Images of a prototype VR headset with a Valve logo visible on the circuit board have leaked on the image sharing website imgur. The images are unverified, but the detail and number of headsets shown make it likely to be authentic.
Valve currently does not sell a VR headset. Instead, the company has partnered with HTC to release the Vive in 2016, and then the higher end ‘Vive Pro’ earlier this year.
The leaked headset features what appear to be SteamVR tracking photodiodes under the plastic (similar to how Oculus hides IR LEDs under the Rift). It also has 2 cameras visible and integrated headphones. The padding on the back is visually similar to the padding on Valve’s “Knuckles” controllers prototypes.
The lenses appear to be larger than those of the HTC Vive, which likely indicates a larger field of view. Given that a larger field of view means lower angular resolution, this headset may have a higher resolution display too.
It’s important to note that we have no context for what this heasdset is. It could be an internal prototyping testbed, or a reference design for manufacturers (like HTC) to follow for future headsets. But the more tantalizing possibility, that we know you’re already thinking, is that this could be a prototype for a future headset from Valve itself. If so, the company could be planning to release it alongside its “Knuckles” controllers next year – which could be direct competition for the “Rift S” headset that Techcrunch reported Oculus is planning.
According to our independent sources this is in fact a Valve HMD. We’ve also heard the field of view will be 135 degrees with the Vive Pro resolution and it should come bundled with Knuckles controllers as well as a Half-Life based VR game.
The clock on the monitor in the main image suggests that these photos are from July. Whatever this is, it’s likely much further along today than it was back then. We’ll keep you updated on any further hints of a VR headset from Valve.
China-based VR company Pimax recently put up a listing on its website for upcoming controllers for its “5K Plus” and “8K” PC headsets. Pimax plans to ship them sometime next year paired with base stations for $300.
In its 2017 Kickstarter for the “8K” ultra-wide FoV VR headset, Pimax promised simple VR controllers for $200 extra, with buttons, a thumbstick, and trigger, however the ergonomics did not seem to match more advanced VR controllers like Oculus’ Touch and Valve’s “Knuckles” prototypes.
Pimax original controllers from the Kickstarter.
In April of this year, Pimax scrapped its old controller design and revealed new ones, seemingly based on Valve’s early “Knuckles” prototypes of the time. The new controller promised an ergonomic design and is strapped onto the user’s hand directly, letting them open their hands and throw objects naturally, as well as a grip button and capacitive finger position detection.
Valve’s early “Knuckles” design.
With the recent store listing, Pimax has now refined its design. While they should have input parity with HTC’s Vive wands, the lack of a thumbstick may put some potential buyers off, and may be missed in a future where Oculus Touch and “Knuckles” could dominate the PC VR install base.
This animation shows the Pimax controllers compared to Valve’s latest “Knuckles” design. While Valve made significant changes to “Knuckles”, adding a thumbstick and 2 buttons as well as changing the trackpad into a “track button”, Pimax kept with the same basic design as the earlier “Knuckles” prototypes. It is possible Pimax chose not to emulate Valve with the final design simply because the controllers were too far along in development, or because they prefer this iteration. We reached out to Pimax to ask about the inspiration for the controllers but we didn’t hear back.
The next iteration of Valve’s Knuckles VR controllers are now arriving on developer’s doorsteps, and Climbey developer Brian Lindenhof is providing his typically dependable first look at them.
Lindenhof, who also gave us a glimpse of earlier Knuckles controllers being used to play Lone Echo and Fallout 4, yesterday posted the below video unboxing the latest edition of the devices. EV3 isn’t looking like a massive update over the last version of the devices (Lindenhof even describes them as “really close to EV2”), but it is shipping out to many more developers than the last batch.
Lindehoff goes over the minute changes to the device, summing them up as “good improvements but very minor”. Stick around to see them compared to other VR controllers like Oculus Touch and the Vive wands.
As for when Knuckles will actually release as a product? We still don’t have much of an idea, sadly, though we wouldn’t bet on it being in 2018.
Valve stellte gestern Abend die Knuckles-Controller EV3 vor, welche dank dem Feedback der bisherigen Tester/innen weitere Optimierungen erhielten. Dazu zählen eine verbesserte Batterielaufzeit, kleinere Veränderungen am Design und den Tasten sowie am Halteriemen. Die neuen EV3-Kits sollen nun in noch größerer Anzahl an mehr Devs verschickt werden.
Valve – Knuckles-Controller EV3
Im Juni präsentierte Valve seine Knuckles-Controller EV2, die an verschiedene Devs zu Testzwecken versandt wurden. Dadurch konnte man wertvolle Informationen sammeln, um die nächste Controller-Generation zu verbessern. Nun wurde die Folgeversion der Prototypen vorgestellt. Als Modell EV3 erhalten die Eingabegeräte einige kleinere Änderungen, wie Design-Optimierungen, verbesserte Tasten und eine erhöhte Batterielaufzeit.
So wurde die Riemenhalterung des neuen Prototyps geringfügig angepasst und der Griff optimiert. Beides soll für ein ergonomischeres Gefühl sorgen bzw. mögliche Störfaktoren eliminieren. Die Trigger-Taste bietet nun größeren Widerstand und der System-Knopf wurde etwas tiefer verlegt, um ein versehentliches Drücken zu vermeiden. In puncto Batterielaufzeit wurde zudem noch einiges verbessert. Dank effizienteren Sensoren hält der Akku der Controller satte zwei Stunden länger. Insgesamt sind die Controller nun sieben bis acht Stunden nutzbar, bis ein Aufladen nötig wird.
Die gesamte Liste der Änderungen findet sich hier.
Die Verantwortlichen kündigten an, dieses Mal mehr EV3-Prototypen auszuliefern. Dadurch werden deutlich mehr Dev-Kits versandt als beim Vorgängermodell. In Kürze soll ein Anfrageformular für die Knuckles-Controller verfügbar sein. Für interessierte Entwickler/innen stellt Valve verschiedene Software zur Nutzung bereit. Darunter unter anderem die Moondust-Demo zum Austesten der neuen “Skeletal Input”-Steuerung.
Die kleineren Änderungen sprechen dafür, dass das Produkt bald fertiggestellt sein könnte. Entsprechend könnte uns noch im Verlauf dieses Jahres eine finale Version der Controller erwarten.
Earlier this year Valve revealed the second iteration of its long-anticipated Knuckles motion controllers for SteamVR. The controllers, which were sent out to VR developers for testing, represented a more complete version of the successor to the position-tracked wands that come with the HTC Vive but they were far from complete.
Today, Valve revealed the next step for Knuckles.
In a blog over on Steam the company unveiled Knuckles EV3, complete with a pretty expansive list of improvements. While the controllers still look pretty close to Oculus’ Touch controllers, there are several tweaks to the design. The straps, for example, now have adjustment markings on the top plate, and the rivet is thinner to avoid interfering with the wing. The drawstring is also shorter.
Elsewhere, the back triggers have been made stronger and more reliable, while the system button has been recessed so as to avoid being accidentally pressed.
Perhaps the biggest change, at least to our eyes, is the battery life, which has been increased by up to two hours. Valve says the controllers now offer between seven to eight hours of playtime to charge.
Finally, there’s better LED light mixing, a more accessible USB port and an improved fit and finish. No major new additions, then, but the more improvements Valve makes the better the result for the end product. Knuckles also implements finger-tracking capabilities and the more recent editions have even ditched Valve’s traditional trackpad in favor of an analog stick.
Valve is promising to ship out Knuckles EV3 in “much greater quantities” that its rollout of EV2, confirming that it will open a request form “soon” and deliver to existing EV2 owners. As for the final consumer product? We still have no idea when they may arrive, though it looks doubtful that it’ll be here in 2018.
VR feels like it’s simultaneously moving fast and slow. It’s been two years and four months since the leading PC VR headsets, the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, hit shelves. The leading high-end headset overall, PSVR, has only been around for one year and nine months. That’s a significant amount of time for individual products, but just a blip in the context of the formation of a brand new ecosystem and medium. Looking forward to the next generation of VR, advancements in specs and experience are not the only improvement; the industry as a whole is becoming more cohesive, which will ultimately benefit everyone involved. Here’s how.
OpenXR API Standard
OpenXR is an in-development standard that’s open and royalty free. It’s being developed by a consortium consisting of effectively every major player in the VR market, including chip makers, headset makers, game engines, publishers, and VR app stores. The standard is being developed under the Khronos Group, the organization behind a number of major graphics standards like OpenGL, WebGL, and Vulkan.
Public supporters of OpenXR. | Image courtesy Khronos Group
OpenXR aims to foster greater interoperability between major pieces of the VR ecosystem: apps, game engines, and headsets. The goal is to make it easier to ‘write once and run anywhere’, meaning reducing the redundancy and complexity for an app, game engine, or headset to support the multitude of options available on the market.
The OpenXR project is building an ‘Application Interface’, which sits between VR apps and content platforms, and a ‘Device Layer’, which sits between the content platforms and individual VR headsets and devices. The idea is that the Application Interface and the Device Layer should be standardized so that everyone can design against a common target rather than needing to maintain individual support for many different platforms and devices.
OpenXR is a broadly supported initiative to create an industry standard method of interfacing between VR headsets and software. | Images courtesy Khronos Group
Hypothetically this means that a game supporting OpenXR that launches tomorrow could work with an OpenXR-supported headset that launches in five years, since both were built targeting the same Application Interface and Device Layer. Similarly, a OpenXR headset from one company could work with OpenXR controllers from another company, letting users use various devices together more easily.
Similarly, if a new game engine wanted to offer support for VR, it needs only to target the OpenXR Application Interface to potentially work with every headset and VR platform that supports OpenXR.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that every VR platform that supports OpenXR will support every headset that supports OpenXR (for instance, the HTC Vive on the Oculus Store), but it does mean that the technical capability is in place if platform stakeholders want to move to an open device approach.
In total, this makes it easier for new players to jump into the VR market, whether that be with a game, a game engine, a content platform, or even a new headset or accessory. This benefits everyone in the market by creating more options for developers and customers, and fosters competition which leads to better products.
Image courtesy Khronos Group
In March this year, the OpenXR group announced its latest progress and did a deep dive into the technical scope of the OpenXR spec. While the group hasn’t announced an official release of the standard, the latest timeline shows that they are nearing an initial release, which we expect could come by the end of the year.
VirtualLink Connection Standard
Public supporters of the VirtualLink project
Most major tethered headsets today require two or three plugs on the end of the cable which need to be connected to the host PC, and they differ from one headset to the next. The Rift, for instance, has one HDMI plug and one USB plug. The Vive has one DisplayPort plug, one USB plug, and a separate power plug that needs to connect to a wall outlet.VirtualLink, backed by most of the major players in the VR industry, is a newly announced connection standard that aims to simplify headset plugs into a single, well specified connector.
Based on USB-C, the VirtualLink connector offers four high-speed HBR3 DisplayPort lanes (which are “scalable for future needs”), a USB3.1 data channel for on-board cameras, and up to 27 watts of power. The standard is said to be “purpose-built for VR,” being optimized for latency and the needs of next-generation headsets.
The new connector will not only simplify the connection on the end of the headset’s cable, it will also make it easier for customers to understand if a given computer will support a certain headset, which eases the process of buying a VR Ready system.
Whereas today you might think your system meets all the specifications for a VR headset, only to find that your USB ports don’t actually support the speeds required for the headset, or you don’t have the right HDMI spec, the VirtualLink standard means that both customers and headset makers can count on the connector to support a well specified set of capabilities.
VirtualLink was just announced last month and is expected to debut with the next generation of GPUs and PC VR headsets; the former we could see by the end of the year.
Last week we wrote about Modbox developer Lee Vermeulen showcasing Valve’s new skeletal input API for SteamVR. Using the original HTC Vive controllers, Vermeulen demonstrated an impressive replication of the user’s thumb movements. After many requests, the developer is back to showcase the same API running with Valve’s new Knuckles controllers.
It proves one crucial point: Knuckles are perfect for petting cats.
Yes, Vermeulen employs his feline friend to showcase just how accurate the new API is paired with the upcoming controllers. Movement in each finger is replicated with impressive accuracy, right down to imitating when the developer frees his fingers to give his cat a good old scratches. Although it does look a little like the virtual hand is beckoning the kitty to come closer, which is a bit creepy.
All jokes aside, this another great demonstration of how the API’s algorithms can simulate real-world hand movement using predictive methods. It’s not dedicated finger-tracking, but it looks like it does a pretty good job of simulating it. As with the last video, Vermeulen used a ZED Mini with the HTC Vive to show a side-by-side of what finger movements look like in the real world compared with how they are shown in VR.
Right now we have no idea when the Knuckles controllers will be arriving, though we’ve still got our fingers (both real and virtual) crossed that it will be later this year. Modbox itself will be getting support for the API when it’s finished.
Alien Trap’s Lee Vermeulen, one of the developers behind VR creation tool Modbox, received a brand new pair of Knuckles controllers recently. One of his first missions: show off Valve’s Skeletal Input system in detail, which was released in beta to developers late last month.
In a follow-up to his earlier video, which showed off how Valve’s SteamVR Skeletal Input works with a standard HTC Vive controller, Vermeulen has put together a new video that zeros in on the high level of hand presence Valve’s upcoming motion controller can afford a user.
Using a HTC Vive for AR passthrough and a Zed Mini stereoscopic camera to capture the scene outside the headset, Vermeulen puts Knuckles through its paces, giving us a good look of a 1:1 comparison of physical hand movements and how the match up to the virtual counterparts.
Image courtesy Cloudhead Games
As seen in the video, Valve’s SteamVR Skeletal Input essentially does the job of estimating where a user’s fingers are at any given moment, and reproducing an in-game hand model to match. Data is gathered from Knuckles’ integrated capactive sensors, which are on many parts of the controller including its touchpads, control sticks, buttons, and capacitive ‘hot spots’, which line the grip of the controllers to capture individual finger movements. The Knuckles dev kit seen in the video is the company’s latest public iteration—a critical redesign of the previous, control stick-less design.
In the video, Vermeulen demonstrates how Skeletal Input behaves both with and without a controller rendered in his hand. Featuring an ‘open palm’ design, he can even pet his cat while keeping the controllers strapped on.
There’s still no word on consumer release of Knuckles, but the fact that Valve has already seeded big studios and indie developers alike with the motion controller dev kit means that hand presence is definitely the next big area of development for SteamVR hardware ecosystem and the apps therein. We’re certainly hoping for SteamVR base station-capable headsets, such as HTC Vive, to finally get access to greater hand presence—something Oculus Rift owners have had (albeit to a lesser extent than Knuckles) via the system’s 2016-era dedicated motion controllers, Oculus Touch.
Alien Trap’s Lee Vermeulen, one of the developers behind VR creation tool Modbox, received a brand new pair of Knuckles controllers recently. One of his first missions: show off Valve’s Skeletal Input system in detail, which was released in beta to developers late last month.
In a follow-up to his earlier video, which showed off how Valve’s SteamVR Skeletal Input works with a standard HTC Vive controller, Vermeulen has put together a new video that zeros in on the high level of hand presence Valve’s upcoming motion controller can afford a user.
Using a HTC Vive for AR passthrough and a Zed Mini stereoscopic camera to capture the scene outside the headset, Vermeulen puts Knuckles through its paces, giving us a good look of a 1:1 comparison of physical hand movements and how the match up to the virtual counterparts.
Image courtesy Cloudhead Games
As seen in the video, Valve’s SteamVR Skeletal Input essentially does the job of estimating where a user’s fingers are at any given moment, and reproducing an in-game hand model to match. Data is gathered from Knuckles’ integrated capactive sensors, which are on many parts of the controller including its touchpads, control sticks, buttons, and capacitive ‘hot spots’, which line the grip of the controllers to capture individual finger movements. The Knuckles dev kit seen in the video is the company’s latest public iteration—a critical redesign of the previous, control stick-less design.
In the video, Vermeulen demonstrates how Skeletal Input behaves both with and without a controller rendered in his hand. Featuring an ‘open palm’ design, he can even pet his cat while keeping the controllers strapped on.
There’s still no word on consumer release of Knuckles, but the fact that Valve has already seeded big studios and indie developers alike with the motion controller dev kit means that hand presence is definitely the next big area of development for SteamVR hardware ecosystem and the apps therein. We’re certainly hoping for SteamVR base station-capable headsets, such as HTC Vive, to finally get access to greater hand presence—something Oculus Rift owners have had (albeit to a lesser extent than Knuckles) via the system’s 2016-era dedicated motion controllers, Oculus Touch.
Here’s a video of one of VR’s best games being played with its most promising new controllers.
Brian Lindenhof, a VR developer best known for his work on Climbey, has uploaded a video of him playing Ready at Dawn’s Oculus Rift exclusive, Lone Echo, using the Revive app. The new controllers, which were shipped out to developers earlier this month, seem to work pretty perfectly with the game, right down to replicating Oculus Touch’s limited finger tracking (but obviously not providing the full extent of Knuckles’ own finger tracking).
Lindenhof also has an older video of himself using the Knuckles with Bethesda’s Fallout 4 VR (after failed attempts to boot up Skyrim in VR). There’s a bit of tweaking at the start of both videos but, at the very least, Knuckles seems to be more than capable of imitating the controllers that have come before it.
Of course, it’s difficult to judge just how improved the experience is without seeing a game that natively supports Knuckles. Right now the only app to do that is Valve’s own demo for the controllers, set in its Portal universe.
We don’t yet know when and how Valve plans to ship Knuckles out to VR fans, nor how much they’ll cost. Hopefully with kits now in developer’s hands, though, it won’t be too much longer.
