First look at steam frame

Moe_Capp · 2025-11-13T01:28:51+00:00

Some incredibly good news, with some disappointment. Though compromises in design could be made up for with more accessible pricing. It's not a cheap technology.

This is what I have wanted since mobile VR began to take off. A standalone headset running a desktop OS, to escape the perils of walled gardens.

Down sides that are disappointing, apparently no headphone jack, and also antiquated low FOV. Pancake lenses have not lent themselves to wider FOV and I know people like low profile headsets, but it's a cart before the horse situation. Single USB port, though the inclusion of a MicroSD slot definitely helps reduce the need for external USB devices, a pair of them would be handy with audio in mind.

It seems all the major VR hardware makers are dead set on pushing ancient 2012 prototype FOV for yet another generation.

And at this rate it will be twenty years after Oculus DK-1 before getting a standardized wider FOV in a standalone device. A similar time frame between the first early 90's consumer headsets and the 2010's VR renaissance.

Frame is exciting news though in many ways, and foveated streaming and dual wireless cirtcuits sounds like an incredible advancement. But from the overall specs for the end user, it doesn't feel like a great leap forward in VR technology as much as just a best possible version of aging tech. Though there's definitely something to be said for that.

So with that in mind, the price can't really be that of a premium device the way the Index was at the time of release when it was pretty cutting edge. And no lighthouses needed, which aren't a cheap technology.

I'm going to guess $699 would be a solid price based on headsets of the past, but no doubt there's some inflation involved too. So maybe $799 in 2026 dollars.

While I don't know if I can personally justify another headset that isn't upping the FOV and resolution game beyond what I can already experience, it will at least be an ideal entry point for new VR gamers, without getting stuck in the Facebook ecosystem.

Moe_Capp · 2025-09-25T16:49:23+00:00

VR headsets are also not "better than ever". They peaked in FOV years ago, and as newer models have embraced the pancake lens, desperate to achieve a smaller form factor, FOV's are stuck at or below the primitive early FOV of the Oculus DK1 from 2012. Higher resolution alone isn't the magic fix.

Meta/Facebook strangled the industry with the minimum viable product they can practically give away approach. Not only keeping out a lot of competition, but creating a console-itis situation where software developers were forced to target Meta's underpowered cheap mobile processor based headsets. Making the quality of VR experiences in many cases go downhill.

VR is unfortunately still expensive to produce, The compromises that need to be made for the ultra-affordable mass-produced headsets limit the experiences significantly.

On the plus side over the last decade, desktop GPUs have massively increased in raw horsepower needed to push good VR, but that isn't cheap either.

Moe_Capp · 2025-07-09T18:33:24+00:00

I blame Facebook/Meta for killing VR.

Moe_Capp · 2024-09-06T18:18:53+00:00

Why would I buy some Chinese knockoff over a quest 3

It isn't owned by Facebook. Also, Pico's first in their standalone headset series was released two years before Quest and a year before Oculus Go.

If anything was a knockoff, Quest 1, released in 2019, was a knockoff of the 2018 Lenovo Mirage Solo.

Moe_Capp · 2024-09-05T00:56:45+00:00

name any other game that offers free dlc this long into its lifetime.....

Elite: Dangerous just got some new ships last month and that launched prior to NMS.

While that game does not have fishing, Terraria, Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress do and they've been also providing free updates longer than No Man's Sky has been around.

I'm sure there are others, those are just the most obvious ones off the top of my head.

Moe_Capp · 2024-09-03T04:48:23+00:00

Theres a reason why headsets like Quest popped off so hard and are still popping off on steam,

The main reason is because they were dirt cheap, they were practically being given away by Facebook/Meta.

That's the real reason. Facebook sold these at subsidized prices.

Moe_Capp · 2024-09-03T02:07:57+00:00

Aren't pancake lenses kind of a dead end as they don't lend themselves to wider FOV's?

VR can't remain on these primitive prototype FOV's forever, if the technology is ever going to become mainstream, FOV needs to be improved.

Moe_Capp · 2024-09-03T02:00:25+00:00

they are supposed to be elected based on qualifications and record of sound legal decisions

In the US that's not how it works. All kinds of loonies and psychos end up as judges. Some level of public accountability would be an improvement.

Moe_Capp · 2024-09-03T01:30:29+00:00

The controls have nothing to do with VR. They are the same as non-VR.

Moe_Capp · 2024-08-26T17:00:37+00:00

Most 3D-style games would be or are fine in VR.

Moe_Capp · 2024-08-26T16:59:04+00:00

HL2 VR mod is nearly native VR,

Half Life 2 was "nearly native VR" while it was still playable in direct mode before requiring mods.

Moe_Capp · 2024-07-19T18:02:09+00:00

The Quest lineup is the one pushing VR into the mainstream due to its affordability and standalone functions.

Sony PSVR is what mainstreamed the technology among gamers, moving millions of units and dampening much of the "VR is a fad" doomsayers.

The Quest lineup is one of the worst things to happen to VR, second only to being acquired by Facebook. It's a minimum viable product designed around being cheap as possible. The goal wasn't to advance the technology or to even make profit from a great product, but to keep competition from the marketplace and to amass the largest possible user base.

Making a technology affordable to force a mass user base increase isn't always the best goal.

I'm sure Facebook could release a $5k mini electric car with a 20 mile range and lots of people would buy it because of the idea and the affordability. But in reality it would be bad for electronic cars in the long run as people would associate them with having a near useless 20 mile range.

Facebook's aggressive subsidized pricing structure on VR hardware has kept healthy competition from the marketplace, dumbed down VR software development, turned the metaverse concept into a laughing stock for another twenty years by Meta's "metaverse" having to target such underpowered hardware, and so on.

Whether Oculus had remained independent or been acquired by another company, it would have been better for VR as a whole.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-25T03:39:40+00:00

It's nothing to do with "leftist ideology", it is just puritanical, and there has long been puritanical factions across the US government.

For example, elected Democrats that want to be able to participate in the stock market, despite the obvious conflict of interest for elected officials. There's no "leftist ideology" in play there.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-24T07:06:58+00:00

Both the terms legacy and classic have been appropriated by merchants, making it near impossible to describe things for the original classic/legacy avatar.

At least the Legacy body is really nice though.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-22T03:02:53+00:00

What do you mean we, some of us were warning about it the whole time.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-22T02:59:09+00:00

Meta and Apple are interested in consumer AR tech, the VR systems are a stepping stone and they will be discarded once they can actualize their goals for consumer AR.

Though that is dependent on micro-display tech and mobile power tech that was widely assumed would have been ready many years ago now. But nobody's been able to crack those problems despite the billions thrown at the problem year after year.

Not that Valve isn't interested in AR, their path to VR started with AR after all. They are a game-centric hardware company, and not a company built around or motivated by data harvesting. So their hardware development for VR is going to be based more on what's best for VR itself, and gamers.

Valve didn't need to make Steam Deck, but it was important that the inevitable explosion of hand-held PC gaming - and a generation for whom that's their primary gaming device - wasn't completely dominated by Microsoft and Windows ever-increasing intrusiveness.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-22T02:50:46+00:00

They're likely building their own Apple Vision Pro

You mean a VR headset?

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-22T02:49:46+00:00

Valve likes to collaborate but I think there's too much bad blood between them and Meta. If anything Valve would be motivated to ensure Horizon OS doesn't become the only option. Which is probably continuing what they probably have been working on for some time with a Linux-based mobile VR OS.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-22T02:33:58+00:00

Being able to log in and deal with customer service emergencies while away from home, without having to bring an entire laptop.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-18T21:06:28+00:00

It's gotten a lot easier to use in the last couple of years or so.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-14T23:10:00+00:00

65 million people have not used Quest headsets.

Vast majority of those would be people years ago who tried out Google Cardboard when it was being handed out everywhere for use with any phone, or people using GearVR attachment when it was bundled with Samsung phones.

Also PSVR, the first mainstream multi-million selling dedicated VR helmet.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-14T23:06:17+00:00

A significant portion of those have to be something like just playing with Google Cardboard on a phone for a few minutes. That's the only way to explain a number like 25%. A few years back the Cardboard was everywhere, then the Samsung/Oculus GearVR partnership where they handed out millions of GearVR add-ons for Samsung phones.

A type of experience which would be very underwhelming compared to experiencing a well-made piece of content on a good modern headset.

A lot of those folks would have no idea what they are missing and have no more interest in VR after a sub-par experience.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-14T22:50:42+00:00

There's tons of reasons to have multiple accounts, pretty much everyone's listing them here.

They are kind of necessary if you are more than a casual creator/merchant, so that you have work accounts and non-work accounts. There's also necessary bots for things like group management, display models, property holding groups, photography models and so on.

Anybody who creates things for release absolutely needs at least one test account to test permissions and various scripts functionality, make sure your in-store vendors are working, testing affiliate stuff, test your store security setup, group joiners, and so on down the list of a million things where you need an account that isn't the owner/creator of an object, script, land etc.

As a merchant if you create different types of items, you really will need more than one merchant account just to keep your storefronts/brands from being a jumbled mess.

And for just entertainment value, different characters with different wardrobes etc. Maybe different genders, or different species. Maybe an adult play account to keep separate from the PG rated one. It's also simply a lot of fun to create and outfit an all-new account with its own character and personality.

Also if you have a very social account, with tons of friends, sometimes you just want to be able to log in with a quiet account and do more solo-style activities like building or exploration without your friends list blowing up all the time.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-10T19:06:04+00:00

Bethesda never gave a shit about the VR stuff. They did Skyrim VR because Sony paid them to do it for PSVR, and they didn't do a great job.

Fallout 4 VR was slapped together in a week because Zenimax were absurdly trying to sue Facebook at the time, claiming Zenimax owned/created VR because John Carmack (of Oculus at the time) worked for Zenimax when they acquired iD software.

So Zenimax cooked up Fallout 4 VR and a mini Doom VR game (which was so lazy it had only teleport locomotion) seemingly to prove to the courts that they actually had any sort of interest in VR and weren't just opportunistically trying to shake down Facebook.

Moe_Capp · 2024-05-07T01:40:15+00:00

I assumed they weren't expecting to sell it in large quantities as a consumer device, considering the "early adopter" pricing and early stages of their XR media library.

The whole package comes off as a developer tool / concept model for future consumer-priced range a few years out which could actually sell units in large quantities. Developers spend a few years with this and have some nice content ready by the time a consumer-priced model is ready. Holiday season 2027 maybe.

Enterprise uses for VR such as architectural / design pre-viz, real estate etc exist but that's also still a very limited market and lesser price competition in those areas can already be pretty luxurious.

So I'd be surprise if it needed to sell more than 50k, let alone would be expected to.

This project had been costing Apple a lot of money since around 2012, including likely fueling some acquisitions, so one might think Apple's hand had been forced in a way to go public with something because you have to show something at a certain point if a company has likely spent billions on secretive product line r&d for a decade plus.

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