Valve's VR headset is named Vive, and HTC are making it

Valve's SteamVR headset has been blown wide open, ahead of its appearance at the Game Developers Conference next week. It's named Vive, HTC are making it (yes, HTC), and it boasts two 1200x1080 displays that refresh at 90 frames per second. This, according to HTC, allows the device to "[fill] your field of vision in all directions, eliminating the jitter common to previous VR technologies".

So yes, turns out Valve are collaborating with HTC on the headset, which also boasts a "gyrosensor, accelerometer, and laser position sensor", along with something called the 'Steam VR base station' that will allow you to control your avatar's movement by physically walking around your room, "in spaces up to 15 feet by 15 feet". HTC-made wireless game controllers will be available for more complex interactions that don't rely on your feet.

The HTC Vive will be supported by game developers including fishing sim makers Dovetail Games, but also by Google, HBO, Lionsgate, and places like the National Palace Museum. The consumer version is planned for release in 2015 (yep, this year), and there will doubtless be many more details at GDC in a few days' time. In the meantime, here's a brief video showing a bunch of nonsense and a dude taking the goggles off:

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Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.