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Index reviews are hitting and they are really good

Discussion in 'VR Headsets and Sim Gaming - Virtual Reality' started by Zed, May 29, 2019.

  1. Zed

    Zed VR Simming w/Reverb Gold Contributor

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    Wait times are going to extend out. For anyone interested, you can reserve one on store.steampowered.com and all you do is get in line. No credit card, no money. Whenever one comes available, they just send you an email and if you still want it, you have something like 5 days to pay. No obligation. Full kit is showing a ship by of September 30 as of this writing.


  2. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    You can't actually pre-order or reserve the Index in many places, including Australia :(
  3. Zed

    Zed VR Simming w/Reverb Gold Contributor

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    Unfortunately that’s true. Hopefully that will change for you guys and maybe even get to start fresh with a clear order queue. It does suck.

    Is there no way to circumvent and get one through another channel? I know the reservation thing would be tougher to work around but there should be a way.
  4. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    It is possible to use a friend or purchasing and freight forwarding companies, but the risk and issue is no warranty, particularly when the Index is untested new tech.
  5. Zed

    Zed VR Simming w/Reverb Gold Contributor

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  6. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    Interesting, but given the cost, and this being expensive new tech, I would rather it be a formal Valve Warranty statement rather than some random support person comment, as the Australian consumer protection laws are much stricter than the US and it would seem that the advice is contradictory to the Valve TOS.

    This is all you get in terms of info when accessing the Index page from Australia:

    Index.jpg
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2019
  7. Zed

    Zed VR Simming w/Reverb Gold Contributor

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    Totally understand. The current wait queues are very long anyway. Hopefully you guys catch a break.
    • Like Like x 1
  8. hannibal

    hannibal Active Member

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    thank god one company kept external sensors.....
    i thought it was going to be the death of motion cancellation with most headsets going inside out tracking...
    • Agree Agree x 1
  9. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    I had the same fear, but now it's sounding like our motion cancellation solution here should be compatible with those new inside out systems no? I figured you could hang one of the Cosmos, WMR (apparently their controllers suck so maybe not), or Rift S (which is OK I guess if you have average IPD) controllers in front of your face with a rigid frame for the software to use. Like this.

    lanternfish tracking.png
    Make you look a bit like a lanternfish if you are using a PS Move controller =D but it should work well. =) Assuming the software is willing to cooperate with those HMD's... AFAIK there's been a lot of problems with any HMD except Vive/Vive Pro in the past and I figure that the Index is an even safer bet for OpenVR compatibility. People really should appreciate Valve more. They opensourced their VR hardware development research and the Lighthouse design, gave us an open VR option for the community to do things like custom hand tracking and motion compensation, and they don't go out of their way to make any games "exclusive" to their own VR hardware like Oculus and PSVR.

    Seriously, so many of the best VR games are Oculus exclusive (thank goodness for ReVive), and apparently PSVR as well now. :/
  10. hannibal

    hannibal Active Member

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    i was surprised to discover @SilentChill using wmr headsets with 6Dof...that guy is genius!
  11. Trigen

    Trigen Active Member

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    Id love to get one but im loved as i live in Norway and while we have to follow every shitty rule (EØS) that comes out of there we dont qualify as being in the EU so no index for us. Gonna have to order trough people or second hand ebay
  12. Raredog

    Raredog Active Member

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    I have made a reservation for the Index. Would have bought the Samsung Oddesy, but that's not available in Denmark...
    The Index reservation is not a commitment to buy and there is also a 14 day return policy :)
    So far most of the reviews is great, I don't want the controllers, as I am satisfied with the Vive Wands, but it would be great to have better resolution and less SDE in Dirt Rally and Project Cars 2 :)

    So far no date, I'm guessing somewhere around October maybe...
  13. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    Glad to hear it. If you don't set your expectations really high I think you will be pleased. I'm still quite happy with the upgrade myself.

    I do have to question your judgement on the Vive Wands though, either your judgement is poor or you aren't equipped with standard human hands. =P God I hate those things so, so much. Uncomfortable to hold (stupid wide flat grip shape) grip buttons impossible to press without adjusting to an awkward grip (for me), system button that gets pressed by accident all the time (by everyone who has ever used my Vive), no thumb stick, and not enough buttons.... The vast majority of my VR games have been sitting unused while I waited for controllers that didn't suck. =D I tried to play "Moss" on the wands... after the track padsgot me killed for the umpteenth time it went on the list of "wait for knuckles" games.

    The knuckles are great by the way, I thought Oculus Touch was excellent, the knuckles are definitely an upgrade even from them. The one and only wish I have is that the thumbsticks be centered, where the mini trackpad is. After a little use though I hardly notice that anymore.
  14. Jorant

    Jorant Member

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    I'm shocked he gets such good results. I tried it and got sick how shakey it is. I wish I could sks him why doesn't he try vive wands mounted to his rig. Surely it would be s better result.
  15. Trip Rodriguez

    Trip Rodriguez VR Pilot

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    I've been wondering if he was able to get better results somehow with the WMR trackers. Unlikely, but since he's using them you've got to wonder.
  16. Raredog

    Raredog Active Member

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    Heh heh :) I would like to think of myself as fairly regular, and actually I just found out by reading the Index reviews that you are supposed to hate the Wands:grin
    90% of my VR gaming are racing sims, so I'm not using them very much, and while not perfect I haven't noticed any problems using them :)

    Seems like a lot of people has problems with the knuckles, so I might buy them when the initial diseases are ironed out:)
  17. Zed

    Zed VR Simming w/Reverb Gold Contributor

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    Well, I’ve had my Index for a month now and love it - with a few caveats. For day sim stuff it is beautiful. The colors are great and the fast backlight flashing does really have a noticeable quality to it. As they say, just cleaner and more solid looking. If you have a beefy computer and video card, setting the base display rate to 120Hz adds an extra quality as well with everything seeming just a bit "smoother". It’s just a pleasure. The headset is well balanced and optics are great. The RGB pixels are a significant boost to the perceived resolution and white text is noticeably clearer than pentile OLED and even the Vive Pro/Odyssey. Invasion stripes and auto paint job stripes look so much nicer now.

    But I have a wide face and the gasket is fairly hard and probably fits narrower faces better. I also haven’t been able to completely eliminate pressure points above my eyebrows. Hopefully they or someone offers wide gaskets with just a bit more padding.

    The big issue is that the display has a significant background gray level and if your eyes adjust down to really dark scenes, it can get noticeable. If you’re familiar with the three The Blu vignettes, the black levels for me are only an issue in Luminous Abyss but the blacks not being full or near black is pretty noticeable. The others are fine and no issues from black levels. Daylight outdoors looks great.

    But I’d do it again in a heart beat if I had to do it again.

    On the controllers/knuckles side, I’m very impressed. It is a trip to see your fingers in VR instead of just what you are holding, but not everything supports fingers. A bit odd to hold and a little confusing to use at first. The finger tracking is really good but it also makes mistakes at least with me. I think it’s got definite skill aspects to learning to use them consistently and accurately. I’ve always really liked the Vive wands too, though.

    For me and how I use VR, Index is a good headset and big improvement over the Vive Pro in certain aspects. But the other side of that is I’m keeping the Pro so I have both. Pro for my wife and really dark stuff, and Index for me and my simming. Index isn’t perfect, though. For me, comfort is less and I definitely understand wanting to stay OLED if doing lots of dark scene stuff where your eyes adjust.
    • Agree Agree x 1
    • Informative Informative x 1
  18. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    Valve released the CAD design specs for the Index, and made it super simple to swap out the padding plate, so you can either wait for others to offer alternatives, or 3D print variations to suit yourself: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/IndexHardware
    • Informative Informative x 1
  19. gazza1101

    gazza1101 Member

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    VR Cover have released a face pad cover for sale.
    • Informative Informative x 1
  20. Zed

    Zed VR Simming w/Reverb Gold Contributor

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    Thanks guys! I haven’t checked out the faceplate but would need to get it printed commercially. Too big for my printer and might want something different than PLA. I hadn’t seen the VRCover either. Something along those lines might be the better solution for me. Will look into it and thanks again!