| ▲ | Insanity 12 hours ago |
| This is going to be an instant buy for me, and my first VR device ever. I've used the previous Steam VR headset over at a friends' place many times, but never bit the bullet to get one myself. The fact that this can run standalone, doesn't have a bunch of wires dangling from it, and is pretty much a fully working Linux box makes this am almost on-brainer for me. I do _hope_ the price is reasonable though, if it ends up being like Apple VR I might not buy into it immediately, but I'm hoping for a reasonable $1000 max price. |
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| ▲ | daemonologist 10 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Word is they're aiming for less than the full Index kit (which was $1000), so good news there. I suspect it'll be fairly high up in that range though given the hardware. See "cheaper than index": https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-official-announce... |
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| ▲ | rbits 8 hours ago | parent [-] | | Thanks for the article link. Nice quote from the article: > Unlike the Index controllers, Steam Frame Controllers don't have built-in hand grip straps. But Valve says it will sell them as an optional accessory for people who want them, a similar strategy to Meta. I was disappointed seeing no hand grip straps. I've never used a Valve Index but they seemed very useful. Very glad that they will still be available. | | |
| ▲ | pteraspidomorph an hour ago | parent [-] | | As an Index controler and Pico user: The back straps are pretty much essential for any serious use; the controller purportedly includes finger tracking (capacitive) but you can't really open your hand without dropping the controller unless you have the strap. If as I currently intend I end up purchasing this device, I will definitely endeavour to obtain the controller straps as well as the top strap for the headset at the same time, and I recommend others do the same. | | |
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| ▲ | lopis 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Not to mention this comes from a company that I respect and that has a proven record of trying to respect its users, unlike literally every other company making VR headsets. The fact that they are trying to making this an open device, and that the controllers have user-replaceable batteries is almost unheard of in any consumer device these days. |
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| ▲ | piva00 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Valve kinda shows how a well-managed private business ought to run: respect your customers, find a cash cow and use it for slowly expand into related markets to your niche, develop good products over a long period (SteamOS took many years to become something actually useful) without focusing on the mentality of hyper-growth, keep the stereotypical contemporary MBA thinking away, have a small but competent team. There are, of course, the issues with lootboxes but even there they've kept their hands much cleaner than any other game developer. It's a very well oiled machine, I had another VR headset ordered for sim racing, immediately canceled it when saw the Frame announcement because even if specs-wise it's a bit of a downgrade, I want to buy what Valve is selling. | | |
| ▲ | ehnto 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | > There are, of course, the issues with lootboxes but even there they've kept their hands much cleaner than any other game developer. They do seem to get a pretty big pass on that. Wonder what it is about. Almost every other aspect of the company I find great, and I do wish they would release more games. Maybe Alyx 2 will come out with the headset? Could be what HLX has been this whole time, where people think it is HL3. On sim racing in VR, absolute game changer. I would never go back to screens, it's the perfect application for VR. | | |
| ▲ | Insanity 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I'm hoping for L4D3 in my lifetime lol. L4D2 is still my most played game of all time (~3000 hours in that game). I love it. | | |
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| ▲ | ehnto 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You're gonna love where VR is at right now. If you had been holding off until it's good enough, then I think you've timed it well. The Quest 3 from an experience point of view was the watershed headset for me, but the ecosystem being Meta makes it less good from a privacy and ownership point of view. But this headset solves the ecosystem aspect and brings that visual experience with it. |
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| ▲ | vunderba 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I can't imagine it exceeding ~1k USD - they've got to at least keep it reasonably competitive with the Meta Quest which is around half that. |
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| ▲ | hadlock 11 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I realize this might not be the case for everyone, but for me, $600 premium is easily worth it to "jailbreak" the meta game store. Steam was here for ~25 years and I expect it to be around in another 25 years. My Quest 1, an absolute Dinosaur of the VR world now, 2019, barely works at this point, is out of support and Meta still haven't open sourced the firmware for it. | |
| ▲ | aljgz 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Meta Quest 2 owner here, with all the damage to UX after Oculus was acquired by Meta, I'll lean towards something from steam, even with a 2-3x price tag. I don't think I'm the norm, but probably neither an exception | |
| ▲ | lynndotpy 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I imagine there are a non-negligible amount of us here who looked at the Apple Vision Pro with interest, despite its $3,500+ price tag, only to find out it can't meaningfully be used as a standalone development device. Only question is if 2160px is enough. | | |
| ▲ | daemonologist 10 hours ago | parent [-] | | I'm also very interested in this use case, however I suspect 2160 square is going to be great for gaming but insufficient for serious work. It's very comparable to the Quest 3 (lenses too), which is kind of on the level of a giant 1080p monitor. | | |
| ▲ | ehnto 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | I somewhat agree except that you can still make the screen however big you want, and the pixel density is the same across the new area. Clarity has been totally fine for work reading text on, if I were inclined to code in VR that would totally work for me. |
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| ▲ | esskay 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| They've cut some fairly shallow corners, like mono vs color cameras so I imagine getting it within a decent price range has been of high importance. I really doubt it'll be any thing close to $1k. |
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| ▲ | wolfd 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | I think it’s possible that there’s a technical reason for monochrome cameras. For example, to let in the maximum amount of IR light for tracking. Bayer filters reduce the amount of light getting in, so it might help the IR LEDs be visible on surrounding walls in the dark. Still hoping that you’re right, though. |
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| ▲ | jjcm 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > The fact that this can run standalone Just make sure to wait for reviews on this front - it almost certainly can't run AAA games at the native resolution + fps. Likely it'll only be able to run lower req games on device. |
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| ▲ | baq 31 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Can it run the terminal and vscode comfortably is what I’m very interested about. Not having high hopes due to it being only 2160px, but… a man can dream | | |
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| ▲ | andoando 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I bought the original Steam Index and pretty much never used it again cause its such a mess to have around. That plus the motion sickness. For applications where you're moving around in game though Id really want to try it again. |
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| ▲ | RyJones 9 hours ago | parent [-] | | from your keyboard to GabeN's ears. I've spent a lot of dollars supporting my local startup; it was mostly wasted. |
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| ▲ | dyauspitr 42 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] |
| At 2.5x fewer pixels vs the Vision Pro it doesn’t make sense. That’s 12 million pixels per eye vs 4.5 million pixels. Feels like a much more inferior product. The games aren’t going to look great. |
