You need all those gubbons even to stream. You might as well add a couple extra bits and bobs and have standalone play too.

They won't build a cut down version, it just doesn't make sense.

For them to have things like:

• high quality wireless video that is decoded on the headset
• decent tracking without anything external (as opposed to using Lighthouse base stations, as used on the Index)
• eye tracking, which enables the foveated streaming (and allows for a significant perceived quality boost)
• on-device compositor with async reprojection (reducing simulation sickness from low frame rate or missed frames)

There needs to be a decent amount of onboard processing, a full OS, and some memory/storage. Before prices exploded (which was certainly after the hardware was mostly/entirely finalized), it would have been only a small price increase (proportional to the rest of the hardware) to bump the RAM and storage a bit to allow for more games to work standalone.

The passthrough cameras are really not a focus of the headset, they are a semi-convenient side effect of the tracking cameras. The actually-decent-quality passthrough is a separate add-on.

If you want an AR screen and only need 3 DoF, would something like the XReal glasses line up better for you?

I feel like this is the experience with most people, either that or immediate nausea/motion sickness.

They see it as a novelty and inconvenience when sitting down and playing a flatscreen title takes much less effort because all of the friction has been virtually eliminated in the last 10+ years.

As someone who has now over 4,000 hours in VR, it is entirely situational to the person. If you're someone who can see themselves getting truly lost in immersive 3D worlds, sweating in them, living in them, tolerating discomfort and things strapped to your body and/or head for a transcendental experience, then it's for you.

Otherwise, the Steam Frame might be a massive waste of money (for you) that'll collect dust on the shelf next to the Apple VR.

The nice thing about PC VR is that you have more seated experiences like flight and racing sims. But you can also play Alyx seated and all the myriad VR mods of flat games.

I actually have a horror game on Steam developed for the Valve Index (we had several 10 years ago in university). Never was impressed enough back then to actually purchase one for myself (so I also didn't have much playtime). Bad display quality, especially for texts, uncomfortable, stumbling over the cable, ..

That's why I was really looking forward to the Steam Frame for a year now. Barely over an hour of battery life dampened my enthusiasm already :-/

Ooohhh haha same

i can't confirm because i'm in the waitlist, but i've heard if you haven't gotten your email, you can try checking the frame store page and be able to order anyway