I fell in love with Steam Frame, but not for the reasons you think
45sThe hook creates curiosity by contradicting expectations, and the clip highlights both flaws and the groundbreaking wireless experience.
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The video is a review of the Steam Frame VR headset, highlighting its flaws (battery life, screen contrast, ergonomics) while praising its wireless streaming and camera-based tracking. The creator argues that despite imperfections, the Steam Frame sets a platform for future VR development and marks the end of base station tracking.
Chapters
[00:00]
Flaws of the Steam Frame
The Steam Frame has disappointing battery life, last-gen screen contrast, and non-ergonomic controllers.
[00:14]
Wireless streaming experience
Wireless streaming of high-end VR games from a PC without a tether is described as magical and 'it just works'.
[00:27]
Camera tracking vs base stations
Camera-based tracking mostly achieves the same experience as the Index's base stations, making it the nail in the coffin for base station tracking.
[00:40]
Future of standalone VR
The effects compatibility layer will allow desktop applications to run on ARM processors, enabling portable giant-screen gaming. The only challenge is cost.
Mentioned in this Video
💡 Key Takeaways
💡
Camera tracking is good enough
Challenges the assumption that base stations are necessary for high-quality VR tracking.
00:27
📊
Wireless streaming is magical
Highlights a key advantage that could drive adoption despite other flaws.
00:14
⚖️
ARM compatibility is the future
Explains how the Steam Frame's architecture enables portable, giant-screen gaming.
00:40Full Transcript
[00:00] I fell in love with the Steam Frame, but not for the reasons that you might think. The battery life was disappointing, the screen contrast feels last-gen, and I didn't find the controllers to be that ergonomic. But what the Steam Frame does is it sets a platform for future VR development
[00:14] that is going to completely change the industry. The wireless streaming experience, running high-end VR games on my PC without a tether, was one of the most magical, it-just-works technology experiences of my entire career.
[00:27] This is the nail in the coffin for me for base station tracking. When I first heard that the frame was going to use cameras to track the controllers, I was like, oh no, it's going to suck. But it mostly achieved the same experience that I got from the Index.
[00:40] But again, no wires, baby. As we move into the future where competitors and maybe even Valve themselves continue to release standalone VR headsets like this, the effects compatibility layer will allow regular desktop applications to run
[00:53] on ARM processors like in the Steam Frame, so you can take giant screen gaming experience with you pretty much anywhere. Only challenges the cost.
