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Reports: Valve making their own VR HMD and apparently a new VR Half-Life

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It appears Valve are truly getting more serious about Virtual Reality as they appear to be making their own headset. On top of that, apparently a new Half-Life VR game is coming.

Leaked to an imgur album, which contains multiple shots of the new hardware. These includes shots clearly showing a Valve logo:

The uploadvr website has claimed they have had it confirmed by various sources that it is in fact real. As someone who really wants to try VR, I am hopeful Valve will be able to give it a decent price. The current price for most VR hardware is simply out of reach for a lot of people, myself included.

Even more interesting, is that Valve are apparently working on a new Half-Life which will be a VR title. That certainly could be one way to push adoption, I imagine that would turn a few heads that otherwise wouldn't have been interested. Could backfire too of course, if it's VR-only. To keep expectations in check though, reportedly it's a Half-Life 2 prequel and not Half-Life 3.

Valve News Network also have this video up about the Half-Life game which is interesting:

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Considering Microsoft is making moves buying up more studios and making another attempt to fix up the Windows Store, along with some bigger players leaving Steam like Activision, EA, Bethesda with the new Fallout and all this together should make Valve at least a bit worried. Their current growth will only last so long, if others continue to leave and become exclusive to other stores.

Valve obviously need to make moves of their own and it looks like doubling down on VR is what they had in mind. The amount of people that currently own a VR headset as reported on the Steam Hardware Survey is still extremely low (lower than the Linux share) so Valve really will need a decent price on it.

It does make you think about Valve's future plans. They're doing this new VR hardware, some new games and pushing Steam Play to get more games on Linux. Would it be too far-fetched to consider a new Steam Machine? One continued to be powered by their SteamOS Linux distribution that allows VR support out of the box along with a huge back catalogue of previously Windows-only games.

That's a pipe dream of mine though really and I'm basically thinking out loud at this point, as I'm sure it's just different teams working on their own thing. However, if it did all come together, that could be amazing.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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g000h Nov 11, 2018
I've tried out a full range of VR headsets, and here are my thoughts on VR tech:

Yes, you require a decent GPU to get the required level of performance, e.g. GTX 1080 or better (or a PS4 Pro console or equivalent)

I find them somewhat uncomfortable, and I wouldn't want to wear one for gaming for longer than 30 minutes at a time.

They are an interesting and different experience from regular gaming, that is very immersive.

Both the cost and the lack of appeal hinders me from making a purchase.

Lack of appeal:
- I anticipate that I wouldn't use it much.
- There aren't many compelling, quality games that I'd want to play on it.
- I'd only want to use it in short stretches, e.g. 30 minutes at a time.

On top of that, as already mentioned, it is good to have a VR "space" - i.e. dedicated room for moving around, rather than sitting at a regular desk doing VR.
kuhpunkt Nov 11, 2018
Quoting: dannielloHalf-Life VR? I want to be wrong, but it could be disaster comparable only to Diablo Immortal. It is not what Half-Life fans want! At least they informed us about it before official announcement, so perhaps expectations will be reduced.

But why not? It would be like Doom VFR. A spin off, that's not required, not a sequel and integral part of the story. HL3 only for VR would be a disaster, but something else in the HL universe? I'm waiting.
ageres Nov 11, 2018
A new photo leaked:
lelouch Nov 11, 2018
Quoting: kuhpunktI'm still baffled how many people think that HL3 would be a VR game. That makes no sense and would be a very very dumb idea.

No, it wouldn't. Obviously Valve is waiting for the right time - VR is affordable for everyone in the future like it was for smartphones (2007) at some point, and the internet and computers in the past and so on ....
kuhpunkt Nov 11, 2018
Quoting: lelouch
Quoting: kuhpunktI'm still baffled how many people think that HL3 would be a VR game. That makes no sense and would be a very very dumb idea.

No, it wouldn't. Obviously Valve is waiting for the right time - VR is affordable for everyone in the future like it was for smartphones (2007) at some point, and the internet and computers in the past and so on ....

So? That's still dumb. That's like making 2 movies and then releasing the third part of the story as a card game.
lelouch Nov 11, 2018
Quoting: dannielloVery risky move. VR market is very expensive and... very unprofitable.

No, it is not. You are thinking only in the "here and now"-category. A good business-company plans for the future. (e.g. smartphones before you even knew they exist <-> smartphones today)
lelouch Nov 11, 2018
Quoting: kuhpunkt
Quoting: lelouch
Quoting: kuhpunktI'm still baffled how many people think that HL3 would be a VR game. That makes no sense and would be a very very dumb idea.

No, it wouldn't. Obviously Valve is waiting for the right time - VR is affordable for everyone in the future like it was for smartphones (2007) at some point, and the internet and computers in the past and so on ....

So? That's still dumb. That's like making 2 movies and then releasing the third part of the story as a card game.

You make no sense - here is the talking about making a Story-FPS more immersive and moving to VR - nothing to do with a card game conversion lol.
kuhpunkt Nov 11, 2018
Quoting: lelouch
Quoting: kuhpunkt
Quoting: lelouch
Quoting: kuhpunktI'm still baffled how many people think that HL3 would be a VR game. That makes no sense and would be a very very dumb idea.

No, it wouldn't. Obviously Valve is waiting for the right time - VR is affordable for everyone in the future like it was for smartphones (2007) at some point, and the internet and computers in the past and so on ....

So? That's still dumb. That's like making 2 movies and then releasing the third part of the story as a card game.

You make no sense - here is the talking about making a Story-FPS more immersive and moving to VR - nothing to do with a card game conversion lol.

But you would completely exclude everybody else from playing the game if they don't have this expensive accessorize. That would be nuts. Don't you get that?
Power-Metal-Games Nov 11, 2018
Off topic... Where the like button for comments disappeared?
Eike Nov 11, 2018
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Quoting: kuhpunktBut you would completely exclude everybody else from playing the game if they don't have this expensive accessorize. That would be nuts. Don't you get that?

It might help sell more expensive devices. Nobody knows if it would work out or not.
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