The World's First PC VR Standalone Headset

[@JustFeral]

This is actually nuts. Everything keeps coming back to Valve and Meta.

[@SadlyItsBradley]

Hahaha, it always does

[@Pikminiman]

More like, it all comes back to Valve. It was Valve's R&D that enabled the original Oculus Rift project, even before the Kickstarter. Valve is the ultimate godfather of VR.

[@cate01a]

@@Pikminiman praise be to the one and only god, gaben

[@shableep]

🔫Always has been.

[@ADHD_Sam]

So You can See the Code too huh ;P

[@kazioo2]

Remember Gamface? The first Android / ARM hybrid standalone VR created many years before Quest, based on Nvidia Tegra and even had real video input for PC VR.

[@SadlyItsBradley]

Man, you might have opened the door for another research thing I need to dive into, haha

[@-A-c]

Moar rabbit holes for brad!!! 🐇

[@SasukeSpirit]

I remember back then writing to those people, and actually applying for a chance to get one of their headsets, but it never went through. My mind was blown when I saw that demo video back in 2016.

[@CharlieWeller]

Wow.. So, Sulon had their proprietary "SPU" chip exclusively handling the environment data in tandem with the AMD processor/GPU... Really seems to give credence to the idea of having XR2 run in tandem with an AMD SOC on the Deckard. Dang. Also, that was the coolest implementation of AR I have ever seen.. So many awesome possibilities with this technology.

[@SadlyItsBradley]

You read right between the lines of what I was trying to say… without saying it! Haha, thanks

[@CharlieWeller]

@@SadlyItsBradley Haha... I'm glad my smooth gamer brain can still make meaningful connections from time to time.

[@pumpuppthevolume]

btw samsung right now is working with amd to integrate amd gpu in their chips

[@colin8877]

I remember watching that video with the giant in 2016 but never knew It was AMD standalone, wow.

[@SadlyItsBradley]

It seems like Sulon Q had a lot of excitement. But then the silence afterwards was never dove into. No one questioned what happened to it. Or published info on what would become a Sulon acquisition. Finding the info I did find was not fun, haha

[@colin8877]

@@SadlyItsBradley But fun 4 us, thanks 😁

[@realtimestatic]

I really hope we don’t have to wait too long for the Deckard to come out! Every time you make a video about this topic I get even more excited! I just hope the battery life will be fine!

[@realtimestatic]

I don’t even know how silent acquisitions can be Legal! I feel like the public needs to know who buys who and so on

[@SadlyItsBradley]

It boggles my mind too

[@dripcarmaker2311]

I love how you always keep digging for information and topics to discuss even when it seems like you've already covered everything at hand. But if you ever need a break you should take one !

[@SadlyItsBradley]

Thanks Drip! It's been a quiet month for digging. But that allows me to have more opinionated pieces that let me do a "outer therapy through video" sorta thing. So uh ya! Not wearing myself out right now ^^7

[@ZstormVR]

Yessss Sulon info! Hahaha let’s gooo!

[@SadlyItsBradley]

inspired by your video, zstorm haha

[@ZstormVR]

@@SadlyItsBradley Hahaha I’m honored! Glad to see this amazing headset get some more light shed on it!

[@Skikopl]

I clicked on this faster than Meta buying Companies

[@SadlyItsBradley]

WOW THAT IS FAST

[@blizado3675]

Thanks, that was interesting. Makes the future of VR in the next months/years even more interesting.

[@SadlyItsBradley]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@shableep]

I was thinking that the price of VR headsets are going to go back UP with their extended capability. Sort of how prices went up with cellphones after they did a lot more than just calling and texting people. So as better software and games come to headsets, so will the base value of using one. I feel like there's a market for a $799 premium headset that does passthru AR and VR.

[@SadlyItsBradley]

This is exactly what I think will happen too

[@shableep]

Thanks for digging to find out where the Sulon Q went. I saw that demo when it came out years ago! Then later wondered where I saw this awesome AR/VR demo so I could explain to someone why I thought passthru AR was the future. Really interesting to see that AMD likely acquired them, and is somewhat likely working with Valve on a stand-alone headset. It's too bad, though, that AMD (or whoever) sat on releasing a functional PC stand-alone VR headset for so long. I guess to a certain degree they've allowed Facebook(Meta) to plow a whole field for VR developers. So possibly if they release a headset in a year, there will be plenty of VR developers looking to move their games to new platforms, outside of Facebook's.

[@SadlyItsBradley]

If I had to guess, the Vader project from Valve even had some of these concepts implemented too (see my valve interview video from 2017) but the cost was still too high for a good consumer experience. The plans got delayed, but I bet we will see it Soon™️

[@andrewfox4467]

Always damn awesome to get a vid. Having been on the games/software dev side for the last 20 years, I’ve been waiting for a paradigm shift in experiences. Looks like it might now finally be happening. We are living in awesome times.

[@lactatertots]

Hey Brad! Just wanted to express a thanks on behalf of us VR fans who aren't so tech savvy for you keeping us up to date on current VR happenings and speculations in a concise and comprehensive way. For the amount of effort you put into your content, I wish I could sub 10x over. Keep it up homie, proud of ya!

[@SadlyItsBradley]

Thanks Elias ^^7

[@MegaManNeo]

Can't wait to see Deckard... if it ever gets released.

[@johnbuscher]

Between this and SimulaVR, I’m pretty excited for new stand-alone headsets. If Deckard can actually work well with Steam Deck, I will be amazed and jump on it.

[@dustinsuburbia]

That pause, then the slow sip from the cup. That is the way.

[@ButtorsGaming]

All I have to say is holy shit. The first few AR/VR movies are going to be on a wide scale of either half life Alex or universal studios ride

[@JCorvinusVR]

omg I remember this! One of the reasons I was so hyped for pass-through AR. Another one was Leap Motion's Dragonfly sensor, which sadly never came out. We could've had good AR so much earlier

[@matbrady123456]

Top quality content, Brad. This one was particularly good. Great investigating skills. :)

[@Taijifufu]

I remember seeing that demo. That thing was probably heavy af, ran at 60fps, and had 30 min of battery life. Things are really coming along. And 2 years from now things are going to be really really coming along.

[@TrebleSketch]

Also, just a note with “silicon nodes”. The nanometer these days are mostly just process nodes, they are physically way larger than 7nm (i think it’s about 20-25nm physically). Can see debauer‘s video of using an electron microscope to physically trying to see each transistor sizes! 7nm and the next is 5nm node, can’t wait to see how Headsets will be like once more APUs get made using even more advanced nodes or even liquid cooling headsets??? XD

[@nix-tube]

Calypso drink on the desk! Aaaaay get turnt Brad."Brad, Hi I'm buzzed!" Hahahaha

[@cesarbrown2074]

The beginning statement and the last lmfao.

[@WikiPeoples]

aw, i loved the ending :)

[@ItsAllG00d]

Things that I was chastised for on Reddit that are now obvious: Seamless ar to vr switching. Ex: google maps you can fly into the sky right from where you were standing outside. Remembering that valve had accidentally pushed a room mapping tool in 2016 using a single regular camera. Me, having a phone app in 2012 that could make any object a trackable object tracker and super impose characters on it. Also, has anybody copyrighted “elevated reality” yet? Feel like that sounds better than mixed reality. In my opinion the term augmented reality technically is changing the elements of your environment. Ex: changing rainy weather to sunny beach weather or changing your wallpaper. Mixed reality would be adding elements, symbiotic relationships with elements both real and virtual. Elevated reality in my idea would be stepping (or flying or being grabbed by a giant) from reality or from ar or mr to pure vr. Have a mr sparkly day!

[@jeffreygunter417]

The first VR viewer was a “3D” view that worked on world of Warcraft, StarCraft and the Jupiter Incident, amount others. It was called the “private video viewer” by Sharper image. I got it in 2007. It was like waiting the games as a living board game for StarCraft. It was very limited and you had to memorize the keyboard commands.

[@JeremoSinc]

liked the shirt this time bradley. its quite nice

[@CrusaderJacky]

I have still been on DDR3 since 2016. However, I will most likely upgrade this Summer.

[@ERWebster]

Oh wow, I remember seeing that video! It seemed so awesome at the time.

[@sebdotjpeg]

Great videos recently my dude

[@ADreamingTraveler]

The amount of performance the Switch gets from a chip that's almost 8 years old at this point is proof how good you can make games look on these mobile chips. Like looking at games like Mario odyssey are still so pleasing graphically. Then look at the Steam Deck's internals and then remember that that alone will be beaten by a huge margin in a year or two. And also Apple's M1 chip has blown away a lot of people and we'll see a new version of that soon. Mobile chips are improving so fast that they've almost caught up to desktops

[@ryvyr]

At least Lynx-R should be in backer hands within a couple months and public hands soon after~ I still have Steam Deck reserved, though lament the loss of SulongQ.

[@SeroKitsune]

The clip is from the VOD (tcW9qRU4Qz0)

[@dontmindme8709]

From seeing this demo, I am convinced that camera pass-through will be _the_ way to do AR. Simply overlaying images on top of what you otherwise see could never allow for such cool environment manipulations. At least when it comes to content consumption and not just simple information HUDs.

[@darthmoomoo]

Dude post that old video of yours with Guile's theme when you were waiting for the Vive (or maybe Index).

[@legendp2011]

For a similar experiance today. I can chuck a laptop in a back pack with a Rift s (or reverb g2). especially with the new amd 6000 integrated graphics and intel 12th gen integrated graphics rumored performance.......maybe be enough to drive headsets like the rift s (especially with FSR)

[@TheTechBasement]

I hear you about the tech being on the edge of release, it feels like I can just reach out and grab one of those new PC/VR/ wireless headsets, hence I am not getting a Index even though my OG Vive is getting sketchy.

[@JonathonBarton]

13:40 it's actually _SIXTEEN_ times smaller. :D In the space where you had 1x 28nm processor in 2016, you can now fill the same space with 16 7nm processors - in a 4x grid i.e. [__28 x 28 nm__] [ 7 ] [ 7 ] [ 7 ] [ 7 ] = 28 nm wide x 7 nm high [ 7 ] [ 7 ] [ 7 ] [ 7 ] = 28 nm wide x 14 nm high [ 7 ] [ 7 ] [ 7 ] [ 7 ] = 28 nm wide x 21 nm high [ 7 ] [ 7 ] [ 7 ] [ 7 ] = 28 nm wide x 28 nm high Also, I love the background music at the end.

[@charltonrodda]

That's assuming the transistor density (spacing) is linear with feature size. My understanding is that the node sizes have become less and less well correlated with exactly how many transistors you can fit.

[@JonathonBarton]

@@charltonrodda Well, sure, but at a high level it's an "all other things being equal" sorta situation. :D

[@VRnamek]

nice historic vaporware. I wonder why it never developed into an actual product - perhaps too heavy, too hot or too bulky and noisy with one of those massive pc coolers or every choice above? Hmm...

[@UNSCPILOT]

It was using a FX chip... soooooo yeah, the CPU and battery were probably having meltdowns trying to run even their demo

[@marshallr.8121]

people should keep in mind that like 15years ago most desktop pc’s could not handle the amount of browser tabs that almost anyone now has constantly open on their phone its good to stay realistic with expectations but the whole “there’s no way ever” mindset is pretty silly most of the time

[@jeffreygunter417]

Here is my respectful comment. I enjoy your work. The level of research and detail is commendable. Many thanks..

[@SadlyItsBradley]

Much appreciated!

[@jeffreygunter417]

@@SadlyItsBradley hey man love your work and appreciate you very much.

[@Durch-Laucht]

Again awesome insights! I can listen to this all day long. Thank you so much :)

[@Wayloz]

I know this doesn't really fit into this video but it brought something to mind, I bought the Leap motion when it was first coming out and now with the Quest 2 (idk if quest 1 did it) it has built in hand/finger tracking. Kinda crazy

[@DiamondDepthYT]

This is literally SAO: Ordinal Scale level technology BEFORE SAO: Ordinal Scale the movie released.. woah

[@shauna996]

I remember that Sulon Q video six years ago. I got very excited for the possibilities that this technology would provide.Gartner hype cycle peak of expectations described my enthusiasm well. I invested accordingly in AMD. This mixed reality has yet to truly manifest but my investment in AMD did ok. I remember stuff about Emagin possibly working with AMD also but that hasn’t happened yet. Appreciate your research.

[@Efretpkk]

that was a cool demo, thanks for digging it out!

[@Eskoxo]

anything is possible its just a matter of time i think about things like base stations and tracking is really a software issue not hardware we do have 3d cameras place them in corners and run ai from different directions for full body tracking. quest2 is pretty much just a phone very few parts are actually vr specific.

[@shark3D]

if the NM process is reduced by a factor of 4 since the processor die is 2 dimentional I would assume you have to multiply it! (so factor of 16 in terms of how much you can fit in a given area)

[@arenam79]

Thanks for the gibberish about chips, I come here to learn a little... I'm still dumb though...

[@TechnicaledgeWrestle]

your mic shakes allot in your videos... just an observation.. not sure if that effects sound quality..

[@FrostKittyPaw]

That AR to VR video was really awesome! I prefer straight up VR, since I live in a tiny near studio style apartment, but AR to VR transitions could be really immersive. I feel like we have been on the cusp of new tech since 2019. We got the first almost mainstream eye-tracked headset (Vive Pro Eye), and then everything stalled out. This last year of speculation burned me out. I know new tech is close but I am watching with lower hopes.

[@SadlyItsBradley]

I feel that demo, whether or not it was easily possible to bring to a consumer friendly device in 2016 was a PERFECT example of the power of MR for entertainment. Felt it was so important to include it here

[@SamuelxShaban]

@@SadlyItsBradley watching reality crumble around you as you launch a VR game is alone worth having pass-through MR. Super cool transition indeed. It seems very likely that Apple's headset will have that since they have exclusive access to Sony's lidars which are already capable of such effects on an iPhone.

[@ItsMeLuke69]

Hi Brad, Sips coffee. I'm Luke.

[@CoolSs]

AR is not new technology to say but i remember like +12 years ago . before even touch screen phones . their used to be apps that will open your camera and you play some sort of spaceship shooting things in space as you move in the background of your house . moving your phone is toward the target is the way to aim . of course we came long way from those day and they not as impressive as the video you shared .

[@creblabo]

Very interesting

[@Snaphoo]

And here I am just wanting to hear about Lynx

[@tomoprime217]

Sulon Q was probably axed as nobody officially tried a live demo in the end

[@ShadeDraws]

When Brad finished school and went to get his diploma, he took it, waved to the crowd and said, "Hi... I'm GRAD."

[@mikeb3172]

The Valve/AMD SoC in the Steam Deck is around 7.5cm x 5cm (3in x 2in). Easily fits in a VR headset but cooling 15-25W w/o a fan would be interesting.

[@libertysound8575]

Hey Brad I get the crazy feeling bro been there but it’s better than feeling mediocre

[@robertweekes5783]

Hi I’m Brad. (Dramatic pause) 😂

[@blackcat-zw5im]

Damn! At first, I've thought Valve finally did announced Deckard 😔☠🤦‍♂️

[@SadlyItsBradley]

OOPS. I am sorry, haha

[@Onkoe]

My faces from the beginning and end of that MR demo were completely different. Literally from 😪 to 🤯

[@staffanstuff]

Oh, shit, that was awesome.

[@justsaiyansteve]

VR backpack lets go!!

[@CoolSs]

i know Valve is the type of company who like to work in the dark. and we often find out years later they working on something but it ended up not coming or canceled . this been said . this give me bit of hope that PC VR have a brighter future .also the steam deck being almost out . means Valve will be freed up to work either on their games or the next hardware . I recently realized the biggest problem PC VR have now . their is not a lot of available hardware as much as other devices . if you not living in the state or europe . it's almost impossible to get VR headset for reasonable price . few days ago . i only found one VR headset sold in massive shopping mall in my country capital and it's was a Quest 2 (no i am not buying facebook trash) and its cosseted around ~555$ . So it like 250$ more then normal price . We really need more PC VR or WMR (and i hope facebook don't just buy out the competition as they do)

[@Stiffybeaver]

We're not heading there, we're there now. I tell people at work some of my VR adventures and what's coming out and I keep hearing "...what? Really?!" Well yeah guys, have you not been paying attention? VR is exploding and the tech has been there it's just the buyers haven't. But finally in the last year or so they've been setting records all over the place and a big thanks goes to Boneworks and Half Life Alyx. Software and tech has been there it's the games that haven't but we're finally getting AAA games for it and I'm so damn excited!

[@kingjellofish]

I'd like to see a wireless headset with a dedicated processing base station

[@theodoresmith3353]

Nanometers does not relate to actual size anymore. Its just marketing. So a 7nm process doesn’t necessarily have transistors 1/4th the size of 28nm.

[@akshobya303]

Thanks for the vid Brad my giant little tiny brain almost kept up.

[@liamcollinson5695]

I would love a standalone pc vr headsets but I think they will need a new chip because as good as the steam deck is most modern games run at 720-800p which is a fair bit less than what a vr headset would need.

[@CoolSs]

you know what . i need to figure out how to clone myself . so i can sell my own clone kidneys to buy more pc hardwares . also . is that snark toy in the background. i don't know about you but this the sad bradley man guy is as cool as informative .

[@shadowboyii]

for god's sake my blood is boiling with excitement for valve's new headset I have 1.5k$ saved on the side jus for it and it is hard to keep waiting and not getting the index. god damn it take my money already I want it now

[@S386LWBNM]

Whew! Early!

[@THEVOID5044]

That's true mix reality.

[@LarsAgerbk]

I wonder if the team behind the Lynx, was inspired by this device?

[@sythys_]

14:35 I think you wanted to say FPGA "Field programmable gate array" Witch is a form of analog computing made available to digital computing. The speed capability of Analog Computers is enormous, and many Industries shift to use these for devices with active feedback loops, an active feedback loop meaning, always adjusting to from current state to next state instead of last state to next state. In robotics, it is also very useful. In VR, it is mandatory, having a fluid way to compute some bottlenecks could open huge doors for Hardware no one of us can imagine.

[@w1ck3dz0d1ac]

This was based in Toronto? Why wasn't Linus covering this!

[@Carnyzzle]

so we already know that standalone PCVR is possible, and people want to act like only the Quest can do what it does lol

[@AnthonyTuff]

wow that was nice.

[@HellSpawnRulerOfHell]

Software wizardry solves none of the problems of the Quest. 🙃😆

[@meareAaron]

imagine if valve made a stand alone vr headset based on the steamdeck but faster it would be so coool!

[@n9ne]

you know its software thats holding VR back right not the actual hardware. there is absolutely nothing wrong with current headsets aside from them being tethered UE5 hopefully changes things later this year.

[@termgrecos3451]

What about Simula?

[@cate01a]

fuck me thought this was official news on the deckard by the thumb and title lol

[@SadlyItsBradley]

s-sorry

[@cate01a]

@@SadlyItsBradley dont worry mate in it for the long wait anyway

[@cedricvillani8502]

Yes and I made a unit using a ZED-mini and NVIDIA nano(like) dev board . Confused? lol maybe try doing some research

[@pumpuppthevolume]

I always read that Cylon

[@dmand1111]

Wow I never cared much for mixed reality either but that was very cool

[@stevenminecraft3503]

How much will it cost

[@xintian8880]

Hi Brad

[@JJsWithJesus]

I’m here from Mysticle’s video

[@SadlyItsBradley]

Ayyy. Enjoy the madness

[@Ollie_silly]

Can you buy it

[@oltv942]

Would you talk more about psvr2 or maybe some data mining into it

[@SadlyItsBradley]

Unfortunately nothing really to datamine

[@Anthonyg5005]

Hey Brad

[@ookami5329]

15th comment! yes, it's more impressive than 1st comment.

[@bg5426]

I guess this headset was too advanced for its time and it would have cost a lot. With steam deck out we will see how well it can run PC VR.

[@tiagotiagot]

There is no publicly accessible paper-trail when a company acquires another? It's not the kind of thing that needs to be registered with the government and stuff?

[@SadlyItsBradley]

Doesn't seem to be : )

[@maxlilt]

Same story with a Meta view?

[@TechnicaledgeWrestle]

Bring on the Deckard already.. i gotta haul my computer around to play pokerstars while all the facebook supporters can use quest 2....