- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
256 GB model: $1,059 USD
1TB model: $1,299 USD
Preorder list randomized, goes out Sept 17th
Power supply not included, costs $29 (same as Steam Deck power supply)
3rd party addon available for color passthrough, Arcturus Vision Camera, $149
Why is everyone so concerned with passthrough these days? MR apps are the worst XR apps of them all
IYKYK…
All jokes aside, one reason is MR to watch a movie while being able to see outside. Another is when you kneed to step out of the room for just a moment or talk to someone that just came in or maybe even just grab the controllers while seeing what you’re doing.
Do you really think cameras with color are that much of an ask in 2026 on a device that costs over $1k?
The addon costs $150, if they increased the price by $150 and had color passthrough included in the box, you would be happy, but everyone who would be forced to buy cameras for a use case they are not interested in wouldn’t be.
Imo all of your use cases for color passthrough are weak. You want distractions from a movie? You need to step outside, take the headset off lol.
If they launched at $1200 way more people would be complaining about the price
Like the other guy said, using color cameras would not have costed much more. This is an expensive device with some budget entry-level features. There’s no excuse.
If you think they were targeting an “expensive device” when they were designing this, you’re completely misunderstanding the product and the current market conditions.
You read the marketing material, nice.
An expensive vr device would be the apple vision pro. This is not that, you seem to think valve knew that ram and storage would triple in price over the last 2 years and designed the frame with that in mind.
That’s a dumb device, not just a stupidly expensive one. There’s a reason why it was discontinued.
Are you just making shit up? It’s not discontinued at all, you can buy one today? https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/
They’re already using a literal phone soc that HAS CAMERAS. Having two color cameras on board probably would have cost much much less than an external, $150, third party module, like maybe a tenth of that at scale so like maybe $15 more. OoooOOOOOooooo scary
They likely made compromises like this all over the device to keep the price as low as possible, this (and the ergo pack) is just one that they errored on and probably should have just included.
Why would internal cameras be significantly cheaper than the external cameras to produce? Isn’t it the same hardware with the same pcie interface?
I just assumed they were more performant for their actual task of tracking. Everything else is secondary.
This is just an assumption, but, if true, give me the improved tracking over color passthrough any day.
Not that color passthrough wouldn’t be nice. But I don’t think it’s a cost saving technique
Well, I happen tl have dabbled a bit in image processing and applying a mask to make the image grayscale has a negligible (if not inexistent) impact in performance. I do admit that I’m unaware if there’s another characteristic this cameras have that make them better for tracking. If they do, it’s pretty weird that Valve hasn’t mentioned it.
Applying a mask? I’m pretty sure the cameras themselves are black and white only, no color, specifically to increase tracking performance.
Something about b and w cameras being more sensitive to light?
You wouldn’t get the same benefit from applying a mask I don’t think.
But again, IDK for sure.
If I really need color, I’ll get the aftermarket adapter, probably do a better job than any built in cameras anyway 🤷♂️
I’m saying that if a grayscale image was required, you can use a color camera to show that to the user and apply a mask to use a grayscale image for tracking processes.
Maybe, not sure. But then again, why wouldn’t valve say so if that was the case?
This one’s kinda dumb, sorry. Valve makes the device and they make the camera accessory as well. If the cameras were built-in and used a ribbon cable instead of usb-c, the quality would quite literally be exactly the same.
I think the grayscale camera literally, physically, is better at collecting light. Like, the hardware is more capable when it comes to tracking.
Maybe negligibly so, but an amount.
I’m not saying that it was the right call to use them, I just didn’t think it’s as bad as everyone seems to want it to be.
Maybe valve will defend their decision more in the future? Maybe the black and white cams, in addition to being better for low light tracking, were also cheaper in bulk?
Cost adds up. I’m also in the boat of not wanting the charger to be included, because I and many others, will never use it.
As for the addon cameras being better, it’s not dumb. They literally connect with a special high bandwidth connector, and they are something like twice the resolution.
Just like I wouldn’t want the charger included that I wouldn’t use, many others wouldn’t appreciate the extra $150 to have the high res cameras be default either.
It’s mostly a difference of opinion and preference.
There are several headsets with color cameras and no tracking issues. Even if they are “better”, if they don’t provide a real world benefit it doesn’t make sense to use them.
We’re talking about a $1k+ device here. I don’t think people would’ve drawn the line at $20 more.
And what makes you think that they couldn’t have used the exact same cameras inside the Frame? Why do you assume that this external “high bandwidth” connector is the only way to use them? I’m sorry but yes, it is dumb.
First, a decent 45w charger is like $15 nowadays so that wouldn’t make that much of a difference. Second, why do you keep insisting that including the cameras would’ve increased the price $150? That makes 0 sense. First, if you don’t use the monochrome cameras, you “recover” that money and second, if you include them in the device you don’t have any extra packaging and you don’t need the enclosure or anything else. The price increase would’ve been far far lower.