For those who want to keep up with the Valve updates i've been fallowing this live blog.

For those that don't know, the main things Valve have announced so far are their VR headset, the final Steam controller, Steam link hardware ( low cost game streaming from local gaming PC), Source 2 ( free game engine) and soon they'll be discussing the next generation of the OpenGL API named Vulkan.

As has been reported earlier, the new Steam Controller now has an analog stick. More interesting, though, is that the VR controller is reported to be the Steam Controller cut in half but there hasn't been alot of info about it and no pictures of it. It's the part i'm most curious about as i think the features of the Steam Controller make the most sense for VR; the grip button, the thumb touch pad and triggers. It's still not clear how exact the VR version will be to the regular version. It sounds as though the wand like VR version won't feature the face buttons or analog stick.

Duel Action Triggers: So here's something interesting i learned about the Steam Controller; the triggers support an analog input and can also trigger a digital "fully pressed" button. So in other words you could do the, "left trigger-right trigger" action of Call of Duty on a single trigger; analog to zoom, button to fire. Another example, in flight sims, you could pull the analog to fire MG tracer rounds and pull the full trigger to fallow with cannons.

The Vive headset is also called a, "developer edition" and is reported that the consumer version will feature IR sensor technology rather then the laser sensors that are features in the demos at GDC. Don't know how much of a difference that will make. The Oculus Rift also features IR technology.

The sensors on he headset are said to be receivers while two emitters are separately places close to the ceiling within the room and gives you a 15'x15' area to move around in. basically this may potentially mean that the Vive is less restraining than the optical sensors that the Oculus and Morpheus use but you probably wouldn't want to walk around a 15' square blind while tethered to a high priced gaming machine.

Steam Machines, they're real and now you can buy them: Steam Machines False alarm, all the machines say, "available in November"...but you can look at them at least.

Seems everything is wrapped up at this point. You can learn about it all directly from Valve on their website. The VR stuff is pretty interesting, especially hearing a lot of the enthusiasm people are having after demoing the Vive and with a release window (can they keep it?) it's something to get excited about.

The VR wand controllers are way weirder then i could have ever imagined.

has everyone watched will and norm's impressions on tested?

those guys are usually very conservative in their impressions of new tech. here they're essentially saying "believe the hype."

this is all terribly exciting!

(EDIT: if you want to skip the tech talk and go straight to impressions, skip to 11:02 in the video above)

I have very little personal interest in VR but I do have to say how predictable it's been for Oculus to basically dick around for, what, over two years now? Everyone referring to Oculus as if it was interchangeable with VR when it was fairly obvious that some company much more gaming oriented, with a much more solid hardware backing, was going to come along and steal their thunder. I can't imagine Oculus as anything other than a footnote in the history of VR (and even that is being somewhat generous) and I never saw that turning out any other way.

@marokai: Yes, I'm sure that Facebook will be happy to have wasted their $2bn and will allow the Rift to be a footnote.

I still don't see any comments on wearing glasses under the headset. That's what I'm most curious about. I've tried the oculus and it was fine but I want impressions from the new headsets.

@marokai: I'm curiuos about pricing for the Vive though, Oculus has been firm in their belief of putting the lowest price they possibly can on the market which makes me wonder if the Vive will be the high dollar, gamer focused VR headset while the Oculus be the "foot in the door" for the mass market. I think it's possible for both headsets to co-exist in that respect but it comes down to the cost of the Vive.

In other news, you can now buy Steam Machines directly through the Steam Store: Steam Machines

I think it's weird they are calling it the Steam Link instead of the Steam Pipe

@mafolu: Yeah, they're really droppin the ball on the brand themes but at the same time you'd probably want a more specific title for internet searches.

@mellotronrules: Fuckin sold.

Just learned that the Steam controller features analog triggers and ALSO has a clickable digital input which can trigger a second action. Kinda similar to the way Metal Gear Solid 3 (and 2?) handled first person shooting but now with haptic feedback.

And they still can't count to 3.

lol some of them things.... Zotac doing their best to create the most generic box ever, still charges $1k

And all the talent there. Yeah sure.

Talking about this like it's over is very silly. We haven't seen a price for anything and that's a big part. All the set up and extra hardware of this VR system too...

Not like I'm shocked if Valve does beat out Oculus. But no one knows right now how it'll turn out. Hell, obviously both can exist. What tech comes out that just has one company involved in it?

@sin4profit: I think the fact that Valve seems to have focused much more on algorithms rather than hardware tech will result in their thing being much cheaper. It doesn't seem like there's much hardware intricacy going on, and replicating code is basically free.

I like the ROG one, I might get it to stream games an HD movies to my living room. I've tried streaming HD movies over wireless ac to pretty much every "tv box" out there, none of them can handle HD decoding, youn need a system with some power to do that and this might be the solution.

The VR stuff may be getting there but good lord that thing looks ridiculous. I may be getting old but I don't know if I'm willing to make this leap.

Yeah me too, now I just have to hold out until November for the consumer release & not pick up the dev kit for this.

@artisanbreads: I only say this because it's been multiple years now of hearing nothing but raving from press notables about how amazing Oculus is. Oculus is the future. Oculus is love, Oculus is life. "Wow, can you imagine this on Oculus?" And yet their progress in actually getting a consumer product on the shelves seems to be progressing at a snails pace and other, seemingly more well-equipped for the industry they're targeting, competitors have leapt ahead.

Obviously none of us know how these products will turn out (I don't even think a single one of them is an actual commercial product for the average consumers yet) but Oculus was a small startup, admittedly ran by incredibly talented individuals, that got bought up by a social media company and we know very little more about how they're progressing. Obviously Facebook isn't going to piss away billions on nothing, but my bet has always been on us remembering Oculus as nothing more than one brand of VR headsets among many. Many of them, better.

Assuming VR is still a hot thing with video games ten years from now, anyway, and it doesn't end up being some horribly expensive niche boondoggle. Who knows.

You have to remember here that Oculus is pioneering this space with the rift. They have almost nothing to base their work off of and are having to blaze the trail themselves. Other companies are able to enter the space quickly and catch up because they have the benefit of going "Ah, I see what you're doing there, I think it would be better if it worked this way though." and boom they're no longer infringing on patents. Patents were probably why Facebook bought the Rift in the first place anyway.

@marokai: I do agree with you as far as people viewing Oculus as VR, which is what the media has kind of fed us for a while... that's just not a logical way to go either. As I say, I'd imagine there have to be at least a couple viable companies and VR kits out there if VR does actually take off as it's being sold.

@budwyzer makes fair points too. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Certainly a lot of good impressions coming out of the Valve showing. In the end I would be really surprised if nothing comes of Oculus. If anything they have enough money and manpower to take notes on what someone else might do that's an improvement in the VR field and do their own take on that. Patents are a can of worms I really don't know much about or care to open.

Not exactly, Valve were already working on VR in house before the Rift from what I've read & a few of the engineers at Oculus are former Valve employees.

Price points of the Steam Machines seem a bit off to me. Still cheaper to build your own system, especially if you know how to optimise your spending.

PRO TIP: NO GAMES NEED AN i7.

Edit: As an aside, what is up with all these companies going hard on the, well, hardware side of things? Is VR really that hot? Have yet to try it myself.
Is nVidia actually making money on this SHIELD stuff and whatever streaming stuff they talked about at GDC?

Then anything that they came up with while at Valve they wouldn't be able to use at Facebook, due to likely NDAs and trade secrets. This also sort of invalidates any "why is Oculus taking so long?" if Valve's been working on it for longer. I like Suits, so NDAs came to mind immediately.

The more i think about it, the more I like that steam controller for first person games, mainly shooters. I think that trackpd is the next step in first person shooters and nobody knows it yet.

I think a lot of people will remember Oculus in particular to have been the first to really sell people on VR. There's a reason that it was synonymous with VR for a while there.

As for their seemingly slow progress, how much of that is just them having come out earlier with their tech? Valve's been working on this for years but didn't unveil anything until now, while Oculus was out there on Kickstarter in 2012.

I almost feel like Valve are hitting the market to force Rift's hand a little. Valve haven't really piped up much about their product until now when they're heading towards shelves. Mind you, Valve's probably the best horse to back what with steam being such a successful platform to distribute games so they'll have the indies right on board.

In many ways, that's the crowd you need to entice. Indie devs will look at the tech and relish it whereas the larger companies need to see profit rather than possibilities. And valve can afford to fail. Something with the guys behind the Rift probably can't.

The Steam Machines I have seen so far all seem to be underpowered, overpriced, or both. At this point, I can't imagine who I would ever recommend one of those to.

Also...some good pictures of the controller finally.

@mb: Interesting that the shoulder buttons are completely smooth. Not a fan of that. The trigger looks poor too, but I'd have to try it to comment for real.

@mb: those are some nice shots of the controller. i'm gonna pick one up for sure...i'm too curious about the haptic feedback.

@mb: Awesome photo's. The shoulderbuttons look quite flat compared to other controllers. Wonder how that will feel. Also wonder how long that analog stick will last.

@mb: I was vaguely interested until I saw how underpowered they are. Shit.

@bollard: The throw on the triggers looks a little short, which is worrying, for the analog control but the dual switch on the triggers maybe able to compensate for that, it's hard to say.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: could be, FPS once sucked on a gamepad and it was the right set of software designers that made gamepads work with FPSs. The trackpad maybe awkward if all developers do is emulate the function of an analog stick but with the right set of developers i think the trackpad has potential to out perform the analog stick. More interesting than that though, is i think the touch pad introduces more flexible options to give software developers control of more unique control options, similar to how touch phones gave software developers power to control their interfaces.

@adequatelyprepared: As far as VR being hot, i'm not the type to feel a real physical reaction when playing video games but when i demo'ed the Rift i had a flinching moment when a butterfly flew too close to my face and i felt a literal adrenaline rush during a sequence that had me falling off a sky scraper. It's the kind of thing that i think opens up the spectrum of interactive entertainment and i'm personally the type that likes a broad array of experiences rather than slight iteration. I'm ready for something new.

@gamefreak9: the software side of things is beyond me but it's HTC's place to set the price of the hardware since they're manufacturing it. I'm not fully sure what the sensor array on the Vive headset/controller, or what emitters/scanners the Lighthouse is made of but i have a feeling it's higher cost than the array of IR LEDs + camera that the Rift and the Morpheus is using. How much more will be interesting to find out since we have no prices on any of the units and only Oculus saying they want something in the window of $300 - $400.

Exactly. Valve seems to be chasing the best performance while Oculus has been going for best price from the start. Oculus could still entice the mass market with the lower entry Rift while Valve's VR is aimed at the higher entry market. Worth noting that Valve's tech is an open license so there's nothing stopping Oculus from making a headset using Valve's tech if they wanted to. Also, Oculus sounds like they're developing/publishing software so there are other VR markets they can dip into outside of hardware.

@sin4profit: i don't think they would make such an extreme controller with a trackpad to emulate the function of an analog stick. I see the trackpad utilized in the same was as a pointer/mousepad, where you're dragging your thumb. This will combine the accurracy of a mousepad with the comfort and design of a controller. With the right sensitivity setting it could Minimalize the lifting the thumb off. I do think though that after some use lifting to continue dragging will be an afterthought.

Interesting info in there. That's the one thing that they bring up in the Tested video is the practicality of the Valve set up to consumers. Even getting a lot of people to do something like set up surround speakers is a hassle, never mind all these laser sensors and whatever else. Also not sure how practical the whole actually walking around aspect is. Obviously though people are impressed. It's just in a perfect situation. I'll be really interested to see what Valve sets the price at, that's obviously a huge part that so often is the sole deciding factor in who really wins and loses with hardware.

I could very much see Valve targeting a higher end audience. I've found their pricing on this hardware they're doing interesting from that angle. Steam Link is cheap, but for example their Steam Box systems have actually not been at all, which is totally against my expectations when I first heard about that idea. So who knows.

I'm really worried about those triggers-.... shoulder buttons.... I can't even call them triggers, really.... just looks like 4 different shoulder buttons. Everything else looks amazing though.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: Does it really matter though? I mean it would be one thing if this was the only controller for your xbox or whatever and for your CoD or battlefield everyone would be on the same pad. But this is the PC, I'll believe the haptic technology when I see it but for shooters I can't imagine anything but people on controllers being blown up by people of equal skill level on mouse and keyboard.

And for... pretty much every genre other than shooters having triggers either doesn't matter or makes it work. Like in fighting games the PS3 and 360 controllers were an immediate downgrade from the PS2 controller. Not that at first glance I could imagine someone using a steam controller for fighting games but... on second thought I think that the fast, precise, digital motions of fighting games might work on this haptic thing.

The button on that controller isn't concave. Why isn't it concave? I thought even Sony had learned their lesson on this, games industry? All analog sticks should be slightly concave.

In any case, I just don't like the way that controller looks. The OP linked to a blog where Kotaku demo'd that controller and the buttons sound too clicky and, frankly, rather cheap. It comes across as Valve trying to merge the best of controllers with the best of mouse and keyboard and it looks like one of those things that will fall far short of both input methods.

Overall? Meh. I think Source 2.0 might be what I'm most interested in from this whole thing. VR headsets have never really interested me, I can build my own computer, and my thoughts on that controller are abundantly clear

As far as the Steambox goes, I don't think it's a bad idea. However, if you're using a gaming PC, you're going to have to do some kind of maintenance at some point. The aim of the Steambox is, obviously, to simplify PC gaming to the point where even your grandma could PC game with the best of them - but at some point everyone's going to hit a snag or a problem that's going to require a bit of PC know-how to fix, even if that know-how amounts to knowing how to get to video options and knock down the resolution and anti-aliasing. I don't know, perhaps if developers start to ensure that Steambox configurations always work great with their game, it won't be a problem.

Or maybe I'm completely wrong and the Steambox will take off like a rocket ship and everyone, including myself, will love the controller and five years from now we'll be seeing reports on Fox news about how this newfangled VR thingamajig is the cause of every child's problem these days. And I'd be totally OK with that, I'm just expressing my concerns. Except the Fox News bit. I'll probably make an angry post or two before realizing how worthless that effort is.

It's really cheesy and stupid and everyone's going to hate me for saying this, but it's on everyone's mind - Half-Life 3 has got to come out at some point, right? Like, multibillion dollar companies don't just leave their flagship franchises in the dust after a cliffhanger like Episode 2's, do they? Right? Right? I don't know, I feel like you could hand that game and a hundred million dollars to Machine Games and make up the funding with a surprise Steam sale or two and a new round of cosmetic Dota 2 items, then buy everyone a new yacht a week after the game comes out.

Yeah, seriously. A lot of them are closer to gaming laptops than full-fledged gaming PCs, with mobile GPUs instead of discrete cards. The only really interesting one I saw in the list, at least for now, was one that had a full discrete GTX 980 and an i7-4790k. But it was $1,500.

I guess my hope for this whole thing now is that we will see more small form factor and low power hardware available in the PC space, but I feel like Steam Machines may be dead in the water at this point.

One of the Steam Machines in particular has an i3, a 750 Ti, and a 500 GB SSD...for $1,100. I mean, what in the actual fuck?

@mb: Some day, I'm going to understand more than half the words in your posts about PCs. Gibberish!

That controller looks like it fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on its way down and mated with the original xbox duke controller. And it also uses batteries, how thoughtful of the environment...

Anyway those Steamboxes look rather underpowered, especially given the price. But I imagine it being a good buy to put it next to your consoles, for smaller indie stuff.

Still mad that Xbox changed the button names from the SNES controller. Just always felt it should be Y,X B,A...but I get it. Hopefully those batteries are temporary, because I refuse to buy batteries anymore.

A few things about this. First, Valve is not going to hand off the Half-Life franchise to another developer. Second, Valve makes so much money from everything else and since they are a private company profit is not their driving force. Third, Valve is not a traditional studio when it comes to development, everyone employed in the game making side at Valve kind of makes whatever they want, which basically amounts to a ton of prototypes. If one of these prototypes lends itself to an existing franchise they may pursue that but Valve doesn't release anything that is not great so most of their projects are never known. Basically if no one at Valve wants to make Half Life 3 no one will force them.

I actually hope it does take AA batteries. They are cheap, can be found everywhere, and can be replaced in seconds. I'm not really keen on the idea of having to send my controller in for service when the battery life gets down to an unacceptable level, or ordering parts and opening it up myself. It is far easier in my opinion to just swap them out with AAs at home. This probably keeps costs down, too.

I have a set of Eneloop rechargeable batteries that I got a few years ago and they are still going strong. Those are the same batteries that Logitech and other companies put in their rechargeable wireless mice.

But I've already got like 12 USB charging cords and extra USB ports because it is the future.

@mb: I'm not that interested in the Steam Machines. Unless they're capable of coming up with some kind of reasonable payment plan i don't see it as being much of a value for the average PC Gamer, though it maybe useful for console gamers who want to get into PC gaming, maybe? Dunno. If they have some kind of reasonable trade-up plan they may be able to make it work but on paper it doesn't seem like a great deal.

@believer258: I dunno, i could go on without ever seeing another Half Life 3; i'm ok with it. Not because i hate Half Life or anything, i just don't understand the mentality of people who are more interested in, "Video Game You've Already Played Part 3: The Next Iteration" while someone's trying to offer an experience you've never had before.

@artisanbreads: the thing is it's kind of a give and take between the practicality of the Vive and the Rift, it seems like the Vive is less practical to set up but more practical in practice since you have a 15x15 foot effective area. Whereas the Rift it's easy and logical to point a camera at yourself but staying within the effective boundaries of that camera maybe more of a hassle than most people would want to deal with, especially if they want to use the rift on a couch. I'd imagine the Vive, or the VR software itself, would have some kind of height spoof in the event that you'd rather just play the games sitting down, that seems like a simple problem to solve.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: nah, they wouldn't, i was thinking in term of lazy port jobs on the developers side but even that wouldn't make sense since the track pad would just emulate a mouse by default which it is designed to do. I'd imagine lifting your thumb will be a big part of using the controller since the momentum system helps with the, "slow turn" problem analog sticks have. You'd basically be throwing and catching your view for quick turns. I've done this with a laptop that has momentum and it works well horizontally but getting too much unintentional vertical motion is a problem that they'll have to deal with when using momentum. as far as the triggers i'm curious if the duel action will solve the problem with the short throw, though it may not be a problem at all once i get my hands on it so it's hard to say.

@tehbull: kinda looks like contacts under the back plate ( where the grippy buttons are ) for accessories like a built in rechargeable lithium battery pack possibly? Outside of that, i'm pretty sure they said it can just run through the USB

(edit) that could just be the circuit board, it's hard to tell.

(more edit delux) also, like the rest of Valve's hardware, i think they said the hardware was open for anyone who wanted to make their own controller with their tech.

I was half-joking in that whole paragraph, especially the bit about handing it to another developer (though if Machine Games wants to take a crack at practically any franchise I hold near and dear, then by all means, let them do it as far as I'm concerned). Still, I find it odd that they haven't wrapped up the very franchise that made their company, or at least laid the foundation for it. If they really don't want to make the sequel, that's fine - that's actually part of the reason I mentioned letting someone else try it. I just want to see it wrapped up. I really love playing those games and leaving off Episode 2 the way they left it off just lets me down some.

Again, I just want to see the series wrapped up. It ended on a cliffhanger that should be as legendary as Halo 2's, only unlike that franchise, Valve has hardly mentioned anything about actually finishing things off. Also unlike that franchise, Valve does not have a multibillion dollar corporation telling them what to make.

As far as "video game I've already played", I would like to see another well-paced, well-made linear shooter. I was playing Half-Life 2 earlier this year, actually, and that game is still so much fun and so wonderfully well-made. Yes, I want more Half-Life. That's not going to bother me, especially since Valve pretty much makes Dota 2 and CSGO items these days and that's all. What "new experiences" are they trying to offer me? Other than a Steam box that I will never have any use for and a VR headset that I'm just not sold on?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want Valve to sit down and make Half-Life 3 if they aren't comfortable with the product they put out, and I definitely can't ask them to spend a few years working on a product that they just dislike working on. But I can't shake the feeling that Valve just dropped Half-Life 3 because they realized that they can make more money off of selling F2P items in Dota 2 and CSGO along with all of the money they make selling games on Steam, and that's just a really depressing thought.