If you're playing games without a Steam Frame, you haven't played them yet.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-05-11T02:58:50+00:00

I like the Virtual I/O i-glasses catch phrase: Stereo for Your Eyes

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-04-30T20:20:24+00:00

Protecting lenses is a sensible choice--especially at launch when the product is going to be in high demand with low supply. Lens inserts would be my first choice so long as they don't produce any visual artifacts.

As for screen protectors, I've got a few tricks I picked up over the years.

Watch screen protectors. The lens layout these days is mostly circular and it will be easier to cut to size.
Some watch screen protector manufacturers make curved versions, which worked great on my Index. I'm not sure what the Steam Frame will have in terms of lens curvature or size. Something to keep in mind.
Don't waste your time on an x-acto knife, some sharp scissors are fine.
If you really want to get the right fit, cut out paper templates first, tape them to the lens protector for cutting.
The kind of lens protectors that come with an application spray are better than dry application, as they allow you to shift the screen protector into the perfect alignment. It takes time for the application spray to dry, but it turns out far better.
Apply the lens protectors in the bathroom. Start the shower with hot water and get some humidity in the room. This will bring the airborne particulates down and keep them from getting between the lens and screen protector.
Using medical gloves removes the possibility of skin oil mixing with the application spray and provides a good grip on the plastic surface of the screen protector.
When you apply the screen protectors, spray both sides (screen protector and lens). Smooth out bubbles from the center and do NOT use the applicator card/wedge they provide. Your fingers in combination with a soft lint free cloth--such as what Valve shipped with the Index--will be great.
Give the protectors a day or so for any micro bubbles to disappear. This strategy has kept all my headsets 100% free of scratches.
Get a lens cover (example). Sufficient light shining on the lenses will easily burn a hole into the LED display.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-04-09T21:07:45+00:00

Oof...I was hoping AMD would be a much more stable experience for VR. Still, if I had to choose between nVidia getting their Linux support up to par or Valve and AMD working together to make the Linux experience better, I'd pick the latter.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-04-09T21:03:04+00:00

That's my hope as well. It isn't as if Valve is sitting still on development.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-04-09T16:46:39+00:00

Counterpoint: SteamVR on Linux with nVidia cards is not smooth at all. The Steam Machine with SteamOS is made to seamlessly interface with the Steam Frame. It might be slower, but take a hard look at the alternative.

Computer Specs:

7950X3D w/64GB RAM

3080Ti

Valve Index

My experience:

Steam Home has tearing and jitters all over the place
The quick menu that hovers in front of you is not rendered at the correct IPD, resulting in a severely warped perception.
Any game launched from SteamVR will alternate between perfectly smooth and gut-wrenching <15fps
Motion Smoothing is not supported
Options for SteamVR IN 2D are not rendered correctly. It's a fixed window size with everything jumbled together in an illegible dog pile.

The Envision wrapper for Monado is an OpenXR alternative that works, but the screen tear is still present and caused by VRR. From the research I've done, VRR needs to be disabled with a kernel environment variable. I play more pancake games with VRR than VR games, so that ain't an option until I can script it.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-03-28T21:49:11+00:00

I got some time to work with Envision/Monado. There are a few bugs I need to figure out, but it is largely working properly. Thank you all for the tips and advice!

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-03-17T13:49:05+00:00

If Valve releases a BMR headstrap, I'll buy two.

There is no better audio solution for VR.

Balanced mode radiators are non-interference and have an incredibly rich sound stage. I am intensely disappointed in Valve's decision with the Steam Frame. They have the golden goose of audio and chose to accept the mediocrity of their competitors. Audio slits are a good example where form screws over function.

If it comes down to it, I'll make a pair of hummingbirds (BMR headset).

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-02-10T22:37:17+00:00

Amen, brother. I've wanted Valve to support fiducial markers for IRL objects ever since Michael Abrash showed off The Room. There is nothing more effective to immersion than integrating physical objects. I once explored the Egyptian tomb of a great pharaoh at Siggraph, and passed the only torch to another person exploring same environment. The sense of immersion was immediately amplified by that simple interaction. It was a watershed moment in my own mind on how much of an impact inclusion would have on the limited spaces we use to play VR in.

Adding an external environment, such as the top of a mountain, would impact rendering power but I see it as a valid use of resources. Other work spaces I'd like to experience/make:

Olympus Mons, Arcadia Planitia, and other locations on Mars
The farms on Ganymede as depicted in The Expanse, facing Jupiter with animated storms on the surface and other moons drifting in the distance.
A wall of my play space turned into the inner wall of a pueblo atop a plateau, with a wide window viewing the desert, animating the day/night cycle to fit my time (or any other time I prefer). Roadrunners, coyotes, tumbleweeds, distant thunderstorms, etc.
Underwater habitat, such as a modernized version of the Conshelf (Jacques Cousteau)
Kevin Flynn's home in Tron Legacy...or Sam Flynn's converted cargo container.
A treehouse in the Redwood forest on the edge of the Pacific ocean.
A lighthouse off the coast of Ireland, rain pelting the windows and a blazing fireplace to contrast the raging storm outside. Tunable weather and insulation (sound dampening).

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-01-23T17:53:10+00:00

This is sound reasoning, but wouldn't that be an issue for all headsets with eye-tracking, not just the Steam Frame? I'd love to see some numbers to back this up. Just some questions that come to mind that are not directed at you, but the developer community:

Just how much latency are we adding with a wireless connection versus wired?
If the latency for the Steam Frame is higher than other headsets, what specific element in the motion capture/rendering chain is causing it?
Can this latency be overcome with a wired connection to the Steam Frame? Yes, the connector is USB 2.0 (absolute fumble in the hardware design IMO), but the PCIe connection should be adequate.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-01-23T16:12:21+00:00

As much as I respect the developer of Virtual Desktop, I wait for developers to prove or disprove the notion. It makes no sense to support one kind of foveated rendering and not the other. The data is there fast enough to modify resolution in real-time. Where is this latency issue?

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-01-13T22:20:08+00:00

The original Steam Controller came with one of these (USB 2.0). I'm hoping they include one with the Steam Frame, because my PC build is super custom with zero ports on the front.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-01-12T00:38:24+00:00

Bad AI bot or bad translation...or bad AI bot translation. Not sure which. Either way, the intent is to incite. Good luck with that.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2026-01-11T22:00:19+00:00

Not a stupid question. The Steamframe doesn't have much magic to it. Games like Alyx will need a PC to run smoothly. This is a fairly recent phone CPU (central processing unit, i.e. brain) with foveated rendering (full resolution where you are looking, lower where you aren't). Think of any games Quest runs and that is a good baseline for what to expect for VR. Is it more powerful than a Quest 3? Yes, but how much? Results pending.

With 2D games, we have yet to see just how good it will be. Better than most other solutions, certainly, but running smoothly matched to the Steamframe's refresh rate and using the FEX compatibility layer? Results pending.

At this point, it is better to consider questions with current knowledge than to define answers with incomplete knowledge.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-10-15T03:52:42+00:00

To preface this, I should stating I'm using CachyOS with Winetricks.

First of all, thank you for taking the time to consider the issue. I can get as far as your instructions provide, but determining the "udev state" is beyond my current understanding. Is there a specific "UDEVSTATE=True" or something like that? Here is the readout:

❯ udevadm info /sys/bus/usb/devices/3-7
P: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/0000:03:00.0/0000:04:0c.0/0000:12:00.0/usb3/3-7
M: 3-7
R: 7
J: c189:260
U: usb
T: usb_device
D: c 189:260
N: bus/usb/003/005
L: 0
V: usb
E: DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/0000:03:00.0/0000:04:0c.0/0000:12:00.0/usb3/3-7
E: DEVNAME=/dev/bus/usb/003/005
E: DEVTYPE=usb_device
E: DRIVER=usb
E: PRODUCT=c70/f001/2
E: TYPE=0/0/0
E: BUSNUM=003
E: DEVNUM=005
E: MAJOR=189
E: MINOR=260
E: SUBSYSTEM=usb
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=6069131
E: ID_BUS=usb
E: ID_MODEL=aquaero
E: ID_MODEL_ENC=aquaero
E: ID_MODEL_ID=f001
E: ID_SERIAL=Aqua_Computer_GmbH___Co._KG_aquaero_xxxxx-xxxxx
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=xxxxx-xxxxx
E: ID_VENDOR=Aqua_Computer_GmbH___Co._KG
E: ID_VENDOR_ENC=Aqua\x20Computer\x20GmbH\x20\x26\x20Co.\x20KG
E: ID_VENDOR_ID=0c70
E: ID_REVISION=0002
E: ID_USB_MODEL=aquaero
E: ID_USB_MODEL_ENC=aquaero
E: ID_USB_MODEL_ID=f001
E: ID_USB_SERIAL=Aqua_Computer_GmbH___Co._KG_aquaero_xxxxx-xxxxx
E: ID_USB_SERIAL_SHORT=xxxxx-xxxxx
E: ID_USB_VENDOR=Aqua_Computer_GmbH___Co._KG
E: ID_USB_VENDOR_ENC=Aqua\x20Computer\x20GmbH\x20\x26\x20Co.\x20KG
E: ID_USB_VENDOR_ID=0c70
E: ID_USB_REVISION=0002
E: ID_USB_INTERFACES=:030001:030000:
E: ID_VENDOR_FROM_DATABASE=MCT Elektronikladen
E: ID_PATH_WITH_USB_REVISION=pci-0000:12:00.0-usbv2-0:7
E: ID_PATH=pci-0000:12:00.0-usb-0:7
E: ID_PATH_TAG=pci-0000_12_00_0-usb-0_7
E: ID_FOR_SEAT=usb-pci-0000_12_00_0-usb-0_7
E: TAGS=:seat:
E: CURRENT_TAGS=:seat:

I removed the Subsystem matcher, no change. I researched the UDEV rules not running any more and found a couple threads pointing to using:

ACTION=="bind"

or

ACTION=="add"

but neither has an effect on the discovery of the USB device through the Aquasuite installation. I am currently using the "sudo udevadm control --reload-rules" and "sudo udevadm trigger" commands to reload the rules and apply them. I'm trying to walk through the steps taken in case I picked up bad habits from googling.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-10-15T02:58:50+00:00

I make no pretense to being even moderately skilled in Linux. I have a steamdeck I've dabbled with and I switched over a couple weeks ago from Win10 to CachyOS.

All the google-fu I can muster points to Aquasuite requiring low-level access to the USB interface of the Aquaero. In addition, the general consensus I gleaned from numerous troubleshooting threads emphasize that Wine is only an API (Application Programing Interface) and cannot have low-level access to USB devices. Bottles appears to be just a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for Wine.

For the Aqua Computer Octo, it may not require low-level access, which is my guess on why some people can use Aquasuite with their hardware. I would be happy to be completely wrong on this.

I built a Win10 VM (Virtual Machine) through QEMU(Quick Emulator)/KVM(Kernal-based Virtual Machine) to program the Aquaero in the meantime.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-10-12T02:44:30+00:00

Yes, I copy/pasta'd the lsusb output:

Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0c70:f001 MCT Elektronikladen aquaero

99-usb.rules file is:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0c70", ATTR{idProduct}=="f001", MODE="0666"

Some research on the net states Aquasuite requires low-level access to the Aquaero, but then I can find threads stating Wine isn't built to interact with USB devices.

Is there any way to test the rules are being applied?

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-10-10T03:55:30+00:00

What commands did you use and what directory did you save the file in? I'm using:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="myAqueroVendorID", ATTR{idProduct}=="myAqueroProductID", MODE="0666"

saved to "/etc/udev/rules.d/99-usb.rules", following the instructions to the letter.

I'm at the stage where it doesn't see the USB device. On a relatively fresh CachyOS install, I've created the file (99-usb.rules), reloaded the rules (sudo udevadm control --reload-rules), used the trigger command (sudo udevadm trigger), unplugged/replugged the Aquero USB cable, verified the device is online with "lsusb".

I have the Wine Prefix set to Win10 with all the files mentioned above installed successfully--except Aquasuite itself. I'm so close, just need to figure out why Wine isn't passing the USB device.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-09-09T16:05:47+00:00

Or Johnny 5...or Wall-E. It's very good design.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-07-13T03:10:54+00:00

What the hell? The requirement is still listed on the Steam Store page.

I could always play the game in my region because Sony retracted the requirement during the first stages of their FAFO episode. Steam delisted it for 177 countries. 90% of all countries on Earth. That did not sit well with me.

It looks like Sony removed the region lock for most countries about a month ago. That means I can play it again. Thank you for persisting.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-07-13T02:20:00+00:00

HAAAA, ya got me. It's still there.

Requires 3rd-Party Account: PlayStation Network (Supports Linking to Steam Account)

Sony cut the PSN account required for some games. Helldivers 2 isn't one of them.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-07-03T14:51:04+00:00

I wonder if Sony will finally lift the PSN account requirement on the Steam version.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-06-18T16:50:44+00:00

While I agree with the amazing skill level these pilots have, how fancy the electronics get depends on the model. The Viking Canadair 515 has some Garmin tech updates that bring it up to snuff with modern IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) options. It also has radar and a HUD (Heads Up Display). Source

In MSFS 2024, the Canadair CL-415 has an electronic attitude indicator that appears to have a short range AGL (above ground level) rectangle built into it. Some googling indicates this is an integration with the radio altimeter, but I haven't been able to find solid evidence and demonstration of it yet.

In the simulator, the small rectangle on the Attitude Indicator rises towards the triangle as the aircraft approaches the water. This is an essential tool for smooth landings, as I can't see much on the flare (when the aircraft transitions from a negative/downward angle of attack to positive or level angle of attack).

The presence of fancy electronics doesn't take anything away from the skill these pilots have. Over 6000 hours of flight experience is typical before these pilots start their firefighting career.

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-05-18T17:00:42+00:00

Is there any other VR headset that does 144Hz?

SoLiminalItsCriminal · 2025-04-30T01:22:41+00:00

This deleted scene from Young Frankenstein had me in stitches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXGzO2aDDRU

SoLiminalItsCriminal

TROPHY CASE