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The Index thread (please keep to subject)

Techy111
MVP
MVP
As per the title, please respect the users who post here and keep it on topic, any nonsense and......grrr
A PC with lots of gadgets inside and a thing to see in 3D that you put on your head.

2,973 REPLIES 2,973

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Some dude posted this photo on Reddit:

Post image

I've been thinking about something similar the last days. One argument for getting CV1 was Carmack, but thinking about it Valve has had a great impact on my life too. I was 25 years old when Half-Life launched in Nov 1998, I still remember having some friends over, they were blown away - while I thought the game could use more polys than the dated Quake-engine provided, lol. Then there were games like Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift, and Gunman Chronicles to name a few - but Half-Life 2 was the one Valve game that impressed me the most. Loved Portal 2 too, and there was always something special about Valve's games - like Carmack's games. Some special quality that never did go unnoticed. It's probably no coincidence that both Carmark and Newell now both work to promote the ultimate experience in first person gaming - VR. 
Using the Index - and seeing the connections to Valve's history in for example The Lab does bring many memories back. In short having both CV1 and Index somehow do feel like reestablishing some connection to both Doom and Half-Life, my favorite series of pancake games - and the Index does have some more weight, can't say that it couldn't feel like this  😄 

Image result for index headcrab valve

Who knows, maybe my journey to the Index did indeed start here:

https://youtu.be/qUDNiyOf92o

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Very informative of you Rune.

I think the clock is ticking for NMS VR on the Index. I think that will be something rather special.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Hey Ethan Carter works if you have the Steam Version. I guess you don't need revive for that. Pretty awesome when you up the SS and turn off the AA.

Racket Fury works a treat though and a really great example of 144hz gaming. Not sure why you have it listed as not working.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

RuneSR2
Grand Champion


Hey Ethan Carter works if you have the Steam Version. I guess you don't need revive for that. Pretty awesome when you up the SS and turn off the AA.

Racket Fury works a treat though and a really great example of 144hz gaming. Not sure why you have it listed as not working.



I only have the Oculus version of Ethan, still doesn't work with 1.7.2. But Racket Fury does - yes, it looks awesome, have only tried 90 hz. 

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Kinda liked this review - also because you really can't judge a new HMD in a week or two - even if you have to 😉 And often the sum is much more than the individual parts. 

Initial impressions don’t fairly evaluate VR hmds. Here is a 3.5 week review of the Index.


It’s easy to have a knee jerk reaction after spending $1k on a vr system. This is barely better than the Rift S, the colors and black levels aren’t as good as the Vive, the screen door is worse than the Odyssey+, the controllers may feel unnatural and have thumb sticks that don’t click.

As someone that had a Vive and an Odyssey+, I was completely unimpressed by the Valve Index aside from build quality and out of the box presentation. I am not a fanboy for any brand and frankly I’m willing to jump ship for whatever is the best available hmd. I considered returning many times during the initial 2 weeks I had it, but after almost a whole month of having it, I wouldn’t trade this in for any currently available headset. I believe that even at its high price point and a few issues this headsets still a good value.


The overall experience trumps other headsets, but it’s definitely not something that reveals itself within the first few days.


So what changed my mind overall this time? I think SteamVR has gotten a bit more stable for the Valve Index over the past few weeks for one. This means I haven’t had a single crash or usb issue in over a week now. Secondly, certain games might paint the Index in a poor light, whereas other games will make it absolutely sing. Those games that don’t perform well, I’ve realized can likely be modded or fixed by the devs to make them a better experience.


So since I said I’d give a review... here we go.


The good:


  • Audio. I want a pair of these head speakers for non VR use and I own tons of headphones including Sennheiser 650s, Sony 1000 MX3s, Allen & Heath XD53s, V-Moda M100s and others.

  • Excellent overall edge to edge clarity. There is very little blur and distortion as you look around with your eyes. There is also no pupil swim distortion as you look around with your eyes.

  • Decent Field of View. I typically have the eye relief turned 2-3 clicks out from touching my forehead. This FOV feels like the absolute minimum for not feeling claustrophobic. I can’t use anything less now.

  • Adjustable Refresh Rate. If I’m playing Moss I’m dropping that Refresh Rate to 80hz for maximizing super sampling. If I’m playing SPT or Beat Saber, I’m setting the refresh rate to 144hz. For a good balance I usually run games at 120hz and supersampling set to 1.0, but I can’t wait to be able to consistently play at 144hz and 1.5SS when the next line of GPUs come out from AMD and Nvidia.

  • Resolution. The amount of detail at high SS values you can see is incredible. I played Form yesterday at 80hz and there is a small piece of paper lying on the desk with tiny equations scribbled all over it, and I was surprised at how easy it was to read.

  • Having open hands as a resting state. I originally struggled with the controllers and comfort. The main issue was wearing them too tight. Now I keep them loose as sock you slip on your foot, and I just slip my controllers on and off and they naturally rest with my thumb in the center of the trackpad. Making sure the strap rests right behind your last set of knuckles is clutch.

  • HMD Comfort. I have long curly hair and all other hmds pull out my hair (halo and non halo designs). I put in the extra head pad on the Index and I have played for hours and no issues. Most guys will never notice this as an issue, but believe me when I say women will notice the amount an hmd pulls on their hair.

  • Magnetic removable face gasket. This is seriously the dark horse of this review. I soak this constantly with sweat. I easily remove it and wash it with water and the end of the night and set it out to dry, and it’s good to go for the next day. Also, makes it super easy to clean the lenses before each session. I cannot wait for my extra gaskets to arrive fro Valve, and will immediately buy leather ones from VRCover as soon as they release for guests to use and clean with wipes.

  • Tracking. It just works.

  • Mic. It’s studio quality.


There are a few trade offs moving to this headset.

  • Glare in select games (Hellblade has awful glare, but games like The Lab, Compound, Vertigo 2, and Moss have no glare). This seems like it could be fixed with in game contrast and brightness settings, which are pretty standard in flat games.

  • Thumbsticks that don’t click when tilted (only an issue in a couple games so far and it can be fixed, so I expect Valve to issue an optional repair program when they figure out a long term fix).

  • Poor controller implementation in certain games (using Revive to play Steam games and mimic Touch controllers often resolves this issue according to u/shmity18 of Rendered Reality). Honestly this hasn’t been a huge issue for me yet. Also, this seems like something Valve and the devs can easily fix. If there’s a game that seems not to work well, hop on their Discussion page on Steam and complain!

  • No wireless adapter. I hate the cable. Even when I’m playing sitting games I can’t help think how much nicer it would be without the cord. Valve, I know you are working on this, but please make this happen soon!

  • Button/Trackpad/Thumbstick layout. I wish I could have helped develop this controller. I think they did a really good job overall, but just a few minor changes to positioning the trackpad and buttons would make it absolutely killer. I’ll go into this another time. I want to 3D print some models instead of trying to explain my thoughts.


At the end of the day, I think people have a tendency to want to make instant assessments of VR systems. The fact is you usually need a couple weeks with them to make up your mind if they are right for you. This is why the tech reviewers like u/samred81 of Ars, u/notdagreatbrain of Tested, and u/RoadtoVR_Ben actually got their reviews right. They spent a month with these systems.


Certain games are going to be incredible in this HMD, while others have not been designed with it in in mind. I highly recommend trying out The Lab, Moss, Vertigo 2, and Compound VR. Also give Space Pirate Trainer at 144 he a try. Moss should be played at 80hz. Other games are good at 120hz. If you have a 980ti/1070 or worse, consider upgrading to the 5700XT or 2070 Super or better. It will make a big difference with this hmd.


I still can sell this headset tomorrow on Facebook or eBay tomorrow and have no problem getting rid of it. But, this is not in the cards for me. I love this headset now that I have figured out how to get the most out of it and will be using it for the next couple years until we see another big advancement in vr hmds.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/cgwd6v/initial_impressions_dont_fairly_evaluate_vr_hmds...

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Time for another Deep Dive - if you want to know about the Index speakers!

https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/index/deep-dive/ear-speakers


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Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
BTW, maybe a nice homepage for the browser:

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/valve_index_featured_games/

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Then again, still like Blue's News  🙂

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
New icons are coming  B)

sjughj0drmzg.jpg

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Old wine in new bottles isn't necessarily a bad thing!

https://youtu.be/afCHB1WavZQ

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Look what an evil Index psycho-serial-killer did  :s   :#

https://imgur.com/a/E8rDHfu

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"