Not sure. It’s a moot point though as a USB2.0 port is insufficient. It has to be USB3.0, preferably 3.2.

No change.

My result is far more serius. It’s not just blank, opening the desktop entry fully and completely crashes everything.

There is a “desktop” option when streaming. If I try to open it, Steam crashes and everything breaks.

I’ve not seen mine or heard of anyone elses hitting 45W. I can barely get it to pass 30W while charging+playing.

It’s unlikely the Frame can charge at that speed, as that would fill the small battery in less than 30 minutes.

It might still be using 15V, the amperage of each mode is not constant. Devices can pull as much or as little as they want.

It makes no difference. Does it work for you then?

Do note that in good conditions, multi-link really isn’t needed, and if one of the connections is bad, disabling it can actually improve things.

You can manually set the channels for the dongles, you have to enable custom in Remote Play settings inside the Frame, there you can set a custom SSID, channel, etc.

You should create separate SSIDs for 6GHz and 5GHz, you want to stick to one or the other for the WiFi link. When using multi-link, the dongle will switch to whichever is not being used by the WiFi connection (Or always 6GHz, if the option to reserve it for the dongle is enabled). You are not using two 6GHz connections, it’s always 5+6GHz, as the Frame can only do two different connections at the same time. (Maybe that’s why you incorrectly assume 3 frames is the maximum in a room?)

Your router connection being a tad worse is probably because the frames are using 5GHz there (assuming the dongles are on 6GHz), and doing so on the same router? You’ll probably get better results disabling multi-link, and using only the dongles.

Transmit power is not the final say on the router side, check for features like “airtime fairness” and “transmission bursting” that trade latency for other things.

You can absolutely have more than 3 frames in a room, though for that kind of setup, you’d want to configure each of them to use specific, non-overlapping 6GHz channels (which is tricky as the dongles use hidden SSIDs that can’t see each other, and therefore avoid channel overlap). And you would need to use the dongle for this, as otherwise you’d need to get one router for each Frame, to enable them being on different channels.

You’d also want to disable multi-link, as again, to use it effectively you’d need both a dedicated router for each headset, as well as a dongle, in order for all connections to use separate channels.

But, this means that at 160MHz channel width, you can have up to 7 (in the US) Frames in the same space, (and technically also give each a 5GHz multi-link connection) each using an entirely separate and dedicated 6GHz connection. You might even be able to drop to 80MHz and do 14 Frames. The bandwidth should be sufficient.

Though when this saturated, you’d have so many people and their devices around, that people’s phones and PCs scanning for WiFi will cause interference. It might become necessary for people to put their other devices in airplane mode to stop them sending hotspot queries in the 6GHz range.

Vive trackers operate at much smaller datarates, and use the 2.4GHz range, they should not interfere with Frame streams.

Another chapter of Lemmy history is written.

Neat!

6GHz is not globally legal. That part of the spectrum is used for other stuff, too, not just wifi. Unless software (and in some cases hardware) can verify in some way that they are in a region where that spectrum is allowed to be used, they won’t put out a single signal in that range. Phones and laptops often check whether other 6GHz devices are around. If they are, they will usually allow you to at least connect to 6GHz networks, simply assuming that if devices that create such networks are nearby, then they must be legal wherever you are.

But the dongle CREATES the 6Ghz network. That’s why it needs to be extra sure. That is also why the warning on the Arch wiki page I linked about ABSOLUTELY NOT setting your region to anything other than what it actually is, is so serious.

Tilt Brush - Draw in 3D

Blocks - Simple 3D modeling

eGPU

I didn’t get anything from Valve.

Once I received the Frame, the battery life was indeed not enough for me, so I went out an got a 20000mAh 65W power bank, and a one meter cable with a 90 degree connector. The angled connector is perfect, I already had some suitable cables, but I feel the pull of the angled one not at all. I feel like with a coiled one you wouldn’t be able to avoid it tugging on the HMD ever so slightly?

I also initially considered 10000mAh to make it smaller and lighter in my pocket, enough to pretend it isn’t there, but opted for double that for the additional playtime. That was again the right call, I have been draining the 20000mAh fully almost every session, and the larger bank hasn’t been as heavy as I feared.

For a case, I found one made for the Pico 4. The Frame is just a tad smaller, and the controllers a tad bigger, but the general shapes are a close match. I used some big scissors to mutilate the soft plastic where the controller joysticks interfere with the fit, and as a result the Frame controllers fit ok. There is just enough space to squeeze in the power bank at the side.

I had planned on using something over bluetooth for audio, but I’m pretty happy with the internal speakers, actually. And trying my XM5s, they work, but the bluetooth latency for VR is noticeable.

I’ve never seen it draw anything close to 45W even in play+charging scenarios. It does momentarily go over 30W at times, but you really don’t need much to keep it going, and charge at the same time.

With a 65W 20 000mAh bank in my pocket 4-5 hours seems to be about what I get.

I’m very happy with the small internal battery, as I how light the HMD itself is, is a key feature for me.

Both Index and Frame have a brightness setting that goes from IIRC 60% to 125%.

100% is the default, because it is where white and black are most “balanced”. Going lower makes white seem kind of dim, and going higher, makes black seem even less black.

Going up or down can look better depending on the game, but it being in VR is why going above and below 100% makes a bit of sense.

Same experience.

I did get a 65W bank, but only because it’d be useful for charging my laptop and Deck as well as the Frame. By my math, even 20W should be sufficient to keep playing, if not charge the Frame.

There is a caveat though, PD voltage profiles mean that any two devices may not transfer the maximum theoretically possible wattage between them, depending on how their modes line up.

For example, a PB that is rated to do 30W, may not achieve that on the Frame, if it lacks a 15V mode. (Which is what the Frame and Deck seem to prefer.) You also need a suitable cable to use some of the modes at higher amperages.

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.

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.)

One of the few things I hope Steam copies from Meta.

Just being able to point your way around the UI is very convenient.

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.