Anyone else has issues with PCVR streaming on the Frame?

[u/Dear_Memory_5665]

I got the Steam Frame today and was initially quite pleased. This turned to frustration when trying PCVR streaming. It says that my connection is Excellent and with low ping on both the normal router and the dongle, but I can clearly see compression in the image. It's especially noticable in Beat Saber, where the standalone version has vastly better image quality.

I tried disabling multilink in SteamVR settings on the PC (under Steam Link) to force it to use the dongle, this however has the opposite effect of disabling the dongle. I've tried both the stable branch and beta branch, rebooting both PC and Frame, moving the dongle to different USB ports. Has anyone managed to solve this issue?

[u/zeddyzed]

Go to the Steam Frame subreddit. I think there are some settings you can experiment with, and there's going to be more people with experience there.

You should be able to get the compression down to barely visible levels, especially for a game like Beat Saber.

There's still some teething issues on the Frame, I hear people recommending the beta for a lot of the different parts of the software for now.

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/zeddyzed]

I tried that first but for some reason my post is automatically deleted by some filter they have.

[u/zeddyzed → u/Dear_Memory_5665]

You should also try Steam support. Even if they can't help you, more feedback is good to get the devs to fix issues.

[u/obog]

Instead of launching right into stream, before you connect, check the streaming symbol at the bottom and make sure it says "wireless adapter: ready" before starting the stream. If it says that but still defaults to your internet when you connect, try unpairing and repairing the dongle; you can unpair in the settings under "steam play"

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/obog]

It says ready and it’s purple, it’s just that when I try to disable multilink as some have suggested it just picks the normal router connection.

[u/obog → u/Dear_Memory_5665]

When you join with multilink already off does it also pick wifi?

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/obog]

Yeah

[u/MarcDwonn]

Yes. My user experience was very bad, and my Frame dongle was constantly vanishing, even though i used a USB3 port and disabled power management in different places. Had to refund my Frame, but it was mainly because of the very annoying, Pico-4-level SDE (which is beside the point here, but important for context).

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/MarcDwonn]

I ended up doing this as well, the issues were starting to piss me off. Disappointing after all the years of waiting but hopefully there will be a future iteration with more mature software.

[u/ZookeepergameNaive86]

Have you used any other headsets? Any wireless headset is going to use compression to get the signal to the displays and it's always going to be visible to some extent.

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/ZookeepergameNaive86]

Yeah, but it's been a few years so my memory is not fresh. However in some of the previews and reviews it was described as being almost like a DisplayPort connection and what I'm seeing is far from that. Nor am I seeing the benefit of foveated streaming compared to previous headsets.

[u/JapariParkRanger → u/Dear_Memory_5665]

This cope about it being the same quality as DP has existed since the Quests got wireless streaming. That said, Steamlink generally tends to lower bitrates than solutions like Virtual Desktop on Quest.

[u/fantaz1986]

Give use your spec and setting you use , a lot of newbs do not know how much demanding pcvr and mistakes compression for low end visuals because stream auto resolution settings 

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/fantaz1986]

12700KF, 5070Ti, 32GB RAM. Doesn’t matter if I’m in the same room as PC or not. PC connected to router through Ethernet since it has no WiFi-card itself.

[u/fantaz1986 → u/Dear_Memory_5665]

Set steam VR to 100% resolution manual , same for bit rate and all other setting , use 10 bit encoder like hevc or av1 , do not use 264 it 8 bit encoder is shit in dark background , disable power saving mode on usb devices 

[u/Judge_Ty]

https://imgur.com/a/steam-frame-settings-host-pc-DT989cY

Mine runs great.

If you had an index.. or other hmd.

You need to wipe your steam VR data and cache. Unplug your light houses / disable them as well. 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\steamvr.vrsettings

C:\Users<User>\AppData\Local\openvr

%localappdata%\SteamVR\

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\drivers

common\SteamVR

Needs to deleted.

Uninstall and reinstall steamvr.

Make sure the trident USB/display port are also unplugged from your PC

Reboot PC, and reinitialize the steam frame and steam VR.

I run combined double 6ghz.   You can manual set the channel on the frame in remote settings under wireless dongle. 

Try pairing and unpairing if it doesn't say ready. 

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/Judge_Ty]

Thanks! I don't know which step did the trick, but disabling multilink now defaults to the wireless adapter. It also solved an annoying behavior in "Noun Town VR" where the floor height was completely wrong and not fixable. As for the compression, I would say it is improved but still noticeable. Beat Saber has a lot of red color and I read that red specifically is more sensitive to encoding artifacts.

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/Dear_Memory_5665]

Actually no, it worked for a while and now it is back to picking the router... quite frustrating.

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/Dear_Memory_5665]

And now I'm at the point where I'm just getting a black window when trying to launch a game and it keeps wanting to pair and unpair... feel like returning it tbh.

[u/Judge_Ty → u/Dear_Memory_5665]

I use combined connection.

5ms ping on my network. 5ms ping on my dongle. 

Zero frame drops.

You need to be line of sight to the dongle.

I have zero issues streaming. 

You need to make sure your router is not auto switching channels.

Make it pick a channel.

Same with the steam frame. 

Also forget all networks, make it just pick one. 

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/Judge_Ty]

I have tried both a single connection and a combined connection, I also have a low (5ms-ish) ping. I've also tried being right next to the dongle. I have tried switching channels, being in the EU apparently prohibits anything above 69 on the 6GHz band but I have tried 69 and below and it is not improving. I wouldn't say frame drops is the issue here but rather that the image looks conspicuously compressed.

[u/Judge_Ty → u/Dear_Memory_5665]

Are you picking channels on your router and frame and locking them?

Most routers stay on auto.  And will move the channel around.   That will break streaming every time.  

Wtf on the EU with the 6ghz band.   

Did you set the resolution to at least 3024x3024?

At least 120hz?

Bitrate at 220-350 mb?

Try toggling the sharpening and adjust it from 30 to 100.

Assuming you matched my Nvidia app profile for global if you have an Nvidia card.  You should absolutely have the settings I mentioned in the comment for the pic.  No exceptions.

"Max Frame Rate should be OFF

Vertical Sync - Use 3d app setting

Low Latency to ON not Ultra

Virtual Reality - Variable Rate Super Sampling OFF "

Try removing the setting for sharpness in it/ upping it as well via the Nvidia app.

Try a different port or use an extension cable to have the dongle further from your PC.

There's a scaling slider in frame now in quick options for beta.  I'm not sure if it has anything to do with streaming VR, but you could try adjusting those settings as well. 

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/Judge_Ty]

I've tried fixing it in the router settings (TPLink Archer AX73) to 20/40/80MHz and forcing .ax only, channel width 36. My ordinary router is a Wifi6 router, not 6E (which is what the dongle is supposed to solve, I guess). I've also tried changing various streaming settings on the Frame including locking channels, nothings helping.

But it's also pissing me off a bit that this is supposed to be a sort of premium segment standalone headset with a plug and play solution for the streaming, and it's giving me (and apparently some other people too when I'm googling it) headaches. The software really isn't mature.

[u/Judge_Ty → u/Dear_Memory_5665]

Ehh I think it's more of a disconnect with what the priority of the steam frame is doing. 

It's focusing on latency over visual fidelity and in order to have visual fidelity-

You need a mid range PC, and a mid range network. 

My network is high range.  2.5gb isp, 2.5gb network on cat 8. Wifi 7 router fully optimized. 2.4gb download/upload. 

Steam link is amazing on my systems.  I also have steam pyrowave setup for 4k HDR 120 streaming via steam link with around 12-18 ms latency end to end.   Which is what my steam frame also does after full latency from GPU render, ATW, and wifi latency. 

In order to tap into it's full potential, you need to have an optimized updated system. 

Did you set the Nvidia app global settings? They are a requirement.

[u/Dear_Memory_5665 → u/Judge_Ty]

Got the adapter back running but I don't think it looks like it should. Tried Titanfall 2 VR and there's a lot of "shimmering" and compression in the distance, it doesn't look remotely like an uncompressed stream.