256 GB model: $1,059 USD
1TB model: $1,299 USD
Preorder list randomized, goes out Sept 17th
Power supply not included, costs $29 (same as Steam Deck power supply)
3rd party addon available for color passthrough, Arcturus Vision Camera, $149
My intended use case is 100% streaming from my PC so the fixed/low storage doesn't even bother me.
According to the Gamers Nexus review, playing locally on the Frame (i.e. not streaming) can reduce latency by 15-20ms. That's actually noticable
Which makes sense, but the sort of games I play in VR are not going to be supported on local play. I play a lot of flight/space/driving sims with additional controllers light flight sticks, yokes, and steering wheels.
Unless you're using it entirely as stand alone I'm not certain of needing the 1TB version truthfully.
Nice to see you finally being honest.
Stalker vibes much?
I like your shirt today but yesterday's was fine too.
Why does Satan’s cum have maggots in it? Does bro not clean his dick?
Tbh, it's Satan's partner's cum. The grammar suggests that Satan is the one letting loose the cumfart, implying he's the bottom
Did you make a new account?
I blocked one of yours because your comments are always rage-bait drivel and I'm not 13 any more so I don't find the funny:rude ratio good enough to waste my time with you.
Yep, I'd blocked /u/SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world, but it looks like they're switching to /u/SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.social now.
Less than the index once you account for inflation.
The index would cost 1300$ in today's money, give or take.
Cheaper than expected given the economic hellscape
I expect this is why the accessories are so expensive. The ergo kit really should not cost that much, but they may have just increased the price of that so they could keep the base price of the Frame itself lower.
Valve's also said they're considering releasing a strap later on with more adjustments, better speakers, and hot-swappable batteries
I figure the 256GB model will be entirely fine, especially with the SD card expansion slot. Pity that you can't upgrade the storage like the Deck, but oh well.
For the life of me I cannot imagine that anything running locally on the Frame would need enough bandwidth from storage to not be able to run it off of SD anyway. For anything using the emulation layer, it's sure to be slow enough where one won't notice. For anything running ARM native, it's sure to be simple enough that one won't notice.
the only use I can thik of for needing the larger storage capacity is for a large number of games that you want to have very short loafing times for, like playing a single round of beat saber.
Not just a few straps but they are required to use all of the features of the controllers.
It also makes it a lot more comfortable on your head. I was considering it until I saw that cash grab nonsense. So, yeah. I'm a little pissy too.
Considering theres not many games and im assuming the bulk of the game devs are going to release a modified apk of their meta quest version, or scale back the PC port so it rubs via fex (less likely IMO)
Most good games on the quest tapped out at around 8-12 gigs, and im assuming that's what a bulk of people are going to running considering most vr games made games where either made for, or designed for the quest first and foremost.
That and its the same hardware just running through valves version of waydroid which I can only assume is more performant than running a x86 pc game through fex, and using something like fsr to upscale it? Maybe foviated tracking comes in a lot more clutch than I think it will. But I don't know honestly im just assuming.
Yeah, but think of all the VR porn!
I have, its still the same games I played like 2-4 years ago now, the only real big change is a lot of games I already own became vr compatible.
I'm sure theres a bunch of small indie games, or racing Sim kind of stuff that got added but just pure quantity isn't what i mean. Otherwise I would just point at the meta quest store and say look how many clones of gorilla tag theres tons of stuff to play.
At one point we had medal of honor making vr games, and there where active lobbies for many games. We had many many growing YouTube channels dedicated around vr that where growing, and now sit stagnent at around 10k views.
If you are looking for a large back catalog of games then sure steam has a ton and many great titles. But they're often much shorter experiences, ot lesser of a game. Thats much different from when theres actual momentum going and there's hype around new releases of games, and people are actually there to make mods or be in lobbies for said games.
I'm not saying this because I'm saying vr sucks or theres only 5 vr games. I'm saying this because I am worried its not going to make a bump like how I wanted. In some other universe the steam frame was sold for 700 USD and everyone rushed to buy one, and devs rushed to make friendslop games for vr and it all kept getting bigger.
Game lobbies and multiplayer in general are not a big concern for me, for both VR and flat games. I can see how if you're just looking for multiplayer games in VR the options are limited. I have enough to keep me entertained without that and my Index gets regular use still. My kids have several multiplayer games they like in our VR catalog though.
I'm happy it's here and probably will get one down the line. Equally as mad that it's surely gone up in price thanks to all the AI and other bullshit, not only not costing less than Valve Index (as had been originally rumored, I think), but more.
Super sour about the not included PSU. Hate it about the smartphone market, too.
But as a VR enjoyer, I'm still happy.
Super sour about the not included PSU. Hate it about the smartphone market, too.
I have like 3k of these things, so personally I'm very happy to not have to spend another $30 on a worse one that's just going to get chucked in a drawer anyway.
I feel the same way about smartphones not including chargers. The third-party charger that I already have is likely better than whatever charger comes with the phone, so the one that comes with the phone will just go unused. I understand that manufacturers are not going to "pass the savings onto the consumer" when they don't include a charger, but at least it doesn't feel like e-waste. I felt the same way about the headphones that would come with devices for a while. Just a waste that I will never use.
On the other hand, having a stock charger could aid in troubleshooting by offering a baseline of sorts. Being able to say "I can't do X, even with the stock charger" can go a long way. Without the stock charger, tech support could wonder if maybe your third-party charger is to blame for your issue. The other benefit of included chargers are when the device uses some weird charging technology or something that makes the included charger actually better for that device than the third-party one that I already have.
Super sour about the not included PSU. Hate it about the smartphone market, too.
Tbh, we've collectively been getting so many usb chargers and cables with devices over the years that most people probably don't need more of them. I'm generally fine with it being an optional accessory so long as 3rd party options work since it reduces E-waste and somewhat reduces the price for people who already have chargers
Whatever they would have added as an PSU and have you pay for it a premium, you can buy for next to nothing online with better features and performance, while not generating a bunch of e-waste if you don't need one (like me - i doubt they would have added a 100W charger with 2 USB-C ports).
Edit: Just saw they want 39€ for a 45W PSU with a 2.5m cable - go buy something better for cheaper, for real. If you are strapped for cash, this one delivers 100W with one port for under 17€: https://www.amazon.de/...
Careful with some very cheap very powerful GaN chargers. The lowest corner cutting ones have really poor components insulation and can burn easily (or toast your very expensive USB device). I have access to the cheapest ones... And i was very lucky that the laptop didn't fry. I expend more on reputable brands now.
The situation in Europe and Amazon is at least not as bad as when buying directly from China. I myself invested a bit more for a charger with 2 USB ports and 100W, which cost me around 30€ - still cheaper than the one from Valve (I have one of those too, but that one is currently on 18650 Recharge Duty)
Former vive owner here. Beat saber isn't a novelty it is legitimately something to spend dozens of hours on. I'm buying either a frame or a used index specifically for beat saber.
I agree with the other guy. Beat Saber is not a novelty game. It's easy to have short, self-contained experiences with it, but that's not the same thing. It's extremely fun on its own merit and worthy of putting dozens to hundreds to thousands of hours into it. I would also put it at the very top of the "exercise game" genre (see a lot of stuff on the Wii), because of how well it masks being very active behind just being fun and because getting better at the game ties more directly to you physically getting better than just about any other game.
That said, I think it's only a 10/10 game if you're willing to mod it to add custom songs (there's literally hundreds of thousands the community has mapped) and a 6/10 game if you aren't. I haven't bought any of the DLCs, so maybe it's an 8/10 with those. I think the modding is extremely easy, but I also know there are a lot of people not interested in doing that even when it's literally a couple clicks.
Half Life: Alyx, Beat Saber, Superhot, Budget Cuts, Space Pirate Trainer, Waltz of the Wizard etc. are all great VR games. If you like horror games, the FNAF series, The Forest, etc. also has some great VR games.
There are other tangentially fun things to do with VR, too. I watch movies in BigScreen with friends and family sitting on a virtual couch together. VRChat is fun to just meet and chat with people. This headset also plays 2D games, which I'm intrigued by, both on headset and streaming. I can stream Steam games on my Quest headset, too, but it's lower resolution on the Quest 2.
I'm happy with the fex coming out that someone is very likely to get all the unreal engine vr mods to play nicely with Linux. So many community projects showed up on github when the steam deck came out, just having a dedicated community based around a standard piece of hardware seems to bring enough hype to get shit done. Really excited for the possibility of arch64 Linux phone distros that people make due to this.
Other than that I'm worried theres not enough vr games, and I'm highly certain the steam frame isnt going to bring a new wave of vr devs like the quest 2 did.
Most the vr games I played consistently where multiplayer and have all died off, and for me theres not much else, the other titles its more of a novelty. Majority of titles are the equivalent of walking the plank simulator and charge 20 bucks still, while still feeling like an shitty free game off the google play store.
I'd want it for all the other things like 3d modeling, or other weird applications that are more tinkering focused. I'm excited that its Linux I might be able to set up some kind of UI/HUD, or actually engage with the hardware in some meaningful way. I just don't see vr taking off again to the point where I can justify 1k USD purchase, I pretty much only played 1 game when I had a quest and the measly 300 dollars the quest costed was hard enough to justify so I could play a single 10 dollar multiplayer game.
I think it's fine if VR stays niche. The tech alone is compelling enough to not disappear even if Valve themselves never make another headset, and the work by hobbyists and tinkerers keeps getting better and more expansive every year, so the path is upwards regardless.
If you've never tried it, Google Earth VR is tons of fun! I don't know what it is about looking at little miniature cities, but it's just so compelling. Also fun is when you turn on human-scale and actually have to look up at the buildings and such as you walk or fly through the city.
I use VR primarily for seated simulation games. Flight sims, racing, space... VR brings a whole new level of immersion and situational awareness that makes these sort of sims better, and makes me better at playing them.
One of the few times I played around with VR was a racing game and it was awesome, but I'm not a big racing games person so my concern is that the $1200 headset would not add much value beyond the quick thrill of adding VR to a few games
Why are you asking if your response to every example use case is "that's just a novelty"? All games are novelties in one sense or another. What are you looking for?
I Expect You to Die, the game series. Funny room escape secret agent story game series. Does a great job of utilizing VR controls and room layout without requiring you to leave your seat. Also has an interesting story to it.
https://store.steampowered.com/...
Pick something fun and short (not skyrim vr) for having something heavy on your face makes everything exhausting and sweaty. Beatsaber sounds dumb but its the perfect fit for the medium Hmm actually cut that, the perfect fit for the medium is porn
Do you liek trains? Derail Valley Simulator, a game that started out as funny physics meme turned hyper realistic train engineer job simulator. You get to realistically drive big chugga chugga choo choo - or a diesel electric if you're boring. They also have the funny pump handle cart
I think some of the best VR games are unofficial ports of flat games like Jedi Outcast or Alien Isolation. In my opinion VR is the definitive way of playing Doom 3.
I'm blown away that no one has mentioned lone echo 1 and 2. IMO they are the crown jewel of the best use of the VR medium for immersive gameplay and story telling, surpassing even half life alyx.
Damn, you are correct, I could've sworn I played them through steam VR but my memory isn't that great these days. Wonder if pirating them and adding them into steam as a 3rd party title is possible.
I really enjoy VR chat. My IRL friends go to movie worlds there to stream anything we want and watch it together regularly, although you don't need a headset for that just makes it more fun.
You can also do No Mans Sky and Subnautica in VR. I did it for the Forest and that was fun.
I wish it was cheaper but I would rather have VR without Meta at the wrong time and not great price than VR with Meta and the right time and great price.
Same here, I did love that the gamers nexus video opened with a comparison of the terms and privacy policy of meta and valve just to show how buying a Quest may be cheaper but it costs a lot more than the money you exchange for it.
$1050 is not terrible for you? Ok...
So still terrible but slightly less so? Specially considering the accessories (except the charger) are required according to reviewers. So the "real" minimum price is like $1400. And on top of it all it has monochrome passthrough? I really don't see why people would buy this thing. I really wanted to get one but can't justify the price.
They said they were going for a price under the Index 999€ price point.
Then the rampocalypse happened, and they said they weren't going to make it. I was expecting a 1200€ minimum.
So only being like 50€ over their target is not really bad.
The accessories are only $50 total besides the charger. So no, the "real minimum price" isn't $1400. Quit fucking lying
Why is everyone so concerned with passthrough these days? MR apps are the worst XR apps of them all
I really wanted to get one but can't justify the price.
So what was your, uh, upper limit on the budget there?
Go look up the price of what the last ram kit, ssd, or SD card you bought costs right now, I guarantee you're going to be surprised. No one likes the price, but I was ready for it to be way worse.
That doesn't make this price not terrible. It just alligns with the terribleness we exepect nowadays.
That's so extremely vague that I don't even know how to respond. What's desktop class for you? x86? What type of "apps" would you want to run on a vr headset?
Basically games that were only written to run on Windows. If someone likes the idea of playing, say, Ori and the Blind Forest, on a virtual movie theater screen, this is a way to do that, no porting from the original authors needed.
I can almost guarantee you that if valve doesnt get it working, someone will via moonlight, ALVR, and/or WiVRn.
The amount of work that has gone into the Monado/XRizer/Envision/WayVR stack is phenomenal and gaining momentum.
I am sure there will be third-party solutions working, but will they use foveated streaming? That is a huge selling point of the wireless streaming capabilities of the Steam Frame, but that feature seems to be proprietary to their first-party wireless streaming software. Without it, wireless streaming will be just okay.
Last year’s announcement trailer for Valve‘s new hardware mentioned that Steam Machine would be a great option for streaming games to Steam Frame. So it‘s pretty safe to assume that Linux support for streaming is coming.
Information seems to be mixed, but it's looking like it at least works in some cases:
https://www.reddit.com/...
I think what's in question is whether the wifi dongle is widely supported. It might require some manual configuration at first.
Given how much valve has been advertising running the steam frame with the steam machine if it doesn't already work now it will be a priority to make it work. I trust valve's fairly consistent marketing more than a leak
WiVRn works in Fedora (over flatpak even!) since March this year, and performs better than SteamVR and possibly even Virtual Desktop - on a Quest 2. WayVR provides desktop portal and playspace dragging. Very recent update makes the interface look good and also provides USB Ethernet support for Android headsets (Quest etc.) if you prefer wired
As of now it does not work with the Steam Machine, which is kind of embarrassing. Though I expect them to fix that ASAP. Hopefully at least a beta version is available when customers get it.
I recall it comes with a USB dongle for 6GHz Wifi streaming. That's most likely going to be supported on Linux
I've streamed Steam games from my Linux PC to my Steam Deck. Other than increased resolution and the foveated streaming, it should be the same or similar enough technology to go to the Frame. I would be surprised if it didn't work. Especially because this "generation" of Steam hardware so far has great interoperability between the Steam Machine and Controller, I would expect them to have thoroughly tested streaming from the Machine to the Frame.
steamos is a linux distro so presumably already working if its supposed to be able to stream from the steam machine. other distros will likely be within a couple days tops if it doesn't work out of the box.
Man, I really hate this economy. This AI bubble cannot pop fast enough, but I fear we have at least till the end of this year, possible Q2 of next year to see it happen. Even then, it's not like it will be instant, and capacity won't just instantly switch over to normal consumer components. Assuming even more tech idiocy doesn't happen, we're still years away from a ramp up to "normal" capacity.
I'm even more scared that the era of personal computing is in it's last days. The combination of drastic cost increases, and the dominance of corpo-tech working 24/7 to destroy ownership completely, might be too much to overcome.
We'll see a return to the era of computing similar to the 80's and early 90's. Building your own PC will require lots of money and technical skills. Pre-builts will be a distant memory. PC builders will be spoken of in similar terms as HAM radio people are now, hermitic nerds who are hardcore into their ancient, dark, tech wizardry.
but I fear we have at least till the end of this year, possible Q2 of next year to see it happen.
Considering at the start of August, I was already seeing stories that all the fabrication capacity for RAM has been completely spoken for and booked through the end of 2027, I would expect it to keep going quite a bit longer still.
You're not wrong, but the whole thing is also a bit of a house of cards. If the buyers don't have the money the contract won't be fulfillable.
We have a data center planned not too far from my house. It was approved by the city council last December despite a lot of public skepticism. The developers aren't moving because they don't have the money. They're waiting to have someone on contract to lease capacity from them before taking out a loan. In the best case that will simply never happen.
Sure, but with production stuff at scale like that, even if contracts fall through, it doesn't necessarily mean they'll be able to switch right over to running consumer RAM down the lines. Unless the AI bubble bursts hard and soon enough for them not to have contracts to fulfill by March, I wouldn't count on them being able to get meaningful production going during Q2. Switching over from producing one SKU to another can be a crazily time intensive problem on its own, and that's leaving aside whether they have enough raw materials on hand to keep the lines busy producing those products. If they have some stupid Just in Time inventory system in place, we'll get to follow their supply lines as we see where new logistical bottlenecks are emerging in the process.
But I only have one kidney left.
Your liver grows back. Just saying.
A couple months ago, when I posted news about the FCC approval, people were whining that it was going to start at $2K. They didn't quite hit their initial target of "less than the Index" but I still call this a win.
I want to remember people, that I was right and Tyler McVicker was wrong. He predicted a launch price of 1500 Dollars. There were entire articles and discussions in the web around that prediction: https://www.tweaktown.com/... and linked to Lemmy post for discussions: https://lemmy.ml/post/51014971 I just find it fun to see and read what people expected, and then what reality is.
I quote myself:
BTW the article is based off Tyler McVicker’s prediction. He was never good at predicting…
I actually don't understand your question. My current account https://lemmy.ml/u/thingsiplay is the last and newest one I created. Before that, I had an account at beehaw instance. I had disagreed with a deletion of my reply, just because they didn't like it (or even understood). No toxicity was involved. ... aand before that I also had an account on kbin, but switched over to Lemmy, because kbin seems to be dead. I didn't check in years.
Unless I misunderstood your question.
This is my only account I am using, since I abandoned my previous main account with same name and icon. My previous account was on beehaw instance at https://beehaw.org/u/thingsiplay , joined 3 years ago. I left that place because I disagree with moderation and switched to lemmy.ml. I do not use multiple accounts at the same time, BTW, always a single main account.
Ahhhh ehhhhhhhhhh
If I didn't have a Q3 already maybe. But for $1k I can't swing it.
Excited to see where all this x86->ARM translation work goes though. And hopefully some new VR games market's been stale.
The Meta headsets were a no-go for me due to the huge privacy concerns. I'll gladly pay a premium to have hardware I actually own.
What country? I’m on the list. I don’t necessarily need it but if someone really wants it and will pay for the whole thing and the insane shipping costs…
It's covered in the terms and conditions of the sign-up process. Here are the key bits:
- You and your partner need separate Steam accounts. Newly created accounts aren't eligible. Each account needs to have made a Steam purchase "prior to April 27, 2026."
- Valve uses "information such as shipping address and/or payment information to eliminate multiple entries." Unless you and your partner have separate residences, Valve's probably going to be able to spot that you're in the same household. Even if one of you temporarily changes the account's shipping address, billing address information will likely reveal that you two live in the same household.
Apartments have apartment numbers, so different apartments would constitute separate billing/shipping addresses. For multiple people living in the same apartment/house (i.e. roommates at the exact same address), they may be SOL.
Edit: Although, on second reading, the address check may only be to prevent multiple entries per account. Emphasis mine:
Multiple registrations from any Steam account holder will be void.
We will use information such as shipping address and/or payment information to eliminate multiple entries.
Those restrictions could be done per account, so multiple Steam accounts at the same shipping/billing address might be fine as long as each account has different payment information (i.e. the accounts don't have the same owner name and/or credit card). Could still be an issue for someone trying to register a whole family at the same address, if all the accounts are using Mom's credit card.
Thanks. I live in an apartment complex and usually people don't put apartment numbers on billing or shipping addresses. Hence it would be sad, if they'd void a registartion because of that.
Oh, thanks, didn't see that. I wanted to sign up everyone in the family.
Strange, for me it only says that you are limited to one purchase per household. Nothing about the signup.
I saw that but it seems like they're just hand straps and the grip is still a button instead of capacitive touch, which is exactly why the index is so immersive. It might not be awful but I'm still gonna hold off given the price and battery life. I already have a triple lighthouse setup and wire tethers, so the best bang for my buck would be upgrading my hmd only. Though the index is still solid, so honestly I'll probably just keep rocking it until it dies.
the grip is still a button instead of capacitive touch
The Frame controllers have full finger tracking. According to reviews, this isn't very useful without the hand straps, though.
It’s both now. I love the immersion of the capacitive touch but in many games you have to grip the controller like crazy to not drop something (or maybe I’m just weak lol). The button makes that a problem of the past WHILE still retaining the capacitive touch for immersion. I do wish they’d include the straps for free though.
I'm kind of surprised they don't do hybrid controllers yet. As in the experimental kind used for prosthetics. Combine that with an EEG headset. Sounds like fun to me. Then again setup time would be a pain.
I would get it if the battery life didn't suck.
~1.5 hours when streaming from PC at 144hz, and a full charge time of around 3 hours, meaning you probably can't even get unlimited playtime if it's plugged in the entire time and solely streaming from a PC instead of computing the game itself.
According to the Ars review, the 1.5 hour battery life is when running games on the Steam frame itself. Battery life is supposed to be a lot better when streaming from a PC I believe.
Also all lithium batteries slow down charging speed a lot as they get closer to being fully charged, so taking 3 hours to charge doesn't mean that it can't charge faster than the battery drains. I'm sure it can just do power passthrough to power the headset indefinitely.
According to the Ars review, the 1.5 hour battery life is when running games on the Steam frame itself
I was going off the LTT number which put it at 1:36 when streaming Half Life Alyx from a desktop PC, running at 144Hz. Ars' number is when running on Performance mode with "most VR titles", so I don't know how comparable that is.
The Verge says they never got above 2 hours even when using battery-saving mode or streaming-only, and demanding games got under 1 hour.
As for charging time, LTT claims it's 3 hours to 100%, and 2.4 to 95%, and doesn't seem to state there's much of a speed increase below that point, and as far as I'm aware you usually only see a major difference in charging speed for the last ~10%, though previously The Verge did also state a power bank could keep them going up to 2.5 hours.
So with all that said, if it takes around 1-2 hours for it to die after starting from full, and it takes a minimum of 2.4 hours just to get it almost full... that means it'll still run out of battery eventually, even if plugged in.
That's disheartening about the battery times.
So with all that said, if it takes around 1-2 hours for it to die after starting from full, and it takes a minimum of 2.4 hours just to get it almost full... that means it'll still run out of battery eventually, even if plugged in.
Once again, battery charge speed is slower than what the charger can provide. Look at it this way, it has a 21.6 Wh battery. If that battery drains in 1.5 hours, that means it drains the battery at an average rate of 14.4 W. It charges at a max of 45w. So when plugged in you can fully power the Steam frame for about 14.4w, and still have about 30w of power left over to charge the battery. It won't always use 30w to charge the battery, it will further reduce that amount based on heat and charge level, but it won't ever have a problem maintaining the 14.4w needed to keep it powered up while plugged in.
hmmmmmmm good point, I didn't consider that!
According to the Gamers Nexus review, Valve thinks there my be an issue with the software controlling the charge rate and are looking into it. So we might see a software update soon to improve the charge times
LTT is unreliable at best
On the other side you can go into field and play lighter games in standalone mode. This is an insane mobility for such powerful hardware.
If I get one I'm planning on playing with an external battery attached on my hip lol
Depends on the comfort factor for the individual user+device. If it's not a good fit for you, it's going to be exhausting pretty quick.
Fair enough, but that's kinda independent of VR.
There is nothing I have ever seen or played in VR that could justify this price for me. I understand the tech is expensive, but I really am not willing to pay more than like $200 for something that feels like such a gimmick. If this is your thing though, have at it.
The lottery is cool but too bad this time they don't allow you to join the list for both options to increase your chances of getting one in the first batch. I decided to go with the 256GB one. I don't think I'll be using it standalone very much, so I don't really need the extra storage. And while I believe there will be more people signing up for that one, there will also be more units available, making the chances pretty much equal. Obviously, saving 200+ euros is a plus too.
69€ for the pretty much mandatory "Ergonomic Accessories" pack is just dumb, imo. For a 1000+ euros product I would expect that stuff to be included.
The lottery is cool but too bad this time they don’t allow you to join the list for both options to increase your chances of getting one in the first batch.
Its an anti scalping measure. That seems counter to preventing scalping
With the Steam Machine you could sign up for all 4 of the options, but you were only given the option to purchase 1 of them, not all that you signed up for. So, yes, it was anti-scalping.
The primary anti scalping mechanisim Valve employes is randomizing delivery order. Being in line first because you have the fastest bot does not guarantee getting the goods first.
The original commentator is complaining they can't join the waiting list multiple times for the express purpose of "increase your chances of getting one in the first batch". That would give scalpers a potential way to get more of an advantage. And runs directly counter to anti scalping.
You are complaining you can't decide what you want once you get through which is a different issue. Though allowing that would likely make waitlists muchore complex
I don't fully get how this change helps with scalpers. Just like nocturne wrote, with the Steam Machine you were still only given the option to buy the one SKU where you landed highest on the list after the lists were randomized.
And it's not that big of a deal obviously. But doing it like this created an unnecessary dilemma about which list to join. While I actually wanted the 256GB one, I was seriously considering joining the 1TB list because there are probably fewer people going for that one, which could potentially increase your chances. But then you start thinking about how some people probably have the same idea, potentially negating the effect...
The whole thing turned into an unnecessary headache lol, so I just stopped thinking about it and went for the 256GB one.
As a 1990s kid, I'm still stubbornly waiting for VR to be the big spinny thing you get into like Pierce Brosnan.
I love to hate to love that film. The Stephen King short story it was based on was about a man who saw that his landscaper was working in league with a demon and ended up being hunted for his discovery. The movie was an absolute assault of mid-nineties cyber-slop. VR! SGI CG! Hollywood OS! Gyroscopes are cool! But, one of the characters did have a lawnmower. Fucking brilliant. Did you know that Stephen King sued the movie makers to keep his name off the project, twice, and won, also twice? Love it.
Since this is an ARM device, can we play traditional x86-64 games on ARM64 now? Like, on other hardware besides Steam Frame?
I didn't try it yet but yes, FEX is open source: https://fex-emu.com/
There are SteamOS builds for several arm64-based handhelds already and they can play many x86-64 games through FEX. Look at Armada OS, which is basically Bazzite for arm64.
Wine has CPU emulation hooks since some time, and now protonGE is split into Arm and x86_64 branches. So yes? I think LTT even tested windows games on Steam Frame and it kinda worked
Guess I’ll be selling some CS2 items.
Back then when Steam Deck launched, my brother purchased the cheapest Deck for about 379 Euros or something like that by selling CS:GO items. That was one of the most impressive things I saw, given he almost never purchased anything (expensive) there.
Curious why the 1 tb? What’s your use case? I assume lots of standalone gameplay… but what about the low end snapdragon performance compared to pc streaming?
Just trying to wrap my head around the things.
1tb isn't all that much these days. Especially considering one of the big selling points of the Frame is "access to the biggest existing library and ecosystem".
1tb would have been a lot in, say, 2009. But, now, in 2026 (almost two decades later), there are multiple games that won't even fit on 256gb even if you got the whole 256gb and there wasn't os or anything.
And considering the thing is basically a pc at this point, there's a TON more than just vr or flat screen gaming that you're gonna be able to do on it. And, sure, it has a microsd slot (but no headphone jack, fuck you apple!), but I don't want to rely on that and would much rather have that as an option down the line, years from now, when things get even bigger.
It's a PC, so at some point they'll be a custom fork of an emulator I'll want to play with. I have multiple 100+ GB games, and I doubt it'll be as easy as the Deck to swap in a bigger drive. Not to say the "Future Proof" word but my PC doubles as the Family PC so I can't always rely on streaming and my living room PC only has Steam on it these days for Jackbox.
Bare minimum, it needs to have H3VR on it and I'd prefer the overhead. Doesn't matter, since I got randomized to the "too far out to bother forecasting a number" again so it looks like the economy will probably collapse before I get to order it anyway.
Does anyone have an educated guess on my odds of getting picked from the list for a 1TB?
No idea but I did sign up for the 1TB in the hopes that it is less popular so my odds are better but it could also be the case that they produced way less so who knows. Luckily my wife has her own steam account so I had her sign up for the 256 model just to increase my odds. Only planning on buying one so if I somehow get picked for both I will just let it drop to the next person in the list I suppose.
If you pop for both and I don't get mine, could we work something out for the 256?
Nevermind, got my brother to sign up
As long as your wife has a different mailing address on Steam - otherwise both of your lottery tickets will be silently deleted.
Less than I expected yet still expensive. But, I would pay more than double to not get a meta headset.
I would of bought no hesitations for around 750 USD. 1200USD is where I thought it was going to be for the 256, and is the price point I say I have no use for it.
1100 is still too rich for my taste, but I was surprised too.
Yeah, I expected much worse after the Steam Machine price and storage and ram costs going up. On the waitlist for the 256 model, but not sure I'll actually buy it.
I don't have VR, but I had been interested in Half Life Alyx and Beat Saber.
Save half life Alex for when you start getting a little bored of vr, really brings back the joy of when you first put on the head set.
Unless you are getting a steam frame, then I feel like you gotta play it first.
Yeah, if I get into vr it'll be with the steam frame due to refusing to get meta headsets.
I'll be picking up beat saber and pistol whip since I love rhythm games. Will look into driving, flying, and fpv drone flying games.
DOA. Maybe it’s not fair because it’d probably be $700 and in my budget if memory and storage had stayed steady instead of ballooned, but I’m not interested in this or the machine at the prices they are debuting at
I’m pretty sure they literally talked about this at launch. One of them said “we wish this could have been the price we had for it even a year ago.”
Fuck AI.
Considering everything else they've been putting out right now has been selling out quickly despite price increases, it's probably going to do just fine.
But I for one am also priced out of it, so. 🫠
Is it because of the inbuild computer?
As someone with a gaming PC already, I'm confused why we want to pay for the headset to have a computer capable of running some small games on its own? Is there a good option for VR with an existing computer?
This is the good option for VR with an existing computer. 'Good' being relative
Price is alright given the market conditions, but the lottery really ticks me off.
Imo the lottery is the most fair way of doing it. Instead of people being lucky to be awake/available right as the announcement dropped, everyone has the same chance of being placed early in the queue.
The lottery is fine, it's the fact it's even necessary I abhor.
Would you rather their entire stock gets bought up by bots to be scalped?
No, I'd love there to be enough supply for the vast majority of prospective buyers.
I don't understand this comment at all... Surely valve would also want to have enough supply for every single person who wants one to give them their money. But we live in the real world with real material and logistical constraints, so isn't the lottery the best solution to getting the limited devices in the hands of people who actually want to use it?
Oh no, the lottery is the most fair way to deal with expected demand far exceeding supply, no question about that.
I just long for a time when there was enough supply right from the start. I can't remember having to queue or wait weeks for sought-after electronics in my youth. I don't even blame Valve here, it seems to be more common everywhere now.
Even if we ignore the silicon shortage, it doesn't make sense for Valve to set up the facilities and supply chains to fully satisfy the day-one demand, only to shut them down months later when the demand falls off and no longer justifies the expense of operating them. The up-front cost of setting up additional factories, especially for the custom high precision optics, would be a massive waste. The other option would be to build up a larger stockpile before the product is released, but then you'd still be waiting all the same.
In terms of hardware, Valve is not a significant player. They sell niche products meant for enthusiasts, and the lottery is the most pragmatic way to get them into hands.
Are you old enough to remember the retail shortages of gaming consoles when they released in the 90s? People were scalping them out of car trunks back then.
Certainly the device could register to a specific account and notify them if/when a different primary account takes control. If I've been playing steam games for 20 years using the same account I should be able to be verified as doing that and order hardware without them being concerned about scalping, especially if the hardware will only work if my account is the primary one allowed to use it.
I tried to pre order a zelda anniversary and was too busy and ended up trying to buy it an hour after orders opened and I couldn't buy it (unless I paid 2x the price on ebay). Lottery is the much better way to do preorders.
Or, you know, producing enough to meet demand from the start. People have gotten so used to sought after items being in short supply, the thought that companies can actually gauge demand quite well and could produce enough stock doesn't even cross their mind anymore.
I feels like you're underestimated the word "enough" here. It's a niche product, no one know what's the actual demand vs scalper, and certainly no one can know what amount is "enough".
Also ram is hard to get.
VR playing people - how much space do you need to use it? I have a place behind my PC where i can stand and move my arms around with hands out (barely) but that's about it. Feels like I should wait till i get a bigger gaming area to think about getting anything like this.
As long as you can reach out in all directions without hitting anything, you can do stationary VR and/or just use in-game locomotion (aka, move with analog stick or teleports.) Stuff like Beat Saber, pistol whip, racing sims, flight sims, any kind of cockpit game is fantastic here.
I started Half Life Alyx in a similar space to yours, just the area behind my desk with my chair pushed in, teleporting for movement (analog movement makes me motion sick, that's why teleporting is a popular workaround), It was fine and playable, but I found myself wanting to strafe and lean around corners.
So I moved my PC to the living room and had a ~20x11 foot space to play Half Life Alyx in, with my couches stood up on end and pushed the the wall. I ended up walk 20ft > rotate 180 > walk 20ft for almost the entire game and it was amazing. My feet were sore by the end, though. Roomscale just hits different.
This is what I'd prefer, so may just need to wait. Also I barely have time to game currently so this is probably just not a wise purchase for me atm.
Ah well, eventually.
The bigger the space, the more enjoyable the experience.
If you can move around your hands while not hitting anything, it is the bare minimum for roomscale VR. There are a lot of games that require only 180° turning.
But cockpit games like racing space sims should be more than fine.
And because it has wireless streaming, you can also use it in a different room if there aren't too many walls blocking it.
It is also a standalone headset, so you can use it outside on its own as well.
Valve recommends "For Room Scale VR, you will need at least 2m x 1.5m (6.5ft x 5ft) of free space."
I set mine up in the living room with a little bit larger area, about 6 x 8 feet and it's plenty
I use it pretty much only for simracing, so only enough room for a simrig. Things like Beat Sabre can be played standing in place, so just enough room to fling your arms about. I have a low ceiling fan that I forgot to turn off once, and bruised my knuckles. I also don't recommend playing Superhot VR when drunk.
I meant a sale event. There are always a bunch of games on sale at any given time, but I thought there was supposed to be a big event this week. That was one of the main reasons people predicted the reveal of the Frame was going to be yesterday.
Tbh, I'm not going to buy any VR games until I have a headset in hand. I wishlisted a bunch of VR games last night in preparation, but I'm not going to screw myself out of (at minimum) half of the refund window in case any are duds. Especially when the order queue starts off as a lottery.
Yeah, I don't see an official sale event listed, but when I when I went looking for VR games on Steam over the last couple of days, most of them were 50% off. I saw a mention of this going until September 21st, but I'm not sure if that was just one game or publisher.
I hope these won't sell out/queue up as much as Machines and Controllers do, since I can only safely afford it after a few months after a recent PC purchase.
But since this doesn't have competition like the Machine (if you hate Meta), I'm worried.
I hope the prepared enough considering that wayy more people are gonna be queueing for the cheaper one, probably
Needs some games where depth perception is important. Like, american truck simulator is a good start, but maybe construction simulator where you need to operate a digger arm?
I've had a Quest 1 for years and it's starting to show its age. I'm excited to get this as my new headset.
Thrillseeker put up a pretty good hands-on report recently. I do a lot of sim driving in VR and I mainly just want to get off the Quest/Meta ecosystem. It was either this or the Pimax Crystal Light, and I think this is the more versatile machine.
Well, considering all thats an incredible price. Youre getting 16 gigs of ram in it, thats actually like half of its price 💀. This is very heavily subsidized, theyre not making a penny of of it. Still as i said before im looking for a car right now and a used car is about 5 steam frames so i dont think i will have money for it for a while. Whelp. Also i have to tune up the car so thats prolly another 3k...
$1859 for the 1tb. I'm good lol
And no power cord.
Had a VR headset but didn't really use it enough to justify the cost tbh. These are double the cost too.
If I had that much money to spend I think it would be better to spend it on a screen instead of a VR headset. Should look up screens actually, aren't they usually getting better/cheaper still unlike all other components? Could probably get a really nice screen for the cost of an RTXanything at this point.
Not that my current one is bad though. 1440p 144hz, think its only like 5 years old. Of course £1k could get something much better.
I am on the nice monitor bandwagon and I strongly recommend geting something with a VESA DisplayHDR True Black certification. Also 4K is very enjoyable if you can get it, you can always decrease resolution for FPS when gaming but the crispness of text and interfaces while doing desktop things is very nice.
What is HDR support on Linux like these days? Not looked into it too much as I am pretty sure my monitor isn't HDR.
Would love to see some different monitors to actually compare tbh. My current screen essentially has built in motion blur, most visible with text if moved across the screen there is a slight trail behind it. I think its a common thing on loads of screens but some are better than others.
That kinda stuff also gets into the area where its harder to tell which screen is better, resolution and refresh rate are easy stats to look at.
If you want something that cuts down on motion blur, the website BlurBusters.com is still an excellent resource.
What is HDR support on Linux like these days?
Pretty good for KDE and GNOME at least. Both DEs support HDR monitors with pretty easy setup now. MPV and GNOME Videos both support HDR for your properly obtained movie files, idk about KDE's video player. Browser support is still lagging, experimental HDR on Firefox usually works for videos when enabled but photos less so. Photography tools like Darktable and GIMP do not support it yet.
HDR for video games running on proton is something I haven't tried enough to tell you. I know people have it working, but I think it sometimes requires messing about with proton environment variables.
That kinda stuff also gets into the area where its harder to tell which screen is better, resolution and refresh rate are easy stats to look at.
Once you learn about the color gamuts of different displays and the HDR certifications they are also easy stats to look at. It all depends on your priorities though. Whether it's maximizing refresh rate and fps for competitive games or doing art or having high resolution for productivity, it all changes the tradeoffs.
Many monitors nowadays support 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and that's what most HDR media is mastered for, so that's a pretty easy one to look for. The VESA DisplayHDR certifications also make it easy. True Black means the contrast ratio is very good for dark detail like with OLED. The number of the certification is the peak brightness in nits that the display can reasonably produce. So DisplayHDR True Black 600 would mean good contrast and 600 nit peak brightness. And a DisplayHDR 1600 would be able to go much brighter, but not necessarily have inky blacks like an OLED.
Can the smaller model be upgraded at a later time? Is the internal storage upgradeable?
Thanks! Sigh...From experience with the Steam Deck, internal storage is quite a lot faster than even a really good microSD.
EDIT: And...I got mine. 1TB. There's no lottery in Asia, just your FCFS with a queuing kiosk that keeps failing back to a "we are in maintenance". But for about 5mins, it was working, long enough for me to get mine ordered. I guess no nice treats for me for a while...
If I didn’t have an Index and a ton of games that I’ve already played hundreds of times, I’d get this. The amount I play VR at this point doesn’t justify the $1200 expense.
Also, I thought the options were 1TB or 2TB.
this is so crazy absurd. so damn expensive.
It really is meant to primarily be a PCVR headset
Doesn’t seem to be working too well for them
Yes, because they didn't focus on gaming or useful capabilities but instead tried to develop a PG-rated (as in, for kids) platform for work. Meta's management literally thought everyone would want to strap on a VR headset and wear it all day for work.
Meanwhile, loads of fantastic games had people buying headsets just to play the game they want.
Basically, Meta invested all their time and money in all the wrong things. All the stuff nobody actually wants to do with their VR headset. I mean, come on: They wanted to do away with the controllers! That's how anti-gaming their focus was.
They tried so hard to push this as a workspace thing due to covid and the apple vr head set. Meta really wanted vr to be for everything but gaming which was the only thing that did well.
They could of been successful too, the first big wave of vr came from the success of the quest 2, and they used all the success to buy all the game devs only to shut down all the games, and force them to work on the meta verse.
I think Valve has realised that it's really just for a certain niche of gamers and that's who they're targeting, unlike Meta, that thought everyone would want to live, work and play in the 'Metaverse' which was never going to happen.
Our Valve Index has been going for many years. I've put a considerable amount of money into it, but that happens with children.
@sopuli.xyz
A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Controller] - Steam Controller related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to Steam Hardware or Steam OS in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
go to feed...
@sopuli.xyz
A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Controller] - Steam Controller related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to Steam Hardware or Steam OS in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
go to feed...
Cheaper than expected given the economic hellscape, still more than the Index. Oh well. Glad they are attempting to prevent scalping, sad that it means that there's a random draw to be able to buy them. Still trying to buy one. I figure the 256GB model will be entirely fine, especially with the SD card expansion slot. Pity that you can't upgrade the storage like the Deck, but oh well.
save