Index | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 24 Jun 2022 08:24:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Index | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Valve’s next-gen VR headset shown in newly discovered patent https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valves-next-gen-vr-headset-shown-in-newly-discovered-patent/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valves-next-gen-vr-headset-shown-in-newly-discovered-patent/#respond Thu, 23 Jun 2022 12:52:54 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=565478 For a while now, we've been hearing rumours that Valve is working on a new standalone, wireless virtual reality headset. Now, a new patent filed be Valve in late 2021 has confirmed this, showing a new HMD design.  The patent was filed in December 2021, so Valve is actively working on new VR hardware at …

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For a while now, we've been hearing rumours that Valve is working on a new standalone, wireless virtual reality headset. Now, a new patent filed be Valve in late 2021 has confirmed this, showing a new HMD design. 

The patent was filed in December 2021, so Valve is actively working on new VR hardware at the moment. Through datamining efforts, references to new games have also been uncovered, one known as HL:X and another known as Citadel, both of which are expected to feature some form of cross-play between a VR headset and more traditional gaming platforms, like a PC, or even the Steam Deck.

As we can see from the patent image, Valve details a new Head-Mounted Display (HMD), with a new mounting method with new securing mechanisms for the headset's housing, and a similar head strap design to the Valve Index, including the securing dial at the back, which can be used to secure the headset to your face for a comfortable fit.

Valve's wireless VR headset is currently known as the Deckard. However, the company has not announced anything officially. Typically, Valve doesn't announce projects until they are ready to go and even then, if the company doesn't like the direction of a particular project, they'll shelve it and go back to the drawing board. With that in mind, it could be quite some time before we see Valve's next VR headset officially revealed.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Would you like to see a wireless VR headset from Valve to compete with the Quest 2? 

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Gabe Newell explains on-going Valve Index supply issues https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/gabe-newell-explains-on-going-valve-index-supply-issues/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/gabe-newell-explains-on-going-valve-index-supply-issues/#respond Fri, 22 Jan 2021 15:37:05 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=502079 The Valve Index first launched in June 2019 and ever since then, it has been in high demand. That demand only grew in 2020 with the release of Half-Life Alyx, which is said to be the best single-player VR game made to date. Unfortunately, supply has not been able to keep up, with lengthy back-order …

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The Valve Index first launched in June 2019 and ever since then, it has been in high demand. That demand only grew in 2020 with the release of Half-Life Alyx, which is said to be the best single-player VR game made to date. Unfortunately, supply has not been able to keep up, with lengthy back-order lists still in place for the Index kit – a subject that Gabe Newell touched on in an interview this week.

Speaking with 1 News in New Zealand, Gabe Newell was asked about the Valve Index and its on-going supply/demand issue. Unfortunately, big launches coupled with the pandemic from other tech companies set Valve's manufacturing back a bit.

Speaking on the issue, Newell explained that part of it is due to reliance on very specific components: “We actually have components that are manufactured in Wuhan and when you’re setting up your manufacturing lines it doesn’t occur to you that you’re suddenly going to be dependent on this peculiar transistor that’s sitting on one board that you can’t get”.

Then in 2020, as huge launches from the likes of Apple and Microsoft grew closer, huge amounts of supply were bought up by these bigger companies looking to ensure consistent supply: “Everybody ended up running into the same problem simultaneously — you go from, ‘Oh, we’re in great shape,’ to, ‘What do you mean Apple or Microsoft just bought the next two years’ supply of this just so they could make sure they aren’t going to run out?’ You went from a situation where everything was getting done just in time to people buying up all the available supplies.”

This is an issue that many tech companies have run into over the last year. Despite buying up huge amounts of supply, companies like Sony, Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD and others are struggling to manufacture enough consoles, graphics cards and other products to meet demand. Valve is in the same boat, as the company is still struggling to get everything it needs to meet demand for the Valve Index full kit.

KitGuru Says: Have many of you been waiting to get your hands on a Valve Index? Are you still waiting, or did you opt to pick up a different VR headset instead?

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The Valve Index should be back in stock next week but it will sell out quickly https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/the-valve-index-should-be-back-in-stock-next-week-but-it-will-sell-out-quickly/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/the-valve-index-should-be-back-in-stock-next-week-but-it-will-sell-out-quickly/#respond Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:34:12 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=454996 Ever since the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx, the Valve Index VR headset and controllers have been pretty hard to get hold of, with stock swiftly running low. At the moment, the Index is still sold out, but Valve has been working to build up some inventory and apparently, that stock will be available to purchase …

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Ever since the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx, the Valve Index VR headset and controllers have been pretty hard to get hold of, with stock swiftly running low. At the moment, the Index is still sold out, but Valve has been working to build up some inventory and apparently, that stock will be available to purchase as soon as next week. 

As reported by SteamDB, the Valve Index is due to be back in stock on Steam on March 9th, starting at 10 AM PDT, or 6 PM GMT for those of us in the UK. However, due to sheer demand, it is expected that new units will sell out quickly, so anyone looking to get their hands on a headset before Half-Life: Alyx comes out will need to be swift.

There is no word on how quickly more stock will arrive after this batch, but there will likely be some lengthy waiting periods as suppliers around the globe are experiencing slower production times due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Half-Life: Alyx is releasing on the 23rd of March and while it likely will play best on an Index with the Index Controllers, the game will also support the HTC VIVE, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: I was hoping I'd be able to get hold of an Index myself in time for Half-Life: Alyx but it looks like that is going to be a difficult task for the time being. Hopefully in the next few months, these current supply shortages can be resolved. Are any of you planning on getting an Index in time for Half-Life: Alyx? Or will you be using a different headset instead? 

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Valve will have ‘far fewer units’ of Index available as coronavirus slows production https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/valve-will-have-far-fewer-units-of-index-available-as-coronavirus-slows-production/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/valve-will-have-far-fewer-units-of-index-available-as-coronavirus-slows-production/#respond Fri, 21 Feb 2020 14:25:51 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=453180 Following the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx last year, Valve quickly sold 100,000 Index VR headsets before the end of 2019 and was on track to keep selling at a high rate into early 2020. Unfortunately, stock shortages hit early and while Valve initially anticipated to get on top of the situation before HL:A's release, the …

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Following the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx last year, Valve quickly sold 100,000 Index VR headsets before the end of 2019 and was on track to keep selling at a high rate into early 2020. Unfortunately, stock shortages hit early and while Valve initially anticipated to get on top of the situation before HL:A's release, the coronavirus is making that outcome seem unlikely.

At the moment, the Valve Index is still sold out in most regions, just as it has been since January 15th 2020. Those looking to buy can turn to the expensive second-hand market, or you can click the ‘notify me' button on the Index store page to get an email as soon as a headset is there for you to purchase. Unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak is slowing the process of obtaining new stock.

In a statement given to UploadVR this week, Valve assures that it is still “working hard to meet demand for the Valve Index” in time for the release of Half-Life: Alyx on March 23rd. Apparently, there will actually be systems available to buy prior to release, but production schedules have been impacted to the point where there will be far fewer units than hoped.

“With Half-Life: Alyx coming March 23rd, we are working hard to meet demand for the Valve Index and want to reassure everyone that Index systems will be available for purchase prior to the game’s launch. However, the global Coronavirus health crisis has impacted our production schedules so we will have far fewer units for sale during the coming months compared to the volumes we originally planned.”

KitGuru Says: I've been waiting to get hold of an Index myself but unfortunately, it looks like getting hold of one is going to be quite difficult. It is really unfortunate timing but Valve can't be blamed here, after all, there is an unexpected global health crisis. Did many of you pick up a Valve Index before they went out of stock? Or are you trying to get hold of one in time for Half-Life: Alyx next month? 

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Valve sold over 100K Index VR headsets after announcing Half-Life: Alyx https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-announcement/matthew-wilson/valve-sold-over-100k-index-vr-headsets-after-announcing-half-life-alyx/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-announcement/matthew-wilson/valve-sold-over-100k-index-vr-headsets-after-announcing-half-life-alyx/#respond Wed, 29 Jan 2020 12:00:27 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=449191 SuperData released an updated analysis of the VR market this week, accounting for headset sales in Q4 2019 - here's what you need to know...

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Since Valve is a private company, we rarely find out how much money the company makes, or how much first-party software or hardware it sells. With that in mind, the number of Valve Index headsets that sold in 2019 has been a bit of a mystery, although analysts reckon the number sits somewhere in the 150,000 range. 

SuperData released an updated analysis of the VR market this week, accounting for headset sales in Q4 2019. According to their research, Valve sold 149K Index headsets in 2019, with sales swiftly doubling in Q4 due to the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx. In all, 103,000 Valve Index headsets are estimated to have been sold in Q4 alone. An important note is that Valve would have sold even more headsets if it didn't run into stock shortages.

Of course, the Valve Index isn't the only VR headset on the market. According to SuperData's statistics, the PlayStation VR was the most popular headset in Q4 2019, selling 338,000 units, while the Oculus Quest fell just behind at 317,000 sales. In all of 2019, the Oculus Quest is said to have sold 705,000 units.

The Oculus Go and Oculus Rift S notched up 84K and 71K sales respectively. Those headsets make up the top five for VR headset sales in Q4 2019, indicating that the HTC VIVE was left behind at the end of the year.

KitGuru Says: Given how expensive the Valve Index is, close to 150K sales is a very good number. We shouldn't be too surprised though, after all, Valve did announce the first new Half-Life game in over a decade. It will be interesting to see how sales stack up over the course of 2020. Did any of you pick up a VR headset in 2019? Which one did you end up going with?

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Valve Index starts to sell out in some regions after Half-Life: Alyx announcement https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/valve-index-starts-to-sell-out-in-some-regions-after-half-life-alyx-announcement/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-news/matthew-wilson/valve-index-starts-to-sell-out-in-some-regions-after-half-life-alyx-announcement/#respond Thu, 28 Nov 2019 14:37:44 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=438689 It has been one week since Valve officially announced Half-Life: Alyx, complete with a gameplay trailer showing off VR gameplay. Such a huge game announcement was always bound to sell some VR headsets and it looks like a lot of people are even opting for the more expensive hardware, with the Valve Index kit starting …

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It has been one week since Valve officially announced Half-Life: Alyx, complete with a gameplay trailer showing off VR gameplay. Such a huge game announcement was always bound to sell some VR headsets and it looks like a lot of people are even opting for the more expensive hardware, with the Valve Index kit starting to run low on stock in some regions. 

Currently the UK version of the Valve Index full kit and the other purchase options are still in stock with 4-8 day delivery. However, as reported by Road to VR, over in the US, shipping estimates are falling back by as far as December 25th for new orders and Canada is running low on stock too. The Valve Index is available in 31 countries, so availability will vary differently. In Japan for instance, the standalone Index Controllers are out of stock but the full VR kit and the headset on its own are in stock.

We aren't seeing a sweeping sell-out across the world but the Half-Life: Alyx announcement has certainly spurred VR sales along. Of course, Valve's game will also run on Oculus, HTC and Windows MR headsets, so it will be interesting to see if some of the cheaper headsets on the market have also seen a late-year boost in sales thanks to Half-Life: Alyx.

Half-Life: Alyx is a long-awaited return to the franchise built from the ground up for VR. We'll have to wait until March 2020 to see if it is really the killer app VR enthusiasts have been waiting for all these years.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: I have a Rift S at the moment so I'm all set for Half-Life: Alyx, although I do really want to play it with the Index controllers. Are any of you planning on picking up a VR headset before the game comes out? Will you be opting for Valve's high-end kit, or one of the cheaper (but still very good) options from other headset makers? 

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Valve will apparently release a ‘flagship VR game’ in 2019 https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valve-will-apparently-release-a-flagship-vr-game-in-2019/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/valve-will-apparently-release-a-flagship-vr-game-in-2019/#respond Wed, 01 May 2019 08:30:19 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=412205 The Valve Index VR headset is officially here but Valve isn't ready to start showing off its own games just yet.

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Since early 2017, we have known that Valve is working on three full VR games, which would take advantage of the Knuckles/Index controllers that were being developed alongside them. With that in mind, you may have thought that Valve would have something ready to go in time for its big Index headset launch this month. Unfortunately, that is not the case, although apparently we will be getting one ‘flagship VR game' before the end of 2019.

Last night, Valve officially lifted the curtain on the Index, the company's own VR headset. It has some very impressive technical specifications but if you require the Index controllers and base stations, then pricing shoots up quite rapidly. Much of this information was revealed to a small group of journalists earlier this month, at a secret Valve Index press event.

During this event, many were understandably asking Valve about its software plans, to which the team on-hand replied that a flagship VR game will be coming later this year. This game won't be exclusive to the Index and will support other control inputs, so if you have an Oculus Rift + Touch controllers, or a VIVE + Wands, then you will be able to play this game through Steam. However, it is going to play best with Index controllers and look best on the Index headset thanks to its improved optics.

What exactly this ‘flagship game' will end up being still remains to be seen. There have been plenty of Half-Life VR leaks over the last year but there are also signs that Valve could be working on a Portal game, or something new entirely, as references to ‘the Citadel' were recently discovered in code strings.

KitGuru Says: It has gotten to a point with Valve where I won't believe a game is actually coming until it is properly shown. I am disappointed that a game announcement wasn't prepared in time for the Index reveal but with E3 just around the corner, perhaps we'll hear more about the software side of things soon. 

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