Valve plans to reveal its very own SteamVR hardware system at GDC next week, and we may already have some idea of what it will look like thanks to a teaser outline. It's... exactly what you were expecting, unless you were waiting for some holographic contact lenses, or perhaps a surgical-strength laser that etches the images directly onto your retinas.
The outline, spotted by Steam Database on Valve's official Steam Universe demo page, looks like a standard head-mounted display, with a box for the screen and optics in the front, three exposed cables (don't even start about Half-Life 3), and attached head straps. That's not all, though - according to sources who spoke to GR+ sister site TechRadar, the display is already being tested by developers outside of Valve.
It seems that SteamVR is even a step-up from Oculus' Crescent Bay model, the latest publicly demonstrated prototype of the seminal Rift VR headset line. TR's Hugh Langley wasn't able to say much more when I asked / begged him for details, although he did note that this is a significant change in course for Valve. The company's previous VR demonstrations were impressive but seemed more focused on the overall potential for VR than selling a specific product.
Then again, considering how Valve partnered with external manufacturers for the Steam Machine program, SteamVR may be more of a generalized operating system and design philosophy than a single Valve-designed product. So Valve and Oculus could still be business partners rather than competitors by the end of next week.
