Valve Wants You To Know That The Steam Frame Is Not The Index 2:...

The Valve Index is a popular headset by most measures, currently used by roughly 15% of players on Steam to play VR. So why is it Valve has killed the Index branding entirely with its latest arrival, a new VR headset called the Steam Frame? Turns out, it's exactly because Valve doesn't want that sense of continuity between the two.

"This is a new product. That's one of the reasons we changed the name from Valve index to Steam Frame, because we're trying to do something new with this," says Jeremy Selan, an engineer at Valve, during our visit to the company.

"We're really trying to blur the lines from your catalogue, where you just think about, you have your games, this is another device that lets you enjoy them. So I don't want to put too many sort of preconceived expectations on how people will use this."

The Valve Index is an accessory for a gaming PC. Valve sees the Steam Frame as both an accessory and a gaming PC. It's right to do so. The Steam Frame contains its own Arm-based processor and runs SteamOS to be able to play games without requiring a second PC. It's a great experience, too, as you can read in my Steam Frame hands-on.

"If you think about the Valve Index, awesome device, I worked on it myself, as did Jeff," says Selan, speaking of a fellow Valve engineer in the room, Jeff Leinbaugh.

"We're really proud of it, but it always was sort of a companion to the PC. This is not," Selan says, indicating to the Steam Frame. "This is a computer."

With the Valve Index, a user had to really want to play a VR game to go through the rigmarole of setting it up. The headset, the base stations, the planning applications with your city council. Scratch that last one, but it can feel that way with the outside-in tracking used by many VR headsets, requiring dedicated tracking sensors to be fitted around your vicinity—often ending up precariously balanced on doors and shelves in reach of power outlets in my experience.

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The Steam Frame, on the other hand, is all about reducing the friction of getting into and playing a game in virtual reality. As Valve's engineers explain to me, a user can place the headset on their head and then decide what they want to play. This could be a VR game, a non-VR game, a game streamed from a Windows PC close by, or a game designed for Arm systems. The user doesn't need to know how these experiences are running on the hardware,

Source: PC Gamer