Virtual reality, a world of immersion and digital exploration. VR has always been a fascinating concept to me. It’s not quite plugging your mind into the Matrix, it’s not quite near a Ready Player One experience but it certainly moves one step at a time towards great immersion. Half-Life, an iconic gaming series that has swept gamers since its inception many years ago. Gamers have become accustomed to asking “Half-Life 3 when?” but nobody expected Valve to doubles down on VR tech with their Index Headset and controllers. The Index controllers are an exceptional contribution to VR space with precise finger tracking. Valve announced Half-Life Alyx, a VR game set in between the first and second game. The game has received massive praise over the last few days and it’s exciting to wonder if the future of VR is going to see where the technology goes.
There are many VR headsets on the market, companies have developed their own technologies and it would appear that the next wave of VR headsets are gearing up for development and release to consumers. Years ago, Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) became an entry level device to experience VR with certain limitations. It feels like the VR space had slowed down a little, WMR kits had slowly reached end of life and Oculus, Vive and other like the Pimax continued. Now HP seem to be aiming to get into the game once more in collaboration with Windows and Valve.
So far little is known about the project, it’s to be called the Reverb G2 VR headset but not much is known. It’s to be the successor to the HP Reverb, a headset that was plagued with a number of issues. The partnership itself is a point of interest as Valve seem to have something in the works to make the next outing something of note. Personally, room scale and freedom of movement without wires is a big appeal to the VR experience. If WMR is to evolve once more, it will be interesting to see what’s in store and whether HP can entice gamers to consider an alternative. With Valve on the scene, will we see an explosion of VR titles and accessibility? Perhaps we might see a shift in pricing too, allowing ease of entry into the WMR world, the original Reverb cost close to $600, not the cheapest or the best headset you could go for. Perhaps the partnership will be something different and feature its own internal system and software market, similar to the Oculus Quest. It’s an exciting time for immersive gaming and I’ll be keeping a close eye on developments in the coming months.
https://www.half-life.com/en/alyx/
https://hexus.net/tech/news/peripherals/140947-hp-teases-no-compromises-reverb-g2-vr-headset/
