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Comment by davesmith1983 | Hacker News Reader

davesmith1983

This is going to be another compiz cube. It looks cool, but I doubt it will be very useful outside of showing off some cool tech.

Also Valve tbh have dropped a lot of their more interesting tech. I had one of their steam links which isn't even sold anymore. The steam link was actually pretty useful for steaming anything on your desktop, I am sure you can do the same with a Raspberry Pi and some scripts but it worked pretty well if you hooked up a mouse and keyboard.

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Compiz cube was what convinced me to try Linux in the first place - I had always thought of it as a boring server OS, but then I saw the desktop cube and wobbly windows and thought "that looks cool enough to try it out." Hopefully this could have a similar result for some people who have VR headsets.

Same. And I like many, I turned that damn cube off after 2-3 months of use.

I feel like a walking cliche now, but you've described my introduction to Linux to a T.

"came for the cube, stayed for the freedom"

This is more common than you would suspect

I _loved_ the wobbly windows! But not enough to figure out how to reënable them in my most recent install ️

Plasma (KDE) still has wobbly windows. Settings -> Desktop Behavior -> Desktop Effects

Same! I used it for years. I loved the idea of having different desktops on each face of the cube. Compiz was so good.

Same!

> I am sure you can do the same with a Raspberry Pi and some scripts

Actually you don't even need to write your own scripts. There is an official steamlink package available for Raspbian. I just set up a Pi3 to run as a dedicated steamlink the other day, and it works fairly well.

Just run:

  apt install steamlink

  steamlink

Edit: And if you want it to run the steamlink interface on bootup, you can stick this in your crontab:

  @reboot steamlink

Thanks for the info. I wasn't surprised in the least that there was something out there. I am a nomadic dev at the moment so most of my kit is locked in a warehouse and I am stuck using MacBook pro.

Nice, I was curious what repo it was in since it doesn't seem to be in Debian Unstable anymore.

Anyone interested can get the Debian package here:

http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/s/steamlink/

Not to go too far off-topic, but if you haven't tried them -

I've found that the steam link apps for other platforms (ios/android) work very well. I'm not sure Valve needs dedicated hardware for this anymore.

I have a steamlink in the closet, but being able to do it in software is nice.

If you have steam installed on anything you can just stream to that device as long as they are on the same network.

I don’t know that most people would use this, but there’s a definite benefit that a VR headset can give you a grid of six 40” monitors for $400. Or whatever display setup you want. It’s an economical way to get a lot of real estate.

The resolution kills that notion for now, but someday it might become a cost effective setup.

Add a pair of noise canceling headphones and you can pretend your tiny desk is a private office! It even has imaginary walls to hang things on!

Totally agree. Tried this on an Oculus GO. Didn’t work well. Not enough resolution and the dev envy leaves a lot to be desired.

How far off is current headset resolution from what’s needed for reading code, working with files, audio, video?

Very close, but it is not there yet. The following is at least preferable:

- Full clarity along the lens

- Double the resolution of what the current VR has

- Foveated rendering (to be able to handle the high resolution)

- Dynamic focus

- Eye tracking (to get dynamic foveated rendering and focus)

- More comfort (lighter headset, improved finger tracking, better weight distribution, better foam, cooling etc.)

I'll add input device and hand/finger passthrough to that. I think the Rift S can do this, assuming you're good with "virtual screens overlayed on camera passthrough" as an implementation.

But if you want to bring it into a fully virtual world instead of on top of the cameras, then you can't see your keyboard, mouse, or fingers. I can blindly touch type well enough to get by, but for it to see any adoption you'll need to get the input devices visible in VR.

I love the Link, I use it all the time. I even bought a spare.

Yeah, I bought an extra one when they discounted them to near nothing after they announced they were discontinuing them. It's nice to be able to play games on my bedroom TV when I'm going to bed :)

My issue with the steam link has been the steam controller (I know it's not the only option, but I got the bundle). I just can't get the hang of it. What have other people experienced on this? Does it get better with practice?

i have two of the controllers. I definitely don't like them, either....

Playstation, xbox 360 / xbone, & more all work with it. Use those!

I generally use a XBox 360 controller with one of the wireless dongles plugged into the Link. It generally works very well, even for multiple controllers.

I never got a hold of the Steam Controller either. It never seems to do what it's supposed to. I'd love to be able to switch between Controller mode and K/M mode from the controller itself, but it never works. I also hate that it can't seem to just map itself to act like an XBox controller. Generally what happens is the game has no idea what to do with it, and I'm stuck until I get up and go to the computer itself.

I probably don't know enough about it, but I've had it for years and I just can't be bothered.

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