Hey guys,

I received my Frame a few days ago and I had some time to play with it and I wanted to tell you about a few things that I found while playing with it, in hope that some of you find this useful :)

• Camera passthrough can be colored. By that I mean the monochrome camera passthough can have a color filter applied, it has a bluish purplish filter by default, but you can make it green, red, orange or whatever color!
• SteamVR Home is nowhere to be found. There is an option in the Advanced Options in VR Settings, but it doesn't do anything. I really wish Valve would port it, and let us install SteamVR Home on our Frame (Might be outdated, but I still like it).
• When you are in darkness, and the Frame turn its camera into the UV/IR mode, it has a cool effect on the controller, the shell looks like it's transparent and you can see the inside of your controllers (I wanted to take a screenshot but the quality is so bad I gave up ahah)

I'm sure I'll have more things to say later, I just want to find the weird and niche features of this thing that no one talks about. Feel free to share yours if you have any! :)

Wait the camera is monochrome? So there's no AR? Or only black and white AR?

Yes it’s monochrome, they sell a color camera attachment if you care about that though

they sell a color camera attachment

To be clear, someone else sells a color attachment. Don't go searching the Steam store or anything to look for it.

https://arcturus.vision/

With that said, it's an officially licensed accessory. Like the Zenni prescription lenses.

You’re right that they don’t directly sell it that’s my bad, they do feature it on the Steam Frame store page though.

https://store.steampowered.com/hardware/steamframe

Nice, I just completed the order for mine this morning! How long did yours take to ship? The page says 6-10 days, is that accurate?

Oh, and how well does the tracking work in the dark? As in, is there any noticeable difference between playing in a bright vs a dark room or are the IR cameras so good that you don't even notice? :o

I also read a random youtube comment that claimed that you can do a mix of streaming and standalone on the frame - as in, you can stream a 2D game while also having a native browser window open at the same time. Is that true? Not that it's some super big use case, but it's neat that Valve would think to allow it haha

I got the shipping notification (tracking code generated). 2nd day afterwards, I got an update, out for delivery. The 6-10 days seems to be a pessimistic estimate.

For shipping, I bought on the 18 and fot the headset on the 23, a bit longer, also I got the notification that the package was sent for delivery on the day of the delivery, was a bit weird but okay!

I didn't notice any difference between dark and bright room tracking, which is impressive.However, I did not try in a total dark environnement, qs there are always some LED, outside lamp ppst that makes a bit a light

And yes you can launch a game on the frame, use desktop mode to launch apps, then you can pin said apps in your currently running game. I did not test streaming while playing but I saw a lot of people trying it and it worked!
The only issue with all that would be battery life, if you want to do that make sure you're plugged in or else you won't be playing long...

I just got mine yesterday, right before going on a trip, so I’m trying to get some time in at the hotel, but I can’t wait to really sit down and get into it.

I can already tell this could be my favorite way to play/stream 2D games, just from a comfort perspective.

I’m happy to answer questions or test things out on people’s behalf though so let me know. Be aware that this is my first VR system overall, so I’m not sure how much to be impressed by the frame itself.

They actually do link to it from the Steam store

i ordered it on the 18 and probably get it on the 28, hopefully. The two packages somehow took different routes, even through different countries, and they want to have both before putting it to the pickup shop.
I guess some locations are just far from the distribution centers.
Like mine... but thats a me problem :3

the different colors is going to be important to me even if its just a small feature. Thanks for sharing

Unfortunately pessimistic can still be right. At least it's on its way.

I'm curious, can you access your PC via the Steam Frame, or just stream games specifically?
Like, say I wanna mod a game, can I deal with the modding client and such on my PC via the in-VR menu like on my Index, or do I need to go to my PC for that and use the passthrough?
Similarly, can you use it with your PC while in a voice call, or do you need to install the voice call application on the frame itself?

Or in other words, is it only possible to use as an entirely separate device that can exclusively stream games via Steam's streaming feature, or can you couple it with your PC more directly, like a wired HMD?

I'm not OP and don't have my Frame yet. But since you have a full Linux desktop in it at your disposal you can use whatever remote desktop software you like to access your PC.

I ordered last Sunday and on Thursday or Friday I got the mail that it would arrive next Monday.

I saw a Youtuber use it in complete darkness. It has an infrared light so the passthrough camera actually worked like nightvision goggles.

Oh good. Unfiltered UV cameras for guys to take cameraspictures through women's clothes is back...

On the less disgusting side of UV cameras: a bottle of Coke should look clear like water.

I mean yeah, but a native solution would be significantly more pleasant. I honestly don't care for the Steam Frame's standalone qualities at all, so taking those losses on the convenience of a traditional PCVR headset would be unpleasant.

I don't really know, all my PC are Linux only and streaming the desktop or even showing the desktop never worked, so I cannot really test that... Also I wasn't able to really use the streaming features for the same reason, but it'll get better and then I will be able to test all that

I'll definitely try the coke one, as for the clothes one, didn't know about that...

However the frame switch to UV in dark environnement so it's not like you could use it on broad daylight... But I mean no one would be stopped to use the camera however they'd want...

You'd probably get laughed at though.

IR, not UV, though I don't know what effect this will have on those types of pictures, and I don't want to look it up.

Okay I did my homework, and it seems when you connect to a computer to stream you get a tab to the desktop of the computer as well as full steamvr access, pretty neat. It does not work on linux wayland though

Yes, but I I'm pretty sure there was more to it than a simple IR sensor. I just remember that people used to take the IR filter off their early 2000s digital cameras, or use Sonys with night mode, then put the exposed end of film over the sensor to block out visible light. This would let them take clear photos outside the visible spectrum, which included some UV frequencies (I think). Using these cameras let you see through dark polymers, and many creeps used that to take pictures through women's clothes when synthetic poly was all the rage.

While IR allows you to see through some synthetic materials and polymers, whereas UV is generally blocked by it, I think I remember the issue being that these sensors captured such a wide spectrum. When Sony reacted to the NightShot controversy, they claimed that people using these cameras thought they could see a nude silhouette through thin black fabrics, but that no nude features were actually exposed. Sony also claimed that the real problem was engaging night mode when there was plenty of ambient light, so they limited that capability in future models. But, from what I understand, the real solution was doping the sensor glass or adding a coating that narrowed the frequencies detected to a range closer to the infrared video lights on the camera.

So, assuming that OOP is indeed correct that this new camera records IR and UV, then there's an increased likelihood that the sensor can also see through thin synthetic fabrics, also assuming I remember everything correctly. If the inclusion of UV was more like, "or whatever frequency," then it's probably not really an issue.

Pic to demonstrate this effect with my phone's IR camera on a Roku remote I found.