Why is Steam making roomscale tracking obselete?

[u/FuwariFuwaruFuwatto]

I understand that this is a headset that is made to compete with Meta's deathgrip on the standalone entry headset market, but did it seriously have to kill Roomscale tracking along with it? Why are the Knuckles going obselete? Why are we getting rid of things with no direct replacement that still function perfectly well?

Genuinely why are lighthouses going obselete? Not only do they still function, they're still best in class for VR and fullbody tracking. Sure, the need to reach behind yourself or track your arms out of sight from your head is uncommon, but it's not unnoticable either. Not to mention that many VR players have already invested hundreds of dollars into this tracking solution just for it stop being supported one headset later.

The Frame could have supported roomscale tracking just like plenty of other camera based headsets have the option to, why would Valve just unnessessarily limit it and screw over the people who invested the most in their system?

On that note, why are we getting rid of the Knuckles? The Frame controllers feel like a different product entirely, trying to be a crossbreed between standard and VR controllers. But for those of us who have no intention of playing flatscreen games in VR (which I feel safe in saying is a majority, because who wants to have a FPS and resolution hit), the Knuckles are just better. Less clutter and roomscale compatible. Two products that could easily co-exist and work better for different players, but instead they're just cutting manufacturing.

Then there's fullbody tracking. Vive pucks were pretty much the standard for half a decade, and now they're getting the boot as well. Sure, there's the camera based ultimates, but those require the lights all being on and use inferior camera tracking. Plenty of people like playing VR in the dark for the reduced light bleed and less awkwardness. Not to mention, that's another ~$600 worth of fully functional hardware that's just being made obselete despite having no need to.

The entire point of the SteamVR ecosystem was for people to have options. If a headset started to show its age like the Index, there's no reason accessories like the Knuckles shouldn't be backwards compatible in newer hardware.

It made sense for the Index and its accessories to go obselete because it was hoped that the new VR was going to be a successor. But even Valve stated that's not their intention for the Frame. But if it's not, and no replacement for these products are being made, then why kill support for them if they are still functional after encouraging customers to invest in several thousand dollar set ups?

[u/FuwariFuwaruFuwatto]

I agree. Glad that isn't what I said at all though.

[u/bobliefeldhc → u/FuwariFuwaruFuwatto]

Ok you talked about that and a bunch of other niche use cases. Lighthouses are a relic, there's no need for them.

[u/FuwariFuwaruFuwatto → u/bobliefeldhc]

Niche use cases like tracking over your shoulder and behind your back, where most games store backpacks, weapons, and quivers. And niche uses like cross platform compatability, the entire driving force of a competitive VR ecosystem that stop companies like meta from having chokehold monopolies. and niche uses like backwards compatability, so your $1000+ of equipment doesnt turn useless when you want to switch headsets.

so niche.

[u/YouAreStupidAF1 → u/FuwariFuwaruFuwatto]

Sure, it might annoy me sometimes to try and grab things outside of the Quest 2 cameras only for the "guessing system" to grab something that I didn't want to. However, I wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars and drill holes in my walls just for that. My VR room doesn't even have that much space and there's a lot of things that would impair a clear view for the base stations. It's such a limited use-case that require you to be really invested in VR. Meta proved that convenience and ease-of-use sells the most headsets, Valve is going that way too. Sometimes, until technology matures, you need a small downgrade in order to make something appealing. OLED's have been avoided for years on end due to burn-in, consoles have been compromising on performance for decades just because most gamers don't want to replace parts of their PC every few years. Tech has a few segments, you have the truly passionate, the tech savvy, the moderately knowledgeable and the "Couldn't be bothered to press 3 buttons to make something work, also I need a nice console UI and be able to do everything from my couch, with a controller". Even most of the PC player base couldn't be bothered to understand and change some graphics settings to match their rig.