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The real question is why did they release this as a standalone unit for $1049 and then claim they couldn't sell it for less due to the RAM shortage - when that
by Apes 12d ago
The real question is why did they release this as a standalone unit for $1049 and then claim they couldn't sell it for less due to the RAM shortage - when that implies they could have released a dumb unit that depends on the Steam Deck or Steam Machine for far less?
- gunalx 11d agoIf it can do innside out tracking its way more data efficent to have compute onboard. And if you already have a decent amount of compute you can scale it up just a little more to have. a fully standalone unit.
- Apes 11d agoI'm not sure going from less than $50 of RAM and a $50 processor for foveated eye tracking to 16 GiB of RAM ($300) and a Snapdragon 8 ($200) is a "slight bump".
- gunalx 11d agoWait I don't realise ram prices where this bad. Bought my kit for about a tenth of that a while ago. Ouch.
- m4rtink 11d agoYeah, can't wait for the AI hype bubble to finally end. Hey, we might even get some nice fast repurposed HBM from the scrappers reusing stuff from the bankruptcy auctions. :)
- hgoel 11d agoFoveated eye tracking, but also SLAM for the controllers. Also, to be fair, the onboard processing costs less than a separate VR capable PC.
- account42 11d agoThe onboard processing costs a whole lot more than a PC you already have.
- asadotzler 11d agocompute is fine. its necessary battery is not. compute is almost weightless, battery crushes heads.
- account42 11d agoEven with some compute on board you could save most of the additional weight by making it tethered.
- anonymars 11d agoYou're asking why they couldn't completely change the product from a full-fledged VR machine into a headset in roughly a year, especially when they already sell a regular VR headset for $1,000?
- lowbloodsugar 11d agoThey do not, in fact sell such a headset, in that it is permanently out of stock. You can risk buying it used for $1800… It was released in 2019 and by comparison, sucks. A new index with new displays of the frame but without the things that make the frame expensive (ram) would be welcome.
- vanchor3 11d agoIt still shows the headset in stock in the US. The bundles, controllers, and lighthouses seem to be out of stock though, which is likely because they're a much more popular product (the controllers/lighthouses break quite often, and they're often used with other headsets as well).
- lowbloodsugar 11d agoValve Index Headset Only: "Requires Base Stations and PC." - In stock. Valve Index Base Station: "Out of Stock" You cannot buy a functioning Valve Index. And you wouldn't want one, because its 7 years out of date.
- solid_fuel 11d agoThey've doing inside-out SLAM to map the environment and tracking your eyes for foveated rendering at the same time. That's fairly heavy - I think the compute required would necessitate a much higher speed connection with a desktop and a fair bit of CPU time, so it's probably cheaper and easier to put the compute right in the headset instead of scaling up the connection. Also, they probably landed on this rough design a few years ago - before the AI hyperscalers bought up all the RAM - so the economics changed a lot under their feet.
- Apes 11d agoMaybe I'm misunderstanding - but I thought there's already "dumb" headsets doing foveated eye tracking, like the Pimax headsets. If that's the case, then you don't need $300 of ram and a $200 CPU to perform this locally.
- gamblor956 11d agoYou're misunderstanding. The Pimax headsets with foveated eye tracking start at $1599.
- WithinReason 11d agoYou don't need $300 of ram and a $200 CPU to perform eye tracking, otherwise the Steam Frame would be able to do nothing else
- solid_fuel 11d agoIf you read the chain of comments again you will notice that eye tracking is only one of several things that it is doing.
- deleted 11d ago[deleted]
- WithinReason 10d ago