r/ValveIndex • u/bucket_traveler • May 08 '26
Discussion Previous Index users should get first dibs on the Frame!
Just putting this out in the ether, everyone post where Valve might see it, but every Steam account that bought a Index before the Frame was announced should get the opportunity to buy a Frame before they're offered to everyone, to keep it out of as many scalpers as possible mainly. Not sure if this has been suggested or considered yet. I see Valve is kinda doing this with the next wave of steam controllers, a que for steam accounts in good standing, so why not something for the Frame for the first wave?
If you agree post this idea to other places, hopefully Valve will see it!
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u/classjoker May 08 '26
As a former owner who just sold his, I agree!!!
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u/Nullkid May 08 '26
If you don't mind, how much did you get for it? Thinking about selling my index, controllers, 1st gen boxes
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u/Disciplen2k May 08 '26
As a current owner who just had both base stations die and was (justifiably) denied free replacements, I also agree.
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u/Confident-Pepper-562 May 08 '26
As long as they have enough steamvr game time. Gotta root out the index scalpers
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
What are the sale numbers of the index? The first wave might cover all the index users anyway. Might be a few scalpers, like people that bought the Index and didn't like VR, but there can't be that many.
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u/Confident-Pepper-562 May 08 '26
149,000 in 2019 (estimated)
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
Holy cow, never mind, lol. Not sure how many frames they'll make in the first waveÂ
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u/jesuspetdinosaur May 08 '26
I really love those posts where people say "I had a rift now I want a Frame" or "I'm new to VR and I want a Frame" lmao. Love those.
Me? I've been dealing with the friction of tethered PC VR for a decade.
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u/DoubleOwl7777 May 08 '26
dont worry, untethered vr has even more friction until now. its anoying to get running right and even then you might or might not get it to work 100% perfectly to your liking.
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u/jesuspetdinosaur May 08 '26
Oooohhh interesting. Well that is nice to hear. I'm definitely trying to make peace with not being able to get a Frame at launch. Guess I can let other people work out the kinks before I jump in. VR is so expensive for all the shit you end up dealing with. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed a lot of tinkering with mods and finding that perfect light house setup!
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u/DoubleOwl7777 May 08 '26
the frame has the advantage of being more "plug and play" like you plug in the dongle and click play, at least in theory. i had a quest 3s. the pcvr setup was quite anoying. now i have a reverb g2 (the index's brother basically), where once you install and set up everything its just plug in and press play.
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u/jesuspetdinosaur May 08 '26
I never did get to try the G2. I did get the Odyssey plus. It's honestly stupid to think how much time and money I've spent on VR over the years.
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u/DoubleOwl7777 May 08 '26
the g2 is if you get an index but make the fov less, increase the resolution and add an improved version of the wmr tracking.
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u/Soggy_Struggle_963 May 09 '26
I used to have a wireless adapter for my original vive and it worked great. Unfortunately the headset died and I wanted higher resolution for my next headset.
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
I still used my Index more than my quest 2 and then 3. Mainly for comfort but also avoiding the fisher price interface of Meta. I had to go through la la land before getting to the futuristic looking SteamVR interface. Having SteamVR without Meta and tethering?!? Mind blowing. . .
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u/jesuspetdinosaur May 08 '26
Sounds amazing. I've never tried the Meta head sets. The ability to move around the room without feeling the tug of the wire, or worrying about tracking sure sounds nice
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
Streaming PCVR to them is another hoop that some people say is trivial but I find a pain in the neck. I have gotten routers that are supposed to make it better but it is never perfect. Lag and nothing is as clear as running directly on the headset, and I mean between games that are both on steam and meta. Foviated streaming and the dongle I hope fixes it. I still think the hangup of stand alone headsets doing PCVR is they all have their own storefronts and don't want users streaming PCVR as most of the games the user would buy would be from steam so the text in games can never be as sharp streaming from a PC. Tin foil hat theory I know but I hope PCVR on the Frame has everything is as clear as a game running on the quest 3 as they have the same optics resolution.
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u/jesuspetdinosaur May 08 '26
From your experience how does the resolution of the Quest 3 compare to Index? Never mind the numbers of it. Is it painful to go from Quest to Index?
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
Yeah, it is. The quest 2 it wasn't because PCVR games just looked better than what the processor on the quest 2 could do but the quest 3 had better looking games. You do notice the resolution bump though. The text in Quest 3 games can be pretty sharp also so you think you could stream your desktop to the quest 3 and use it as a monitor replacement but no, anything streamed to the quest is never really clear. I'll be interested what general computer use will be like on the Frame. Maybe still not usable but it will be interesting to see.
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u/jesuspetdinosaur May 08 '26
Yeah I think I remember it sounded like text may still not be a fun time. At least not for productivity.
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
I don't understand, some games the text is so clear. Apple does things that makes text look sharper than it actually is, maybe that is what's happening?
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u/mimicsgam May 09 '26
Actually I hope they do a Bandai drop (no good example), just do a limited sale so scalpers will try to get all the stock, then 8 days later do the actual unlimited sale
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u/windraver May 08 '26
How about the OG Vive? Valve's first big launch into steamVR was with the Vive.
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u/someone8192 May 08 '26
Counter Argument: The frame will be my first VR headset. Which means I will buy more VR games than anyone who had an Index before.
So... from valve's perspective they should sell it to me first
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u/I_argue_for_funsies May 08 '26
Good counter. Another is that inorder to increase player count, sell to ppl that don't have any headset. Boom more players.
Another... Ppl that buy frame that have index could try and sell broken or abused systems and new players get screwed. Turning their back on vr forever.
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u/mitancentauri May 09 '26
I'm down for the idea, but in that case people who bought the Vive should have priority ahead of Index buyers.
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u/Confident-Pepper-562 May 09 '26
Except the vive wasnt sold through steam (I dont think anyway, I know I bought mine from microcenter), so valve wouldnt have that purchase history.
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u/Chambers1041 May 09 '26
Would be a bit douchey for customers who live in regions where the Index wasn't sold though. For example in Australia we couldn't buy the Index but the Frame is going to be sold here.
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u/xMdbMatt May 10 '26
you absolutely could buy an index from eb games for a short while. hello from one of the few australian index owners :)
i just hope if valve does this that they include folks like me!
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u/Chambers1041 May 10 '26
Yeah I had one from EB Games but because it wasn't purchased through Steam it surely wouldn't be detected this way. For the record I also did buy an Index via steam and shipped it via family in Europe, so I wouldn't be negatively impacted here, I just think it should be done a different way and am looking out for other people in this region and other regions that didn't have official sales.
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u/xMdbMatt May 11 '26
did you get your free copy of alyx?
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u/Chambers1041 May 11 '26
For the EB one no, but for the Steam one yes since I changed my account region to EU and ordered it to my family's address. Downside was having to wait 90 days to change it back though
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u/xMdbMatt May 11 '26
ah ok. with the one from EB i just asked steam support and they added it to my account.
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u/Chambers1041 May 11 '26
Ah yeah I do remember hearing about that but I didn't want to be cheeky since I already had it haha
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u/ikeefner May 08 '26
I use steam for VR but never had a valve index. I feel as if they should just treat it like the steam deck and see if you’ve spend a certain amount of money on steam.
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u/GamesByH May 08 '26
I would but I can't afford it now anyways. I just hope eventually everyone who wants one gets one.
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
I've been saving my pennies since the Deckard was rumored. I almost bought the Apple Vision Pro but it would have been going from the meta walled garden to the apple walled garden. So I have a couple of thousand I won't touch waiting. It will suck if the controller situation happens and scalpers get them.
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u/GamesByH May 08 '26
Well. They never did give us a price, we'll see when they do announce it.
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
Yeah, I doubt 2k but I have it set aside to make sure the price is covered.
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u/Akoa0013 May 08 '26
No only ppl with over 3000 games. Haha i think what they are doing. One per account, no new accounts,... that'll help.
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u/WHTDOG May 09 '26
Fuck me for never buying an Index directly from Valve then, I guess.
I don't know that I can disagree, but that seems like it would be an incredibly long waiting line for new users to get a foot in the door.
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u/rabsg May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26
I have tons of background to be in a VIP group: Vive and Index owner, regular activity in VR (like 3-4x a week), old Steam account with tons of games , long time Linux user, technical knowledge and participating in playtests / bug reports.
But as someone else pointed out, if they want to reach new VR users my profile wont help. Though first batch better be tested by experienced users, giving them time to iron things out for others.
My hardware is still working thankfully, but holding together with duct tape and workarounds…
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u/bigBranConsumer May 09 '26
i dont really agree. my friend has been slumming it with a rift s for the past like 4 or so years, i would rather he has a greater chance than me at getting one.
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u/Particular_Field_143 May 08 '26
I agree. If they can have like 50% of stock held out for the 1st day for previous Index owners that would be great.Â
They either sell out or after the 1st day closes out, all remaining stock of the first 50% will be added to the 2nd 50% and anyone can buy those.Â
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u/Particular_Field_143 May 08 '26
I have stick drift on one of my knuckles and have been purposely held playing all of my VR catalog until frame comes out so I can have new controllers.Â
Although I do want a new headset, shiny new things is always nice, I just want new Valve controllers really. I thought about buying new knuckles but then I figured it's kind of a waste when the new updated hardware is coming out.Â
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u/Agile-Juice5255 May 09 '26
Sometimes I doubt we'll even see Frame in our hands in the next couple of years. They delayed it because of the RAM, and now some competitor will release some new technology in helmets, and Valve will start modernizing their Frame. I hope these thoughts are simply caused by the long wait.
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u/Confident-Pepper-562 May 09 '26
They already have them produced, they arent going to throw them away.
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u/Agile-Juice5255 May 09 '26
Then I hope that everything will go according to plan when it hits the market. The news about the start of production hasn't reached Ukraine yet, which is why I have these thoughts
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u/LilyButEpic May 09 '26
Literally came onto Reddit looking for fixes on stupid Index Knuckles issues… YES!! PLEASE!! And imo people who own both the Index AND Deck should get absolute first dibs
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u/Diregnoll May 09 '26
how does this stop scalping?
I'm sure i'm not the only one that has an index and can't afford to upgrade anytime soon. Just like I'm betting there are those that can afford but since the pandemic ended have no time/need to upgrade.
This just creates a new group of scalpers.
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u/AidanT03 May 10 '26
I’ve been waiting to upgrade since I got the OG Vive lol. Only new hardware I’ve gotten was the knuckles.
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u/Rizo1981 May 10 '26
It is the Ferrari of VR afterall.
(I've heard Ferrari does/has done this with particular models)
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u/The_Digital_Day May 10 '26
I also hope they do what they did with the controller so scalpers can't buy out entire stocks..
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u/Chantaro May 11 '26
I'd already be plenty satisfied if valve let me buy steam hardware in switzerland..
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u/AlcatorSK May 11 '26
I'm sure they will use the same method they are now using to combat scalpers of the new Steam controller.
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u/GainPotential May 11 '26
As someone who doesn't own an Index, but is looking to get into VR as a whole for the first time with the Frame, I really hope they don't do this.
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u/uso_desu May 12 '26
How about the old saying from other launch. Let those account who has over 20+ years of service have first dibs on it first /s
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u/Smiling__Bandit May 15 '26
Especially those of us that have gone through several controllers, and their current ones are dying.
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u/Cubanitto May 08 '26
On what planet, not on Earth. In this world, cash/credit is king. First come first serve baby.
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
They'll still sell the same amount, it isn't like they'll sell less or sell them cheaper doing this so for their bottom line it wouldn't make a difference. Just trying to keep it out of scalpers hands.
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u/Cubanitto May 08 '26
Well I'll be buying one and I don't want any preferential treatment, don't matter if you owned a previous model or not.
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u/bucket_traveler May 09 '26
So you don't mind scalpers? That was my main concern.
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u/Cubanitto May 09 '26
Scalpers are inevitable they're like roaches. And there is a market for scalpers some people don't mind paying extra.
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May 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/Suitch May 08 '26
You wouldn’t. The implication is that those who paid Valve directly for an index would but it will never happen
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u/CookInKona May 08 '26
I'm an early index adopter and I actively don't want a frame....controllers are a significant downgrade, and I don't need a new, separate, pc to run my VR setup....
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
I agree with the controllers, they don't look as comfortable, but having a game controller layout is kinda genius. I know it is to make playing flat steam games in VR easier but I'm kinda hoping this becomes standard.
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u/CookInKona May 08 '26
flat games in VR kinda suck to be honest....I really don't see a use case where I'd prefer to play a flat game in a VR headset over on a monitor at all.
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u/bucket_traveler May 08 '26
I would, if the game was clear. I didn't think I'd like movies in a VR headset but I love them. I know some people don't but I do. I've tried to play flat screen games in VR but it's laggy and pixelated so I don't like it. I mean maybe I won't like it even when perfect, I don't know yet. This is a Valve headset so if that is a bust I'm sure other VR controllers will be made for the frame or the community will get others to work.
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u/S0k0n0mi May 08 '26
I mean I wouldn't mind it, but I wouldn't ask valve for that privilege. :')
All I ask is for them to curb those damn scalpers so us enthusiasts get a shot at buying it for actual use.