6 ms·

Wow this looks great. Foveated streaming, great resolution, wireless, 144hz, looks much more comfortable... As much as I want this, I feel like it'll end up bei

Wow this looks great. Foveated streaming, great resolution, wireless, 144hz, looks much more comfortable... As much as I want this, I feel like it'll end up being a really cool thing that just sits on the shelf. Edit: foveated streaming, not rendering

erxam 1y ago
Maybe they've cracked the code with the dongle? Usually, you either have to invest both time and money into setting up the perfect streaming network, deal with annoying cables or resign yourself to inferior on-device game versions. The ergonomics matter more than you'd think. But if it's a very easy plug-n-play type deal to run SteamVR games (and on Linux!), that's a huge ergonomic improvement. Don't have to think too much about whether everything is running correctly or what-have-you.
- mavamaarten 1y ago
  If it's just plug and play and works well, it'd be brilliant. I have experimented a lot with a couple or wifi dongles I had lying around and setting up a hotspot, but honestly I could never get it to work well. Streaming VR content is just so sensitive. I have a good cabled network but even a simple switch introduced noticeable lag spikes. In the end I have a separate router that I just connect straight to my PC, and then I share my wifi connection through my PC to that network. A whole silly setup just to minimize latency and packet loss. If that could be replaced with a simple USB dongle I'd be amazed.
- Hikikomori 1y ago
  Bought another AP to use on 6ghz band, still alone there, works perfectly for my oculus. If they can do it with a dongle that would make it much simpler for regular people.
hnuser123456 1y ago
I recommend preparing a drink or two and loading up VRchat and joining one of the rave club groups. Check out the metaverse zuck wishes he ran.
- grepex 1y ago
  I could see Steam creating the OASIS
  - darkwater 1y ago
    Any idea if Gabe likes Rush?
- embedding-shape 1y ago
  I tried VRChat once or twice but never seemed to have found any fun places/groups to hang out that weren't obsessing about anime/manga most of the time. Anyone here on HN have better suggestions of worlds/groups or where to even look?
  - hnuser123456 1y ago
    There are groups that are more focused on music (DnB, dubstep, other festival-friendly genres), focused on dancing, focused on drinking games, focused on world-hopping, etc. I'm into the underground rave vibe, so for that there's VRC Party Hub, which is a guy who runs a discord who befriends as many clubs as he can find in that scene, and imports their schedules/announcements channels into a nightly report of all known events. https://x.com/VRChatPartyHub https://x.com/VRChatPartyHub
- qwm 1y ago
  VRChat is one of the most socially dysfunctional online platforms I've ever used
  - Andrex 1y ago
    I haven't ventured in myself but I love reading people's anecdotes if you got any handy.
jauntywundrkind 1y ago
I don't think there is foveated rendering. There is foveated encoding, when game streaming. Looks like a very competent headset indeed though! Nice combo of fast streaming that can prioritize well with foveated encoding, and hopefully a pretty nice malleable capable standalone headset too.
- jasonjmcghee 1y ago
  Yes - thank you, fixed
- terribleperson 1y ago
  The eye tracking data is supposedly being made available to other software on PC (and presumably the headset as well), so foveated rendering should be possible but is a software problem.
- jasonjmcghee 1y ago
  I did more research. It does indeed support foveated rendering. Developers do need to implement this for their game, but it supports it. discussed here: https://youtu.be/b7q2CS8HDHU?t=1074 https://youtu.be/b7q2CS8HDHU?t=1074 "For foveated rendering, [the developers] have that option, but it's not compulsory"
pimeys 1y ago
My NVIDIA Shield is getting old and slow. I can see this as a good replacement, because it supports HDMI CEC, so you can control it with your remote control. Install Plex, JellyFin, FreeTube et.al. to it and you have a nice open source TV box. You also get 4k gaming from Steam, GOG, Epic etc. and you get emulators. I've been wanting to build a computer like this, but CEC is hard to find and the adapters that exist don't support full 4k resolution.
- matthewrobertso 1y ago
  The specs for this steam machine say HDMI 2.0, in the past I used a pulse8 HDMI CEC USB dongle with a computer which was also HDMI 2.0 iirc. I was using a 1080p projector with it but their website claims 4k support: https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter I recently replaced a shield with an Ugoos Am6b+ running coreELEC, which works okay and supports some stuff the shield doesn't but I miss being able to run some android apps easily. I wonder if the new steam machine will support DV.
  - pimeys 1y ago
    https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter > Does not support resolutions and colour spaces greater than 4k60 4:2:0 8-bit colour. This is kind of annoying if you want 4k60 4:4:4 and 10-bit HDR.
    - matthewrobertso 1y ago
      If you want that you won't want this steam machine, HDMI 2.0 can do 4K60 HDR at 10-bit, but only with chroma subsampling (4:2:2 or 4:2:0) (not full 4:4:4).
baq 1y ago
I lowkey hope it's good enough for coding. Really wanted to try out the xreal glasses, but multiple people said they aren't crisp enough for text.
- nickstinemates 1y ago
  I can't wait until the tech reaches this stage. Infinite desktop space, surrounded by text and terminals. It will be so hard to unplug.
  - bitwize 1y ago
    EMACS. EMACS EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK.
- cultofmetatron 1y ago
  resolution is in the 2000x2000 range so don't count on it.
  - jasonjmcghee 1y ago
    2160 per eye- so a bit more than that in width… I’m thinking if you do 2x pixel density it could look pretty clean. But that’s not a whole lot of real estate… that being said, i remember when 1280x1024 was incredible and that’s the same ballpark as what you’d get.
    - u8080 1y ago
      This is not directly comparable with display resolution since actually you are looking for PPI per degree of vision to judge on clarity.
    - yencabulator 1y ago
      That's 2160 pixels over ~110 degrees field of view. How many degrees of your view does your monitor cover? The density comes out very different.
- 1y ago
Sohcahtoa82 1y ago
It looks good until I reached one bit: > Passthrough - Monochrome passthrough via outward facing cameras This is an outright bone-headed move that I can't believe Valve is making. Only having monochrome cameras means augmented reality is basically a non-starter. AR has a lot of potential. I literally bought a Meta Quest 3 just for PianoVision [0] when I already had a Valve Index. I would love to see some sort of AR-based game you could play outdoors. But with only monochrome vision, that's gonna be awful. [0] https://youtu.be/apwZTV-Rg0s https://youtu.be/apwZTV-Rg0s
- starkparker 1y ago
  The videos I've seen about the Frame all call out the front expansion port, which "Valve says ... offers a dual 2.5Gbps MIPI camera interface and also supports a one-lane Gen 4 PCIe data port for other peripherals."[1] That's plenty to support color passthrough as a physical addon, which in turn makes me think that, like with the OLED Deck, we'll see a Frame with built-in color-passthrough later as a different premium SKU when/if they justify it. 1: https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-official-announcement-features-details/ https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-official-announce...
  - terribleperson 1y ago
    I expect that a premium headset is in the works, but they probably didn't want to complicate what is effectively a console launch with multiple SKUs. They'll probably offer a 'Frame Pro' with wider FOV and better cameras a year or two down the line, possibly at the same time as the Steam Deck refresh we all know is coming.
    - pteraspidomorph 1y ago
      I'm led to believe there's only so much FOV you can get out of pancake lenses? This is already spoecced to be the best pancake FOV seen to this date.
      - terribleperson 1y ago

erxam 1y ago

Maybe they've cracked the code with the dongle? Usually, you either have to invest both time and money into setting up the perfect streaming network, deal with annoying cables or resign yourself to inferior on-device game versions. The ergonomics matter more than you'd think. But if it's a very easy plug-n-play type deal to run SteamVR games (and on Linux!), that's a huge ergonomic improvement. Don't have to think too much about whether everything is running correctly or what-have-you.

mavamaarten 1y ago
If it's just plug and play and works well, it'd be brilliant. I have experimented a lot with a couple or wifi dongles I had lying around and setting up a hotspot, but honestly I could never get it to work well. Streaming VR content is just so sensitive. I have a good cabled network but even a simple switch introduced noticeable lag spikes. In the end I have a separate router that I just connect straight to my PC, and then I share my wifi connection through my PC to that network. A whole silly setup just to minimize latency and packet loss. If that could be replaced with a simple USB dongle I'd be amazed.
Hikikomori 1y ago
Bought another AP to use on 6ghz band, still alone there, works perfectly for my oculus. If they can do it with a dongle that would make it much simpler for regular people.

hnuser123456 1y ago

I recommend preparing a drink or two and loading up VRchat and joining one of the rave club groups. Check out the metaverse zuck wishes he ran.

grepex 1y ago
I could see Steam creating the OASIS
- darkwater 1y ago
  Any idea if Gabe likes Rush?
embedding-shape 1y ago
I tried VRChat once or twice but never seemed to have found any fun places/groups to hang out that weren't obsessing about anime/manga most of the time. Anyone here on HN have better suggestions of worlds/groups or where to even look?
- hnuser123456 1y ago
  There are groups that are more focused on music (DnB, dubstep, other festival-friendly genres), focused on dancing, focused on drinking games, focused on world-hopping, etc. I'm into the underground rave vibe, so for that there's VRC Party Hub, which is a guy who runs a discord who befriends as many clubs as he can find in that scene, and imports their schedules/announcements channels into a nightly report of all known events. https://x.com/VRChatPartyHub https://x.com/VRChatPartyHub
qwm 1y ago
VRChat is one of the most socially dysfunctional online platforms I've ever used
- Andrex 1y ago
  I haven't ventured in myself but I love reading people's anecdotes if you got any handy.

jauntywundrkind 1y ago

I don't think there is foveated rendering. There is foveated encoding, when game streaming. Looks like a very competent headset indeed though! Nice combo of fast streaming that can prioritize well with foveated encoding, and hopefully a pretty nice malleable capable standalone headset too.

jasonjmcghee 1y ago
Yes - thank you, fixed
terribleperson 1y ago
The eye tracking data is supposedly being made available to other software on PC (and presumably the headset as well), so foveated rendering should be possible but is a software problem.
jasonjmcghee 1y ago
I did more research. It does indeed support foveated rendering. Developers do need to implement this for their game, but it supports it. discussed here: https://youtu.be/b7q2CS8HDHU?t=1074 https://youtu.be/b7q2CS8HDHU?t=1074 "For foveated rendering, [the developers] have that option, but it's not compulsory"

pimeys 1y ago

My NVIDIA Shield is getting old and slow. I can see this as a good replacement, because it supports HDMI CEC, so you can control it with your remote control. Install Plex, JellyFin, FreeTube et.al. to it and you have a nice open source TV box. You also get 4k gaming from Steam, GOG, Epic etc. and you get emulators. I've been wanting to build a computer like this, but CEC is hard to find and the adapters that exist don't support full 4k resolution.

matthewrobertso 1y ago
The specs for this steam machine say HDMI 2.0, in the past I used a pulse8 HDMI CEC USB dongle with a computer which was also HDMI 2.0 iirc. I was using a 1080p projector with it but their website claims 4k support: https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter I recently replaced a shield with an Ugoos Am6b+ running coreELEC, which works okay and supports some stuff the shield doesn't but I miss being able to run some android apps easily. I wonder if the new steam machine will support DV.
- pimeys 1y ago
  https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter > Does not support resolutions and colour spaces greater than 4k60 4:2:0 8-bit colour. This is kind of annoying if you want 4k60 4:4:4 and 10-bit HDR.
  - matthewrobertso 1y ago
    If you want that you won't want this steam machine, HDMI 2.0 can do 4K60 HDR at 10-bit, but only with chroma subsampling (4:2:2 or 4:2:0) (not full 4:4:4).

baq 1y ago

I lowkey hope it's good enough for coding. Really wanted to try out the xreal glasses, but multiple people said they aren't crisp enough for text.

nickstinemates 1y ago
I can't wait until the tech reaches this stage. Infinite desktop space, surrounded by text and terminals. It will be so hard to unplug.
- bitwize 1y ago
  EMACS. EMACS EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK.
cultofmetatron 1y ago
resolution is in the 2000x2000 range so don't count on it.
- jasonjmcghee 1y ago
  2160 per eye- so a bit more than that in width… I’m thinking if you do 2x pixel density it could look pretty clean. But that’s not a whole lot of real estate… that being said, i remember when 1280x1024 was incredible and that’s the same ballpark as what you’d get.
  - u8080 1y ago
    This is not directly comparable with display resolution since actually you are looking for PPI per degree of vision to judge on clarity.
  - yencabulator 1y ago
    That's 2160 pixels over ~110 degrees field of view. How many degrees of your view does your monitor cover? The density comes out very different.
1y ago

Sohcahtoa82 1y ago

It looks good until I reached one bit: > Passthrough - Monochrome passthrough via outward facing cameras This is an outright bone-headed move that I can't believe Valve is making. Only having monochrome cameras means augmented reality is basically a non-starter. AR has a lot of potential. I literally bought a Meta Quest 3 just for PianoVision [0] when I already had a Valve Index. I would love to see some sort of AR-based game you could play outdoors. But with only monochrome vision, that's gonna be awful. [0] https://youtu.be/apwZTV-Rg0s https://youtu.be/apwZTV-Rg0s

starkparker 1y ago
The videos I've seen about the Frame all call out the front expansion port, which "Valve says ... offers a dual 2.5Gbps MIPI camera interface and also supports a one-lane Gen 4 PCIe data port for other peripherals."[1] That's plenty to support color passthrough as a physical addon, which in turn makes me think that, like with the OLED Deck, we'll see a Frame with built-in color-passthrough later as a different premium SKU when/if they justify it. 1: https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-official-announcement-features-details/ https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-official-announce...
- terribleperson 1y ago
  I expect that a premium headset is in the works, but they probably didn't want to complicate what is effectively a console launch with multiple SKUs. They'll probably offer a 'Frame Pro' with wider FOV and better cameras a year or two down the line, possibly at the same time as the Steam Deck refresh we all know is coming.
  - pteraspidomorph 1y ago
    I'm led to believe there's only so much FOV you can get out of pancake lenses? This is already spoecced to be the best pancake FOV seen to this date.
    - terribleperson 1y ago