I'm looking forward to the Frame. I have no interest in giving any money to Meta and Valve has been great with Linux support. I've seen people complain about the specs, but if it's a reasonable price it looks pretty good to me!
I'm afraid of the price.. this looks much more capable and powerful than the Index, which was quite expensive, I suspect it might end up in a similar price range, if not higher. But let's hope.
Interestingly, it seems to be using a snapdragon ARM-based unit. Which means it requires another layer of emulation/translation for running Steam games standalone. It's said it uses FEX (https://fex-emu.com/), probably combined/integrated with Proton.
Steve went to their HQ and had talks with their engineers.
They're using snapdragon 8 gen 3 and emulation
I'm extremely curious about the price.
For a long time, there were $1200 rumors.
Now we have the "less than index", which I believe spawned the "under $1000" rumors.
but since index has a huge range, depending on the accessories you buy with it "less than index", can mean anything from <$600 to <$1100.
But in reality this has to compete with Quest 3, and preferably also with Quest 4 when that releases.
So I think it really should be on the lower side. <$600 would be good, <$500 would be great, <$700 would be okay
I am suspecting the price to knock me back a little and I also suspect I will still consider it far longer than my wallet will be happy about
Also curious about the Frame. I've been thoroughly enjoying my HTC Vive Pro 2 but it was $$$$$. The inside out camera based tracking is the way to go as long as they did it well. Also hoping they have some upper-tier audio hardware so you can use your own wired headphones.
Oh, this video by Digital Foundry is also relevant:
Hands-On With Steam Machine: Valve's Beautiful PC/Console - Specs, Impressions And More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rv83LgXiN0
this looks awesome
Really disappointing to see that the Steam Frame is a standalone headset. On the other hand, I guess it's safe to place my order for Bigscreen Beyond now.
Maybe I misread but I think it’s both a standalone and a VR headset, similar to how the quest can be a standalone or connect to a computer.
Yes but standalone functionality means the price will be unnecessarily high and it will be unnecessarily large and heavy.
Steve went to Valve and had talks with their engineers.
Valve said the frame should be cheaper than the index
I don't think you understand. Native rendering requires more powerful, more expensive processors than streaming does. Simple as. Doesn't matter what the price point is, it's going to be cheaper when streaming.
I know nothing about hardware development but I think it needs to have the computing power based on the inside out tracking.
It can't use the same compute power for both simultaneously. Take the same hardware and remove the local gaming and suddenly you need much less power/have much more power. Not to mention you don't need a battery.
Well I think you have a great conclusion that the bigscreen is probably a better fit for you since this headset might not fit your needs. I love my bigscreen v2 would definitely recommend (though I do hate the cable and the swimming goggles effect, and the eye tracking sucks right now) but other than that it is awesome
The battery is in the strap anyway and the additional weight for compute is likely very negligible.
The battery is on your head, with the rest of the headset. Weight is a concern of the power required, not the available compute. The bigger concern is cost.
The battery is functioning as a counterweight and is optional.
cost, absolutely valid though.
Oh, so you can hardwire it to the PC without a battery!?
I don't see why not, but you probably wouldn't want to because the battery is a perfect counterweight, making it much more comfortable.
Do you wear a counterweight with your sunglasses? No one complains about the lack of counterweight on a Bigscreen. In fact everyone seems to agree it's the most comfortable headset ever.
It doesn't have inside-out tracking. You can't have both.
And why not?
Inside out tracking requires an array of cameras and a processor as well as a way to cool it.
Inside out tracking requires an array of cameras
The cameras are the size of a pea
and a processor as well as a way to cool it.
Where's the processor in the Bigscreen Beyond? 🤔
Nonexistant because it doesn't have inside-out tracking...
the cameras themselves are not the problem, it's all the processing and cooling required to make that work along with the processing for passthrough and many other things. I doubt this headset would be much lighter if it was not standalone and still had inside out tracking.
Nonexistant because it doesn't have inside-out tracking...
It is existent. It still has outside in tracking, which is processed...on the computer. There's no reason inside out can't be processed the same way.
It would need a massive amount of throughput and latency, try a usb webcam and notice how shit it is, same problem.
They're already streaming 2k/144HZ games. They have a massive amount of throughput. They'd have even more if it were wired
That's making use of a one way port, I can't plugin a displayport backwards.
There is no port. It's wireless. And it's bidirectional. How do you think the positional data would make it back to the PC if it weren't?
Wow it's actually a usb-a port, I don't know how they're sending that much data over it but it's certainly close to its limits, there's a reason most monitors aren't usb and all usb webcams suck
You're talking about the router? Yes. Not only that but it works on usb2.
I don't know how they're sending that much data over it
They're making use of new technology they call foveated streaming. It only streams the content you're looking directly at in full resolution.
According to LTT, the section containing the computer just weights under 190 grams.
The battery is the counterweight.. which is actually a good thing to have.. I have a fist generation Quest and the main problem with that one was the weight distribution. Adding weight to the back actually made it more comfortable. Just by looking at how thin the front part of this one is, I can tell this is gonna be so much more comfortable.
the section containing the computer just weights under 190 grams
Cool, the entire Bigscreen Beyond weighs 127 grams.
The battery is the counterweight..
Do you typically put on a counterweight with your sunglasses?
Do you typically have a cable tethered to your sunglasses?
I personally would prefer the small counterweight instead of the cable, specially if it helps securing the glasses while I move around.
LOL okay buddy.
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