Did I make a mistake buying the Valve Index in September 2023?
Is the valve index still worth buying?
Unlink VR: Valve Index is now a wireless headset. 40Gigabit connection with a light based data transfer.
https://unlink-vr.com/
Lasers. Not on the market. The belt mounted battery pack has its USB-C label misspelled to “USD-C”. Seems like a work in progress.
More on reddit.comI'm returning my Valve Index.
He’s comparing to a rift s. Awesome thread. I’m on the boat about keeping my preorder. I too have a rift s and quest and am a VR enthusiast but the price of the Index seems a bit high especially with no flagship Valve games. I think I’ll wait to see what big games come and then grab one after another production tweak. 399 for Rift S is crazy good and it’s even been in sale with 10% off places.
More on reddit.comWhat are the key features of the Valve Index VR headset?
How does the tracking system of the Valve Index work?
What are the system requirements for using the Valve Index?
Videos
Preface
I've been wanting to get into VR for a long time. I have an RX 6700 XT 12 GB and thought the Valve Index was the best headset to pair with that GPU. I bought the Valve Index just now for $999 US, still waiting for delivery.
I'm interested in only PC VR and heard about the Valve Deckard, but I've never experienced VR and wanted to do it now and have a good experience. I like to play Flight Simulator, Elite Dangerous and also Valve games like Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead.
I still only use 1 single 1080p monitor and since the Valve Index has more pixels then 2 1080p monitors I thought the visuals would be half decent.
Resolution
I looked at the Quest 2 and although the resolution seems better, I don't like the encoding / decoding idea. Compressed video doesn't always look good, and although you can use a cable and set a higher bitrate in Oculus tools I'd rather have a pure display port solution.
The HP Reverb G2 looks good but I don't think the RX 6700 XT could max out that display. I prefer framerate to resolution on flat screens.
Software
Windows Mixed Reality seems like a failure (we used this at a former employer and it never worked right), and since HP is dropping support for the Reverb G2, it seemed like Valve Index was the only option.
I wasn't convinced I wanted to be part of the Metaverse, I just want to use SteamVR. It is sad that the Quest 2 is not open, and requires a Meta Account and requires logging in when you want to use a piece of hardware. The price was right, but I'd rather be free to change the software running on the device.
Tracking
I wanted the most open platform for possible future VR development and the Lighthouse tracking seemed like the most accurate system. HP Reverb inside-out tracking seems to be a failure in my book.
I heard that the Oculus tracking is pretty good, but I thought that inside-out tracking doesn't work in the dark (please correct me?). I prefer gaming in the dark.
Conclusion
I thought that $999 was too much money for the Valve Index but also think there isn't a better solution for me right now. I decided not to wait for the Valve Index 2.
Recently, I was thinking of buying the valve index, and I kept thinking to myself that it is worth buying because it was released in 2019