3 ms·

I know everyone is singing the praises of the Steam Frame's wireless capabilities but honestly, I just want my wired VR experience back. I had a Rift 2, Reverb

I know everyone is singing the praises of the Steam Frame's wireless capabilities but honestly, I just want my wired VR experience back. I had a Rift 2, Reverb G2, then Quest 2 and eventually Quest 3. Despite the Quest 3 having a resolution similar to the G2, it looked more like the Rift 2 than the awe inspiring G2. Wireless gaming never looked as sharp and streaming over USB was also a very poor experience, with input latency and artifacting. Wireless headsets also _suck_ for simulators and productivity - where a battery only adds weights and a wire is not noticable. Personally, I would love to see a wired headset that resembles the bigscreen beyond but with inside out tracking and a universal face gasket. For wireless experiences, I'd love to be able to plug my phone in, put it in my back pocket and use it that way. That sort of "head mounted display"-first approach would make it practical to use the device for productivity / screen replacement while gaming would be dependant on your phone or computer.

daviding 21d ago
For sit down, say flight, driving sims and productivity, then things to look at to compare would be things with a cable and no local compute taking weight, heat and component cost. There's the Pimax Dream Air SE and the Big Screen Beyond 2e as two recent updates in the ball park of Steam Frame pricing. Both that have eye tracking for better high resolution performance. The Pimax has a variable quality reputation and the Big Screen Beyond requires a deprecating Lighthouse tracking system, so no easy answers. None will be as smooth an experience of the Frame but are more geared to head mounted display.
jjmarr 21d ago
> Personally, I would love to see a wired headset that resembles the bigscreen beyond but with inside out tracking and a universal face gasket. For wireless experiences, I'd love to be able to plug my phone in, put it in my back pocket and use it that way. Been doing this with my wired XREALs for the past few months. They are light enough to be unnoticeable and can display a large monitor when plugged into my phone or computer. Since I have a Samsung phone, it just opens DeX on my glasses and the phone screen becomes a giant trackpad. Completely seamless except for the onscreen keyboard. For my laptop it's good enough for all the coding I need and I use it in the office because I'm used to ultrawide. Like $500.
- jkl5xx 21d ago
  For another datapoint, I took the plunge on a pair of xreals and trying to do real work in them felt like a joke. They’re not comfortable enough to wear as normal glasses, so you end up using them more like you would a VR headset. And at that point, they’re just a semi-transparent low-res screen that’s never quite in the right spot.
  - Sammi 21d ago
    I've been eyeing xreals for coding for a couple of years now, ever since my office became a children's bedroom, and the two of you are killing me. I don't know which one of you I would agree with.
chaostheory 21d ago
Wired is only great if you're sitting down, playing driving or flying simulators. If you ever need to turn or move, wires get annoying really fast. Even with Beat Saber, it's terrible
- apatheticonion 21d ago
  I agree but, my experience with wireless has been so bad that I'd rather be able to play games with a wire than avoid them without one. I liked shooters and going from the G2 where I could actually use sniper rifles to barely being able to make out people down a corridor - wired or wireless - really killed it for me. I have pretty much given up on VR as a result.
nialv7 21d ago
> Wireless headsets also _suck_ for simulators and productivity - where a battery only adds weights and a wire is not noticable. you could... just plug it in? unless the frame cannot be used while charging, but i haven't seen anyone claim that.
- chrysoprace 21d ago
  The USB-C port for charging is on the battery itself; their store diagram doesn't show if the battery itself can be disconnected for power passthrough.
- apatheticonion 21d ago
  At least with the Quest, the video quality over cable was only slightly better than wireless. The heat and weight of the extra hardware also becomes noticeable when sitting for a while. For example, there's no way I could do an 8 hour work day inside a Quest - but I imagine a cool lightweight bigscreen beyond would be fine. I used to love shooting games in my G2, I got the Quest and, despite having a similar resolution, I could hardly make out distant targets whether wired or not. It entirely killed VR for me and I haven't used it in over 6 months.
- rbits 21d ago
  That doesn't fix anything. The battery is still heavy whether it's plugged in or not.
- Eamarvac 21d ago
  For anyone interested, in the Tested video he states that you can use it plugged in but you will only be able to use it this way uninterrupted while streaming, because using the Frame itself will use up the battery faster than the rate at which it charges
terribleperson 20d ago
Wireless gets better if you mount a dedicated AP on your wall, but that's a pretty big ask when an appropriate AP isn't cheap. Steam Frame is solving this with a dedicated dongle, if I recall, which I think is a good choice.
- apatheticonion 20d ago
  I had a dedicated router plugged directly into my PC's second ethernet port. That was the best wireless experience I had - but it still wasn't a great experience. Again, my Quest felt like a hot, heavy Rift 2 rather than a wireless G2.
schmorptron 20d ago
FYI, virtual desktop (and steam link) on quest 3 recently got beta updates for wired modes (they just tunnel ethernet afaik, but its better than nothing for your usecase probably) since the OS has seemingly recently unblocked this.

daviding 21d ago

For sit down, say flight, driving sims and productivity, then things to look at to compare would be things with a cable and no local compute taking weight, heat and component cost. There's the Pimax Dream Air SE and the Big Screen Beyond 2e as two recent updates in the ball park of Steam Frame pricing. Both that have eye tracking for better high resolution performance. The Pimax has a variable quality reputation and the Big Screen Beyond requires a deprecating Lighthouse tracking system, so no easy answers. None will be as smooth an experience of the Frame but are more geared to head mounted display.

jjmarr 21d ago

> Personally, I would love to see a wired headset that resembles the bigscreen beyond but with inside out tracking and a universal face gasket. For wireless experiences, I'd love to be able to plug my phone in, put it in my back pocket and use it that way. Been doing this with my wired XREALs for the past few months. They are light enough to be unnoticeable and can display a large monitor when plugged into my phone or computer. Since I have a Samsung phone, it just opens DeX on my glasses and the phone screen becomes a giant trackpad. Completely seamless except for the onscreen keyboard. For my laptop it's good enough for all the coding I need and I use it in the office because I'm used to ultrawide. Like $500.

jkl5xx 21d ago
For another datapoint, I took the plunge on a pair of xreals and trying to do real work in them felt like a joke. They’re not comfortable enough to wear as normal glasses, so you end up using them more like you would a VR headset. And at that point, they’re just a semi-transparent low-res screen that’s never quite in the right spot.
- Sammi 21d ago
  I've been eyeing xreals for coding for a couple of years now, ever since my office became a children's bedroom, and the two of you are killing me. I don't know which one of you I would agree with.

chaostheory 21d ago

Wired is only great if you're sitting down, playing driving or flying simulators. If you ever need to turn or move, wires get annoying really fast. Even with Beat Saber, it's terrible

apatheticonion 21d ago
I agree but, my experience with wireless has been so bad that I'd rather be able to play games with a wire than avoid them without one. I liked shooters and going from the G2 where I could actually use sniper rifles to barely being able to make out people down a corridor - wired or wireless - really killed it for me. I have pretty much given up on VR as a result.

nialv7 21d ago

> Wireless headsets also _suck_ for simulators and productivity - where a battery only adds weights and a wire is not noticable. you could... just plug it in? unless the frame cannot be used while charging, but i haven't seen anyone claim that.

chrysoprace 21d ago
The USB-C port for charging is on the battery itself; their store diagram doesn't show if the battery itself can be disconnected for power passthrough.
apatheticonion 21d ago
At least with the Quest, the video quality over cable was only slightly better than wireless. The heat and weight of the extra hardware also becomes noticeable when sitting for a while. For example, there's no way I could do an 8 hour work day inside a Quest - but I imagine a cool lightweight bigscreen beyond would be fine. I used to love shooting games in my G2, I got the Quest and, despite having a similar resolution, I could hardly make out distant targets whether wired or not. It entirely killed VR for me and I haven't used it in over 6 months.
rbits 21d ago
That doesn't fix anything. The battery is still heavy whether it's plugged in or not.
Eamarvac 21d ago
For anyone interested, in the Tested video he states that you can use it plugged in but you will only be able to use it this way uninterrupted while streaming, because using the Frame itself will use up the battery faster than the rate at which it charges

terribleperson 20d ago

Wireless gets better if you mount a dedicated AP on your wall, but that's a pretty big ask when an appropriate AP isn't cheap. Steam Frame is solving this with a dedicated dongle, if I recall, which I think is a good choice.

apatheticonion 20d ago
I had a dedicated router plugged directly into my PC's second ethernet port. That was the best wireless experience I had - but it still wasn't a great experience. Again, my Quest felt like a hot, heavy Rift 2 rather than a wireless G2.

schmorptron 20d ago

FYI, virtual desktop (and steam link) on quest 3 recently got beta updates for wired modes (they just tunnel ethernet afaik, but its better than nothing for your usecase probably) since the OS has seemingly recently unblocked this.