Mighty Real

Hands on, and eyes in, with the dazzling new wave of virtual reality hardware

The race is on to define the future of virtual reality, and two very different philosophies of what that should entail are in play. On the one hand is Valve, driving for fidelity, believing that for VR to truly succeed it should look and feel as close to actual reality as possible. On the other is Oculus who, no doubt influenced by its parent Facebook, is all about mainstream appeal, keeping costs low and inconveniences to a minimum in a bid to get VR in front of as many people as it can. That both companies should take their biggest steps to date towards their very different goals by releasing new hardware within weeks of each other is surely no coincidence. The next generation of virtual reality has begun.

Valve’s offering, the somewhat prosaically named Index, finally sees it enter the hardware market on its own terms; since launching SteamVR in 2015 it has delegated that side of things to HTC, maker of the Vive line of HMDs. Prior to that, its Steam Machines range of small-form-factor PCs was similarly manufactured by companies with experience of that sort of thing. Yet nothing about Index suggests the work of a debutant. This is premium stuff – and priced to match, with the full kit priced up at £999. That can be reduced, with cheaper bundles available without the ‘base station’ sensors (it’s compatible with Vive’s) or the Index controllers.