I get why they didn’t put an x86 chipset in it, but I’m still upset about it. Putting any desktop OS on your handheld is neat, but doing on your vr headset is industry changing IMO.
What really gets me is they couldn’t at least include a sensor array for preexisting steamVR tracking, especially since the controllers seem to be an a direct downgrade from knuckles/index controllers.
No one paying valve 1300 for an HMD is looking to put ease of setup over bleeding edge VR tech. If they are, make it a cheaper side product and actually compete with meta…
Edit: My bad, they didn’t announce price yet. Not sure where I saw $1300…
If it’s the right price it’d be a bit more understandable, even if it wasn’t the rumored magic HMD I wanted lol.
Its a better architecture but it has no standard firmware implementation that allows you to implement an OS across a broad spectrum of chipsets and boards from all manufacturers (like UEFI).
Sure you can make a generic arm image, but a lot of hardware drivers are not properly implemented in mainline kernel. For most hardware, such an image would be mostly useful to developers and tinkerers looking to see what’s technically possible. Unless they want to try writing/forking drivers themselves.
To pretend this will be as open and user modifiable is goofy, I kinda doubt well get official support for non-steam OS’s.
Even if we do, would we be able to change the signing key to make sure its secured from evil maid, a-la safeboot?
The interest for me isn’t at just the idea of a gaming device, but an open source friendly face-mounted general purpose computer. Like apple’s HMD without the vendor lock-in.
Also you’re right about the price, not sure where I saw $1300. My bad.
Chances are I will just be streaming my main PC remotely through Virtual Desktop, Steam Remote Play, or whatever is the most convenient. The x86 chipset won’t matter because it won’t really run anything that I would want to run that requires x86 well.
The only thing I can complain about is that it seems to have less of an augmented reality focus than Apple Vision Pro, although it’s too soon to tell. I’d like to be able to use VR along with standard keyboard and mouse peripherals with virtual monitors to boot. Instead of letting me decorate some imaginary room, let me decorate my existing room with virtual widgets.
Yeah that’s my exact issue. I’m not interested in gaming on the things built in chipset. Were getting to the point where resolutions are high enough that these can become viable monitor replacements.
Imagine the apple vision with the openness of a standard PC. Snapdragon based ARM chips get in the way of that. No standard firmware like UEFI/BIOS, no mainline GPU drivers, and most devices built on them give no way to change is signing keys like secure boot on PC or pixel devices.
They’re going to have to do a lot of work to maintain the openness a PC gives from the get-go. Is it possible? Sure. I just don’t have much hope anymore.
I’m pretty sure this is mostly supposed to be a gaming headset, with non-gaming applications being more of a bonus. The vision pro on the other hand seems more marketed as a anything-but-gaming headset.
As long as it is open, it can be expanded upon. Most VR sets seem like proprietary hellscapes that want to get you trapped into their ecosystem. Steam, for what it is, gives me more faith than most.
I get why they didn’t put an x86 chipset in it, but I’m still upset about it. Putting any desktop OS on your handheld is neat, but doing on your vr headset is industry changing IMO.
What really gets me is they couldn’t at least include a sensor array for preexisting steamVR tracking, especially since the controllers seem to be an a direct downgrade from knuckles/index controllers.
No one paying valve 1300 for an HMD is looking to put ease of setup over bleeding edge VR tech. If they are, make it a cheaper side product and actually compete with meta…Edit: My bad, they didn’t announce price yet. Not sure where I saw $1300…
If it’s the right price it’d be a bit more understandable, even if it wasn’t the rumored magic HMD I wanted lol.
Complex x86 software on ARM is easily the most exciting part of this announcement.
Inside-out was the right answer ever since SulonQ, nine years ago.
ARM is better, inside/out works well now, and pricing hasn’t been announced
Its a better architecture but it has no standard firmware implementation that allows you to implement an OS across a broad spectrum of chipsets and boards from all manufacturers (like UEFI).
Sure you can make a generic arm image, but a lot of hardware drivers are not properly implemented in mainline kernel. For most hardware, such an image would be mostly useful to developers and tinkerers looking to see what’s technically possible. Unless they want to try writing/forking drivers themselves.
To pretend this will be as open and user modifiable is goofy, I kinda doubt well get official support for non-steam OS’s.
Even if we do, would we be able to change the signing key to make sure its secured from evil maid, a-la safeboot?
The interest for me isn’t at just the idea of a gaming device, but an open source friendly face-mounted general purpose computer. Like apple’s HMD without the vendor lock-in.
Also you’re right about the price, not sure where I saw $1300. My bad.
They did put a desktop is on the VR headset, right?
their desktop OS. Not any.
There is no standardardized firmware interface like UEFI or BIOS, and most device drivers for snapdragon arm chips are not available mainline.
This won’t be as open as the steamdeck unless they put a lot of work into it that I’m not sure they’re willing to do.
Oh I guess I meant the open KDE Plasma Desktop Env. I would think it’s grub bootloader with Arch base again so I would expect other distros to load.
I could be wrong, but it would to more work to make it not work tbh
Chances are I will just be streaming my main PC remotely through Virtual Desktop, Steam Remote Play, or whatever is the most convenient. The x86 chipset won’t matter because it won’t really run anything that I would want to run that requires x86 well.
The only thing I can complain about is that it seems to have less of an augmented reality focus than Apple Vision Pro, although it’s too soon to tell. I’d like to be able to use VR along with standard keyboard and mouse peripherals with virtual monitors to boot. Instead of letting me decorate some imaginary room, let me decorate my existing room with virtual widgets.
Yeah that’s my exact issue. I’m not interested in gaming on the things built in chipset. Were getting to the point where resolutions are high enough that these can become viable monitor replacements.
Imagine the apple vision with the openness of a standard PC. Snapdragon based ARM chips get in the way of that. No standard firmware like UEFI/BIOS, no mainline GPU drivers, and most devices built on them give no way to change is signing keys like secure boot on PC or pixel devices.
They’re going to have to do a lot of work to maintain the openness a PC gives from the get-go. Is it possible? Sure. I just don’t have much hope anymore.
I’m pretty sure this is mostly supposed to be a gaming headset, with non-gaming applications being more of a bonus. The vision pro on the other hand seems more marketed as a anything-but-gaming headset.
As long as it is open, it can be expanded upon. Most VR sets seem like proprietary hellscapes that want to get you trapped into their ecosystem. Steam, for what it is, gives me more faith than most.
I’m almost certain with pcvr you can still use the knuckles with base stations. Surely they’d have a vr space sync.