual reality headset, but what's it really like when you're looking through those lenses? You might not have to make a pilgrimage to one of HTC's tours to find out. ValveTime has posted a video walkthrough of Valve's Portal-themed VR demo (used on the Vive since this spring), and it gives you a good sense of what the immersive, room-based experience is like. To put it mildly, this is a tantalizing glimpse of what VR can do for gaming -- you can explore every nuance of an Aperture Science workshop, pulling drawers and levers almost like you were there. We don't want to spoil the whole thing, but it's safe to say there are robots and a few signature Valve surprises. Can we have a full-fledged title based on this, please?
Valve starts handing out HTC's VR headset to developers
If you're one of the fortunate few software developers to have scored HTC's Vive virtual reality headset, you'll want to keep an eye out for a delivery truck in the near future. Valve has confirmed that it's shipping the Vive Developer Edition to a "wide range" of teams, ranging from indie game studios to big-name movie producers. It's not clear how many got their VR headgear, although Owlchemy Labs' Devin Reimer has revealed that he's on the short list. You'll still have to wait until the end of the year to snag a Vive if you're a regular gamer, unfortunately. Still, the developer release at least suggests that the public launch is on track.
Valve releases a kit for making virtual reality apps
Eager to build a game or 3D modelling tool that takes advantage of HTC's Vive and other SteamVR-friendly virtual reality headsets? It's time to get cracking. Valve has released a software development kit that lets apps use SteamVR hardware, including Valve's controller and room-scale Lighthouse tracking. On top of that, the platform now works nicely with both the Unity game engine (through a plugin) and Unreal Engine 4. It'll be a long while before you can actually run programs built on this code -- the VR devices have yet to reach many developers, let alone the public -- but this at least gets the ball rolling.
Unreal game engine will support HTC's virtual reality headset
The crew at Epic Games has made a point of welcoming virtual reality with open arms, and it's not about to shy away any time soon. The studio recently updated its roadmap with indications that Unreal Engine 4 will support Steam VR (and by extension, the HTC Vive headset) no later than May. Also, Epic isn't wasting much time getting up to speed with Sony's newer Project Morpheus gear -- there's promises of silky-smooth 120Hz visuals, among other things. This wider support won't matter until you can buy both the VR hardware and titles based on UE4, but it suggests that there won't be a shortage of immersive gaming when everything lines up.
Everything Valve does is because of Steam
Why is Valve getting into virtual reality? Why is Valve making Steam Machines and the Steam Controller? Why did Valve make its own Linux-based operating system? Why did Valve make the Steam Controller? Why is Valve releasing its game engine, Source, for free? It's the Steam economy, stupid! Valve's game store boasts "over 125 million active accounts worldwide." How does Valve keep growing that store? By literally everything else it does. Here's Valve president Gabe Newell explaining it to us last week at GDC 2015: "We're trying to build standard interfaces and standard implementations that other people can use. Because, to be honest, we're going to make our money on the back end, when people buy games from Steam. Right? So we're trying to be forward-thinking and make those longer-term investments for PC gaming that are going to come back a couple years down the road."
How Valve's secret meeting got devs on board with Steam VR
Alex Schwartz expected robes. His development studio, Owlchemy Labs, received a cryptic email from Valve, one of the largest and most mysterious companies in the gaming industry, on an otherwise normal day in October. The message contained a secrecy agreement, plane tickets and the vague assertion that this was all about something related to virtual reality. Owlchemy responded with suspicion and intrigue. "What the hell is this? Who's coming? What is this all about?" Valve responded, "We can't say anything more. Just come."So, Owlchemy did.
Valve's push into VR will span many headsets from many companies
Currently, the HTC Vive is the only virtual reality headset that's part of Valve's Steam VR push. That's not because it's the only one, but because it's the only one we know about thus far. "You should think of the Vive as the first in the same way there are multiple Steam Machines," Valve president Gabe Newell told me this morning. In other words, Steam VR is an open platform supported by Valve. "We're building tools and hopefully they're valuable to hardware partners who want to do it. In some cases, we'll take the leadership role in shipping stuff. But we're really just building tools for other people to continue. So you'll see more headsets."
HTC's Vive is a high-end VR headset being made with Valve's help
Of all the things we expected HTC to talk about at its MWC press conference, a design-focused virtual reality headset built in partnership with Valve definitely wasn't on the short list. It's called the HTC Vive and the two companies working on making it a reality call it the most immersive, most premium VR experience you'll be able to find on the market. We know what you're thinking, and yes: This is really happening. If all goes according to plan, the initial developer version of the Vive will trickle out into the community sometime this spring with a full consumer launch to follow during the holidays.
Is this Valve's SteamVR headset?
Valve only just announced plans to bring a "SteamVR hardware system" to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and now we might have our first look at it. The sleuths at SteamDB have dug up this outline of a headset on the Steam Universe signup page, and it looks a bit different from anything we've seen from the likes of Oculus, Samsung or Sony. A year ago developers said that Valve was working with hardware with a higher resolution and refresh rate than what Oculus had at that time, but things could be different now. We'll be waiting until next week for confirmation (that three cables = Half Life 3, of course), but this may be the first accessory for your next Steam Box. Oh, and remember that Steam Controller with the added thumbstick? Today the Steam Client beta got an update with support for the new controller -- see you at GDC 2015!
Valve is making a VR headset and its own Steam Machine
Valve -- the company behind Portal, Team Fortress 2 and the widely-used game distribution hub Steam -- will show off its own virtual reality hardware, "SteamVR," at next week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. This comes despite Valve's previous insistence that it had no plans to release any such hardware (we had our doubts about that anyway, after Valve held virtual reality demos at Steam Dev Days in January 2014). Developers who got their hands on the company's early VR experiments were impressed by their holodeck-levels of immersion, but the tech was reportedly very rough and required a full-room setup to completely function. Additionally, it looks like Valve is making its own version of a "Steam Machine" -- the PC gaming initiative aimed at bringing PC gaming into the living room.
Valve adds 'virtual reality mode' to latest Steam beta
Valve is gradually embracing the warmth of an enormous video screen being mounted to its face, as it updated the beta client of Steam to add a "virtual reality mode" option. The newest beta version of Steam removes the "-vr" command line option in favor of a button in the view menu, which only appears for those with SteamVR installed when a head-mounted display like the Oculus Rift is detected. Virtual reality became a big focal point for Valve in recent years, and its former head of VR joined Oculus VR's new Seattle team just one week ago. Our friends at Engadget seem to believe that this week, the week of the Game Developers Conference, is the time that the virtual reality landscape will begin to "look very different." Given the recent rumor that Sony will unveil its own virtual reality headset in the coming days, we tend to agree. [Image: Oculus VR]
This is what game devs are saying about Valve's prototype VR hardware
We've seen quite a bit the Oculus Rift, but another major player in the coming virtual reality revolution has eluded us: Valve. Save for adding an experimental VR mode to the Steam Client Beta, the company's experiments in the space have been kept largely under wraps. That changed this week during Steam Dev Days, however, when select developers were given a peek at the company's R&D efforts. Some of those developers are even talking about their experiences, though their descriptions are still pretty vague. Tripwire interactive's David Hensley, for instance, tweeted this week that wearing the company's VR hardware prototype was like being in a "lucid dream state." In fact, Hensley compares it to the holodeck featured on Star Trek, thanks largely to the advanced physical tracking Valve employed in its demo. Users could reportedly walk around a confined space and have their movements (including simple actions like crouching) mirrored in the virtual world. "It's hard to explain just how immersive it felt," Garry Newman (creator of Garry's Mod) wrote on his blog. "Imagine being in a room and looking around seeing and hearing things in that room. That's what it was like." As impressive as the full-room tracking experience sounds, the prototype's other improvement are just as notable. According to Newman, Valve's headset offers a less nauseating experience compared to his time with Oculus' Rift, though he doesn't seem completely sure why. Hensley credits it to a higher resolution image and lower latency than Oculus dev kits available today, noting that he's heard it's comparable to the Crystal Cove prototype shown at CES (though he admits he hasn't used both units). Unfortunately, we're not likely to see these improvements in the public anytime soon -- Valve's efforts seem to be largely experimental, as the firm has already stated that it doesn't plan to release hardware of its own. Still, it sounds like an great example of where the technology could be headed in the future, even if that future is rather far flung.
SteamVR beta launches just ahead of Valve developer conference
As promised, Valve launched an experimental SteamVR mode this week, allowing users to test out virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift with the Steam UI. The launch comes just a day ahead of Valve's Steam Dev Days conference in Seattle, where talks feature discussion on VR hardware development, and how to integrate VR with various Steam features. In one talk, Valve is showcasing a prototype that reveals "what VR is capable of within a couple of years," and the studio looks likely to be working on its own VR headset, though no official announcement has been made. Valve's Brian Coomer recently said "there's also technology in development at Valve based around head-tracking and headset manufacture and design," and that the studio is working with other companies on VR tech, too. To test out SteamVR for yourself, follow the instructions here.
Valve's VR-friendly Steam UI launches in beta prior to its headset reveal
If Oculus VR's new "Crystal Cove" prototype is anything to go by (it's seriously guano, if you hadn't heard already), then gamers are really going to appreciate the virtual reality revival. It's no secret Valve, too, is cooking up its own VR headset, and the company recently added a new search filter to its Steam client to highlight games supporting such hardware. Today, the headset-friendly Steam overlay that's been in the works, now called "SteamVR," is available in the platform's beta client, and those who've got it working are seeing what's essentially a floating and curved version of Steam's Big Picture Mode. The launch of this experimental feature lands immediately before the Steam developer conference, where we fully expect to see Valve's own VR hardware finally become a... well, you get it.
