Submitted 16 hours ago by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware
No prices yet. I may never financially recover from this.
I’ll buy the VR headset if, as well as streaming games, you can also play video/mirror your desktop. I know that’s not the market they’re going for, but it seems to me that those are the main use-cases of VR headsets aside from gaming and to my non-tech way of thinking it doesn’t seem harder than streaming a game.
I posted this in the other thread, but wanna share here too:
Most interesting thing to me is the Frame apparently runs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and is using SteamOS, implying official ARM support for SteamOS, Steam and Proton! Could mean steam and proton coming to android too.
And the base would be Arch Linux ARM, right? So that should see an uptick in development too.
Arch Linux has been implementing a build system for other architectures. Perhaps they’ll make ARM official by the time Frame comes out.
I’m still a little curious how that will work for games. Are they going to somehow emulate Win32 amd64 games? Do devs have to recompile them in some new way? Will engines support it beyond Unity and Unreal?
It was mentioned in the LTT coverage. Aside from native ARM games they have a translation layer(FEX) to play x86 games on ARM. They'll have a "Verified" tag like the Steam Deck for compatibility. I assume you'll still be able to force trying to run unverified games.
Yup, FEX to translate x86 to ARM.
The Frame isn’t playing the games natively on its ARM chip. It’s just streaming audio/visual data from the PC and relaying the controller inputs back to the PC.
Jeff Geerling is probably having a fit right now.
what does that homophobic ass have to do with it, is he not a fan of ARM or something?
It is fascinating and a huge step, but I want to keep expectations low. It will work, but it will not be as compatible as x86 Proton, not at all. It is first and primarily an OS for streaming games and running VR. That is the VR rendering from the streaming computer, not the VR game itself. In other words, they only had to get exactly one app to run well enough for public use. According to the developer, it is working with a surprising amount of games. I agree, one game is surprising, but trust me when I say you will not be running Windows x86 games in ARM Linux for a long time.
It’s using an x86 compatibility layer, pex i think it was called. So apparently you will be running windows x86 games on it.
I think that for running games locally on the Frame, for anything other than games designed specifically to be gentle on a battery — and many games are not, unfortunately — you’re also really going to need to leave it plugged into a powerbank. The internal battery just isn’t that large relative to what the device can draw.
pcgamer.com/…/steam-frame-specs-availability/
The battery included on the Steam Frame is a 21 Wh model. The Snapdragon system-on-chip gobbles up around 20 W at full power—that’s how much it’ll likely use while playing a game locally in standalone mode. From this, we can expect around an hour of playtime without additional charge.
Yes but …
no hand tracking no color passthrough no hardware upgrade no WebXR no new VR proper content
Still, it’s good obviously, not having to rely on BigTech. This was also possible before though as I pointed out in lemmy.ml/post/38899489/22202786 with e.g. Lynx XR1, as a rooted Android standalone HMD with no account required.
Anyway IMHO the big questions for VR on Linux more broadly is what changes upstream on KDE in terms of immersive UX? Is KDE Plasma becoming a VR graphical shell? Does it have 3D widgets? Does it impact freedesktop in any way?
(copy of lemmy.ml/post/38899489/22202838 as I posted there first)
Sometimes I think about how LOATHED Steam was when in launched. That was probably valid even. Still, it feels worth noting that Valve is maybe THE only company from my childhood that feels like it largely stayed true to its spirit, or whatever.
People who came to Steam later on probably don’t realise that when it was new it barely fucking worked.
Downloads crawled, games refused to launch because of authentication issues, friends/chat was offline for literally months, etc.
The only reason it became widely adopted was because Valve forced you to use it if you wanted to play the latest CS or, later, HL2. Everyone hated it.
What if he really wanted to make it up to you? Is there anything he could do to apologize?
friends/chat was offline for literally months
Friends lists didn’t work reliably for years.
I only got Steam when HL2 released because I had no need for it before then. I don’t remember having any real negative feelings about it.
I was one of the haters when it first launched because I was on dialup at the time and physical discs I bought were forcing me to install steam AND THEN install a massive patch that did not work on dialup. My first day playthrough of Skyrim was ruined because of that. Took a week for that shit to download even though I went physically to a store.
But now Steam is the last man standing between us and corporate greed.
But now Steam is the last man standing between us and corporate greed.
Man how quickly people forget what things were like before the lawsuits forced valve to make steam more consumer friendly and regulatory abiding…
I think its because there’s likely more people who got into Steam after Steam was already a pretty popular storefront so clueless about the growing pains. My first ever PC game purchase was from the Steam store and that was maybe back in the 2010s.
I remember being annoyed that I had to install yet another launcher and make yet another account when I was installing portal. But I didn’t know at the time that this was the launcher to end most other launchers and accounts, or at the very least made most of that transparent other then adding an extra click to launch some games.
Iirc, Blizzard had just replaced the wow in-game patcher with a launcher (though I don’t recall if they had a unified launcher for each game, if they all had their own at that point, or if it was just wow), Oblivion had a game launcher, and I think there were a few others. Some of them even needed to be installed separately iirc.
Steam is nice because, being the launcher for most of my games, it’s just always open and helps organize my games. And it doesn’t feel like its main purpose is to make money, with everything else just being about opening pathways to that money. And even though it is meant to make Valve money, it’s the lack of blatant dark patterns and constant upsell attempts that makes it feel better than most of the rest of the commercial world.
They have good PR and fanboy propaganda. They’re every bit as evil as every game company out there. Steam fans just got tricked into thinking Gabe was THEIR billionaire and steam is THEIR billionaire corporation, and they can do no wrong. No other game platform has a fan base as aggressive and hostile when you point it out
Why does everyone here Yuck other peoples Yum? You aren’t forced to buy them
The irony of this being your previous comment
Technically no PR. Their MO has been to let others do the work. Their games come from hired modders, with many skins made by the community. Their localizations are from the community. The game devs and publishers have to moderate their own spaces on Steam. The players do product promotions by using the social network of Steam. Valve is practically unreachable for the press, and their actual press releases are the rawest I’ve seen: infrequent, featuring no images and little information. Their press account is run by Kaci Aitchinson, the local Fox News host who was originally hired to present The International for Dota 2, but ended up doing a bit of everything, like many at Valve.
The downvotes seem to agree with you…?
It basically didn’t add any value to the experience. We just wanted to play CS, and steam just got in the way.
It happened to me (with blizzard)…and it will happen to you!
A lot of companies turned to utter shit over the years but Blizzard hit me the hardest I think.
because most people got exposed to steam on HL2’s launch. Where they bought the physical game, came home, installed it off like 5 CDs… then had to run steam to decrypt it and download more files because the fucking install was encrypted, and the goddamn fucking decryption took like 8 hours if you didnt have the worlds greatest computer.
Nope, I’m still totally not salty about not being able to play the game I fucking bought until the day after cause bullshit encryption fuckery, why would you ever think that.
I still have that goddamn box somewhere… i need to dig it up and see what release retail HL2 is like compared to HL2 you’d downlaod today from steam…
Well, I bought Half-Life and OG You Don’t Know Jack on discs at Target, then had to return them because HL didn’t run and YDKJ was “too worldly.” So.
I just paid $20 for a physical copy Counter Strike, and I find out I need to install an additional launcher and make an account to play the game I just installed. It’s the principle of the thing!
Dang. The new Steam Controller has a D-pad, buttons, thumbsticks, gyros, and trackpads.
And the thumbsticks are TMR (like Hall effect, but nicer).
As long as it’s comfortable to reach all that stuff, that’s gonna be a new bar for PC game controllers.
Now if it just had a replaceable battery…
It does! Verge reports that battery pops out like old cellphone batteries
It probably will. Watch Gamers Nexus’ video, it has a short clip that shows the battery, and it looks like it’s held in a receptacle like removable phone batteries. Valve have already said that you’d be able to disassemble the controller with a screwdriver, but no word yet on replacement parts.
I personally think the Deck is very comfortable given its bulk. I have a lot of faith in the controller ergonomics.
The first time I held a deck I was kind of amazed at how comfortable it is to hold. Bricks shouldn’t be that comfy to hold, but, it is. The ergonomics are spot on. Gotta handle the Steam Controller V2 myself before any verdict, but I have high hopes.
The 8bitDo Ultimate 2 has TMR sticks too, best controller I’ve used. Better than the Xbox Elite Controller Series 2. I do wish the 8bitDo had 4 underside buttons instead of only 2, but it’s still better. The sticks are insane.
~$25 for an 8bitdo ultimate 2c! The price is just too good. I know it doesn’t have TMR or the extra buttons, but it just works and feels really good to me compared to the xbox elite controller that got the shoulder button issue within 3 months for me.
The trackpads are unnecessary imo. Games made for controller aren’t going to expect the deck touchpads, they’re gonna expect xbox and playstation controllers without it. The touchpads just fit a very specific niche of people who want to play with the steam deck on a TV in games that are not fully controller supported and don’t have a keyboard and mouse paired for that use case. Always better to have options I suppose.
I’ve been dreaming if this since the first steam controller released. I absolutely loved it, but it definitely had it’s quirks and issues. This seems just like the upgrade that I wished for in every way possible, with some added nice stuff on top. I just hope it won’t be $100+
Did Valve just announce THREE of something?
Holy shit you’re right.
Second steam machine (not deck!), Second VR headset, and second controller ( I actually don’t know if that’s totally true)
I believe this is their third VR headset.
Valve remains committed to an open PC ecosystem
happy noises
Only one company has apparently learned how to print money and not be ghouls.
To be fair, they say they made a lot of tradeoffs in the name of being price conscience, but they haven’t put a price on it yet.
They have haptic grip sensors and ALL the sticks and pads, I wonder what they traded off lol
Steam is still privately owned, never went public. No share holders demanding things surely is a major factor.
I’m aware. Once Gabe retires or dies, I’m going to start distrusting Valve. Once they go public, it’s over.
Their entire profit margin is pushing gambling on children
I mean, they get a sizable cut from the majority of games sold on PC. I think that’s their business model.
I hear you about loot boxes and skins and stuff. It’s just, that has to be a small part of their total profit.
Yeah sure I love their hardware and contributions to software, but I’d say profiteering off of children gambling for over 10 years is pretty ghoulish.
Really excited for this and hopefully that means steamvr on Linux will actually start working better! The current Beta build is much better but still lots of work to do.
I’m definitely getting the frame as upgrade from quest 3 which I rarely use due to it being attached to Meta. The controller is no brainer considering that old steamdeck controller is still one of the best controllers on the market. Not sure about steam machine mostly because I just built my own PC - would have totally waited for it if I knew it was coming but it looks so slick.
Very excited for Linux in 2026!
I mean I think better Linux SteamVR is a given since they are selling the new steam machine as an option for streaming to the Frame.
I wish we had a pricing-point for the VR headset. I'm still considering getting a Quest III and break it open a bit, since the hardware is so damn good. This seems marginally under it (monochrome instead of full-color etc) but running SteamOS instead of Android sounds amazing.
But I'd need more information on it first - and granted, knowing if ever it releases over here. 😅
I'll definitely get the new controller if possible though. Still rocking my original, and it's still the best way to play mouse-centric games on the couch, I prefer it over a lapboard with an actual mouse.
Gamers nexus said the price category can be assumed to be around the index. Which i find a bit excessive, but maybe i misheard.
I’m bracing myself for the Steam Frame to be around $700-800. The monochrome pass through might seem like a downgrade, but mixed reality is also not part of what valve wants to do with the headset, i.e. focus on VR. Everything else seems like they might be pricey upgrades, especially with the eye tracking and streaming tech. They also shifted manufacturing to the US due to tariffs.
I will buy the VR headset immediately
I wonder if the Steam Frame is the codename deckard. I was really excited for that because it was supposed to have Steam Deck performance, but with an Arm processor that will be hard since most games need an emulation layer.
It is Deckard, from the looks of it won’t be as powerful as the steam deck but not because the ARM chip is slow. They said it is just because the effective TDP of the ARM chip (after subtracting all the work it is doing to track the headset and controllers and do the rendering) is like 7 watts, compared to the 15 watts of the steam deck. So you will probably still be able to run some of the more indie games on it. The translation later is also a 10-15% slow-down for CPU bound games, but they said should be negligible for GPU bound games.
From early reviews it seems penalty for emulation is in single digits. Also honestly I am considering one just to watch movies but my intereat would depend on the price of course. So wait we must.
I want them all, but mostly the Frame. Finally decent Linux VR? On a standalone device that can also stream from a PC? On ARM?! It seems too good to be true.
Same, but I live in Australia so I’m not holding my breath. The deck has only just officially launched here. I bought my deck on the grey market, with a UK plug, but that ended up being a couple of hundred $ more than when it officially launched here.
They said all products will launched in all markets the Steam Deck currently ships in, and I believe their full list included Australia
And: "cheaper than the index“ Sure that only means less than 1000usd (unless they mean the headset only price at 500…?) but that’s still better than I was assuming it’d be.
Been waiting for a competitor to the meta quest. Looks like my patience has paid off. I hope it’s not too pricey/compromised
Where’s my Steam Phone Gabe ?
A brief moment of KDE desktop shown.
2026 will be the year of Linux Desktop!
How big a deal is this eye tracking that then only shows higher resolution stuff where you’re looking? Is it legit and works well?
I wonder why only HDMI 2.0 on the Steam Machine, ‘cos RDNA3 is capable of HDMI 2.1 and you need it to go over 4k 60Hz (I know it says 4k 120Hz for the Steam Machine’s HDMI but I suspect that’s either 4:2:2 color or DSC if it is really HDMI 2.0).
Hmm this makes me wonder if the Steam Deck 2 will be ARM. If the Steam Frame works well if that could be a way for Valve to push more performance/battery life out of the deck
Oh my god, my wallet is in trouble haha
The controller is exactly what I wanted. Take a Steam Deck, cut out the middle, glue the grips back together.
I hope the Frame is as cheap or cheaper than a Meta Quest 3.
That controller makes me swoon.
NGL the cube thingy looks so damn attractive to me, especially as I don’t own any form of PC gaming…
Now please Steam, officially sell to Mexico god damn it!
Finally! I’ve been holding out for years waiting on steam to release a new VR set, time to finally get one!
I can’t wait to get the controller
As someone still using Steam Controller 1 on the daily, I am stoked to see that they have not abandoned the trackpads. Civ from the couch ftw.
I had a horrible flashback to the Ouija, that thing traumatized me
This is so fucking good for linux gaming
FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works 11 minutes ago
Sad about the monochrome passthrough but otherwise pretty hyped for more VR hardware. The Index was a disappointment to me so glad to see it’s more in line with the Quest 3, especially the controllers. They look perfect.