I’m so ootl cause I never really bothered with vr but I wanted to get the frame. Now I just discovered that apparently valve dabbled in vr already and I Read about the Index in some titles which got me confused. Why Are people so keenly interested in the Frame when the Index already exists? For what reason would one get over the other?
The Index is very old at this point and starting to show its age. It’s still functional, but there’s much better headsets out these days. The one good thing about it that a lot of modern headsets don’t do is lighthouse tracking. Essentially, little IR tracking cameras you place around your play space mounted to walls/tripods that super accurately track you in 3D space. Very precise and tracks from all angles.
The Frame is a their more modern headset. Still not bleeding edge specs, but still lighter, smaller, and better functionally in a lot of ways. But it’s inside out tracking, meaning the cameras are on the headset itself. Good for tracking your hands/controllers right in front of you, but middling at tracking at waist level, and unable to track behind your head. This is the standard a lot of the industry is moving towards. Functional for 90% of games and all-in-one so no mounting, but definitely a less accurate technology.
If you’re trying to decide between the 2, get the Frame. It’s more likely to be supported for much longer since it’s new and the Index seems to be getting phased out now.
Small correction, but since it’s a common misconception: The base stations don’t contain cameras. They sweep the room with IR lasers, which get detected by photosensors on the headset and controllers.
Right, and they also don’t connect to the PC. They only have power cables.
Not entirely true. They are connected via bluetooth through the headset, but only for purposes of firmware updates and for the PC to tell them when to spin up/down.