Yet another Hacker News

76 points bsimpson 42 minutes ago 24 comments

bigyabai 27 minutes ago | parent

Also exciting, Valve has finally started shipping native ARM/FEX builds of Proton 11: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/vr/valves-latest-proton-11-bet...

Will be super interesting to benchmark various ARM chips and see where they land performance-wise!

cassianoleal 25 minutes ago | parent

Yeah this could open up a whole new category of lightweight gaming PCs.

mrpippy 22 minutes ago | parent

AFAIK they still aren't shipping an actual ARM64 version of Steam, making it difficult to actually use those (unsupported) ARM builds of Proton. That article is 5 months old.

ricardobeat 20 minutes ago | parent

At current hardware prices, this is worth buying to use as a server!

idontwantthis 20 minutes ago | parent

That’s a remarkably cheap storage upgrade too. First time I’ve ever thought the upgrade would be worth the money.

LarsDu88 19 minutes ago | parent

At basically quest 3 levels of on device performance, this thing better have amazing software. This price is way too high.

Our expectations have been warped by Meta's decade long subsidization of VR hardware

demo4567 14 minutes ago | parent

lmao. n o. thats meta and this steam. iykyk

SequoiaHope 13 minutes ago | parent

For me a lot of the value comes from the freedom you get with frame. Valve says “it’s your PC, install what you want” and it runs an open source OS. It’s the first truly Linux friendly headset (it runs arch btw) and I don’t have to send my data to Meta. Also foveated streaming means, according to reviewers, a pretty decent wireless PCVR experience. I can’t wait to play half life Alyx without a tether. Valve is just doing something very different from meta.

teach 5 minutes ago | parent

Yeah, I've been Linux-only on the desktop since the early aughts and trying to get the Valve Index working was so frustrating and inconsistent I eventually gave up. It sits collecting dust and I've still never played more than the first fifteen minutes of HL: Alyx (because no game is worth installing Windows for).

Very much looking forward to maybe actually being able to use VR on my gaming computer.

ramesh31 13 minutes ago | parent

Quest 3 is a mindblowing piece of hardware completely ruined by the runtime and vendor. This is basically it as a Linux machine you actually own. That being said, my Quest has sat on the shelf for years now since purchasing. I just don't really see a market for these things outside of driving/flight simulation enthusiasts. The whole "smartphone strapped to your face" paradigm is a dead end for actual VR.

accrual 17 minutes ago | parent

GamersNexus released a video comparing the Frame VR vs Meta Quest 3 today, worth a watch for the Frame review alone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcerOYY_K1g

othomp 16 minutes ago | parent

Hopefully it's possible to use eye tracking as a pointer in desktop mode. I'd like to connect only a keyboard and use binds to emulate clicks.

vallerie 15 minutes ago | parent

I do hope Valve's work on ARM64 for this, alongside improvements to performance in Honeykrisp, make for a dramatically better experience with Linux on Apple Silicon Macs.

They're very lovely devices with big GPUs, and I would love to (one day when ram prices go back to normal!) repurpose my M3 Max as a under TV Steam Machine when I upgrade.

kikkia 11 minutes ago | parent

If use for solely VR Gaming, and you don't care a ton about the privacy aspect, it is a hard sell against a new or used Q3. However, for myself personally I love the idea of it as a device I can tinker with and have full control over. I would love to also replace my laptop with it while traveling. Especially with a small wireless keyboard it has a good chance to replace my laptop for tinkering/gaming on the go.

With the price increases it is likely not a good value for an average person, but for myself and some other tinkerers I think it is very acceptable.

sporp 10 minutes ago | parent

Half-Life Alyx is the greatest gaming experience I have ever had the pleasure to witness. I now occasionally VR golf. It's a steep price for a niche with not a lot of games.

MomsAVoxell 6 minutes ago | parent

I want this for one reason and one reason only: DCS.

Anyone know how well it works/doesn't work yet?

I've waited for years to get a VR heads for DCS (its a flight simulator folks) .. and now, maybe, this is it.

Cockbrand 4 minutes ago | parent

Not being very savvy about VR glasses, am I assuming correctly that this device can't do AR, as the cameras are only used for tracking?

sergiotapia 3 minutes ago | parent

Brutal pricing. It would have been brutal at $600.

Having said that, there really is no other game quite like Half Life Alyx. It's so good, immersive and one of a kind. Perhaps worth the price of admission. It's so good that it kind of ruined VR gaming for me because all other games kind of felt like tech demos from that point on.

Yikes, what a terrible price.