Valve also tells Ars that streaming on the Steam Frame will be “as efficient as possible,” maximizing battery life from the included 21.6 Wh battery. “Standalone battery life will be highly variable depending on the game and its settings,” Valve engineer Jeremy Sellon and designer Lawrence Yang told Ars via email.
OK, but where is the external display with fake eyes?
valve
OK, but where is the external display with fake eyes?
valve
Black is the new black.
valve
Black is the new black.
valve
OK, but where is the external display with fake eyes?
valve
Black is the new black.
valve
A knob on the bottom of the headset, presumably to adjust the distance between the individual lenses.
valve
A knob on the bottom of the headset, presumably to adjust the distance between the individual lenses.
valve
The padded back of the strap will hold the Steam Frame lens housing tightly to your head.
valve
The padded back of the strap will hold the Steam Frame lens housing tightly to your head.
valve
A knob on the bottom of the headset, presumably to adjust the distance between the individual lenses.
valve
The padded back of the strap will hold the Steam Frame lens housing tightly to your head.
valve
While a wired PC connection would go a long way in addressing those battery-life and additional latency concerns, Valve said Steam Frame will not support it even as an option. “We’re focused on a robust wireless streaming experience, which is why we’ve included a dedicated wireless adapter, have a dedicated radio on the headset for streaming, and invented a new streaming technology to optimize the streaming experience (foveated streaming),” Selan and Yang told Ars.
A lightweight modular “core”
All told, the Steam Frame comes in at just 440 grams, which is a welcome and big reduction from the Quest 3’s 515 grams. Interestingly, Valve’s spec sheet also specifically cites a 185 gram “core” of headset hardware, which includes all the main components other than the battery, headstrap, and speakers (e.g., lens, display, motherboard, cooling, processor, RAM, tracking system, etc.).
That core weight is important, Selan and Yang told Ars, because “it is designed to be modular so one can imagine other headsets connecting to this core module that bring different features.” For example, tinkerers or third-party headset makers could theoretically create modified versions of the Steam Frame with lighter batteries or streamlined headstrap/speaker combos. Valve said that the Steam Frame’s monochrome passthrough cameras can also be accessed through a front expansion port with a standardized Gen 4 PCI interface.
This is an interesting potential direction for new hardware that would launch into a more niche, less irrationally prolific VR market than Valve’s previous virtual reality headsets. But with companies like Apple and Meta recently moving toward augmented reality and/or mixed-reality hardware, it’s good to see Valve continue to cater to the small but dedicated market of gamers who are still interested in playing in a fully immersive VR environment.