When I look at this announcement, the hardware is very exciting, for sure. But it is Valve’s dedication to Linux that really has me smiling. I don’t see three hardware devices to buy. I see two big proclamations for which the hardware is the message:
SteamOS on desktop! It seemed inevitable but it’s still great to see.
STEAM VR USING LINUX AS ITS TARGET PLATFORM?!?!?
I will grant that it’s very possible I buy all three pieces of the hardware, even though I like building my own PCs. I will also grant that Valve’s support for linux probably would not be what it is without the enshittification of Microsoft’s ecosystem. But in this world I’m gonna go ahead and accept the imperfect good news.
The VR looks interesting. I had bought the HP reverb G2, but Microsoft pulled the plug on windows mixed reality, and I’ve since moved to Linux, so this might be a good replacement.
Doubt I would ever do the VR headset. I simply don’t play the kind of games that work well with (or even need) VR. Although come to think of it, a VR Civilization VI game would be wild.
But the Steam Machine would be interesting to replace the old laptop I currently have running as my multimedia box on my television (streaming, retro gaming, steam mirroring, etc…) It would be more powerful than the well worn old dude I’m currently using.
I’ve got a bit of a VR library, but the new ease of setup with this one does have me considering how I’d use the virtual display features. Even with trackpads, a lot of mouse-driven games aren’t great on Steam Deck, but I’m replaying Baldur’s Gate 2 right now and wondering how the mouse controls might work out in VR.
Real glad I can soon ditch the DualSense Edge and its only half-functional gimmicks !
I will miss the adjustable triggers, but I will NOT miss the randomly incorrect button mappings, and “extra buttons” that get fucked up if you ever connect it to an actual PS5
Fair assessment. It’s got all the bells and whistles except OLED. Makes me wonder if they’re planning on an OLED model in a year or two like they did with the Deck. They know there will be plenty of double dippers.
Half life alyx was a solid game and I would expect valve to release another VR game for this things release. Even if not, there’s good stuff out nowadays.
Although I don’t get the motion sickness that people have mentioned so maybe I have more options.
I’ll buy the VR headset if, as well as streaming games, you can also play video/mirror your desktop. I know that’s not the market they’re going for, but it seems to me that those are the main use-cases of VR headsets aside from gaming and to my non-tech way of thinking it doesn’t seem harder than streaming a game.
They have demos of those things in the trailer. Apparently the pass-through is black and white, but it supports peripherals, so adding a color HD camera to the front to pass-through HQ video while desktop working is completely feasible. It is also just a linux computer, so if Valve doesn’t develop the software for it, someone will. Essentially kicking the (very tiny and limited) vision pro market out from under Apple.
no hand tracking
no color passthrough
no hardware upgrade
no WebXR
no new VR proper content
Still, it’s good obviously, not having to rely on BigTech. This was also possible before though as I pointed out in https://lemmy.ml/post/38899489/22202786 with e.g. Lynx XR1, as a rooted Android standalone HMD with no account required.
Anyway IMHO the big questions for VR on Linux more broadly is what changes upstream on KDE in terms of immersive UX? Is KDE Plasma becoming a VR graphical shell? Does it have 3D widgets? Does it impact freedesktop in any way?
Price will make or break this thing. Rumors going around its gonna be around 1k which is a tall ask for the listed specs. 500, I’d buy it without any promise of any Valve backed VR game and I’m not even big on VR. For the rumored price, I’d need to see more commitment from Valve and latest news right now are saying they aren’t developing a VR title.
Yeah, at about £500 I’d have got one. I don’t need the full Steam OS or any of that crap. I just want wireless connection to my PC for streaming.
The use of a second wireless dongle could be a double edged sword as well. Right now I can use a Quest anywhere in the house on Wifi. Works better than wired, in fact. The dongle would limit where I can use it.
Sadly agree. I’ve been waiting for years, claiming I’d buy whatever they sell… but honestly right now this would feel like a donation more than something I eagerly want, even less need.
FWIW I’m also NOT the market, I have … I don’t actually know how many but at least 5 XR headsets.
@[email protected]@[email protected] seems like there’s more potential for hardware upgrades than with any other headset since the system has separate modules for compute/optics+display/tracking and audio/strap/power but sure, no XR headset is going to be very upgradable given the harsh constraints on size and weight.
Yeah, in theory that’s great but reminds me of my Corsair One proudly featured on my desk right now. It’s a standard PC… but that thing is so well done, so compact, it’s hard to find ways to change anything.
Also it reminds me of the frunk of the Index, super cool in theory, couple of neat projects… but I personally didn’t use it much so we’ll see.
I wish we had a pricing-point for the VR headset. I’m still considering getting a Quest III and break it open a bit, since the hardware is so damn good. This seems marginally under it (monochrome instead of full-color etc) but running SteamOS instead of Android sounds amazing.
But I’d need more information on it first - and granted, knowing if ever it releases over here. 😅
I’ll definitely get the new controller if possible though. Still rocking my original, and it’s still the best way to play mouse-centric games on the couch, I prefer it over a lapboard with an actual mouse.
I’m bracing myself for the Steam Frame to be around $700-800. The monochrome pass through might seem like a downgrade, but mixed reality is also not part of what valve wants to do with the headset, i.e. focus on VR. Everything else seems like they might be pricey upgrades, especially with the eye tracking and streaming tech. They also shifted manufacturing to the US due to tariffs.
Sad about the monochrome passthrough but otherwise pretty hyped for more VR hardware. The Index was a disappointment to me so glad to see it’s more in line with the Quest 3, especially the controllers. They look perfect.
I think it’s just not trying to be a pass through headset, like the vision pro and galaxy xr, which is honestly fine with me, if it keeps the price from going into the thousands. If it’s feature built for giving a virtual display for gaming, and does that better than anything else (and I think it will, given the special dongle specifically for streaming games), then that has value.
Really excited for this and hopefully that means steamvr on Linux will actually start working better! The current Beta build is much better but still lots of work to do.
I’m definitely getting the frame as upgrade from quest 3 which I rarely use due to it being attached to Meta. The controller is no brainer considering that old steamdeck controller is still one of the best controllers on the market. Not sure about steam machine mostly because I just built my own PC - would have totally waited for it if I knew it was coming but it looks so slick.
I wonder if the Steam Frame is the codename deckard. I was really excited for that because it was supposed to have Steam Deck performance, but with an Arm processor that will be hard since most games need an emulation layer.
It is Deckard, from the looks of it won’t be as powerful as the steam deck but not because the ARM chip is slow. They said it is just because the effective TDP of the ARM chip (after subtracting all the work it is doing to track the headset and controllers and do the rendering) is like 7 watts, compared to the 15 watts of the steam deck. So you will probably still be able to run some of the more indie games on it. The translation later is also a 10-15% slow-down for CPU bound games, but they said should be negligible for GPU bound games.
From early reviews it seems penalty for emulation is in single digits. Also honestly I am considering one just to watch movies but my intereat would depend on the price of course. So wait we must.
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When I look at this announcement, the hardware is very exciting, for sure. But it is Valve’s dedication to Linux that really has me smiling. I don’t see three hardware devices to buy. I see two big proclamations for which the hardware is the message:
SteamOS on desktop! It seemed inevitable but it’s still great to see.
STEAM VR USING LINUX AS ITS TARGET PLATFORM?!?!?
I will grant that it’s very possible I buy all three pieces of the hardware, even though I like building my own PCs. I will also grant that Valve’s support for linux probably would not be what it is without the enshittification of Microsoft’s ecosystem. But in this world I’m gonna go ahead and accept the imperfect good news.
The VR looks interesting. I had bought the HP reverb G2, but Microsoft pulled the plug on windows mixed reality, and I’ve since moved to Linux, so this might be a good replacement.
Doubt I would ever do the VR headset. I simply don’t play the kind of games that work well with (or even need) VR. Although come to think of it, a VR Civilization VI game would be wild.
But the Steam Machine would be interesting to replace the old laptop I currently have running as my multimedia box on my television (streaming, retro gaming, steam mirroring, etc…) It would be more powerful than the well worn old dude I’m currently using.
I’ve got a bit of a VR library, but the new ease of setup with this one does have me considering how I’d use the virtual display features. Even with trackpads, a lot of mouse-driven games aren’t great on Steam Deck, but I’m replaying Baldur’s Gate 2 right now and wondering how the mouse controls might work out in VR.
Real glad I can soon ditch the DualSense Edge and its only half-functional gimmicks !
I will miss the adjustable triggers, but I will NOT miss the randomly incorrect button mappings, and “extra buttons” that get fucked up if you ever connect it to an actual PS5
let’s hope they sell these globally this time.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/11/valve-reveal-the-new-steam-frame-steam-controller-and-steam-machine-with-steamos/
If Valve makes ARM Linux work properly as a gaming/desktop OS, I will uhh hmm.
I will buy this thing.
I wonder if they’re still using Arch for the basis of this. Its ARM version is kinda not so great, although not terrible either.
This could be huge for ARM adoption on PC. Exciting stuff!
Been waiting for this vr headset to release for years, only to find they’ve used lcd’s instead of OLED screens. I’m so disappointed and pissed.
Fair assessment. It’s got all the bells and whistles except OLED. Makes me wonder if they’re planning on an OLED model in a year or two like they did with the Deck. They know there will be plenty of double dippers.
VR is the most expensive toy you will use for a couple of hours before getting bored of it.
My 200 hour playthrough of Skyrim VR back in 2019 justified my headset purchase and GPU upgrade (gtx 1080, oooh, aaah) all by itself.
I play my index every week. I’m still not bored.
I just checked and I’ve gotten over 100 hours out of mine so far.
Depends on what kind of person you are. I know of individuals who practically live in VR.
I guess that’s fair.
I found most VR games I tried to be shallow experiences. Resident Evil was cool but it made me feel motion sickness after about 30 minutes.
Half life alyx was a solid game and I would expect valve to release another VR game for this things release. Even if not, there’s good stuff out nowadays.
Although I don’t get the motion sickness that people have mentioned so maybe I have more options.
It’s much better for games that were designed around VR in mind.
Some of my personal favorite recommendations:
I’ll probably use VR mostly to play sims. Elite Dangerous, X4, I also have a few racing sims.
But ultimately depends on the price. I’m not going to sell my organs for what is essentially a really cool immersive gimmick.
Racing sims are 11/10 in VR. Any cockpit game really. No going back for me.
House of the Dying Sun is a space sim with a strategic map view in addition to piloting a fighter yourself.
It is so good in VR.
I’ll buy the VR headset if, as well as streaming games, you can also play video/mirror your desktop. I know that’s not the market they’re going for, but it seems to me that those are the main use-cases of VR headsets aside from gaming and to my non-tech way of thinking it doesn’t seem harder than streaming a game.
They have demos of those things in the trailer. Apparently the pass-through is black and white, but it supports peripherals, so adding a color HD camera to the front to pass-through HQ video while desktop working is completely feasible. It is also just a linux computer, so if Valve doesn’t develop the software for it, someone will. Essentially kicking the (very tiny and limited) vision pro market out from under Apple.
Yes but …
Still, it’s good obviously, not having to rely on BigTech. This was also possible before though as I pointed out in https://lemmy.ml/post/38899489/22202786 with e.g. Lynx XR1, as a rooted Android standalone HMD with no account required.
Anyway IMHO the big questions for VR on Linux more broadly is what changes upstream on KDE in terms of immersive UX? Is KDE Plasma becoming a VR graphical shell? Does it have 3D widgets? Does it impact freedesktop in any way?
(copy of https://lemmy.ml/post/38899489/22202838 as I posted there first)
Price will make or break this thing. Rumors going around its gonna be around 1k which is a tall ask for the listed specs. 500, I’d buy it without any promise of any Valve backed VR game and I’m not even big on VR. For the rumored price, I’d need to see more commitment from Valve and latest news right now are saying they aren’t developing a VR title.
Yeah, at about £500 I’d have got one. I don’t need the full Steam OS or any of that crap. I just want wireless connection to my PC for streaming.
The use of a second wireless dongle could be a double edged sword as well. Right now I can use a Quest anywhere in the house on Wifi. Works better than wired, in fact. The dongle would limit where I can use it.
Sadly agree. I’ve been waiting for years, claiming I’d buy whatever they sell… but honestly right now this would feel like a donation more than something I eagerly want, even less need.
FWIW I’m also NOT the market, I have … I don’t actually know how many but at least 5 XR headsets.
@[email protected] @[email protected] seems like there’s more potential for hardware upgrades than with any other headset since the system has separate modules for compute/optics+display/tracking and audio/strap/power but sure, no XR headset is going to be very upgradable given the harsh constraints on size and weight.
Yeah, in theory that’s great but reminds me of my Corsair One proudly featured on my desk right now. It’s a standard PC… but that thing is so well done, so compact, it’s hard to find ways to change anything.
Also it reminds me of the frunk of the Index, super cool in theory, couple of neat projects… but I personally didn’t use it much so we’ll see.
I wish we had a pricing-point for the VR headset. I’m still considering getting a Quest III and break it open a bit, since the hardware is so damn good. This seems marginally under it (monochrome instead of full-color etc) but running SteamOS instead of Android sounds amazing.
But I’d need more information on it first - and granted, knowing if ever it releases over here. 😅
I’ll definitely get the new controller if possible though. Still rocking my original, and it’s still the best way to play mouse-centric games on the couch, I prefer it over a lapboard with an actual mouse.
Gamers nexus said the price category can be assumed to be around the index. Which i find a bit excessive, but maybe i misheard.
I’m bracing myself for the Steam Frame to be around $700-800. The monochrome pass through might seem like a downgrade, but mixed reality is also not part of what valve wants to do with the headset, i.e. focus on VR. Everything else seems like they might be pricey upgrades, especially with the eye tracking and streaming tech. They also shifted manufacturing to the US due to tariffs.
Sad about the monochrome passthrough but otherwise pretty hyped for more VR hardware. The Index was a disappointment to me so glad to see it’s more in line with the Quest 3, especially the controllers. They look perfect.
I think it’s just not trying to be a pass through headset, like the vision pro and galaxy xr, which is honestly fine with me, if it keeps the price from going into the thousands. If it’s feature built for giving a virtual display for gaming, and does that better than anything else (and I think it will, given the special dongle specifically for streaming games), then that has value.
Yeah I can see why they’d not implement it, not even that interested in AR, it’s just a nice QOL feature that I’d miss.
Really excited for this and hopefully that means steamvr on Linux will actually start working better! The current Beta build is much better but still lots of work to do.
I’m definitely getting the frame as upgrade from quest 3 which I rarely use due to it being attached to Meta. The controller is no brainer considering that old steamdeck controller is still one of the best controllers on the market. Not sure about steam machine mostly because I just built my own PC - would have totally waited for it if I knew it was coming but it looks so slick.
Very excited for Linux in 2026!
I mean I think better Linux SteamVR is a given since they are selling the new steam machine as an option for streaming to the Frame.
happy noises
I will buy the VR headset immediately
I wonder if the Steam Frame is the codename deckard. I was really excited for that because it was supposed to have Steam Deck performance, but with an Arm processor that will be hard since most games need an emulation layer.
It is Deckard, from the looks of it won’t be as powerful as the steam deck but not because the ARM chip is slow. They said it is just because the effective TDP of the ARM chip (after subtracting all the work it is doing to track the headset and controllers and do the rendering) is like 7 watts, compared to the 15 watts of the steam deck. So you will probably still be able to run some of the more indie games on it. The translation later is also a 10-15% slow-down for CPU bound games, but they said should be negligible for GPU bound games.
From early reviews it seems penalty for emulation is in single digits. Also honestly I am considering one just to watch movies but my intereat would depend on the price of course. So wait we must.