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Here's where you can try on HTC's Vive VR headset this year
If you're eager to try on HTC's Vive VR headset, which blew us away back at Mobile World Congress, you may soon have your chance. HTC just announced a world tour for the Vive, starting this week at San Diego Comic-Con, stretching all the way into the Paris Games Week in November. You can check out a full list of cities and dates below, but take note that they're subject to change. The Vive, developed together with Valve, is a VR headset similar to the Oculus Rift, but it also includes some positional laser sensors which can track your movement around a room. It was so immersive it made Engadget's Nicole Lee a believer in VR. Our only issue with this news? We're noticing a distinct lack of East Coast dates. New York City wants to see the Vive already, HTC!
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.
HTC, Valve offer free Vive VR dev kits to select developers
Valve, the company that spawned Steam, Team Fortress 2, Portal and Half-Life, will hand out dev kits of its Vive virtual reality headset to select developers at no cost, company spokesperson Doug Lombardi tells Ars Technica. Valve plans to launch a new site next week where developers, big and small, can sign up to potentially score an early version of the Vive. There are no firm guidelines determining which studios will actually get a dev kit, the site reports, and it's unclear how many are up for grabs in this freebie round.
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.
How serious are you about virtual reality?
The absolute best/worst virtual reality stock photo we could find Are you prepared to dedicate a room in your house to virtual reality? Perhaps you're a little less crazy than me, but you're okay with a wire running across your living room to a headset? Or maybe both of those sound crazy to you, but a headset that can plug into your phone is okay? These are the emerging options for virtual reality: a medium finally coming into its own, that's poised to disrupt industries and hairdos the world over.
A visual history of Valve's work in VR
It's been a long road from where Valve started with VR. It was only a few shorts years ago that the company was letting select industry folk demo prototype VR hardware in its QR code-laden "Room." And now, Valve has its own consumer-facing VR headset, the HTC Vive; its own controller that looks like the space opera version of Sony's Move wand; and a positional-based tracking solution in Lighthouse VR. None of this has exactly caught us off guard -- Valve was always cagey when it came to questions of commercial hardware. But we weren't prepared for just how impressive the combination of all the VR tech truly is. In fact, our own Ben Gilbert called it the "best VR" he's experienced to date. It's only fair, then, that Valve would want to look back on its own journey pioneering VR. And look back it did with a timeline of prototypes and R&D breakthroughs it had on display here at GDC. Care to take that walk down Valve's memory lane? Then treat yourself to the gallery below and be sure to head past the break for a video tour.
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."
One of the first Valve VR games is inspired by '80s fantasy films
The Gallery: Six Elements is a magical fantasy exploration game created by Vancouver Island studio Cloudhead Games for Valve and HTC's new virtual reality headset, the Vive. It includes motion controls and a soundtrack by Elder Scrolls composer Jeremy Soule, and at first glance it's a truly gorgeous 3D, puzzle-solving experience -- the game's first trailer, released today, shows that much. The Gallery was successfully Kickstarted back in April 2013, where it was pitched as an Oculus Rift game. Perhaps sensing a hit, Valve jumped on Cloudhead early on in Vive's development, Creative Director Denny Unger says. "Valve has been stellar," Unger says. "They brought us into the process very early and genuinely listened to what we had learned about the VR space since its 2013 rebirth. Valve shared a common goal with Cloudhead Games in that they saw a vision for VR that was tantamount to the holodeck. This is the closest we've ever been to breaking down the boundaries and letting users physically step into virtual worlds. It is the fracture point all sci-fi geeks have been waiting for. It's here and its incredible."
HTC's Vive made me believe in VR
I am in the Matrix. Or rather, I am in that same expanse of infinite white space that was also Neo's training grounds in the movie. Hexagonal tiles appear underneath, randomly rising and falling around me. With trepidation, I step forward, slowly walking across the field of unstable tiles, trying to get a feel of this strange new land. Suddenly, I come up against a grid wall. It seems the space isn't so infinite after all. I was, of course, not in the Matrix. Instead, I was in a stark, windowless room inside the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona. On my head was the HTC Vive. And for the next 20 minutes, I was about to have a virtual reality experience unlike any I've ever had.
Valve's 'Lighthouse' VR tech brings TVs and headsets together
We already saw the new Vive virtual reality headset that Valve and HTC are working on, but they're not stopping there. Hardware engineer Alan Yates says that its Lighthouse room-scale tracking system brings the "high-resolution, high-speed tracking" that you need for a quality VR experience. According to Yates, the system is cheap enough to integrate into TVs, monitors, headsets, input devices or mobile devices. There's not a lot of detail on what exactly it includes, but it sounds a lot like the extra LEDs Sony just revealed on its new Project Morpheus prototype, and its PS Move controller. Those let the system track it with a camera to see how the wearer is moving in greater detail. Valve will make Lighthouse available to hardware manufacturers "freely," and we'll probably be looking for VR-ready stickers on our next TV or monitor. Don't miss out on all the latest from GDC 2015! Follow along at our events page here.
The Big Picture: HTC's Vive VR headset up close and personal
This is what HTC's Vive VR headset looks like in real life. It's not a dummy model; those sensors are fully functional. It's on my actual head. The first thing you may notice (if you don't, check the gallery below), is that it looks a little bigger than the Oculus Rift. Or at least, thanks to the height of the sensor-housing faceplate, it feels that way. Those sensors are also exposed, a bit like they were on Oculus' Crystal Cove prototype at CES 2014. Take a look around the headset from different angles, and you'll see that HTC may not have deviated from the current virtual reality design script too far, but at the same time, it doesn't feel entirely derivative. Can this thing blow our minds like we hope it will? Is the VR race now officially on (given, you know who's newest headset has just debuted too)? We'll let you know once HTC finally pours its Valve-powered VR content into our eyes later this week.
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.
AA Navigator's budget-priced Vive! GPS
The definition of a budget-priced GPS navigation system is, like most such undefinable definitions, an ever-changing one -- currently sitting somewhere around the $300 mark --which AA Navigator just manages to squeeze under with its latest unit, the Vive! (or, le Vive!, if you prefer). This one's strictly for the European market, pre-loaded with maps of the U.K. and Ireland (including over 50,000 POIs), with a pricier option also available that'll add a 1GB SD card filled with maps for guiding you throughout all of Western Europe. The unit's specs look to be respectable enough given the price, including a 3.5-inch touch screen (apparently the only form of input), Centrality Atlas II 300MHz processor, 256MB ROM and 64MB SDRAM, an SD/MMC slot that'll accommodate cards up to 2GB, and a promised three hours of juice from the internal rechargeable lithium ion battery. The one thing that's not clear is the type of GPS chipset in the thing, although given the near-ubiquity of the SiRFstar III, we wouldn't bet against it. You can snag this one now direct from AA Navigator for £150 (or $280), with the aforementioned upgrade tacking an extra hundred pounds on top of that.[Via Navigadget]
