r/SteamFrame

I just figured out why the plastic face spacer comes wrapped in those little soft fabric sock things. It seemed overly elaborate for shipping packaging, just to protect the spacer... until I realised it's to allow the spacer to be used as a magnetic snap on lens cover when the Frame is in storage.

I figured I'd mention it, because I've seen several reviewers throw the socks away, and I haven't found any official instructions that mention this. Unless it really is just packaging, but it's awfully convenient!

A few members of this sub who RMA'ed their headset for one reason or another reported being told to send in their wireless adapter along with the headset, and then not receiving one in return. It looks like this has been fixed now.

Hopefully my RMA for a dim left display doesn't take too long. With any luck Linux streaming will have improved substantially by the time the replacement shows up.

I was very worried about all the negative reports about the controllers but I couldn’t be happier with them. I find them very comfortable in my hands. I use the Spigen grips since that was all I could get so perhaps that lets me reach the buttons easier. The button layout is perfect for me. I play a lot of VR but never managed to get the buttons down (e.g. prompt says x and I know where to press without looking) and I had Q1, Q2, and Q3 to work on it…. Well the inability for this old dog to learn new tricks means that the buttons on the Frame controllers are exactly where I expect them to be. Just wanted to put that out there for anyone who may be concerned and find PC controllers natural.

TL;DR: Let's write down all the standalone PC VR mods (especially the older game ones, easier to run) which run well on your Steam Frame! Let's make this comment section a library of great PCVR-like standalone experiences!

My Steam Frame just arrived. The hardware is good enough, the potential is amazing, but the current state of PCVR streaming is severely lacking (so, don't be sad if you don't have Frame just yet, just thank us for beta test, lol). Especially, I got some serious problems when launching non-steam VR games (they simply don't start, or controllers aren't being picked up, or gamepad doesn' work, more issues were reported before:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamFrame/comments/1wxe60w/the_steam_frame_experience_has_been_pretty/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamFrame/comments/1wvjnes/how_to_launch_pcvr_games_in_steam_on_my_pc_with/

So I'm looking for a nice new PCVR mods which run well (or launch at all) on a standalone Steam Frame.
Imo, something like FEAR, Max Payne 2, Black & White, RDR1 mods for which exist already, but it's not clear if they launch at all Standalone on linux.

And if you played something - how did you install it, which utilities/compatibility layers did you use?

Here’s my review/experience on the areas I care about. tldr at the bottom.

BACKGROUND: I’ve had CV1, PSVR1, Quest 1, Quest 3, and PSVR2. Love using PSVR2 on PC for the OLED, graphics, and uncompressed visuals. Also love Quest 3 with elite battery strap for standalone, the lenses and ease of use. Favorite games have been RE7/RE8 on PS4/PS5, Batman on Quest, and Half Life 2 VR Mod on PC (Hot take: Alyx is overrated. It always felt too slow and restrictive, leaning on the hype of being a VR game instead of just being an amazing game.) I have a pretty extensive library across quest, PlayStation, and PC. Also recently, the Halo VR Mods and Titanfall 2 have become my absolute favorites.

PC SPECS: 7800X3D, 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30, 4070 12GB.

I got the 1TB model, the power bank, and the Arcturus Vision Camera. Would have got the ergo kit if it was in stock So nearly $1500.

AESTHETICS/BUILD QUALITY: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
love looking at this thing. Very sleek and tiny. Love that it’s black. Finally something that doesn’t look like a toy (aka quest 3 and psvr2). Kind of reminds me of the original oculus rift render on kickstarter. Wouldn’t mind if this was the endgame form factor for VR gaming. Ski goggles > glasses in my opinion.

COMFORT: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As everyone says, it’s great. I didn’t even need to adjust the straps out of the box. Feels the best out of everything I’ve owned. Super light. Could have added a larger battery and would have still been fine. Love the material for the facial interface. Could wear it for a long time (plugged in that is) with no discomfort. No hot fan air blowing on my head or eyes, which some mentioned. If I get the ergonomic kit I’m not using the top strap. The knuckles straps should have came with it tho. My only reason for 4 stars. $60 is highway robbery for some fabric and some rubber. But I want the OEM materials. Oh well.

DISPLAYS: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This part of the experience was a bit disappointing. It’s definitely serviceable, but I wish it was a little better. It’s feels a slight notch down from the Quest 3 in terms of clarity, brightness, and colors. But the FOV is a slight notch up from the Quest 3 so that’s a plus I guess. If I never had a Quest 3 I still think I’d feel slightly underwhelmed for the money, and for being in 2026. If an OLED version comes out like with the Steam Deck OLED refresh, I’d sell this one for it. Even if it was one of those with “Mura”. I’d trade that to have great contrast and colors. The colors aren’t bad, but it also depends on the media. Half Life: Alyx standalone in particular looked more washed out than say Red Matter 2 (which looked AMAZING, but also looked amazing on quest 3 to be fair). Recently saw TCL showcase some 2.5K RGB OLED display that may be cheaper than micro OLED, so maybe that will be an option in the future.

AUDIO: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’m fine with the onboard audio. Never experienced the index but I heard an index-like audio strap is in the works, so I will definitely buy that when it comes out. However, no audio jack is insanity at this price for an “open” system.

CONTROLLERS: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Very mixed feelings on these. First I will say they are plenty comfortable, and didn’t feel too big or poorly laid out to me like others claimed and I can hit all the buttons fine. However there are other thoughts I have. I get the concept they were going for, wanting flat game compatibility. But I also have a Steam Controller for that. Having all these buttons in theory could be better for mods (like UEVR), but most mods are already being developed for current controllers. What’s more, having less buttons actually forces devs to think about immersive VR interactions to perform actions, even if superficially. For example: performing Titan abilities in the Titanfall mod by gestures instead of a button press feels amazing. Lastly, I feel sorry for lefties since there isn’t a symmetrical option. I honestly wish they went with the index/quest controller layout. 2 Buttons, 2 analog sticks, 2 grips, 2 triggers (don’t care for trackpads). Most games remap (X) to down on the D-pad and (Y) to up/left/right. It works but having wrong button prompts on all past, present, and future titles that will be unable to update may get annoying. There was already a standard, and if future headsets stick to that standard, I can see more friction incoming. Feel free to disagree.

USER INTERFACE: ⭐️⭐️
This part needs the most cooking. I’m a tinkerer, and familiar enough with Linux (I installed SteamOS onto an AYANEO). But there are so many things that will feel underbaked for the average user. For example, it’s very confusing to set and adjust resolutions/refresh rates for the average user. You can set a universal resolution for streaming, and then each game can increase the resolution via a multiplier of that base. I get it, but this should be simplified. And then sometimes the settings don’t save and apply. There’s also plenty of bugs just navigating Steam, inputs giving audio cues though nothing is happening, etc. Digging for some settings is not intuitive. There’s menus inside of menus inside of menus and I just feel this should be streamlined. I have fpsVR to monitor performance, but it’s currently buggy, and it would be nice if Valve could have their own Steam performance layer visible in VR like how it is for flat games. Also, not a lot of games have been tested for Frame. I get that it will get better over time, but I expected more with what I paid for it. It’s the same way I don’t give Bethesda a pass for releasing a broken game and relying on the community to fix it over time. I hope enough people in the community can even get their hands on it to help with these improvements. I do appreciate that this is an open platform though, and you can do whatever with it. 6 months from now I may view this very differently.

STANDALONE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️(⭐️)
Unlike most, this was the capability I was most excited about. Hopefully it’s going to improve over time like the steam deck did. First things first, I honestly thought Half Llife Alyx looked and performed awfully (looked pixelated and more washed out color wise than I remembered), but red matter looked great (high resolution, deep colors). It’s cool to see that stuff even boots (I tried Skyrim and it booted, but had horrible performance, even after forcing motion smoothing, 72Hz, low settings and resolution. Thought for sure PS3/360 era VR conversions would run). I’m sure more optimizations will come over time, and am even seeing tools to run quest exclusives being developed. I hope the standalone mods I see in the works like Halo, GTA, and RDR make their way over too. So this rating may very well go up over time (4th star pending improvements and future battery strap). I also enjoyed playing flat games more than expected. I tried portal 2 and hollow knight, and enjoyed the dynamic lighting of the Steam environment more than color passthrough. I actually wish I hadn’t wasted the money on the camera add on because I’d rather use that. Battery life in standalone is abysmal though. They should have put a battery 2x the capacity. I doubt it would have affected comfort much. Yeah, yeah, this is a “streaming first” headset, but it’s also a “Linux PC on your face,” and is priced as such. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is more powerful than what’s the XR2 Gen 2 (25-30% GPU bump), but it’s still not enough in 2026. Valve probably went with this for its mature driver/campatibility support at the time, but I bet a snapdragon 8 Elite (or ‘Snapdragon Reality Elite’ that was just revealed) would have made me more optimistic about the future of standalone on this device. The 8 Elite (2024) has Oryon cpu cores and a 40% faster GPU, and the 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 (2026) (awful name) has nearly 2.5x more powerful GPU going off the product briefs across generations. Wouldn’t have minded paying more in 2026 for something more considering I already dropped $1500.

PCVR STREAMING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was never able to get great wireless streaming for PCVR. I always used a link cable, or display port with the PSVR2. After digging in some settings I am satisfied with the image I get. Wasn’t exactly “plug and play” from the start, but after configuring, I keep find myself coming back to my Frame for ease of use/setup over PSVR2. Also, not having a wire for PCVR feels amazing. I maxed out the sharpness, scaling filter set to sharp, and scaling mode to fill, enabled the upscaling options, disabled multilink to force streaming through the dongle, and set the bitrate to 350mb. With that being said, you can still tell it’s being streamed. Idk if it’s steam link or the snapdragon hardware decoder itself with the 350mb limitation. Maybe one day when we can get bitrates of 2gb -5gb (heck, 10gb) with foveated streaming we will truly be able to say display port is a thing of the past. Most of the time it’s at least as good as with my Quest 3 with a link cable. But I still see compression artifacts, and doesn’t come close to my PSVR2 visually, so I’ll still see myself hooking it up time to time.

BATTERY: ⭐️
Yeah…1 hour for standalone, 90min for streaming. Not much to say here. I would have sacrificed having a bigger battery in the back for another hour at least.

VALUE: ⭐️
A 128GB Quest 3 launched in late 2023 for $500. I get you are selling your literal digital soul, but still. Pico 4 Ultra, with nearly identical specs was around $599 in late 2024. So it feels like I’m paying >$500 for a dongle, a very slightly bumped up processor, and linux.

TLDR/OVERALL: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This isn’t an average or anything, it’s just how I feel about my experience and purchase so far.
Display feels ok (like the bare minimum), audio is fine, the chip feels underpowered with what’s on the horizon, software is underbaked, but PCVR streaming looks/feels good. It’s sleek and super comfortable. Availability and pricing woes may have deflated the hype a bit too. If this was like $800 I’d have given it four stars.

To be blunt, this would have been an awesome headset in 2024. All the tech in here existed then, and it’s not like the software polished to a point where I can see why it wasn’t ready until 2026. Price would have been better back then too. If either the foveated streaming algorithm, fex/lepton, or the hardware supply chain was the bottleneck, I understand I guess.

With that being said, I’m all in and excited at what an open platform like this will bring. Especially with the explosion that’s happened on the mod scene. Also happy to retire my meta headset with all its ridiculous privacy concerns. I can only recommend this headset to tinkerers super invested in the space tbh, at least for now. I don’t regret my purchase one bit. But it still should have been cheaper and/or better in some areas.

Shoutout to the guy who recommended the Apache 3800.

Fit the controller in for the ultimate go box. Plenty of room underneath for additional accessories.

Here is my take on the hotswap powerbank system. Uses cheap lightweight VEEKTOMX batteries, beloved in hiking communities. They have sufficient output to keep the internal battery topped up during active gaming. I haven't timed it precisely, but one powerbank gives you approximately extra hour of gameplay. If you get three-four of these, you should have unlimited playtime.

Powerbank weighs 213 grams, and the holder itself is 38. Including cable, total added weight is a bit over 250 grams. It's not unnoticeable, but the balance is OK. The biggest difference is that there is more inertia when swinging your head, since the added weight is unfortunately positioned away from your head.

USB-c cable is permanently attached with hot glue. This is a sacrifice I'm willing to make :)

On the flipside, it is true hotswap. You can even swap the batteries without taking the helmet off.

Here is the model on Printables, there are also more pictures. And if you want to fiddle with the design, it's available in Onshape.

This is the battery on Manufacturer's site; it also has a link to a listing on Amazon.

Unfortunately, the current generation model (with two USB-c ports) is slightly larger than the previous generation (with USB-c and micro-USB). I have a bunch of last generation batteries, so I designed for them. However, updating it for the new generation should be fairly simple - I'm planning to do it within a few days, I already have one current-gen battery.