Valve has released SteamOS 0.4.3 Beta for Steam Frame through the headset’s Beta channel. Valve says the update can improve power efficiency and battery life by up to 12% during both local gameplay and streaming; results vary with frame rate and content.
What Valve says about battery life
The up-to-12% figure applies to both playing games on Steam Frame and streaming VR from a PC. Valve says the actual gain depends on frame rate and content, so results can differ between sessions.
NeoTeo previously covered an earlier SteamOS update for Steam Frame in its report on SteamOS 0.3.0.
Eye tracking, controllers, and connectivity
SteamOS 0.4.3 adds a Track Dominant Eye Only option under VR Settings > General. You’ll need to enable Show Advanced Settings to access it.
Valve also lists a fix for controller bindings that failed to load in some games, including Google Earth VR and Thumper. The update improves interface focus for grab and resize handles, adds further VR-streaming reliability fixes, and addresses wireless-adapter connectivity issues affecting users in some countries.
The PC requirement for reducing Error 17
To reduce Error 17 connection issues during streaming, Valve says the host PC also needs SteamVR 2.18.2 or later. The release notes identified SteamVR 2.18.2 as being on the SteamVR Beta branch at the time.
