So some new additions like item elevators which will make moving stuff up and down a lot easier and neater

Also a new vehicle a sort of buggy looks like it has more power than the tractor looks fun

Some of the WIP item can be researched and some of the other materials like quartz and sulfur

Multiple arm slots so you can now equip the shock stick the chainsaw the various weapons or things like health items then accessible via scroll wheel.

Some new weapons like a rifle and some detonators that allow you to destroy certain rocks.

All signs now suggest that Epic will remove Rocket League from steam they are dancing around confirming this or not but Epic have been pretty clear on their absolute hatred of Steam and desire to utterly destroy it.

What that means for people that already own it on steam is unclear I would assume it will stay in steam accounts for existing purchases but as to future support or dlc or even the match making and steam friends support no one knows.

The valve index is the latest VR headset and controllers from Valve. Now previously Valve partnered with HTC to make the Vive and the Vive pro headsets and the wand controllers which used Valves lighthouse tracking system but this new headset is made by Valve alone.

The tracking system for the headset and the controllers is the same Lighthouse system as used in the vive or vive pro and it is backwards compatible with the original lighthouse mk1 system that came with the original vive or the lighthouse mk2 which came with the vive pro.

Basically an updated oculus rift head set same panel as the oculus go giving a bit more resolution and lcd instead of oled to give more subpixels and mitigate the screen door effect. Improved lenses and inside out tracking with 5 onboard cameras (the oculus quest the stand alone vr thing has 4) basically the same controllers. The same sound pipe design for audio that the go uses and now the head strap is a halo type design akin to the PSVR which is my favourite of the strap designs I've tried. Hooks up to the pc via a displayport and single usb3 connector.

People probably look at this all the time, however I found it quite interesting, especially when you see all the media going on about 4k gaming, top end graphics cards and the like. I just got the infrequent "fancy submitting to the Steam hardware survey", and went through the link to the results.

Some highlights for me;

1) VR market penetration is <1% in the PC market. That explains an awful lot about lack of software! Be interesting to know what the PS4 VR penetration rates are...

Been really excited about this game and to see it coming soon is pretty good

There is also a alpha test this weekend for anyone that signed up for alpha keys

A fascinating documentary on the development of Astroneer.

I didn't know that basically at the point that the thing took off in early access one of the founders and a key driving force behind the game the person responsible for the artistic style died and that it might well have derailed the thing and meant it never got to a release.