Valve Index availability rumour

Note that due to American Daylight Savings time starting on Sunday, it'll be on sale at 5pm GMT. Normally it'd be 6pm due to the time difference - I was confused why Valve said 5pm instead of 6 and this explains it.
 
I managed to get one, and I think it's one of the first batch :D At least there's no shipping delay shown.

It was very nerve wracking, as I was getting the 'An unexpected error has occurred. Your purchase has not been completed. Please contact Steam Support.' error every time I tried to confirm the shipping address.

In the end the payment went through and I got confirmation and a copy of Alyx in my Steam account.

The only niggling issue is I realised there was a typo in my billing address, as my house number was wrong! :eek: I've messaged Valve support to let them know, and updated my card details with the correct billing address. Fingers crossed.
 
jonchaz said:
Well to be fair Steam mailed me back fairly quickly and said the problem was due to high demand and I should now be able to complete the purchase. There is an Index saved for me so long as I buy it before 5 pm tomorrow. Trouble is the "An unexpected error has occurred" problem persists so I still can't buy it. I messaged them back and can only hope they sort this out before the time limit expires.
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Any luck buying it this morning? I see Valve have given another day for people to get their payment through.
 
Some Reddit users are reporting that changing the way they format their addresses on the shipping form fixed that 'unexpected error' messages. Seems that it's super picky about addresses being in the correct format, e.g. spaces in postcodes.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
I'd love to get one but the price has to come down. I'd bite at around £300 not 3 times that amount.
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It is very expensive, but the top of the range PC equipment always is. The Rift S gets you most of the experience of the index, and is only £400, and has been as low as £350. However it is like comparing a base model car to the top of the range one with all the extras. Sure both will get you to your destination, but the more expensive one gives you more bells and whistles and better overall experience and performance.

That said, for the price of an Index you can get a Rift S and a Quest, and still have over £100 left for games. Ouch. :eek: I wouldn't be getting mine if I hadn't had a nice bonus from Work at Christmas that I've been saving specifically for this.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
A TV, monitor or phone I'm going to be using every day several times and for several hours.

A vr headset maybe once a fortnight.
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Different people, different use-cases. I've used my Rift CV1 for hundreds of hours and expect to use the Index as much or more. On top of that I have an Quest and a Go which get regular use too.
 
One of the good things I've found out about the index is that the lighthouses can be used upside down, which means one of them can use an existing ceiling mount I have for a Rift CV1 sensor. This uses a car camera windscreen mount which has a heavy duty sticky pad to stick to the ceiling. I happen to have a spare sticky mount ready for the other lighthouse, as the placing will be different from my CV1 rear sensor.
 
That's a good point that the lighthouses vibrate so it may not be as secure as I'd like. (Rift cameras are solid state of course). Still I can screw them into the wall if necessary, though it's plasterboard so I might need better screws.
 
Well Parcelforce have been sitting on my Index at the local depot (probably literally) all day, despite saying they'd deliver it today. :(

Looks like it'll be next week now.
 
Really poor customer service. Luckily my employers have told me to work from home so I didn't have to take a day off. I'd be fuming if I had.
 
lokiss said:
My employer went one better, I was heading home to take delivery within five minutes of arriving at work. Paid for the full day, after explaining like an excited child that I had to go.....

Sure I understand your anguish with it being so close, but the greater good is you've secured one:)
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I console myself that I have three other VR headsets I can play on until the Index arrives :p
 
My Index is stuck at the ParcelFarce depot. I've rung them up and they claim that they've got drivers off with the virus, and they hope to deliver it sometime soon. I'm not happy that a parcel worth £900 is lying around. The more time they have it the more chance they'll damage or lose it. :(
 
Finally got my Index. Had to go and collect it personally, but it's here. I'm working from home luckily so I could pop out and get it from the depot, but I'm going to have to wait until this evening to set it up. First impressions though is the headset is really comfy. Looking forward to trying it out later.
 
My first impressions, coming from a CV1, Go, and a Quest.

Bad:

  • The god rays are awful, worse in some ways than the CV1.

  • The black levels are poor, worse than the Go which also has an LCD.

  • The cable is heavy. (Though you don't tend to notice this when the headset is on)

  • The controller button and stick layout isn't as well laid out as the Oculus touch controllers. (Ideally the buttons or stick should be where the trackpad is, the gap between the stick and buttons is too large.) I find the menu buttons quite awkward to press (though you might argue the touch controller menu buttons are too easy to press accidentally).
Good:

  • Feels solid and well built.

  • Setup was very easy.

  • Tracking is great.

  • FOV is excellent.

  • Clarity is excellent - even though I'm not wearing my glasses while I'm waiting for my prescription lenses to turn up.

  • Audio is excellent. So much better than the Quest's built in audio, and better than the CV1 but without anything on your ears.

  • Comfort is great.

  • The finger tracking and grip mechanic work really well. Having the controllers strapped to your hands helps with immersion.

  • Revive works amazingly well with Oculus games. It's great that I can still play the games I bought on the Oculus store, and they look much clearer than on the CV1.
I haven't tried 120hz or 144hz mode yet, but I only(!) have a 1080ti, so I'd prefer resolution and clarity over refresh rate,

It seems a shame that despite all the positives the god rays, black levels, and controller ergonomics let it down a bit. It seems like there's still no 'perfect' headset, out there, though the Index comes closer than any other.
 
Gazanimal said:
Oh and a tip from the noob. Make sure you remove the plastic film from the base stations. It helps with the tracking somewhat :)
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I was wondering why I got a grey screen when I put the Index on for the first time (I knew that it indicated loss of tracking). Then I spotted the plastic film on the lighthouses. DOH! :rolleyes:
 
melmac said:
Great review and it pretty much sums up what people I know say about the Valve Index. Have you played in it for a long time yet? Do you find it very warm to wear for long periods?

Your last line is the reason for me choosing the Rift S over the Index. For the price I paid I can forgive the Rift S some of it's short comings, but I am not sure I would be able to live with the issues if I paid a £1000.

I hope you are happy with your purchase though? That's all that really matters :)
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I'm pretty happy for now, mainly because the FOV is incredible compared to the Rift. Horizontally it's not that much bigger, but vertically it's a huge improvement. I really removes that ski goggles effect, which makes it more immersive. I imagine for sims this will be great. (one of the reason I wanted to upgrade was I got fed up of the low resolution when playing sims).

I'm sure some of the glare can be addressed by proper fitment of the headset, but it is annoying for a £1000 system. Oculus have really nailed the lenses with the Go and Rift S (Ironically the Quest lenses have a bit of glare). I just wish they hadn't released such a compromised system in the Rift S. I only wanted a higher resolution CV1 :)

I would like to try a Rift S to compare, a colleage of mine has one and he hates it compared to the CV1, mainly because of tracking issues.

I've not used the Index long though, just popping into various games and trying them out. I hope to have a proper play session tonight now I've properly mounted the lighthouses and got all the wiring tidied up. Ironically it may actually be better to play Oculus exclusive games on, due to the higher resolution and FOV. Lone Echo looks incredible, and works amazingly well with the Index controllers using ReVive.

For the time I've played it I've not noticed any heat, but I love how easy it is to adjust. The rotating knob at the back which is so much better than the CV1 and Quest velcro system. For such a heavy headset it's amazingly comfortable.

I'll post more feedback once I've played it for a while.
 
I have managed to mitigate the glare somewhat, by tilting the headset down more. It's still there, it's still distracting, but it's less annoying.

I also tried a few more games, and I thought Elite Dangerous would look bad due to the poor LCD black levels, but it actually looked pretty good. Even Dreadhalls which is a very dark game looked ok.
 
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