After much teasing and leaking, Valve has formally unveiled Index, its brand-new high-end virtual reality PC hardware. Pre-orders open tomorrow, May 1st, and it’s out in June.
Index, which is being pitched toward more demanding VR users, consists of three new parts: the Index headset, the Index controllers, and new 2.0 base stations. While Facebook’s recently announced Oculus Rift S utilises internal tracking, Valve has opted for an external tracking solution in Index, as it doesn’t believe (it told Polygon) that headsets with built-in sensors are “there yet”.
The Index headset features dual 1440×1600 RGB LCDs (compared to the original Vive’s combined 2160×1200 resolution and Oculus Rift S’s single 2560×1440 LCD panel), and promises “greater sharpness for the same rendering cost”, as well as greatly reduced ‘screen door’ effect. It will run at 120Hz, but is fully back-compatibile to Vive’s 90Hz (in contrast, the new Rift S supports 80Hz) and promises 20-degrees more Field of View than Vive.
Elsewhere, Index features a physically adjustable IPD (the Rift S opts for a software solution), and features off-ear headphones, designed to “provide a more natural way to experience audio” by interacting with the “geometry of the outer ear and head”. It even includes HMD cameras, and a USB 3 Type-A expansion port, known as the Frunk, for “tinkerers and makers”.