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Steam Frame

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Re: Steam Frame

#711

Post by p_l »

dontlaugh wrote: post #380
Fabricio20 wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean.. my X670E motherboard (a high end, modern mobo!) has only ONE usb-c port.. it has, in comparison, 3 usb-a 10gbps ports and another 4x usb-a 5gbps ports. Given the headset's main use case to be plugged in is for PC-VR game streaming, it makes sense that they'd go with USB-A. Maybe in a few years they can switch but right now most desktop mobos barely even have usb-c.

Some motherboard have a rear USB-C, but no internal front panel header. Desktop is so far behind on ports.

USB-C requires additional "Type C Port Controller" which does increase complexity compared to USB-A

Re: Steam Frame

#712

Post by dontlaugh »

p_l wrote: post #711
dontlaugh wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some motherboard have a rear USB-C, but no internal front panel header. Desktop is so far behind on ports.

USB-C requires additional "Type C Port Controller" which does increase complexity compared to USB-A

Sure, but no desktop motherboard is cheap nowadays. And laptops all get one or more USB-C ports.

Re: Steam Frame

#713

Post by modeless »

zonkerdonker wrote: post #668
modeless wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it would be too bad. Cameras are tiny. The processing would still happen on the PC, and you could delete the lighthouse tracking sensors. I guess the hardest part would be sending that much camera data back to the PC over the cable.

Its worse than that. Cameras (plus DToF if you want tracking in the dark), imus, gyros, and necessarily onboard compute/SOC to handle processing that data. Shipping it all off to a remote computer and then making the round trip creates an untenable amount of lag. Thats not even accounting for controller and hand tracking. And once you have the pipeline and computation power to enable inside out tracking all on device…

It already has an IMU and gyro, obviously. Time of flight cameras are unnecessary. Steam Frame doesn't have them either. At most you would put IR LEDs for illumination which are tiny but also optional (Quest 3 doesn't have them), and there's no reason they have to be in the headset, you could just have a standalone IR illuminator on your desk.

As for sending data over a cable, there's nothing inherently laggy about it. After all, the display signal already travels over the cable, and the cable transfer is by far not the limiting factor in latency. The camera data is lower bandwidth than the display signal, too.

Re: Steam Frame

#714

Post by p_l »

dontlaugh wrote: post #712
p_l wrote: post #711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USB-C requires additional "Type C Port Controller" which does increase complexity compared to USB-A

Sure, but no desktop motherboard is cheap nowadays. And laptops all get one or more USB-C ports.

It is still a major non-trivial difference between implementing USB-A header (super trivial, just wire up the lines) and implementing USB-C - needs additional TCPC with enough ports, located nearby enough, plus flash rom, plus possibly an extra interfacing chip per each port. And that's if you only want reasonable USB-C that does just USB with maybe a bit of Power Delivery (but not too much). And then you need to ensure firmware handles it right (and that's not including bugs like Intel "firmware quality" leading to broken flash roms on entire product lines with thunderbolt controllers).

There's a reason why USB-C ports on laptops are often very... "clustered", let's say. Makes it reasonably easy to route signals if you're routing just what's essentially USB+DP or USB4, and I2C, and put 2 port capable TCPC and necessary switching and support circuitry near the port.

Re: Steam Frame

#715

Post by _79px »

divan wrote: post #590

Are there any real-world tests or reviews of foveated streaming in actual gameplay? I’m wondering how it holds up in fast shooters where you depend on tiny cues in your peripheral vision. Wouldn’t the lower-resolution periphery make it harder to notice subtle movement?

There are some reviews like LTT that talk about it's impact. I'm not sure about the subtle movement though. I think they're lowering the quality to what your peripheral vision is already, so I don't think it would effect anything negatively. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU3ru09HTng

Re: Steam Frame

#716

Post by vimredo »

martin82 wrote: post #454

People warn to not hold smartphones near the head for too long due to too strong signal strenghts... Is it not a concern to strap such a powerful defive that receives super strong signals right onto the head for hours??

Cell phones and other mobile devices only transmit non-ionizing radiation (perfectly safe glorified invisible light), and studies have been done regarding this topic, returning inconclusive results. It's most likely perfectly safe.

Re: Steam Frame

#717

Post by esseph »

mycall wrote: post #709
esseph wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is part of my job, dealing with spectrum and Washington. I communicate with the FCC and NTIA fairly often at this point. You need to pay attention to Arielle Roth, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Administrator, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). https://policy.charter.com/2025-ntia-spectrum-policy-symposi... From the article, about the November e…

If Wi-Fi 6E goes upto 7125 and the targeted spectrum band includes 7125 (onwards), what will happen exactly at 7125?

The same thing that happens with every frequency range?

Depending on the spectrum and technology there can be a small slice of guard band between usable portions, which is what we have today.

Nothing there today as provisioned is going to change.

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