Gaming company Valve pioneered VR as we know it today, creating a sophisticated tracking system and prototyping several headsets. It runs the popular SteamVR platform, and it’s partnered with HTC on the Vive system. But it hasn’t actually produced a VR headset. That’s changing with the Valve Index: a high-end, PC-tethered headset that starts shipping today.
The Valve Index is specialized and expensive even by VR’s standards. It costs $999, which is more than twice as much as the $399 Oculus Rift or $499 HTC Vive. Like those systems, you’ll need a gaming PC to use it. If you need convenience and portability, it’s not the right choice. You can find headsets with higher resolutions or wider fields of view. But for people who spend a lot of time in VR, it offers solid visuals, thoughtful hardware design, and the coolest VR controllers on the market.
The Index uses the same “Lighthouse” tracking system as the Vive, so it ships with two laser-emitting base stations that you’ll need to mount in opposite corners of your play space. These are second-generation base stations, and Valve promises a few benefits over the Vive’s 1.0 beacons — primarily, an expanded diagonal range of up to 10 by 10 meters if you use four of them. If you already have a Vive, you can save $250 by using its 1.0 base stations, but I haven’t personally tried that mix.
I’ve had fewer syncing problems with the 2.0 base stations than the 1.0 models, but they’re still frustrating to set up, especially as Microsoft and Oculus have moved to more convenient front-mounted cameras, completely eliminating that setup. Valve has spent a long time fine-tuning its base station design, and the Index is aimed at people who have used these awkward systems for years, so it makes sense to stick with Lighthouse for them. But for anyone just getting into Valve’s system, it’s a frustrating hurdle.
Further, in standard home use, the new Lighthouses haven’t offered a substantially better experience than Oculus inside-out tracking. I can reach completely behind my back without fear of losing tracking, but that’s a fairly rare situation. And the tracking hasn’t been flawless — the controllers have occasionally drifted for no obvious reason, although they usually recover quickly.
A few Index features seem intended for developers. There are two front-facing cameras that can show you the outside world, but that’s really not enough to justify the added weight. So when Valve says they can also be used for computer vision experiments, that makes a lot more sense. The front includes a little compartment (officially dubbed the “frunk”) with a Type-A USB port, so tinkerers can plug in other devices.
But the Index also adopts some great overall design elements from other headsets. It features a comfortably padded, helmet-like headband that tightens with a dial on the back, similar to HTC’s alternative Vive head strap. You can adjust the distance between lenses to find the best focus, which is an excellent feature that Oculus controversially removed from the Rift. A dial lets you change the distance between your eyes and the lenses, giving you even more control over the image.
Some people won’t need these features — I’m usually fine with less versatile headsets — but they help fulfill the Vive’s promise of offering the best experience to the biggest number of users. The padded strap design simply feels great. The headset isn’t the lightest I’ve tried, but I felt all right after an hour or more in VR.
Like several other companies, Valve is also experimenting with speaker-based audio systems. The Index features two speakers that look a lot like headphones, but they sit about an inch away from your ears, projecting sound without actually pressing against your head. That’s very comfortable in long VR sessions, and it sounds richer and more realistically ambient than the Oculus Rift or Quest’s strap-based speakers.
These headsets all share one basic problem, though: everybody can hear exactly what you’re doing from several feet away. I’m willing to accept that sacrifice on a cheaper product, and you can always plug your own headphones into the Index. But since the Index is a top-of-the-line system aimed at people who want loud, intense gaming experiences or who work in professional settings, I wish Valve had looked for a slightly more discreet solution.
The Index doesn’t make any pretenses toward coziness, stylishness, or minimalism. It’s a big, attention-grabbing black helmet covered in dials and sliders. The front features a slightly RoboCop-like strip of shiny plastic, which you can pull off to reveal the frunk. It’s not my favorite aesthetic, and with its two cameras, it shares the “sad robot with giant forehead” look of the Rift S. But Valve more than justifies its bulkiness. And while the design might be clunky, it certainly doesn’t look or feel cheap — although that should really be taken for granted on a nearly $1,000 headset.
I’ve written previously about Valve’s unique yet eminently practical new controllers. The Index controllers (previously called “Knuckles”) are strapped around your hands instead of held, and they look more like a sci-fi weapon than a remote or gamepad. A central stock detects individual finger motion and squeeze pressure, and its sensors can even tell when your hands are close to — but not quite touching — the controller. A more traditional top section includes an analog stick, two face buttons, and a little trackpad groove.
When the Index controllers are used well, they can feel incredibly natural since you can open and close your hand naturally instead of relying on abstractions like a grip or trigger. The Index controllers enable some great interactions. There’s an official Valve demo where you play rock-paper-scissors or test your handshake grip strength with a robot.
As I mentioned before, most game developers probably won’t add lots of Index-specific interactions. It’s more likely that you’ll get the same control schemes in a slightly different package. Fortunately, Vive and Rift games can be translated pretty well to the Index based on titles I’ve tried with official support. You can play games seemingly without optimization, although sometimes they translate the controls in weird ways. Doom VFR puts its weapon wheel on the Index’s basically two-directional trackpad, for instance.
The controllers’ only major hardware issue is the lack of tactile feedback. When you’re using it as a basic grip button, you don’t get solid confirmation that you’ve squeezed hard enough. So if you fail to pick something up in a game, it’s not immediately clear why.
The Index’s screen easily outstrips the Rift or Vive; at 1440 x 1600 pixels per eye, it’s got the same resolution as the high-definition Vive Pro. You can find headsets with a bigger pixel count, including the HP Reverb. But as Road to VR has pointed out, the Reverb isn’t a consumer-focused headset, and it uses clunky Windows Mixed Reality controllers. Images on the Index look smooth and bright, especially with refresh rates that can reach up to 120Hz. (There’s an experimental 144Hz mode, which didn’t feel like a noticeable improvement to me.) I’ve seen some complaints about grayish-blacks due to the LCD display, but it’s still a very impressive screen.
I was using the Index with a recent, high-end Lenovo Legion gaming laptop, so I can’t speak to its performance with a lower-powered gaming PC. In theory, you can use it with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD RX480 graphics card at the low end, but a GTX 1070 or higher is recommended.
Valve also promises a “typical” field of view up to 20 degrees wider than the standard 100 to 110 degrees. Basically, the field of view depends on how far the Index’s screen gets from your eyes. When you dial it all the way out, the Index has the same goggle-like effect you’ll find in other headsets. As it gets closer, though, your peripheral vision starts filling out. Dialed all the way in, the Index’s only compromise is a black half-circle at the very edge of the screen.
I couldn’t keep the lenses quite this close. The plastic rims dug into my forehead too much, despite buffering from the headset’s padded mask. But even at a comfortable distance, my field of vision felt more natural and less limited.
Overall, though, the Index is still offering first-generation VR. It’s not qualitatively different from the Rift or Vive. You won’t find features like eye tracking or exotic displays-within-displays to improve the resolution. After the wireless Oculus Quest, the cable feels more limiting than ever. And unlike a gaming PC or other hardware with a predictable development cycle, the Index isn’t future-proof. We’re nearing the end of Oculus’ first-generation headset lineup, for instance. So in a few years, people might want very different things out of a VR system.
The Index isn’t necessarily the “best” VR headset — at least, not for everybody. Unless the price drops in the future, it’s a product for people who play VR games very heavily, use headsets for professional work, or have a very large disposable income. But within those limitations, it delivers high-quality virtual reality with very few compromises.
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