I was interested in it, but the RAM “crisis” and the scalpers will most likely make it ridiculously expensive and rare. And I’m just tired of these paper launch thing, so probably will pass.
Can we please stop constantly suggesting there’s mass scale scalping of Valve hardware? The Steam Deck and Steam Machine both had queue requirements to precent an individual from buying a ton of hardware.
You could find a dozen or so people selling their one spot in line to buy a *single * device. That’s not wide-scale scalping.
That may have been true for the steam machine, but the Steam Deck absolutely got scalped heavily at release. I know, because I was one of those scalpers. (I was a poor student that had to make ends meet somehow) If you had hundreds of old steam accounts, for example because you botted CS:GO item drops, then it was very easy money
Look, I want it bad. It was actually the one I was most excited about, a little bit more than the controller.
But, yeah. Look at every tech release of the past four years. Look at SSD and RAM prices. Hell even spinning platter drives. Everything has a wait list, or gobbled up by scalpers. And if you do win the wait list lottery, it’s going to cost a goddamn arm and leg. It’s depressing man.
Well… Yeah. It’s a headset that you wear on your head. They’re really uncomfortable. How do you not get a headache from them? How are you supposed to play a game for any meaningful amount of time? I seriously have never see a headset that wasn’t a flop or a regretted purchase for it’s audience. The “metaverse” crashed and burned, if VR was such a promising innovation, wouldn’t it have done well?
VR is just the new version of the same thing that was happening with every iteration of “3D” whatever over the past 80 years or so. It’s always the next best thing and right around the corner, but in this instance the premise is just flawed. A lot of people are still “social” when they game, talking to family, texting people, pausing to watch a video or go get something to eat.
Edit:
And just looking up the ram: 16 gigs?? Aside from that, it’s intended for streaming games from a main pc, do most people even have internet that’s fast enough to handle that? Iirc in the US at least the government and companies have been dodging defining what “high speed” is because most of the country doesn’t have access to it. And the resolution specs seem great, but what FPS would it be at? I gotta hazard a guess that it’d be at 30 or so for most modern games.
Obviously, my experience is anecdotal, but I got both Valve-developed headsets at launch, the HTC Vive and the Valve Index, the latter of which I think is still very close to the sweet spot for VR tech 7 years on. I’ve purposely avoided all the Meta headsets.
The stock Vive only using straps for support was indeed a little uncomfortable to wear, but the experience was still compelling enough to use it for hours. I did eventually do the welding mask mod for it that greatly improved the comfort and added over-ear speakers like the Index later got.
Fast forward to the Index, and I still use it off and on. It was comfortable enough out of the box to never modify, and I’ve even fallen asleep a few times in the thing. The Frame further shrinking the front and moving weight to the back for balance can only be better.
I think VR overall is only a failure for those who bought into the hype that it’s an evolution that would eventually replace flat gaming (see the Ready Player One vision). That’s never going to happen because the abstraction that allows you to press a button, move a mouse, tilt a stick, etc. to simulate an action taking much more energy to perform in the real world is a huge convenience we’re never going to give up en masse. It’s perfectly fine for VR to remain a niche, adjacent medium.
Internet has nothing to do with this. You could be in a submarine at the bottom of the Mariana’s trench with a Frame, a good enough computer and a random (decent…) WiFi router plugged into power only, and it’ll work. Your local network is not part of the internet.
Performance was fine even on the Oculus Go. Streaming performance is about the computer and quality of your wireless access point, but supposing both are fine, it’ll also be fine. Been doing it since the Oculus Go.
I believe it has a USB dongle that creates a custom network between the headset and your computer and nothing else, so it isn’t dependant on your other networking hardware or speeds.
Most of my friends who have VR headsets have gotten enough satisfaction from it. The Steam Frame fixes the things about those older headsets such I will be getting one eventually.
Frankly, to be asking your question about internet speeds makes it obvious that you’ve done barely a cursory reading on what the Steam Frame is. Until you’ve fixed that I cannot take what you say seriously.
I was interested in it, but the RAM “crisis” and the scalpers will most likely make it ridiculously expensive and rare. And I’m just tired of these paper launch thing, so probably will pass.
Can we please stop constantly suggesting there’s mass scale scalping of Valve hardware? The Steam Deck and Steam Machine both had queue requirements to precent an individual from buying a ton of hardware.
You could find a dozen or so people selling their one spot in line to buy a *single * device. That’s not wide-scale scalping.
That may have been true for the steam machine, but the Steam Deck absolutely got scalped heavily at release. I know, because I was one of those scalpers. (I was a poor student that had to make ends meet somehow) If you had hundreds of old steam accounts, for example because you botted CS:GO item drops, then it was very easy money
I see. So you’ve preemptively decided it’s going to be a mess.
I mean, I’m not the pessimistic type but look at every single tech launch from the past 3-4 years and tell me they haven’t been a mess.
Was Nintendo switch 2 launch a mess?
Not OP, but increasingly it looks like it will be, given recent history and current ram pricing (even for mobile devices).
Look, I want it bad. It was actually the one I was most excited about, a little bit more than the controller.
But, yeah. Look at every tech release of the past four years. Look at SSD and RAM prices. Hell even spinning platter drives. Everything has a wait list, or gobbled up by scalpers. And if you do win the wait list lottery, it’s going to cost a goddamn arm and leg. It’s depressing man.
Well… Yeah. It’s a headset that you wear on your head. They’re really uncomfortable. How do you not get a headache from them? How are you supposed to play a game for any meaningful amount of time? I seriously have never see a headset that wasn’t a flop or a regretted purchase for it’s audience. The “metaverse” crashed and burned, if VR was such a promising innovation, wouldn’t it have done well?
VR is just the new version of the same thing that was happening with every iteration of “3D” whatever over the past 80 years or so. It’s always the next best thing and right around the corner, but in this instance the premise is just flawed. A lot of people are still “social” when they game, talking to family, texting people, pausing to watch a video or go get something to eat.
Edit: And just looking up the ram: 16 gigs?? Aside from that, it’s intended for streaming games from a main pc, do most people even have internet that’s fast enough to handle that? Iirc in the US at least the government and companies have been dodging defining what “high speed” is because most of the country doesn’t have access to it. And the resolution specs seem great, but what FPS would it be at? I gotta hazard a guess that it’d be at 30 or so for most modern games.
Obviously, my experience is anecdotal, but I got both Valve-developed headsets at launch, the HTC Vive and the Valve Index, the latter of which I think is still very close to the sweet spot for VR tech 7 years on. I’ve purposely avoided all the Meta headsets.
The stock Vive only using straps for support was indeed a little uncomfortable to wear, but the experience was still compelling enough to use it for hours. I did eventually do the welding mask mod for it that greatly improved the comfort and added over-ear speakers like the Index later got.
Fast forward to the Index, and I still use it off and on. It was comfortable enough out of the box to never modify, and I’ve even fallen asleep a few times in the thing. The Frame further shrinking the front and moving weight to the back for balance can only be better.
I think VR overall is only a failure for those who bought into the hype that it’s an evolution that would eventually replace flat gaming (see the Ready Player One vision). That’s never going to happen because the abstraction that allows you to press a button, move a mouse, tilt a stick, etc. to simulate an action taking much more energy to perform in the real world is a huge convenience we’re never going to give up en masse. It’s perfectly fine for VR to remain a niche, adjacent medium.
Internet has nothing to do with this. You could be in a submarine at the bottom of the Mariana’s trench with a Frame, a good enough computer and a random (decent…) WiFi router plugged into power only, and it’ll work. Your local network is not part of the internet.
Performance was fine even on the Oculus Go. Streaming performance is about the computer and quality of your wireless access point, but supposing both are fine, it’ll also be fine. Been doing it since the Oculus Go.
I believe it has a USB dongle that creates a custom network between the headset and your computer and nothing else, so it isn’t dependant on your other networking hardware or speeds.
Most of my friends who have VR headsets have gotten enough satisfaction from it. The Steam Frame fixes the things about those older headsets such I will be getting one eventually.
Frankly, to be asking your question about internet speeds makes it obvious that you’ve done barely a cursory reading on what the Steam Frame is. Until you’ve fixed that I cannot take what you say seriously.