
HTC partners with Valve to create the Vive VR headset for gaming - bpierre
http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2015/03/01/htc-partners-with-valve-to-create-vr-headset-for-gaming/
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jimrandomh
Better link (primary source with actual specs including screen resolution):
[http://www.htcvr.com/](http://www.htcvr.com/)

Highlights:

    
    
      - 1200x1080 per eye with two 90Hz panels of unspecified type  
      - "Consumer product available holiday 2015"
      - No pricing information and not taking preorders.
      - Inside-out position and rotation tracking with a laser position sensor  
      - Outside-in tracking with a pair of base stations covering a 15ftx15ft area  
      - Will include a pair of single-handed controllers with location tracking in them

~~~
jimrandomh
Based on my past subjective measurements with a DK2, which is a similar
resolution (960x1080 per eye), I estimate that the 1200x1080 resolution
corresponds to a minimum tolerable font size that would be equivalent to 27pt
on my 2560x1600 monitor at 3ft. (This is assuming, first, that because the
vertical resolutions are the same, the extra horizontal pixels were allocated
to peripheral vision; and second, that it's the same the same 2:1:1 pentile
style display. If those are full pixels, that drops by a factor sqrt(2) to
19pt.)

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cwyers
"The Vive headset was developed in conjunction with Valve, creators of such
ground-breaking games as Portal and Half-Life."

And that sentence pretty much illustrates why the shine has come off Valve, at
least for me. The last Half-Life game was in 2007 (as was the last Team
Fortress game). The last Portal game was 2011, and Kim Swift has moved on to
other things. Left 4 Dead's developers have moved to another publisher with
Evolve. Counter-Strike is still limping along. Dota 2 exists, I guess. The
only thing they've released since Dota 2 are Linux ports of old games, unless
you count the ports of old games that Nvidia did to Android. Meanwhile the
Steam Machine hasn't seen commercial release, we still don't even know what
their Steam Controller is supposed to look like in its final form... and
they're announcing a VR headset? After all their big names in VR already
jumped ship to Occulus? Is there an adult somewhere at Valve minding the
store?

~~~
cthalupa
Dota 2 basically prints money, and they're spending most of their development
time on it. They're currently working to completely upgrade it to the Source 2
engine.

Saying Counter Strike is still limping along is a pretty inaccurate portrayal
as well. CSGO's popularity is in a constant increase currently - as I write
this, there are 433k players currently in game in CSGO. It's honestly probably
more popular than old CS ever was, even prior to the popularity decrease with
1.6 and then Source.

With the overwhelming success of Dota2 and CSGO, I don't think you can really
suggest Valve is in a decline.

~~~
nitrogen
The decline is not in money, but artistic output. Instead of focusing on great
stories, they are focusing on great hats.

~~~
cthalupa
Is there not artistic merit in a game development company making two games
that are among the greatest competitive games currently available?

~~~
nitrogen
Artistic merit and commercial appeal are orthogonal. As Half Life and Portal
showed, great storytelling can be profitable, but great multiplayer battles
and addictive digital hat markets are not necessarily artistic.

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Jare
More details here [http://www.htcvr.com/](http://www.htcvr.com/) warning: site
contains all the web design shenanigans you have come to (not) love lately.

