Linus Tech Tips’ secondary channel ShortCircuit appears to have jumped the gun on publishing its first impressions and unboxing of Steam Frame, suggesting we’re truly now right around the corner from launch.

Valve’s first standalone headset is coming very soon, it seems, as the LTT side channel ShortCircuit mistakenly released its unboxing and first impressions video yesterday.

Entitled ‘Our first 30 mins with the steam frame’, the video was quickly made private, although some users had just enough time to grab the video and rehost it across the Internet.

The development studio behind beloved VR character Quill in the Moss VR games is shuttering.

A post to LinkedIn shares a spreadsheet with dozens of names now seeking jobs.

In July, Polyarc released a flatscreen version of Moss called Moss: The Forgotten Relic to very positive ratings on Steam.

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Uncanny Alley held its premiere at Venice Immersive, the XR/VR-focused section of the Venice International Film Festival and has since been featured at SXSW (South by Southwest), Raindance Immersive, NewImages Festival, and AWE (Augmented World Expo). The VRChat world's creators Ferryman Collective and Virtual Worlds Company have had almost 750,000 visitors across their VRC projects.

The cyberpunk world-based Uncanny Alley: A New Day transports you into a dystopian dark-ride shared with the performers and other audience members. You start in prison after protesting an upcoming New Day update at a local rally. Ghost, a hacker, recruits her friend Puck to assist in a thrilling jailbreak that plays out in real time, with audience members speaking directly with the characters and interacting with the world around them as characters inserted into the story. The audience participation results in a journey that never repeats itself, even with the ending being the same.

Serial leaker ‘Luna’ appears to have found video within Quest’s Horizon OS showing off the headset’s prescription lenses, which are apparently set to be released in partnership by Meta’s official prescription lens provider, Zenni Optical.

In September, Pico Space Pro appears to have received FCC certification one day before its originally planned launch event. The filings list a "Mixed Reality Computer", with separate entries for the headset and external tethered puck under FCC IDs 2A5NV-AA1Z0 and 2A5NV-B3110, respectively.

Some documents in the FCC filings are withheld under short- and long-term confidentiality requests, but the labels are publicly available. The headset's label appears in a PDF named "HMD铭牌_镭雕20060520", while the puck's appears in "BOX铭牌_A_20060520".

More interestingly, these labels describe the two components as a "Mixed Reality Headset" and a "Mixed Reality Main Unit", respectively, with both listing the model number B3110.

VR is a conveyance. As a medium, VR is a mode of transportation. It has more in common with a car or a teleportation system than it does a video game console. Once you separate this idea from the bulky “headset” everyone sees and the “metaverse” terminology Mark Zuckerberg has tried to brand everything as, you can understand that the decade from 2013 with Oculus Rift DK1 to Quest 3 in 2023 was a critical period of research necessary to develop the core technologies behind the dominant transportation system of the 21st century.

In this framing, you have to dig into the history books and the founding of companies like Ford and Chevrolet to put headsets like Vision Pro and Quest 3 into their proper context. You can’t call early cars like the Model T and Chevrolet Series C Classic Six failures and you can’t do that either for the first attempts at Meta or Apple or Google or Valve to realize mass market teleportation via bulky headsets.

Would you rather drive a Model T or a Porsche 911? Everyone agrees on the Porsche but you only get to the Porsche from the Model T through hundreds of intermediary steps. Every VR product of the last 15 years has been one of those steps. Quest will be remembered as the first all-in-one VR device you could walk around in. Vision Pro should be remembered as the first with teleportation as its central focus.

Meta’s big reset this year was a shift to take what Apple shipped in 2024 — the same thing researchers at Meta said required miracles in 2022 — and stuff it into the shape of glasses. What comes next should be the first sports cars of VR.

Following Virtual Desktop's implementation of the feature, the latest Public Beta release for Valve's Steam Link on Quest adds support for wired USB PC streaming.

Meta Horizon OS 2.5 and later includes Android USB networking (NCM) support, meaning that apps can request a direct network link to a connected host computer over USB after the user approves the system-wide permission required to enable the feature.

In the case of Steam Link, this works by simply plugging a data-capable USB-C cable into the headset after launching the app. An active USB connection is currently indicated by a cycling Wi-Fi signal on the SteamVR dock.

Steam Frame isn’t here yet, and we’re no closer to knowing the price or release date, although the component supplier behind the headset’s built-in camera tracking system is officially producing a color passthrough module for Frame.

Steam Frame only includes monochrome passthrough, which the headset primarily uses for computer vision tracking in addition to letting the user to check their surroundings, albeit in a less immersive way than with a full color sensor.

Komodo Station, Valve’s hardware vendor in Asia, appears to have published a product page a little too early showing off an official color passthrough module for Frame, which is built by Arcturus Industries, the third-party computer vision specialists behind Steam Frame’s camera tracking system.

According to the leaked page captured by Reddit user ‘gogodboss’ (seen below), the official Arcturus Vision Camera for Steam Frame will include dual 32 megapixel sensors, 10 bit HDR capture, and a 64mm interpupillary distance (IPD).

I havent seen much talk about that on the threadiverse. But the modding scene in this regard exploded in the last few months. Which is pretty great since official releases are drying up even more since Meta started to focus on AI instead of the 'verse.

But in this corner of the internet its maybe important to mention that a lot of these efforts are heavily relying on AI or are entirely vibecoded. There is definitely some slop around which isnt worth your time. But there are also some pretty good conversions to enjoy if you dont have a strict no-ai policy.

Anyway heres a few ways to keep track of all the different mods i'm aware of.

Flat2VR The 90-day VR mod release report:
https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://gist.githubusercontent.com/elliotttate/7109af484e6f2c45792b1727841760bb/raw/03594eeaa8087ed771fb439bb51541a645cfd67f/index.html

Flat2VR modding discord:
https://discord.gg/flat2vr

A website trying to collect all VR mods(despite the name also standalone mods):
https://pcvrcentral.com/

Most of the Meta Quest standalone Mods also got conversions to the Pico 3/4/4 Ultra ecosystem. The famous Team Beef ports can even be obtained via Sidequest or from this github repository: https://github.com/Tobbe85?tab=repositories A lot of the other Pico conversions are sadly only obtainable by "even less official" means. You might find them with fmhy. But this website keeps track of most the Pico related stuff. Without linking to sources though: https://ppdata.uk/?tab=Indie&sort=Updates&page=1

Otherwise a lot of these ports get promoted on the VR subreddit. Which still can be somewhat comfortably accessed via: https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/virtualreality
Its contents and users may still cause brain damage...

Still not a big fan of AI. gesturing wildly at everything
But i'll take some pretty well made VR ports which otherwise wouldnt have ever been made.

I havent tried a lot of the mods. So i cant recommend too much. But the Simpsons Hit & Run port is a blast. I had my doubts about the platforming section. But even those work pretty well in VR. GTA Vicy City in VR is also in a pretty good spot. Not the biggest fan of how the weapon selection is handled. Otherwise its already way better than it was in the YT videos showcasing the mod a few weeks ago. HL2 VR on standalone hardware is also pretty sick even though it isnt as polished as the famous PCVR mod.

As first spotted by VR analyst and Valve watcher Brad Lynch, Valve appears to be actively working on the backend of Steam Frame’s store page, which now includes evidence the company may be giving away a copy of Half-Life Alyx to anyone who purchases a unit.

Lynch showed off a number of strings containing the following snippets: ‘AccountHardwarePromotions’, ‘HLAlyxPromoButtons’, and ‘Frame Alyx Promo’ among others, suggesting the $60 game will be bundled with Steam Frame as a part of a special promotion.

Meta's latest update for Quest headsets adds a Gamepad Emulation mode for Touch Plus controllers and a range of extended refresh rates on Quest 3, alongside other changes.

Initially teased earlier this year as ‘Project Swan’, Pico announced last week it was putting on a big product launch event for the newly-named Pico Space Pro, which was set to take place in Beijing on September 2nd.

There, we expected Pico to fill in the gaps of the headset’s spec sheet, global release plans, and pricing for what is surely one of the company’s most expensive XR headset’s to date.

Now Pico says it’s adjusting the product release date to sometime in Q4 2026, citing the need for more time to push a “major upgrade” to the software experience.

It has been widely reported by multiple reputable sources that Meta is working on a premium, ultralight, open-periphery headset with a tethered compute puck, intended to occupy a similar high-end position to Meta Quest Pro, but in a much sleeker form factor. Here is everything we know so far about Meta's next VR/MR device.

James Tocchio and I played the first heist job with Erik and Kris from Fast Travel. James played on Meta Quest and I played on Steam. We were allowed to capture footage, so the clips below will show both of our perspectives side by side.

As Erik, the Game Director for Aces High, would explain to us later, Fast Travel leaned more in the arcade direction with the mechanics, letting players play fast and get caught up in the action as opposed to struggling with finicky precision. Grabbing loot is a good example of this. Big piles of loot, be it money, jewelry, or other objects of value, are grabbed and automatically transformed into duffel bags when pulled towards you. These bags slow your movement speed, leaving you reliant on your teammates to cover your escape. Smaller loot, like a single stack of money, is grabbed with the grab button and collected by holding the trigger button, ending with a satisfying 'ka-chink' sound effect as it explodes into falling coins. Gun reloading is manual, with new ammo over your shoulder, and thankfully jank-free

It looks as though Valve is actually gearing up to release Steam Frame, as user setup videos have leaked showing off unboxing and first-time user experience with Valve’s first standalone VR headset.

As first reported by Steam Hardware Updates on X, the ARM Steam Client got an update this week that contained a number of videos, including an unboxing, sign-in, and setup video of Steam Frame.

Although Valve immediately pulled the videos in a subsequent update, all three video has been reuploaded multiple times by now; here’s one such compilation from YouTube channel VRelity that includes all three.

PICO-XR's official Weibo account recently officially announced that the highly anticipated new head-mounted display, PICO Space Pro, will be officially launched on September 2nd at 14:30. The official has set the theme of this product launch as "Start a New Spatial Experience." The upcoming Space Pro headset is expected to be the mysterious device codenamed "Project Swan" that was accidentally exposed in the public SDK. In terms of design, the headset cleverly integrates the design essence of several industry benchmark products: its body uses a single woven headband design similar to Apple's Vision Pro, and the back of the headband has a particularly obvious style; while the front light-blocking pad and forehead cushion part show an造型 style similar to Samsung Galaxy XR.

What does it mean to play in VR?

It seems a straightforward question. Meta, Valve, Sony, Google, and even Apple all sell games that substitute your reality for a simulated one with rules to learn governing your interactions. These storefronts, however, do little to sell the unique benefits VR offers in embodiment and transportation.

“We’re all given this kind of carnival license in this sort of anonymous space to play,” said Ferryman Collective co-founder Deirdre V. Lyons. “We often as adults forget how important it is. How it re-energizes our lives and how it informs our lives and how it allows us to create bonds and special moments that we often don’t allow ourselves time to do.”

A surprise trailer during today's VR Games Showcase revealed that Flat2VR Studios and Squanch Games are bringing High On Life VR to headsets in 2027.

The trailer offers an in-depth look at what to expect from High On Life VR, including some behind-the-scenes moments with the game's developers, who explain the major overhauls that bringing some of the game's systems to VR has demanded. These include overhauls to the shop interactions, character beats around the city, as well as physical reload mechanics for the game's highly unique weaponry.

One of the startups I absolutely wanted to visit at AWE was Oxford Optical Labs (OOL) because it is developing special lenses that can change their focus on demand. This company got me intrigued since the first time I spoke with them during my AWE preview interview, because its technology could enable varifocal headsets in the future. Let me tell you everything that I learned when I visited their meeting room at AWE in Long Beach!

Oxford Optical Labs has been working on its adjustable fluid lenses for over 20 years. These lenses are not made of glass, but are made of a membrane that contains a fluid. By changing the parameters of the fluid, it is possible to change the parameters of the lens. For instance, the same lens can be used first with someone with myopia, and then with someone with presbyopia.

In my previous article, I stated that the lens changes its property thanks to electricity that flows through it, but that is incorrect. The lens changes its property because of pressure in some specific points. So changing these “pressure points” on the lens changes its property, and the same lens can be adapted to any person needing it. As you can see below, it can be altered to change all the possible optical properties, and solve myopia, presbyopia, and even astigmatism!

Crementif released the ‘BetterVR’ mod for Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) last December, bringing full 6DOF support and motion controls to the game on PC VR headsets. Now, nearing the mod’s 1.0 launch, not only has BetterVR gotten even better, but Crementif teased a Mario Kat 8 (2014) VR mod is also now in the works.

BetterVR is a flatscreen-to-VR conversion mod for BotW, which is available for free on the project’s GitHub, including 20 updates since the first trailer was released in December 2025.

Valve quietly changed the requirements for games aiming to run natively on Steam Frame, the company’s long-awaited standalone headset.

Valve first announced at Game Developers Conference (GDC) earlier this year that developers would need to hit two specific stats if they hoped to get the coveted ‘Steam Frame Verified’ badge, meaning their game natively runs well on Frame.

Apps needed to hit a minimum of 90 fps, which is higher than Frame’s minimum variable 72Hz refresh rate and a minimum of 30 fps at a resolution of 1,280 x 720 for flatscreen titles. Notably, the ‘Verified’ badge isn’t a minimum spec, but rather a label noting the game largely works without issues.

Now developers hoping for the ‘Steam Frame Verified’ badge can go as low as 72 fps, although their app needs to hit at least 1,728 × 1,728 per eye resolution “during normal play,” Valve says in the official documentation.

Virtual Desktop has been a popular choice for PC VR gamers on standalone headsets for years, but the connection between headset and PC has always been wireless. Neither it nor Valve's Steam Link app supports a wired USB connection, leaving wired users relegated to using Meta's often-unreliable Link application or the some-tinkering-required ALVR.

Virtual Desktop's new Quest Beta version 1.34.19, out now, changes that. USB support requires the headset to be on Quest OS v2.4 or higher. Users on other platforms like Pico and Play For Dream MR have to add USB Ncm support to use the feature.

My name is Shane, and I'm the CEO of SideQuest. We recently acquired the rights to the Altspace name and we have the motivation, experience and backing to bring it back in all it's glory. This will be a brand new Altspace, but it will truly be a spiritual successor to the Altspace we know and love and capture what made it great. Let's dive in to how I will pull this off.

Later this year we will re-launch Altspace with a lot of the features and functionality that it had around 2016-2017. I have assembled an elite team of previous Altspace staffers as well as some of the most prolific OG players and we are already hard at work figuring out all the important stuff like how it will work, what we will prioritize and understanding what needs to happen to make it great.

Somnium Space’s v3.1.6 update is slated to rollout today, bringing to the social VR platform a number of quality of life features that could put it more on par with its main competitor, VRChat.

Arguably the most important feature to the update is how it handles World Instances, which now supports a wider degree of privacy, including friends instances, friends+ private instances, paid instances, and PIN-protected instances. Previously, Somnium Space was largely built around a persistent shared world. That essentially means instead of every event existing in one open space, communities can now have private concerts, classrooms, meetings, paid events, and moderated gatherings.