No prices yet. I may never financially recover from this.
How big a deal is this eye tracking that then only shows higher resolution stuff where you’re looking? Is it legit and works well?
Steam Hardware [new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and VR headset Steam Frame, coming in 2026]
Submitted 5 months ago by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware
Comments
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 5 months ago
utopiah@lemmy.world 5 months ago
legit and works well
legit works well… but also not a magic wand. It doesn’t transform a low-end rig in a powerful machine.
tb_@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Valve has only made mention of streaming bandwidth, nothing about the game being rendered (like how PSVR2 does it). Maybe there’s some sort of API games will be able to hook into, I seriously hope so.
lepinkainen@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Foviated rendering is a massive thing, usually only done in the expensive stuff.
It gives you a pretty big FPS boost because the device doesn’t have to render stuff the human eye can’t see anyway
themusicman@lemmy.world 5 months ago
This is foviated streaming. The PC still renders everything at full, but the streaming compression is optimized for where you’re looking
EtzBetz@feddit.org 5 months ago
Does every game need to support it in a way, or would this be done on an OS level? Because I don’t know, from my experience, the game tells how detailed anything has to be rendered in a frame.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
it’s a huge thing
monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Apple vision pros do it and it is pretty great
archchan@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
Valve remains committed to an open PC ecosystem
happy noises
LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world 5 months ago
With the fact there’s apparently surprisingly reasonable evidence of a new half life game, I wonder if that’s likely to get announced when they give these a release date. I could see them bundling it with the steam machines at least. Assuming the rumors turn out to be true.
Xttweaponttx@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Uhhhhhhh saywhanow?? Where you seein these rumors?! They reputable??!?
Dont play with my heart! 😭 I would DIE for a new Half Life VR - Alyx was FUCKING incredible!!!
LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I don’t know if it’ll be VR but the short version is there’s a lot of code in the source 2 updates that directly point to the development of a new half-life game.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 5 months ago
I’ve been under the impression that it is very likely to be a sequel to Alyx. Possibly launch title for the Frame.
G0ldenSp00n@lemmy.jacaranda.club 5 months ago
Early leaks were pointing to a Alyx sequel, but I think the more recent leaks are pointing to it just being Half Life 3, which would presumably be playable on the Deck. Frame and the new Steam machine.
SolarPunker@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
Indiegames cube!
MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 5 months ago
GabeCube
spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Did Valve just announce THREE of something?
Suburbanl3g3nd@lemmings.world 5 months ago
Second steam machine (not deck!), Second VR headset, and second controller ( I actually don’t know if that’s totally true)
CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I believe this is their third VR headset.
Pure_Psykosis@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
Holy shit you’re right.
vane@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Where’s my Steam Phone Gabe ?
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 5 months ago
I think the Frame is a great step in that direction. I predict a Steam Phone in 5 to 10 years.
slaacaa@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It’s coming right after the GabeCube
SailorMoss@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
With GameHub lite you can run steam games on high end android phones right now. GameHub lite is based on the work valve has been doing to get games running on ARM. I won’t be surprised if valve announces official steam for android in the next few years. (Steam for android as in an app that can run your games not just browsing the store).
Lfrith@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
It would be cool to see Valve actually release a Linux phone with the direction Google has been going, and maybe it lead to helping to lead to companies like Asus deciding to also move into Linux phones if Valve Linux phone is a decent success.
TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 5 months ago
Oh boy Unreal Engine 5 titles at 0.5 fps instead of 5
vane@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Don’t android me, I want KDE plasma steam phone dude.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I give exactly zero fucks about any of this until they show prices.
merdaverse@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Didn’t Steam already have some home console like hardware a few years ago? That flopped so badly I don’t even remember the name
UnPassive@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yeah, the Steam Machine was the name. It came out before Linux gaming was really a thing if I recall. Before Proton. So I think they just expected game makers to make Linux ports?
TheSporkBomber@lemmy.world 5 months ago
It was mostly a steaming device and assumed you had the hardware and networking to support low latency streaming. This is much more standalone and could almost be targeting consoles or people who don’t pc game (or at least don’t call their main pc a rig)
DrDystopia@lemy.lol 5 months ago
That controller makes me swoon.
Credibly_Human@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Plz fucking give us the clear option
zanyllama52@infosec.pub 5 months ago
Swoon worthy indeed. So many features.
Psythik@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yet still only four face buttons. I don’t know why every controller manufacturer in existence refuses to bring back 6 button pads, even Valve. Instead they all just copy each others’ designs. Even Nintendo—once known for being innovative—is guilty of this. The Switch/Switch 2 Pro controller is literally just a crappier XBOX controller with digital triggers for some bizarre reason.
OnfireNFS@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Hmm this makes me wonder if the Steam Deck 2 will be ARM. If the Steam Frame works well if that could be a way for Valve to push more performance/battery life out of the deck
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 5 months ago
If they shared the same processing unit it could also cut their costs down.
tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net 5 months ago
I don’t ever see this happening, with Proton being x86, and games also predominantly being x86.
pastaq@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Seems like you haven’t looked at today’s commits to proton bleeding edge.
four@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
With Valve talking about open ecosystems so much, I have glimmer of hope that they’ll move to RISC-V.
Probably not gonna happen though… At least not yet
dustyData@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’ve followed RISC-V development. It is so promising and so cool. But it is also under-cooked right now, I don’t think it is ready to carry such a product. It might get better in the future, but as it stands it takes way too much effort to release a hardware product using it, never mind a high performant one like a gaming console. My hope is that the EU and FOSS initiatives can take a stronghold on the standard up to the point that it becomes a feasible competitor to Qualcomm and it retains it’s openness. It is the only way stuff like a truly spyware free and privacy respecting smartphone can exist. Linux will never thrive with the hostile hellscape that is ARM hardware. Valve themselves have had to fight with the stubbornness of a myriad consortiums that want to gatekeep their modules and refuse to offer open source software. RISC-V just needs a lot of love and care for now to grow into a competitive standard. Many cool developers are working on it but it doesn’t have the same financial effort behind it that ARM has.
turmacar@lemmy.world 5 months ago
That would be amazing, but given how speculative the Framework and other RISC projects are I feel like that would be a massive headline for Valve.
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I had a horrible flashback to the Ouija, that thing traumatized me
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Oh man, the Ouya. That’s a blast from the past. Play mobile games on your TV using a controller made out of cardboard and balsa wood and sized for a Roswell alien. Good times.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 5 months ago
I hope the Frame is as cheap or cheaper than a Meta Quest 3.
tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
You have to remember, the price isn’t only due to the hardware.
We often still think of “hardware” as if it’s some tool we actually own like a wrench or a hammer, and the price of it should depend on the cost.
But in the modern world the electronic hardware we buy is subsidised through gated ecosystems and by profiting from slurping data and selling ads.
The reality is that Meta hardware is priced aggressively low to encourage adoption - on the basis of all the money they expect to make later from your data. Same with smart TVs and everything else with a similar business model.
Valve’s hardware will seem exoensive but that’s just the price you have to pay in the modern world for some small amount of control and privacy.
Personally, I’ll pay it gladly.
ptolemai@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The cameras can’t track eyes with the headset on …Unless they make it like the vision pro, where your eyes show up on the headset’s outer screen. ಠᴗಠ
unit327@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
No way it is as cheap as a q3. All valve have said is that they are aiming for < the price of a valve index full kit. uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-hands-on-impressio…
magic_internet_wizard@lemmy.world 5 months ago
steam deck is still incredibly good for what you get. i have on of the original ones with a 64 gb ssd and although i have some hangups with that i just put in a 1.5 terabyte sd card and it runs almost everything i throw at it. just discovered the other night it can do vr very poorly with a beta steam client and beta steam vr while streaming to my quest 3s with steam link. we really live in a new era.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 5 months ago
I could have had one and didn’t get it because I never really go anywhere other than work. But boy did I regret it when I was at BLFC recently. My hotel roommates all had one and were playing Helldivers and Rocket League every night 😩
PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I can’t wait to get the controller
ameancow@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The timing is great as I learn my healthcare premiums are likely to go up by over a thousand dollars a month.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.world 5 months ago
As someone still using Steam Controller 1 on the daily, I am stoked to see that they have not abandoned the trackpads. Civ from the couch ftw.
PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 5 months ago
After V, it more or less became a console game
circuitfarmer@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I enjoy VI, but I know it is divisive.
My comment holds more generally true for anything mouse-centric.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Sometimes I think about how LOATHED Steam was when in launched. That was probably valid even. Still, it feels worth noting that Valve is maybe THE only company from my childhood that feels like it largely stayed true to its spirit, or whatever.
drapermache@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Hello, Veteran Steam User (made my account the day steam released, I was big into the half life/cs/tfc scene back in the day), steam was HORRIBLE when it released. I had a cable modem way back then and it was incredibly slow. Only the ugly green theme, and crashed all the time. It was only used as DRM, not as a way to catalogue games. I clung to those WAN servers up until Valve no longer supported them, it was a sad day at the time.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I still remember the pissed-off memes, novel-long outrage threads, etc.!
termaxima@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
If Valve went DRM free like GOG, I would have no reason to ever buy games anywhere else
(apart from exclusives, which should be illegal IMO)
Lfrith@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
I think its because there’s likely more people who got into Steam after Steam was already a pretty popular storefront so clueless about the growing pains. My first ever PC game purchase was from the Steam store and that was maybe back in the 2010s.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 5 months ago
because most people got exposed to steam on HL2’s launch. Where they bought the physical game, came home, installed it off like 5 CDs… then had to run steam to decrypt it and download more files because the fucking install was encrypted, and the goddamn fucking decryption took like 8 hours if you didnt have the worlds greatest computer.
Nope, I’m still totally not salty about not being able to play the game I fucking bought until the day after cause bullshit encryption fuckery, why would you ever think that.
I still have that goddamn box somewhere… i need to dig it up and see what release retail HL2 is like compared to HL2 you’d downlaod today from steam…
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Well, I bought Half-Life and OG You Don’t Know Jack on discs at Target, then had to return them because HL didn’t run and YDKJ was “too worldly.” So.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I remember being annoyed that I had to install yet another launcher and make yet another account when I was installing portal. But I didn’t know at the time that this was the launcher to end most other launchers and accounts, or at the very least made most of that transparent other then adding an extra click to launch some games.
Iirc, Blizzard had just replaced the wow in-game patcher with a launcher (though I don’t recall if they had a unified launcher for each game, if they all had their own at that point, or if it was just wow), Oblivion had a game launcher, and I think there were a few others. Some of them even needed to be installed separately iirc.
Steam is nice because, being the launcher for most of my games, it’s just always open and helps organize my games. And it doesn’t feel like its main purpose is to make money, with everything else just being about opening pathways to that money. And even though it is meant to make Valve money, it’s the lack of blatant dark patterns and constant upsell attempts that makes it feel better than most of the rest of the commercial world.
WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org 5 months ago
Rip loud circle touchpads.
communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 5 months ago
Somebody really needs to make a modern xr wayland compositor…
Damage@feddit.it 5 months ago
I want them all, but mostly the Frame. Finally decent Linux VR? On a standalone device that can also stream from a PC? On ARM?! It seems too good to be true.
kratoz29@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
NGL the cube thingy looks so damn attractive to me, especially as I don’t own any form of PC gaming…
Now please Steam, officially sell to Mexico god damn it!
sk1nnym1ke@piefed.social 5 months ago
Any guesses how much the new steam machine will cost?
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Deceptichum@quokk.au 5 months ago
All I want is a new model Steam deck. They waited years before releasing them in my country to the point I can’t justify buying years old tech.
otacon239@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The new controller and headset have stressed every issue I had with each directly.
It killed me that the original Controller didn’t have a second analog stick. A lot of people tried to claim that the trackpad was a viable replacement, but I just could never get used to it. Loved all the other features.
On top of that, no more light towers! I’ll finally be able to bring it friends’ places to demo! Plus the fact that the headset supports native gaming means no tower needed for some titles. I’d imagine the vast majority of VR-focused titles will run just fine since they almost all target low-spec anyway.
mesamunefire@piefed.social 5 months ago
Love it!
- I personally don’t care for the controller, but I will say that if I didnt have a steam deck with the track pads already, I would probably get one.
- The Steam frame looks interesting. Ill keep an eye out. It might be cheaper than a huge big screen. But IDK. VR always feels like a gimmick.
- The Steam machine looks awesome. Ill probably get one. I like PCs that happen to be consoles cause I can rip them apart and upgrade/fix as I please.
I really hope Steam OS comes out for more than just 2 devices though. That would be AWESOME.
Big picture mode is great but certain games + controller + hardware combos still have issues with it. Whereas the steam deck has a fantastic time hooking into things.nawa@lemmy.world 5 months ago
So this is the “Extend” step of PC gaming control by Valve. We’ll see how open the Steam ecosystem will stay.
simple@piefed.social 5 months ago
These sound absolutely amazing but it all depends on the price.
if the Steam controller is on par with a new 8bitdo then I would definitely pick it up.
The steam machine sounds intriguing but there is already a big market for mini PCs and I don’t know if consumers would go out of their way to buy a steam PC box. I’m most skeptical about this one
Steam Frame looks fantastic but I really hope it’s cheap enough to compete with the Meta Quest 3 and isn’t just another ~$1000 headset for enthusiasts
arudesalad@piefed.ca 5 months ago
The frame being a standalone linux headset is huge, hopefully this does to vr what the deck did to pancake.
(I know vr works on linux already but it's a pain)
Thatuserguy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Bit disappointed to see only 4 tracking cameras. Willing to bet tracking is gonna be horrid when at waist level still. That’s an issue that has been plaguing VR headsets with inside out tracking since the beginning, and it’s frustrating it looks like they still didn’t bother fixing it on a headset that almost certainly isn’t gonna be cheap to start with
drmoose@lemmy.world 5 months ago
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!
G0ldenSp00n@lemmy.jacaranda.club 5 months ago
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.