Not getting crunk with the "frunk"

In addition, none of the demos (which also included the recently launched Vacation Simulator) did a good job showcasing the 3D-positional sound system that Valve advertised. The Index headset floats two speakers over users' ears, as opposed to clamping down like headphones, and the resulting audio is supposed to sound as if users have been transported to another world. But the demo event was so full of ambient noise that I had to set SteamVR's volume level to 95% just to hear the demos' dialogue. I couldn't perceive an iota of nuanced or positional audio on top of that.

Sam Machkovech

Sam Machkovech

Sam Machkovech

Sam Machkovech

Sam Machkovech

Sam Machkovech

Sam Machkovech

Sam Machkovech

We were also finally told what was hiding behind that shiny, front plate on the headset: a "frunk," or front-trunk, which includes a USB 3.0 Type-A connector and a recessed space. This is Valve's "gift" to the VR modding community, staffers told me, with hopes that fans will go to the trouble of using that familiar connection and that candy-bar cell phone-sized opening to make... something.

RGB sensor tests The Index's front-facing cameras are RGB sensors, not infrared or depth-specific. Even so, Valve unveiled a new series of camera demos at the Index event. These used Valve's "machine learning model" to render my real-life environs as blocks, voxels, blobs, and other artistic touches, all with their real-world colors and 1:1 mapping. I could see a hand through these camera-modeled scenes and reach out to touch it perfectly. Sadly, Valve didn't offer images or videos of this demo, which is a shame, because it looked quite cool in action. The Index's front-facing cameras are RGB sensors, not infrared or depth-specific. Even so, Valve unveiled a new series of camera demos at the Index event. These used Valve's "machine learning model" to render my real-life environs as blocks, voxels, blobs, and other artistic touches, all with their real-world colors and 1:1 mapping. I could see a hand through these camera-modeled scenes and reach out to touch it perfectly. Sadly, Valve didn't offer images or videos of this demo, which is a shame, because it looked quite cool in action. There was one caveat: perceptible lag between my own motions and what I saw through the cameras. So I believe Valve's declarations that these cameras weren't sufficient for future inside-out tracking.

Valve's Steam Controller was also announced with support for modularity and redesigns. That hope didn't play out as Valve had anticipated. "Input for 2D gaming, especially from a couch, is kind of solved, right?" one Valve staffer said to Ars. "Whereas we think there's a long road ahead for VR. Extensibility for VR is far more important than for a gamepad." Another staffer chimed in to add, "the ability for someone to add something meaningful [to the VR world] without being gated by having a huge customer base is important." Valve's own example for a fan-made add-on appears in the above gallery: an LCD panel with a hard-coded animation pattern. But that's only decorative.

Isn't that where an eventual inside-out tracking system might go, I asked? The twin RGB cameras in the front are not equipped with depth sensors, after all, and Valve said repeatedly that they were not suitable for inside-out tracking à la Oculus Quest or Samsung Odyssey. (Check out the "RGB sensor tests" sidebar for more on those cameras.)

I had attracted a crowd of maybe seven Valve staffers when I asked this question, and the whole group stood silent for what felt like an eternity. Finally, one person piped up: "You should work on it!" The crowd burst into nervous laughter. Hmm.

When pressed about whether Valve had plans to make a full-blown attachment for the Index's frunk, one engineer responded with a very engineer answer: "If we had an accessory we wanted to put in there, I'm sure we would've gone with pogo pins and a magnet snap in there, right?" We're not sure if that was an engineer's way of admitting Valve was done with the frunk, or whether this was a nimble dodge; either way, Valve didn't definitively answer my questions about whether the company was developing any frunk-specific add-ons.

Indices of concern

Valve's event began with a presentation that kept coming back to "three pillars." If VR is going to reach mass-market penetration, Valve said, the hardware landscape has to cross three specific thresholds simultaneously: affordability, low friction, and high performance.

What a weird way to sell the Valve Index! The platform's creators began things by handing everyone a report card and loudly declaring that Index has flunked two out of three categories. 33%. That's not just failing—that's asking to hold the kid back a full semester. (How you feel about that "grade" arguably depends on what you think of the HTC Vive Pro as a comparable product. That year-old product continues to cost $1,099 for its full bundle, which could certainly drop in the face of Valve showing up with better specs and a slightly lower price)

I wonder whether Valve should have held the Index back, especially with all eyes on the company expecting something huge. After all, company co-founder Gabe Newell has talked at length about the importance of building new hardware in-house to emphasize development dreams. He's cited Shigeru Miyamoto's ability to do similar things within Nintendo to push for innovations like the N64's analog stick and the DS's touchscreen. But Index didn't premiere alongside a Miyamoto-caliber demo. My industry sources keep telling me that interesting software is bubbling in Valve's VR department, but it's hard to have faith in a company that has gone so long without shipping a compelling product. (I tried having that faith with last year's game Artifact. My $50 of card purchases hasn't paid off.)

It wasn't until later at the event that someone from Valve mentioned a "more than 30 minutes" design focus, which was far more intriguing. I have used my fair share of VR, and I'm quite familiar with the wobbly "more than an hour in VR" feeling. Could the Valve Index truly remedy that sensation—and is that better than relieving my frustration with sensing boxes and feet-tripping cords? I'm constantly looking for the next "magical" thing in VR, and thus far, my most recent thrills have come from wireless Oculus Quest tests at expos [update: also, I've been testing Oculus Quest at my own home for the past two weeks]. Will the Index's mix of unwieldy tracking boxes, corded headset, and knuckle-bound controllers get me to a comfortable multi-hour threshold and convince me of a different kind of "VR magic"?

It's all question marks at this point. As soon as we have more to report on Valve's lengthy-session sales pitch (that is, as soon as we spend more than two hours inside of the Valve Index uninterrupted), we'll be here with impressions.

This article has been updated to clarify a detail about the Steam Controller.