In case you missed it, Valve announced a bunch of new hardware this week, including a second attempt at the Steam Machine, a Steam Controller, and a new VR headset long rumored to be called the Steam Frame. But moving on with the new often means settling for the old and, perhaps inevitably, the company has confirmed that its previous headset, the Valve Index, is no more.
Valve’s Lawrence Yang said so the edge it’s “no longer part” of the Index, which we called “the best desktop VR yet” at launch in 2019. The Index hit the market around the same time as the Oculus Quest and its promise of an affordable, all-in-one VR future. The Valve Index, on the other hand, was still a premium wired device aimed at hardcore enthusiasts, and the price reflected that.
We don’t yet know how much the Steam Frame will cost, but it clearly seems like Valve is making a game for the more casual VR crowd, as well as those looking to play demanding 3D titles. A Wi-Fi adapter lets you stream desktop and VR games from your PC or Steam machine, but the Steam Frame is also a standalone device like the Quest 3 Review” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Meta Quest 3, which has a built-in Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and 16GB of RAM. Valve also supports Android games, apparently to encourage VR developers to publish their Quest games on Steam.
To track its movements in virtual space, Valve Index relied on remote base stations, which meant it had to go through a rather laborious setup process to play VR games on a local scale. Since then, consumer virtual reality has moved toward integrated sensors, and it appears that Valve is also looking to move away from its quad brands of the past, the company confirmed. the edge which are not compatible with Steam Frame. Instead, the new headphones have four high-resolution monochrome cameras for inside-out tracking, as well as infrared LEDs on the outside to facilitate tracking in dark environments.
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