Valve brings native Steam Link app to Apple’s Vision Pro
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I’ve been looking to pickup a Vision Pro on the cheap after folks give up on them, but they’re really stuck around the $2k price for M2 version when I look. I do have some projects I’d like to code for them for fun. Plus, I’d love to give them a try for a while to watch a few movies, concerts, Laker’s immersive games, etc. I just can’t stomach paying over $2k for a pet project toy. 2D games just seem like I could have projected the MacBook screen onto them to play, but maybe that’s not correct.
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As a coder, my Vision Pro is the most expensive monitor that I own. It's a portable 10m (400") monitor that lets me work on a giant screen anywhere I go. (Currently traveling with it in Mississippi.) Combined with the Macbook Pro (which finally got integration support with the Vision Pro just a year or so ago), it's an impressive developer tool.
I don't watch movies on it, or sports, or whatever (with a few exceptions, e.g. when my wife is trying to sleep).
And yeah, I bought it for $2200 about 2 years ago in almost new shape, when people started dumping theirs on ebay (right after the return period with Apple expired).
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That's it in a realistic nutshell. It was never going to be a mainstream device at that price and really I don't see any VR as being mainstream. No one has yet - even the cheap ones - broken through to mass market. BUT for a niche (in terms of general population) use like yours, when it works, it really works.
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I've tried this on my AVP and though it's not quite working properly yet (time to report a bug) I'm not sure that I'd use this a lot. The Mac Virtual Display is pretty great when I do want a big screen version of anything on my Mac, and without 3D support there's nothing unique here?
One thing I would love to see is the return of the long-discontinued SteamVR to support the Apple Vision Pro. That would allow Final Cut Pro to output spatial/stereo video direct to an app on the AVP, which is still sadly missing.
One thing I would love to see is the return of the long-discontinued SteamVR to support the Apple Vision Pro. That would allow Final Cut Pro to output spatial/stereo video direct to an app on the AVP, which is still sadly missing.
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The M2 VP never was a good buy for most people. Even the M5 has a limited target market.
Years later, a 500$ Quest 3 is still the best device for most people to watch YouTube in VR or play Steam VR, which supports 3D gaming and gives access to AAA VR games.
Years later, a 500$ Quest 3 is still the best device for most people to watch YouTube in VR or play Steam VR, which supports 3D gaming and gives access to AAA VR games.
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I initially saw the headline and thought they'd finally announced the Steam Frame VR headset pricing/release date. That's the news I'm eagerly awaiting.
Still, it's cool they've added Steam Link to the apple headset.
Still, it's cool they've added Steam Link to the apple headset.
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Apparently the Moonlight iPad app can run on Vision Pro; while very slightly trickier to set up, Moonlight + Sunshine comprehensively trounces Steam Link for streaming quality and stability in my experience.
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It is. From the headline, I was ready to buy a vision pro for VR. Then I got to the 2D only part and don’t get it. Who cares? For $2,200 I’ll get a great, big display.
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It's worth noting there's also SteamLink for Quest headsets, which support both flat and VR gaming, and it works pretty well. ALVR and Virtual Desktop are both better but SteamLink is much, much better than Quest's built-in QuestLink software.
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Games are not like other software. So many people want to experience them again after their original hardware is obsolete.
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I was running the iPad app since release on the Vision Pro. What exactly changed on the native vision os app?
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For higher resolution headsets, SteamLink is now a better option than Virtual Desktop or ALVR. It's support of dynamic foveated streaming is better, and it transmits a higher resolution than Virtual Desktop is currently able to do. I use it with the Play for Dream MR and it's very impressive.
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apple made a genuinely goof VR headset and still even after it failed to sell, after it pivoted away, still insists its not a VR hradset.
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I have a Vive Focus 3 that I’ve used on planes and business trips. It’s great for watching movies on the plane and runs Steam VR apps. It also uses hand gestures like the Vision Pro. It’s part of the reason I’m confused by Apple’s no-VR status - if Vive could do it, why can’t they?
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That makes me wonder how much better the device would do if they'd work to make a more streamlined version to help reduce the cost.
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I was going to ask if the iPad version already worked and if it did why this if it doesn't add VR gaming.
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It doesn't help that the Apple Vision Pro isn't a VR headset, it's an AR headset. This may sound like a pedantic distinction, because AVP's hardware should be fully capable as a VR headset, but Apple's insistence on selling the AVP as an AR device has resulted in anemic support for the headset integrating into VR ecosystems.
As for whether VR becomes mainstream, these things aren't going to take-off like smartphones did. There're a good handful of activities that VR is amazing for, but not everyone likes those activities and not everyone is willing to put up with the ergonomics of VR. AR is more expensive, most of the good uses are smaller improvements, and its used in places where ergonomics are a much higher priority. Add in the fact that AR has a much higher price tag, it's hard to say that AR tech will ever become daily-wear.
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unlike Meta they didn't make these grand promises of a virtual reality where the "whole internet" would be hanging out in. Apple is building out the use case and firming up what works. The Apple Watch wasn't an overnight success by any stretch either.
Apple has one thing other tech companies lack. Patience.
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Or half that. Such as a $300 refurbished Quest 3S - But on sale for $250 USD
Considering the feel of "tech prices rising" miserable timeline we now seem to be stuck in...
...That actually honestly feels like a steal, even if it's used only infrequently like winter exercise in Canada, to running an annual favourite AAA VR game, or running a mod to stream 2D flat gaming into a pseudo-3D screen (like a 3DTV or 3D Vision monitor). Cyberpunk 2077 viewed in 3D is rather a new replay when played that way.
While VR is still a largeish niche (more popular than Nintendo U), and not mega-popular (like Nintendo Switch), the apparent price of VR gaming via Quest is actually, has recently become more of a bargain currently, upon cost re-evaluation.
Enable Developer Mode and sideload your purchased copy of Quest Game Optimizer (well worth getting it -- it's an overclocking utility) to triple or quadruple the resolution of some of your existing Oculus/Meta Quest VR games.
Q3 also now have 6dof reprojection (experimental spacewarp setting) so you can supersample and still de-stutter your head turns/head translationals. It's the old Rift ASW2 -- except newly optimized for Quest 3/3S.
I can now finally force even higher supersampled resolution settings than default because I enabled spacewarp (6dof reprojection) that was previously too stuttery without 6dof spacewarp.
The overclocking and higher resolution forced on existing games on the faster 3/3S CPU/GPU, you can often crisp full-resolution or above-resolution 4K+ gaming about 4x sharper than the blurrygaming on old Quest 2, at least in light-CPU/GPU games that can handle the supersampled resolution modes -- such as "Beat Saber", "Time Stall", "Down the Rabbit Hole" (semi-retro-style Sierra style dollhouse game in VR).
In some cases, I was able to run at 200% oversampled resolution and let it downconvert to the headset native rez. Etc. Starts to almost compete with some AVP titles in sharpness, almost. (Because it was internally rendering at AVP native rez before downconversion to Quest 3 screen). Battery life falls to 1.5 hours, but big whoop. Short game sessions with higher quality, or use any USB-C PD external mobile phone banks as external batteries.
Faster roomscale is now automatically done by photogrammetry just by looking around, in a firmware upgrade to Quest 3/3S. So making roomscale is a lot faster/easier now for new VR playspaces. The friction waxes and wanes, due to bugs, and a lot of apps are crap shovelware. But the price?
All in a $250 headset + $10 headset overclock util
= nearly same sharpness as AVP in some content
While deleting a zero from the price.
AVP is obviously way better blacks and color (and pancake lens), but sharpness now amazingly competes in some content at one-tenth the price!? It's still worth it for me to have VR vacations even only for a couple of big VR game sessions per month, considering the rising tech price alternatives we seem have the misfortune having so far.
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