Arcturus Vision Steam Frame Add-on Review – A Literal Night and Day Difference

14 days ago by MyOpinion to c/virtualreality

Arcturus Vision Camera is an add-on module for Steam Frame which greatly enhances its passthrough camera quality. The obvious visual improvement, tiny size, and reasonable price make it easy to recommend. In the course of my decade plus of using VR headsets and various accessories, I can’t think of any that were as straightforwardly recommendable […]

In the course of my decade plus of using VR headsets and various accessories, I can’t think of any that were as straightforwardly recommendable as the Arcturus Vision Camera.

Usually that’s because VR headset accessories (especially those which directly interface with the headset’s software) have at least one major downside. Either they’re too big, too expensive, too niche, or just don’t work as well as you hoped.

The Arcturus Vision Camera is the exception to that trend. It’s not just tiny (a mere 10 grams), reasonably priced ($150), easy to use (plug-and-play), and does what it promises; it also fits Frame so perfectly that you’d swear it was a first-party accessory directly from Valve.

poVoq 10 points 14 days ago

I don't see the point, especially not at $150.

The Steam Frame isn't an AR headset and it makes little sense to pretend it is.

The built in passthrough mode only exists because it has the cameras to do inside out tracking anyway so adding this is only a minor addition software side.

So what exactly is this for? So that I can find the bottle with water in full color mode? 🙄

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bjoern_tantau 10 points 14 days ago

I won't buy it but I am still glad it exists. It just proves to me the stupid versatility of the Frame. It is more like a developer unit than a finished product. But it's available to the general public. And I'm thrilled to see what crazy shit they're going to do with it.

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Honytawk 7 points 14 days ago

Don't see a use for the average consumer who will just use it for gaming.

But I do see the potential use for all kinds of niche DIY projects that requires a customizable VR headset. Like for example mounting it on a robot arm so you can use the tracking to find the location of the gripper in space, and use the full color cameras to read labels for the robot to pick up.

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fartsparkles 7 points 14 days ago

I have one for my Frame and it’s excellent!

The built in cameras are indeed only there to do tracking and looking through them is pretty janky - lots of distortion and the frame rate is poor which can give people motion sickness.

Using the Arcturus, you’re able to keep the Frame on while checking your phone etc. For instance my dog needed out and I could just put on passthru and let him out without needing to remove the headset. Another example, I was trying to set up SteamVR and get Elite Dangerous streaming from my PC. With the Arcturus, I was able to see my computer screen via passthru vs taking the Frame on and off repeatedly.

It’s 100% not a must-have accessory but having the Arcturus’ clear, color, high frame rate passthru is a much better experience and I won’t be taking it off the Frame.

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vividspecter 5 points 13 days ago

The Steam Frame isn’t an AR headset and it makes little sense to pretend it is.

It's a Linux PC, so it will become whatever people want it to become.

Do I personally care about AR all that much? Not really, but I'm sure the community that does will start porting and building whatever they can.

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