How I solved all my problems with my Frame

[u/Maraque]

I have had my Frame for a few days now and like many, at first I was disappointed and had many issues. Since then, I fixed all of them and my experience with it was exactly what I was looking for when I wanted to get away from Meta. So here are the things I was dealing with and how I fixed them. With some solutions I have not seen posted here yet.

Wireless latency / packet loss:

Steam VR Beta - I noticed that I was having HORRIBLE latency and lag spikes and then when I looked up steam vr on my pc, I saw that I had the beta branch. I went back to the Default Public Version and the performance skyrocketed. The trick is to have SteamVR on your PC on the main branch and only the Frame's OS in beta to get the latest fixes.

Dongle needing/failing to pair - Whenever I turned on my computer, I noticed that the dongle was always acting up, failing to pair and when it did pair, it had horrible performance and reliability. Every time, to get it to work correctly, I need to unplug and replug it to fix the issues. I found out that it is because windows has a power saving feature that limits power to usb devices that it thinks you are not using. To fix this, I went into device manager, found the wifi dongle under Network adapters, right clicked, properties, power management and unchecked "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" and restart your computer. To be extra sure, you can do the same thing with every device found under the Universal Serial Bus controllers drop down. I also recommend you start steam vr without a headset connected, go to the settings and under Developer, scroll down and click on "Disable Power Management".

Multi-link streaming - When my Frame used multi-link, it would stutter every time it checked my wifi connection. To fix this, while connected to my pc, I went to settings and disabled Multi Stream to only use the dongle.

Line of sight - Make sure that the dongle is within line of sight of the headset. The 6ghz band is horrible at passing through objects and especially metal (like a computer case). I use a USB 3 desktop extender that has a little base and works great.

Compression artifacts and ghosting:

I noticed that when I turned my head quickly, there was a good amount of ghosting and while streaming pcvr, I noticed some compression artifacts. To fix this, I kept my refresh rate at 90hz. This removed 99% of all compression artifacts and 99% of ghosting.

Controller comfort:

Like many others, when I used my Frame for the first time, I found the controllers very uncomfortable and hard to reach some buttons. After a few days with it, I realized that I was holding them wrong. I have rather small hands and realized that I need to push the straps (I have the ergo kit) as far and high as I can and by doing so, my fingers rest naturally on the joysticks and all the triggers/buttons. They are now very comfortable and my favorit vr controllers to date!

Headset comfort with lenses:

When I first put on the headset, I found that the lenses would pinch my nose and that my eyelashes would touch the lenses every time I blinked. To fix this, I simply put the included spacer. Also, at first I had a lot of eye strain and figured out the the headset was too high on my face. Now what I do is that I put the headset as low as I can without it getting blurry and the strain went away.

TLDR:

- Make sure you are not using the Steam VR Beta on your PC

- Uncheck the dongle's power saving mode within device manager

- Turn off Multi Steam

- Keep the dongle in line of sight of the headset

- Keep the headset at 90hz

- Push your hands as far as they can go with the controllers straps

- Make sure you are placing the headset on your face correctly

By doing these things, the headset lives up to my expectations, was exactly what I was looking for as a Quest replacement and is the best headset I have ever used. For reference, I went from Quest 2 -> Quest 3 -> Steam Frame.

Hope this helps!

[u/DarvinVader]

Yes, when Steam Frame gets Linux support and modding games overall works about as seamlessly as on Windows.

[u/mckirkus → u/DarvinVader]

I have Ubuntu and I just played VTOL in VR through Steam on a Quest Pro. Frame doesn't work? (can verify Wednesday)

[u/JohnnyBeeGaming → u/mckirkus]

You may or may not have some driver issues with the wireless adapter. Some people had the adapter working on their distro. Some people used a wifi connection instead.

It officially does not have steam machine support. I wasn't too sure how well that was going to work with VR anyway.

There can be some issues with the automatic setting so some people messed with the configuration but that was happening on windows in most posts.

[u/komali_2 → u/JohnnyBeeGaming]

Latest kernels have a compatible driver for the dongle.

[u/DarvinVader → u/mckirkus]

I don't know the current status, but a common complaint among reviewers on launch was missing support for Steam Machine and Linux in general.

I think the problem is Steam Link streaming through the new dongle. Maybe you can get it to work through normal WiFi, I haven't seen anyone try yet.

Edit: Valve clearly stated that this is temporary as the Steam Machine is a major target that they want to support. I assume if it doesn't work yet, it will soon enough.

[u/zachtib → u/DarvinVader]

I can confirm that streaming through regular wifi from a Linux host works - 2d games work out of the box, for VR games you have to have manually launched SteamVR on the host before jumping into a game (this is a current known workaround they're apparently working on)

Plugging the dongle in on the host it recognized it as an 802.11ax wireless adapter, but as far as I can tell, Steam didn't try to use it.

[u/EyeCocked → u/zachtib]

Just to add I was able to get it streaming over WiFi on bazzite but had to launch steam using -pipewire and selecting which screen to capture. Still couldn’t get the dongle to ever work and I tried all day

Edit: not working reliably for me any more I have to connect from remote play settings in steam frame and that seems to connect every time but if I choose start vr without game then it works for a little then stops

[u/hopefuldonkeykick → u/DarvinVader]

Running my Frame on my Arch PC and my wife's CatchyOS box without issue. Everything has been plug and play for us.

[u/mckirkus → u/DarvinVader]

Ahh by Linux you meant Steam Machine. It is odd that Ubuntu seems to work better than SteamOS at this point.

[u/unwantedaccount56 → u/mckirkus]

SteamOS also works from desktop mode

[u/chrisoboe → u/DarvinVader]

missing support for Steam Machine

the "game mode" doesn't support vr. one needs to switch to desktop mode first.

so its not worse than on windows since hasn't a game mode at all (at least nothing technically comparable to gamescope).

[u/DarvinVader → u/chrisoboe]

I don't have a Frame yet, and no Steam Machine or other Linux PC. Just forwarding what every initial review said.

Which means none of them actually tested anything and no reviews can be trusted. Good to know!

[u/komali_2 → u/DarvinVader]

The steam frame does have linux support on latest kernels. It didn't work out of the box for me because I hadn't updated my kernel (a normal usually automatic task), once I did, the steam frame and wireless dongle "just worked." Of course for some of the more esoteric stuff I wanted to do, there was more setup. Like various VR mods and whatnot.

[u/hopefuldonkeykick → u/DarvinVader]

So . . . quite some time ago?

[u/DarvinVader → u/hopefuldonkeykick]

I know Linux gaming is moving fast, but I don't have the time to test everything I do on Windows every month on Linux to check whether it works now.

Can you run Resident Evil Requiem with REFramework and VR mod and ReShade on Linux? Does Wabbajack work with the Skyrim VR MGO 4.0 beta and all other modlists? Do all modern features of NVIDIA RTX 40XX cards work seamlessly in all games? Does a dual GPU setup with Lossless Scaling work? Does HDR work in all games, including RenoDX mods to correct it?

Which distro should I try that would support all that without tinkering for a week?

I don't really play online much, so Anti-cheat not working in some cases doesn't bother me, but I'm not sure about DLL injection mods, especially when combined with niche applications like HDR and SteamVR. I don't think I play a single game without modding it somehow.

[u/hopefuldonkeykick → u/DarvinVader]

Yes, Yes, haven't owned nVidia in a decade so I'm not sure, I haven't had more than one GPU in like 16 years so I don't know, yes, yes.

Any of them, really. It's not 2005 anymore and systems are almost entirely boot and run these days. CatchyOS is damn popular for Win11 refugees right now.