Steam Frame - Hacker News

Posted by Philpax 12 hours ago

Steam Frame(store.steampowered.com)

1062 points | 390 commentspage 2

Pfhortune 11 hours ago|

At last! I really enjoyed my time with the Oculus Quest 2, but could not stomach having Meta in my house/on my network. I sold it and resolved to either wait until I could get a good deal on an Index or Valve came around with something new, and now I can look forward to VR again!

torginus 11 hours ago||

Whoo - first party support - including a graphics stack on ARM!

I hope this means the GPU and drivers is advanced enough to run fully featured modern video games.

Windows for ARM was kinda sunk by the fact that the GPU wasn't compatible enough due to the crappy drivers and outdated GPU uArch optimized for mobile games.

I'm still kinda on the fence about VR, but I hope ARM + Linux succeeds in a big way and this'll make a truly handheld Steam Deck possible.

circuit10 8 hours ago||

One of the most interesting parts of this to me that not many people are talking about is what their approach will be to making Steam games work on ARM…

I assume they will have put a lot of work into an emulation layer (maybe an existing one like FEX) to make it usable similar to what they did with Proton? This could be really good for the Linux ARM ecosystem in general

preisschild 8 hours ago||

Apparently they are heavily funding FEX-emu now and are using that

rbits 6 hours ago||

Yes! Steam on ARM finally! I hope it works well

srjek 11 hours ago||

Steam Frame is running SteamOS on ARM, and is capable of playing games standalone, which implies ARM support in Steam. Through granted, it could be in a limited form.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 8 hours ago|

They'll need that either way if they want to get back onto macOS, even if it's separate binaries and not a translation layer. At this point I think Steam basically doesn't work on Mac? Since the x64 Macs are legacy and the new ones are aarch64

SchemaLoad 6 hours ago|||

It technically works since ARM macs can still run x86 binaries. But it's so slow and buggy, and the selection of playable games so slim that there is almost no point.

preisschild 7 hours ago|||

I doubt fex-emu works on macos.

But isnt that what Rosetta2 is for on mac anyway?

iamcreasy 5 hours ago||

Rosetta2 will be discontinued.

jackhalford 7 hours ago||

Nice to finally have a hackable headset on the market. I’ve been using the dji goggles for fpv flying because of vendor lock in. I wonder I could use these with OpenIPC to fly fpv with a fully open video stack.

robocat 5 hours ago|

I'm looking forward to seeing what hacks get done to the devices and what software is dreamed up.

skywal_l 9 hours ago||

> Steam Frame Controllers: Powered by AA batteries (rated 40 hours)

Yes, I want to see standard batteries being used more. Too bad they didn't go with this on the Steam Controller.

krzyk 9 hours ago||

Why? It is a bummer to keep them, buy them when suddently they stop working, etc.

While chargeable needs just a usb-c socket.

akdev1l 8 hours ago|||

Devices with internal batteries basically have embedded expiration dates.

Standard AAA or AA can be rechargeable so you don’t need to keep buying more. I’d suggest buying like a 100 pack or something, they’re not expensive.

archon810 8 hours ago|||

The ideal would be rechargeable AA battery support with a built-in USB-C that would natively support charging said AA battery.

SchemaLoad 6 hours ago||

AA batteries have lots of different chemistries and they require different chargers or can't be charged at all.

benoau 8 hours ago|||

You can also get a USB charger for them which is very convenient.

foresto 5 hours ago|||

Allow me to recommend low self-discharge NiMH batteries (Eneloop brand is excellent) and a good charger made for that chemistry.

mrguyorama 8 hours ago||

I actually prefer rechargeable batteries.

But rechargeable lithium batteries in AA form factor are cheap and cheerful. Even low quality ones will get 20 hours in that situation. So I have no more room to complain.

Valve is weirdly good at making controllers efficient. The original steam controller could get 80 hours out of two AAs if you turn off rumble.

serf 2 hours ago||

I would've never bet on an Arch being the one that won the gaming market, but here we are. Wild.

ark4n 11 hours ago||

That mini pc... one more nail in the coffin of the xbox hardware business. Ouch.

30minAdayHN 11 hours ago|

I bought all my sim racing setup for my xbox. It was short-sighted but optimized for a quick decision. Now I feel like I'm stuck with it and can't upgrade the setup forward. Everytime I see these comments, it's one more nail in my wallet :)

anonymars 10 hours ago||

Deckard at last! https://isvalvedeckardout.com/

skrebbel 10 hours ago|

What a weird site. Am i getting it right that this "Deckard" was the code name for the Frame, it's out now, but the makers of the site went through all that trouble make a dotcom and a pedantic design but can't be bothered update it now that it is, indeed, out?

ethersteeds 9 hours ago|||

The timeline on the site you're critiquing says the project was confirmed in 2021. So they've been waiting a while.

And it's not out, it was "revealed" today with "early 2026" estimate for availability. No price yet.

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware

stetrain 9 hours ago||||

The site has been updated, it says "Announced on Steam — not out yet."

The headset isn't being released until early 2026.

drivers99 9 hours ago|||

> it's out now

It's not out, just announced.

Dilettante_ 9 hours ago|

That's gonna be one expensive BeatSaber machine, but after having owned an Index (and really feeling how nice that headset was when I got my current Quest 2), there's no way I'm not gonna get one.

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