Oculus is Valve’s pick to ship VR hardware.
Well, this is an interesting development. You know all the rave reviews Valve’s virtual reality (VR) prototype has been getting at Steam Dev Days? Well, the company has no plans to release that VR hardware. No current plans, anyway. That demo was purely a research and development prototype to indicate what VR could be like in the near future.
A slide shown at the latest Dev Days tech talk (above) indicates that instead the company will be collaborating, not competing, with Oculus Rift. It states that Crystal Cove (the latest version of Oculus) is a “big step in the right direction” and reveals that Valve has helped out with tracking and persistence. The slide is pretty clear about the fact that Valve thinks Oculus is the company to ship this hardware.
Valve also feels that consumer VR will be realistic within two years. A further slide was shown, detailing the problems which need to still be overcome (below,) and it was stated that Valve feels this can be achieved by 2015.
One or two issues to overcome before VR is ready.
Valve is adamant that the PC is the only realistic platform for VR, since it’s the most powerful platform (and will continue to be so,) and has the most developers with the most freedom to innovate as they choose.
Interesting times ahead for those keen on a virtual reality revolution.
