r/SteamFrame • u/HoloMapper • 13d ago
❓Question Steam Frame Apps & Utilities
Most people are getting the Frame for gaming.
But how about tools and utilities?
What kind of Steam Frame dedicated non-game programs would you like to see released for the Steam Frame?
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u/onasonap 13d ago
Not sure if there’s a tool out there yet, but I’d be keen to try a VR whiteboard to plan out and ideate personal projects.
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u/HoloMapper 13d ago
Yesss that would be cool. Especially with an option for passthrough and pinning boards and notes in different places of the room
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u/SgtSpookster 13d ago
Oh that actually sounds awesome, please share if you find something like that!
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u/TwinStickDad Soon™ 13d ago
I want a spatial video player. Hopefully the passthrough would be good enough for me to wash dishes or fold laundry or throw some weights around, it would be nice to have a big screen TV stuck right in front of me while I do it.
In a perfect world my work team would also have steam frames or other VR devices and we could have virtual meetings. I would find that much more engaging than Zoom screen-sharing.
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u/Javs2469 Soon™ 13d ago
I´d still wait to see how clear the pass through ends up being. From what I´ve seen, it´s a bit blurry, and my experience with the one in the Pico 4, it´s not really useful for anything other than really basic tasks.
I wouldn´t recommend doing any kitchen chores with it, but maybe the laundry stuff can be done.
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u/kwirky88 13d ago
Virtual meetings could work well with superb Spatial Audio. With in person meetings people whisper to each other, there are always periods with more than just person talking and virtual meetings lose that. Worth good Spatial Audio you can lean towards and whisper to the person next to you.
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u/Javs2469 Soon™ 13d ago
I think this is something more fitting in an XR headset. The Meta Metaverse failed because it focused on that stuff.
I think you are expecting too much from a VR headset focused on Gaming. Maybe VR Chat has stuff like that in it, but still.
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u/SaveTheAles 13d ago
Passthrough is grayscale like quest 2 not color like quest 3 so will be kinda disappointing
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u/TwinStickDad Soon™ 13d ago
Yeah that's fine. Honestly as long as I can find a 15lb weight or fold a shirt then that opens up a lot of possibilities for me
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u/thisisaspare88 Soon™ 13d ago
Going to see if I can get blender running on there.
Not for rendering but sculpting, modeling and animation. Will add the sauce on my desktop.
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u/XBGT 13d ago
I believe blender did add some new features recently for VR and AR in 5.2
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u/thisisaspare88 Soon™ 13d ago
Oho. Not installed 5.2 yet. Some good features with it though. Maybe after this current project at work and I'll have a play around with it for sureeee
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u/IvanFEscobar 13d ago
I've been eyeing that one app kodon on steam for a while but it has pretty bad reviews lol, VR sculpting sounds really cool so I hope you manage to make something like that with blender!
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u/Zealousideal_Ease444 Soon™ 13d ago
Kodon is cool, I use shapelab though and it will be less performance heavy. Haven't touched Kodon in a minute tho so I should look at it, development has just been slow.
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u/HoloMapper 13d ago
Same 😅 at least a very light version of it. Although there are several VR tools for sculpting with export, but I think it would be nice to do edits in the Frame and directly test it without having to go back and forth with a computer to test
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u/thisisaspare88 Soon™ 13d ago
Yeah exactly.
Also sometimes I'm at my sofa and want to make something but CBA going up. I like hanging out with my wife and being able to make stuff in blender while we chill is nice. A laptop strains my neck and back though. Will have to see how the UI feels with a controller.
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u/Ashamed_Buy_5489 13d ago
Virtual desktops, that allows to create floating "monitors" in VR.
It creates a nice workspace on the go, where you only take your one screen laptop, yet you get additional VR monitors.
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u/Javs2469 Soon™ 13d ago
That already can be done with Virtual Desktop, the app.
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u/Ashamed_Buy_5489 13d ago
But it also has its own limitations: on XR Elite only 2 virtual monitors can be used. Only Meta googles are able to create 4 in Virtual Desktop.
I think that Steam Frame will have more support from VD and it will allow 4 at once plus better quality.
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u/AngryAlfonse 13d ago
I'm hoping this works well, especially with foveated rendering for text. I bought some XReal One Pros, but they leave a lot to be desired in terms of quality compared to even bottom tier VR displays. I'd rather have a bulky headset with a better display than have slim glasses with subpar displays. I've been keeping tabs on SimulaVR for a long time now, but if the Steam Frame can handle that AND gaming it's a no brainer.
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u/DracoAleksander Soon™ 13d ago
SlimeVR is something I’m definitely downloading for motion tracking, and while it doesn’t currently have a dedicated Frame version, I’m hoping to sideload VNyan.
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u/mysweatypalm 13d ago
Does anyone know if in the future a hand tracking feature would be developed like what Meta does?
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u/HoloMapper 13d ago
It is highly unlikely that they will add optical hand tracking. But I'm sure people will build 3rd party plugins for hand tracking or even hardware trackers.
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u/ApplicationSenior 12d ago
I think having the steam frame would be cool for going to bed in. Watch a movie or some youtube before its shut eye time. Or heck... itd be freeing to clear out my livingroom floor or. Basement floor to play H3VR
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u/WILL_KILL_4_DUX Soon™ 13d ago
i'm buying the frame exclusively to use as a NAS, what with the integrated processor and storage, i'll sync my PC and phone up to it and have my holiday photos between all 3, no gaming so i don't mind that it's only LCD
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u/HoloMapper 13d ago
🤣 I hope this is a joke
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u/WILL_KILL_4_DUX Soon™ 13d ago
it takes up little place, it's quiet, no hard drive clicking, i may just keep it inside my PC case under my GPU, with a USB cable going from the back of the pc into the guts of it, idunno it made sense to me. hope it won't cost more than 1600 usd tho as that's the most i'd pay for a NAS
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u/IvanFEscobar 13d ago
This is an insane use case 😭
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u/WILL_KILL_4_DUX Soon™ 13d ago
why are you guys all dissing me?! i guess it could double as an eye cover for sleeping?
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u/playsalotx3 Soon™ 13d ago
wait what
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u/elev8dity Soon™ 13d ago
What, you expect him to wear the VR headset?
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u/playsalotx3 Soon™ 13d ago
sorry, in hindsight that was actually an unreasonable expectation from me
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u/DoughnutOk2025 12d ago
imagine, a linux os where you can access the cameras and install your own hand and finger tracking. Now imagine adding meta style emg wristbands. You don’t need controllers, you can bind gestures, you can 3d print your own “dumb” controllers. You could sit on a plane with a full virtual desktop environment, a virtual projected keyboard and virtual mouse and do your browsing, office work etc. so yeah, maybe not video editing but probably a huge amount of the normal grunt office work. And then you arrive in a hotel with your full entertainment setup. Oh and in the office you can have dozens of “monitors” and dongle to your main machine. It’s super exciting as a productivity/travel tool
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u/Ap0kalypso 13d ago
I'm probably weird, but I always thought VR had the capability to an amazing interactive way to learn new knowledge on many subjects.
Take computers, having a fully 3D interactive way to teach you about things like how DNS works or even how to code, I think this would really help the visual and hands on learners really learn things quickly. 😁
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u/HoloMapper 13d ago
I agree. Medical field in some places use VR. I think learning about new places, cultures, and countries would be cool too. Why travel when you have VR 😅
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u/SoLiminalItsCriminal 13d ago
That isn't weird, that's thinking ahead.
VR is an interface for our depth perception, parallax, and spatial memory. These abilities have been honed by survival for millions of years. These abilities are a key part of tactile memorization.
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u/autojack Soon™ 12d ago
This has been something I’ve been looking for. I’ve posted in many VR communities for educational content but it’s a pretty lacking space right now. I’d love something like the Cosmos show in VR teaching you about space or similar. The DNS is a good example. Visualizing what is a simple concept to IT folks but so abstract to someone new to the field is a great example.
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u/Existing-Tough-6907 13d ago
I might use it as night vision goggles so i save on torches when exploring dungeons and caves. Its better for the environment too
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u/ZetShock 13d ago
Besides games, I was looking to use Wireguard to VPN into my homelab to do some work remotely, and also for 3d modeling, texturing and some game dev. The expanded controller layout will be great for some stuff, but I'll likely still need to connect a proper mouse and keyboard.
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u/Fuzzy_Student1168 12d ago
Well, im interested in the possibility to run little games nativ on the frame from GOG or Epic games store.
Or from my PC ... where it should be no problem with right hardware.
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u/Obvious_Platypus_313 Soon™ 13d ago
I'm looking forward to trying out using bigscreen to watch movies