So the rumors about Valve working on a virtual reality device are not only true, their partner has come out and confirmed it. Valve’s particular VR hat that they’re throwing into the ring is called “Vive,” and their partner is, surprisingly, HTC, better known for making smartphones that are actually holding up pretty well against the juggernaut that is Apple iPhone love.
What’s even more impressive is that Valve is also committing to a release date. Or, at least, a release year. Unlike Project Morpheus and Oculus which both officially have no launch date, Valve is committing Vive to both a dev kit and retail release for the 2015 holiday season, when most people are going to be making big ticket purchases anyway. The Vive is taking its own unique approach to the need for monitoring movement by building an array of cellular phone camera lenses all over the unit so that the head mounted display itself can determine its location by looking at the room. It will combine this with a couple of “base stations” so that the unit—which is still wired—will have precise location tracking even if the user gets up and starts walking around, something that Valve would like to see happen, so as to differentiate it from Oculus Rift, which is currently still recommended as a seated experience.
Also, Valve is hosting an event at GDC tomorrow. Specifically, they are hosting something on the third hour of the third day of the third month of the year. The talk, ostensibly is about physics, but hey, that’s a lot of “threes” in there, isn’t there? Wonder what that could be about…
