Does The Steam Frame Even Need Passthrough?

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Yeah, I would say the full color pass-through thing definitely it's kind of like AI in the way that like it didn't necessarily revolutionize things for me. It didn't like it wasn't a game-changer sort of technological innovation, but I do use it. It's more of a convenience thing for me. It's more of like I like that pass-through >> don't have it you miss it.

[00:00:19]>> Yeah.

[00:00:20]It is super convenient. It is super helpful and I swear to God even though the Quest pass-through is kind of crappy I've spent so much time in it that I forgot I was in pass-through. Mhm.

[00:00:31]>> And I was looking for my headset.

[00:00:34]>> [laughter] >> Now I made a short joking about it.

[00:00:36]Obviously I'm acting in the short, but it [clears throat] was based on reality.

[00:00:40]Like I was a dumb like I was looking for my headset for like 5 minutes.

[00:00:46]And the controllers are there and then like I'm walking around and I realized when I picked up the controllers and then I saw the virtual image.

[00:00:54]Mhm.

[00:00:54]>> just threw them down. I'm like you are an effing I was like you are so dumb. You're already in VR you >> [laughter] [gasps] >> And and you and you just knocked on the Quest 3's pass-through earlier. I feel like I will die on the hill that the Quest 3 color pass-through is actually top tier. Like cuz I've gone back with the Quest 3 and the Quest >> not compared to the AVP.

[00:01:19]No, well, I see I I have an Apple Vision Pro. I feel like the Apple Vision Pro is may- maybe it's 20% better if I'm being really generous, but I feel like the Quest 3 is twice as good as the Quest Pro.

[00:01:33]Like the Quest 3 >> Quest Pro sucks.

[00:01:37]Yeah, sucks. So it's the pass-through is so delayed and the color was so washed out. But a lot of that they you know got better over time with software changes.

[00:01:46]Yeah.

[00:01:47]>> They're stitching multiple images together. They're doing color correction. You have a latency.

[00:01:53]Yeah, and that's that's the thing that a lot of people don't realize about the Quest Pro is that it's it's not actually full color cameras. It's black and white cameras and they're just overlaying color on top of it. When we tried the Play for Dream for the first time cuz the Play for Dream, same same boat. Oh, it's mixed reality. It's full color passthrough. When I tried it on for the first time, my first question was, is this real full color passthrough or is this a camera color overlay? And they were like, "Oh, no, it's it's real."

[00:02:17]Like, "Okay." So, when I tried it I think that's when I met you guys, too, at AWE. Mhm. Yeah. I tried the Play for Dream. Oh, by the way, I have the Play for Dream that you guys physically handed me.

[00:02:28]Ah. Yeah. Um So, when I was there and I did the mixed reality demo, like you turn around and there's a bunch of mixed reality things near you and they look insane.

[00:02:39]Like and I was blown away. They had Marvel, like I don't know, Endgame playing on a wall. So, when you put the headset on and look at that wall, you you see Endgame. And as you walk closer to it, the sound got better. And then there were like a bunch of sculptures and stuff. And I was like, this looks amazing.

[00:02:54]And then I got home and tried the mixed reality and I was like, is this the same model you had on the floor? Oh, interesting.

[00:03:02]>> And they I'm just like, the passthrough looks the same as the Quest in my house.

[00:03:06]And they're just like, you know. And I'm just like, I think I was so distracted by all the virtual elements they had at AWE that looked incredible that I didn't really focus on how good the passthrough was. Mhm.

[00:03:20]That makes sense. I think about that.

[00:03:21]Yeah.

[00:03:22]They're they're the Play for Dream currently and I went to go I talked to Marvin over there like a couple nights ago. He's he's been playing Crimson Desert. I mean, so have I, but um I went to go look at their website when I was talking to him and so they're out of stock on the Play for Dream. You can't get it anymore. But that when we were at CES, they were talking about launching a new headset. So, my thought is I think they're going to do I I think this year they're going to come up with a new headset. So, I'm I'm curious to see what what that looks like. They put out a new teaser poster or trailer or GIF on X every day. Every day it's like this the sunglasses VR experience. It's what you've all been waiting for. And I'm like, yeah, any day now. So I respect them on a lot of levels, but when you are a smaller company, it is too hard to mass produce.

[00:04:16]That's what happened to Lynx, in my opinion.

[00:04:18]>> Oh, man. Yeah. That's what we had that other like scammy one that disappeared years ago. Deca? Deca Gear? Deca Gear? Um Is that what Uh Deca Gear was exciting back in the day, but you know, 600 bucks it was supposed to be the headset of dreams, but they were they were explaining their headset like what it would be 3 years, 4 years down the road and saying like that's what they have now. At least that's what it seemed like.

[00:04:43]Um >> I remember this headset.

[00:04:44]>> Yeah.

[00:04:46]So So uh uh usually what ends up killing people is just that mass [clears throat] production. They don't realize that people can and and then Meta has like a bajillion people working on their OS.

[00:04:58]Doesn't seem that way, but they have a bajillion people.

[00:05:01]Mhm.

[00:05:02]That type of money and effort and staff you can't replicate. So when people are doing like OS, it a lot of that is just minutia. It's grunt work. Like a lot of it is like fixing the UI here, making the UI run smoother. You It's so time-consuming and ungrateful work.

[00:05:21]Yeah.

[00:05:21]>> And and even though like, you know, I'm sure the developers of the OS for the Play for Dream, you know, have a ton of pride in their device and want it to be the best. And they included features you can't get anywhere else. But it needs more playtesting. It needs more time. It needs more hands-on. Like sometimes just finding the simplest setting it takes a week.