My main concern with the Frame was the inside out controller tracking. I play Beat Saber at a very high level, and I’ve never been completely happy with my Index. I’ve been able to try all the Quests over the years but none of them impressed either.
But holy valve!
The Frame controllers track EXTREMELY WELL!! I feel like I finally got my original Rift back, and on LINUX!
So if you, like me, worried that the controllers would not perform in fast-paced games like Beat Saber, don’t. I can’t tell if they quite beat the original CV1 touch controllers, but it’s close enough that I’ve finally stopped pining for the CV1.
Another cool thing is that they apparently work very well in the dark. Other headsets with inside-out tracking either lose tracking completely in the dark, or don’t work as well.
Yup.
The Frame has IR illuminators, that will put out a bit of infrared so the tracking can continue to work in the “dark”.
As a bonus feature, they essentially work as night-vision goggle when using pass-through in the dark :D
lol that has been my experience with the frame so far. My ergo kit arrives today and my frame yesterday so I didn’t have the light blocker for my nose. So I just turned all the lights off and played beatsaber and it was perfect.
The Frame controllers track EXTREMELY WELL!! I feel like I finally got my original Rift back, and on LINUX!
I played through my old catalogue and find they don’t track well for older games that aren’t “Great on Frame”. I wonder what the difference is.
That’s certainly odd.
I haven’t tried anything except Beat Saber on the frame itself, the rest I’ve streamed. It’s been excellent throughout, with the exception of the stream occasionally dropping.
No complaints other than Index finger tracking gone. That was cool.
It has Index finger tracking, all the same finger tracking sensors are built in. If you play any game that supported finger tracking on the index it will work with Frame controllers. Sometimes you have to drum your fingers to get the calibration going, but the same was true for the Index.
I believe the comment you replied to is about camera based hand & finger tracking (think Apple Vision Pro), instead of the controller based finger tracking which you refer to.
I’m not totally sure, to me it read they were talking about Valve Index finger tracking, which this headset does have.
One of the few things I hope Steam copies from Meta.
Just being able to point your way around the UI is very convenient.
I am more hoping they copy Apple gaze and pinch, that makes navigating UIs so amazing in VR. Having to reach for a controller to move a window makes me feel like I am in the stone age again.
Oh that’s cool, I was a bit worried about that, but never really tried camera tracking before.
Mine is already paid and on it’s way, I’m only a bit salty about ergo kit being out of stock already.Extra salty about that as well since I’m going to share the headset but I’m planning to make them myself. Nose flap sounds pretty hard to make but I’ll make try to make the controller straps, headset topstrap and fabrics for face and back cushions.
Hey, the loops on my Ergo straps broke (seems like they weren’t glued super well). So at least you didn’t spend $60 for it to partially break after like 1 week.
Beatsaber should be fine because the hands should always be in sight of the head unit. My understanding is that moving them behind your back would be when issues occur, which wouldn’t happen with a beacon based tracking solution.
I’m not referring to occlusion (like when the controllers teleport away, or freeze), but performance and accuracy. How quickly they follow your hands, the samplerate at which they do so, and how closely they match what you are physically doing. This becomes EXTREMELY important at high level play in Beat Saber, as you can need to hit blocks every few frames.
Quest controller tracking is too sluggish and inaccurate for high level beat saber.
Lighthouse is better, but I find it’s still not as accurate as the constellation tracking on the CV1.
This is the first time I’ve felt a set of controllers match what I was able to do with my CV1. (Like terms of precision. Beat Saber scores you by how close to the middle you cut blocks, and the arcs of your slices.)
What pervasive, continuing games are there to play in VR? I couldn’t get used to Beat Saber. HL:A was very one and done.
Rhythm games are definitely the “killer app” for me at least. Especially with Beat Saber the community mods have kept it fresh.
Others prefer synth riders or pistol whip.
There are some other single player experiences that one of my friends gushes about. Boneworks, Monstrum, Red Matter, Vertigo 2.
Multiplayer, is another thing that simply SHINES if you can get a group together. Echo Arena, Ready or Not, Dungeons of Eternity.
Some I haven’t played but which I want to are System Shock VR, Stride, Rumble, Underdogs, Into Black.
Give some examples of flat games you think fit that description (that you enjoy).
Team Fortress 2, Hitman: WoA (yes, I know it has a VR mode, no, it’s really not a good VR game), Helldivers 2, Doom/Quake + mappacks, Deep Rock Galactic, Battlefield… Since VR has a barrier to entry, anything multiplayer might get limited players, so if they want to focus on bot enemies and PVE, that’s fine. Any style of collectathon like Mario 64-esque or Assassin’s Creed/Far Cry would be a fun way to spend 40 hours if the game has developed a nice pattern of gameplay suitable for open worlds.
It’d also be good if $20 VR games weren’t just 5 hours long, so that we could enjoy each one for longer before having to pay for something more.
Seems like your focus is mainly on first-person shooters with a heavy emphasis on high action multiplayer. Okay. Here are some titles you might want to check out:
- Pavlov VR
- After the Fall
- Payday 2 VR
- Dungeons of Eternity
Single player games I think you’d probably enjoy:
- Skyrim VR
- Fallout 4 VR
- No Man’s Sky (technically it’s mutliplayer, but honestly it always feels like a single player game to me)
- Superhot VR
If you’re willing to try something a little different, maybe you’d be interested in these:
- Elite: Dangerous
- Dirt Rally 2.0
- VTOL VR
- Demeo
There are also a lot of games out there that, while they don’t officially support VR, have VR mods available that work surprisingly well. It’s worth doing some research. If there’s a game out there you really like that you think might be cool in VR, chances are someone else has had that same thought and maybe had the skills to do something about it. I’m currently playing Nuclear Option (a combat flight sim) using a VR mod and it is awesome.
