The Oculus Rift headset was famously snaffled up as a $2 billion technology investment by social networking giant Facebook. The acquisition lead to several VR developers at Valve also leaving to pastures new, however some stayed behind and have been working independently on another VR headset. This previously unseen VR headset was captured in photos at the recent Boston VR Bender gathering. Valve's VR headset prototype is said to be a definite advancement to one seen a few months ago at the Steam Devs Days.
Valve's headset looks pretty big and bulky in the pictures. You will notice that the device appears to be more like a mask than like goggles. What purpose that large front 'visor' has is open to debate. However Pocket Lint reckons that the white dots, which cover the headset's front, top and sides, are there for accurate headset tracking. Photos taken at the Boston VR Bender gathering show headset testers facing in the direction of what is thought to be tracking camera hardware, on a table in front of them.
It is also unclear what Valve intends to do with its VR headset development, if and when it gets to a market-ready form. In January Valve suggested that it wouldn't release VR hardware as it decided to share its impressive tech with Oculus. However the Facebook deal might have caused shifts to perspectives and plans.
Valve is pretty busy with its fingers in lots of pies at the moment including; Steam Machines, Steam OS, the Steam controller, its online store plans and of course developing games titles. It may be hard for it to find time for VR headset development right now but if Facebook valued technology similar to Valve's at $2 billion it would be at least financially imprudent to just shelve it and let it wither on the vine.
