Index VR headset will officially cost $999 for full kit, on sale tomorrow - Sensationalist Headlines

I thought Valve said that the entire set was going to be reasonably priced?

Waaayyy too steep. I know the specs are amazing and all, but when WMR headset kits (meaning with controllers) are available for less than the price of just the fucking controllers, it pretty much guarantees that this will only really interest those who are massive Valve fans, who are very much into VR, and want cutting edge tech. So basically, a niche within a niche. It's not a bad HMD kit by any means (easily the best one out there), but it certainly isn't helping to make VR more accessible to the masses, which is what VR desperately needs right now.

They're saying that you can run Beat Saber at 144hz with a GTX 970. This headset obviously comes with Valve's own firmware and approach to time and spacewarp and with recent advances in being able to rapidly turn on and off the LCD you can also pause rendering during that time. End result: It probably costs less per pixel to run the Index than the Vive Pro. So, no, it's not a necessity so long as the firmware can optimize it further than previous generations. Just being able to do 144hz makes it a 'reliably different experience'. The immersion fidelity jumps up significantly, as has been reported by people who have used the thing. The headphones also provide an audio fidelity that's hard to match by claims and the subpixel grid being worked on and made less visible also makes your immersion higher. Your immersion fidelity being overall higher is a big reason for people to purchase it.

This is a stupid argument. If you own any HTC headsets already, you are incentivised to upgrade for the superior FoV. Do *not* underestimate how much of a different it makes. You have a better refresh rate on the Index with less screen door effect and with camera passthrough, a superior audio system (in theory, at least, we haven't had enough reviews yet) and probably a more comfortable head gasket. If you want to get in the ground floor, you could get a cheaper option, or you could get the superior option. It's up to you. You have options. You could buy a cheap little $30 RC quadcopter or you could buy a nice Inductrix RC quad for a hundred bux. You can enter in cheap or expensive. Up to you. Some people will buy the cheapest WMR headset they can get their hands on, and some people will want to enter with a premium product. Inside out tracking is convenient but it's not as good as base station tracking. As a premium product I'd prefer the base station method. Wireless option is the only valid point, and I'm sure a wireless option is coming.

Way too expensive. I'm getting the Rift S instead for a 449€ full kit. Index is better for sure, it will be the best headset on the market - but not 1079€ worth. I'd be willing to pay 600-700 max. Rift S is great price/performance wise. The extra subpixel in LCDs makes a huge difference in perceived resolution and screen-door effect. Even if the blacks aren't pure black like OLED, the resolution bump is worth it. I can't imagine future HMDs going with OLED anymore, now that we have new higher capability LCDs coming out with super low latency, high res, etc.

The Portal game thats coming out around the same time as the Index will only work with the Knuckles since it requires the finger tracking for some of the mini games.

Seems only slightly better than the Vive, so I'm not too terribly interested. Maybe when it comes out and we can get a consensus on the level of improvement, maybe, but for now I'll pass. The earphones not actually touching the ears seems weird to me, though. I get that it enables you to hear the environment around you too, but isn't that immersion breaking? Also they seem really easy to snap off if they're stuck out like that.

Depends on the environment but yeah, there'll definitely be bleed. They include an extra audio jack for users that would rather use their own headphones though so you still have a 'maximum immersion' option. Still, there's also something to be said about 'not feeling headphones on your ears' for increasing immersion.

Something tells me that htc's manufacturering ability helped keep vive prices down, and valve can't match it. Lets hope they can rise to the occasion and lower prices

If they're using the same swivel/joint that's on the Vive Pros, I've gone through about 1200 uses of my Vive Pros and haven't seen a single one of the earphones break except for the one time an employee let the headset slip from its dock, fall some four feet, and landed on a headphone which was already fully open-hinge'd. Even then, it was a pretty clean break and it was back once I stuck the pins back on their ports and duct-taped it for VR Games development use (I use everything in the arcade I can as much as I can).

It makes sense to do. A huge portion if not the majority of Vive sales from my experience are institutions and hardcore hobbyists who have money and want the best in class. Sucks for hobbyists on a budget like us, but until it's possible to produce a VR set that's both better and a lot cheaper than gen1, they have to target premium price points.

What? But these are literally improved Vive Pros that are being sold $400-600 less than Vive Pros. Valve is definitely matching it in price at least; whether or not they're 'eating it' in the manufacturing costs who knows? They've got more money than god though so I doubt they'd even notice the real loss of inefficiency there.

Having the extra audio jack is the entire reason I'm upgrading from the vive to the index instead of the vive pro. It's also because like, the vive pro is fucking $2000. $1000 really isn't that unreasonable imo. If you couldn't afford the GTX 1080TI did you people also bitch about how expensive it was? Or did you just buy a last gen or lesser model like a reasonable person? Like if you can't afford the latest and greatest, just buy a used previous gen model. Get a Vive or a Rift on Ebay or some hsit. They're like $400 right now.

It literally takes like zero effort to run a game at a higher resolution and framerate Virtually all games support this without it even being programmed into them Higher fov doesn't even need effort, that's built into the headset Games that don't natively support the knuckles controller could pretty much add them without effort too, finger sensing isn't requirement Devs will also naturally catch on, and already have because knuckles controllers have been sent to devs. So they've already done what you wanted them to do Literally what is the issue here

I guess they want more games where 'giving everything the middle finger' is a core gameplay mechanic before the Index launches?

If i cant virtually finger myself for 999usd i cant play a video game

Yeah, okay, you're right. I suppose I didn't realize there was already a large group of hard-core guys who would buy this.

Alternatively, you could use RGB OLED panels.

If you're getting a VR setup, it's kind of the common expectation that your computer is the opposite of a toaster.

If I didn’t just get a rift, I might have been interested

"No word on exactly what that game is yet; Valve wants to keep the rumor mill spinning." You'd think at this point Valve would recognize that stoking the rumor mill just means reminding users that they haven't cared about their core franchises in close to a decade, and doesn't generate hype as much as it does resentment.

i want to get just the controllers now and get the headset later i just want finger tracking

the controllers are inexcusably expensive.

i dunno, i guess i need to experience it for myself to see how different it is, i just read a few opinions from first hand testers on the index where they said it wasn't a drastic difference compared to the base vive experience, and that there were a few issues with the speaker quality and the sensitivity on the knuckle controllers. i dont think the machine itself is pointless, i just think its a bit early to release it to consumers when the use cases for the headlining features currently are so narrow, aside from increased FOV and higher resolution. it just seems.. too marginal of an upgrade to charge more than the base unit cost including the delux strap and wifi upgrade without even having a wireless solution yet, which no doubt will bring the cost up to even with a vive pro.

While this is a fairly compelling upgrade, I'm going to stick with my Rift for another generation I think. Not willing to spend that much money on an upgrade just yet.

Yeah its... Not out yet. They literally only just now announced it. Obviously it'll have had issues pre-release The release versions are where the reviews are at

as an owner of said wireless for the og vive, i've had absolutely 0 problems with it and it improves the experience immensely, so it seems strange to me to not have the same option available for their new premiere headset on launch, but that's because i would never want to go back to having to worry about that wire. although i guess it could also be a matter of having to push out a max cap of 144 hz at a much higher resolution, though the device does also work with the already higher res vive pro.

"Not available in your country" Valve, I live in fucking Canada, we literally share a border with Washington and you can't be assed to sell us this?

I'm a bit surprised to see how people are reacting to the price of a full set - I don't think high-range VR is ever going to drop from the 1k~ price point for a full package ready-to-go. You have so many options for midrange headsets, like the Rift to the PSVR, all the way down to mobile headsets. VR is so competitively priced now that one next gen headset launching at the same price the first gen launched at doesn't seem too bad.

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/239385/4bf3bd38-1040-43b2-b6a1-27c4436202e0/3FB4FB1F-D026-43A3-96A0-D943E54E8CB5.jpeg Come on! A lot of Russians play your games, and in return you decide to tease us without giving an opportunity to buy?