Retrofit for Steam

[WilliamG]

Of course they should.

I have a late 2016 Model S that I bought shortly after the first faked “full self driving” video. I’ve spent the six years since telling anyone who will listen to never ever ever buy anything Tesla makes on the promise of future capability, and to verify that everything actually important to you exists prior to you giving them a dollar. Even that’s not fool-proof as things can be taken away - but it’s the best you can do.

I believe you’ve misinterpreted my eye rolling at your pearl clutching as a defense of Tesla. I offer up no such defense. Tesla is rapidly becoming a terrible company that won’t get much if any more of my money. That doesn’t make your moaning hyperbole and assumptions about the future any more reasonable, and if we’re talking about things the media sinks their teeth into about Tesla owners, I think you’d be hard pressed to find something worse than lamenting the most first-world of first-world problems - the utter unfairness of not being able to play video games in their $100k electric cars while someone else CAN.


Did you actually read your “reasonable complaints”?

“It boggles my mind to think that all the extra processing power they put in these early MS cars amounts to NOTHING.”

“… this car was sold on PS5-level gaming capabilities, and we'll never see any of those without a stupidly unrealistic >$2k upgrade”

“… I am so pissed about this I want to sell my Tesla, despite the fact that I might only occasionally use Steam. This is the worst case of false advertising I've been dealt by Tesla yet”

Yup, super reasonable and level-headed.

I mean the case maaaaybe could be made for potential false advertising, but Steam was never advertised as coming with these cars, especially not back when there was only 8GB RAM in the S...

Do I think it's kind of BS? Absolutely. But I do wonder if a lawsuit would have any validity (if it comes to that). You have a much, much clearer case when it comes to the 200mph top speed, which was actually advertised as only requiring wheels/tires...

 

[ucmndd]

Do I think it's kind of BS? Absolutely.

Oh I totally agree. It's just... the exact sort of half-baked BS from Tesla that anyone paying the slightest bit of attention should come to expect.

One interior rendering plus one tweet from the faker-til-you-maker in chief and the next thing you know TESLA PROMISED ME THE BEST GAMING EVER AND ALL I HAVE IS MAHJONG MY LAWYER WILL BE REACHING OUT.

 

[zero2?]

I mean the case maaaaybe could be made for potential false advertising, but Steam was never advertised as coming with these cars, especially not back when there was only 8GB RAM in the S...

How would we have known that we were taking delivery of an 8GB RAM model that was incapable of supporting the Steam/Cyberpunk level of gaming? I'm all good if we were informed of this at the time of purchase/delivery, but this was clearly NOT the case. And this feature was advertised on the site (I get it.. just a rendering), Tweeted by Elon, and (more important) stated clearly at the Plaid Launch Event on June 10th, 2021.

Tweeted by @elonmusk:

Jan. 27th 6:33 PM: Plaid Model S ships next month

Jan. 27th 6:34 PM: It can play Cyberpunk


Elon Musk on June 10, 2021 Speaking at the Plaid Launch Event

23:33: this is

23:34: actual playstation 5 level performance

23:37 :so

23:40: we're going to try to do a gaming demo

23:48: yes it can play cyberpunk <<< ** Not... “It will be able to play Cyberpunk with some addl. hardware you will have purchase in the future”

23:54: so this is somebody playing the car

23:56: right now <<< ** Not... “This is NOT actual game play in the car, this is just a demo of what it WILL look like when you purchase the addl. hardware required for this feature in the future”

23:58: this is so play playing live

24:01: yeah

24:03: so it's you know

24:05: like pretty great you know so

24:07: have fun in the game in the like it's

24:09: gonna be great

24:11: so

24:13: all right

24:15: so high frame rate will do 60 frames a

24:17: second

24:18: with state of the art games

Do I think it's kind of BS? Absolutely. But I do wonder if a lawsuit would have any validity (if it comes to that). You have a much, much clearer case when it comes to the 200mph top speed, which was actually advertised as only requiring wheels/tires...

 

[WilliamG]

How would we have known that we were taking delivery of an 8GB RAM model that was incapable of supporting the Steam/Cyberpunk level of gaming? I'm all good if we were informed of this at the time of purchase/delivery, but this was clearly NOT the case. And this feature was advertised on the site (I get it.. just a rendering), Tweeted by Elon, and (more important) stated clearly at the Plaid Launch Event on June 10th, 2021.

Tweeted by @elonmusk:

Jan. 27th 6:33 PM: Plaid Model S ships next month

Jan. 27th 6:34 PM: It can play Cyberpunk


Elon Musk on June 10, 2021 Speaking at the Plaid Launch Event

23:33: this is

23:34: actual playstation 5 level performance

23:37 :so

23:40: we're going to try to do a gaming demo

23:48: yes it can play cyberpunk <<< ** Not... “It will be able to play Cyberpunk with some addl. hardware you will have purchase in the future”

23:54: so this is somebody playing the car

23:56: right now <<< ** Not... “This is NOT actual game play in the car, this is just a demo of what it WILL look like when you purchase the addl. hardware required for this feature in the future”

23:58: this is so play playing live

24:01: yeah

24:03: so it's you know

24:05: like pretty great you know so

24:07: have fun in the game in the like it's

24:09: gonna be great

24:11: so

24:13: all right

24:15: so high frame rate will do 60 frames a

24:17: second

24:18: with state of the art games

Sure, I don't even necessarily disagree. But at the end of the day, this is ALWAYS Elon-speak, which is as far from reality much of the time as you can imagine (and see). What you actually bought was not advertised as playing Cyberpunk 2077. Nowhere in the paperwork did it mention this. Now, whether Tesla just does what I feel would be the "right thing" and retrofits owners gratis... well, guess we'll see. I do think a lawsuit would fail, though.

 

[zero2?]

Sure, I don't even necessarily disagree. But at the end of the day, this is ALWAYS Elon-speak, which is as far from reality much of the time as you can imagine (and see). What you actually bought was not advertised as playing Cyberpunk 2077. Nowhere in the paperwork did it mention this. Now, whether Tesla just does what I feel would be the "right thing" and retrofits owners gratis... well, guess we'll see.

They've already come back with official word from corporate to the SC's and stated they will not.

I do think a lawsuit would fail, though.

I disagree and my plan is to test this in Small Claims.

 

[WilliamG]

I disagree and my plan is to test this in Small Claims.

I wish you the best of luck there. I do not think you'll win any compensation here, unfortunately.

 

[zero2?]

I wish you the best of luck there. I do not think you'll win any compensation here, unfortunately.

We shall see. My only "compensation" is for them to pay for the SC quote to get me what I feel I'm owed.

 

[Muzzman1]

After my steam retrofit here are screenshots of the artifacts on my screen when steam is running. Note they occur in the menu items but not the game. I am taking the car in this week to get this fixed.

Those look like bad video ram. Coming from a IT consultant of 35 yrs.

 

[WilliamG]

Those look like bad video ram. Coming from a IT consultant of 35 yrs.

Agreed 100%.

 

[kgoroway]

I disagree and my plan is to test this in Small Claims.

Did you opt out of the arbitration requirement when you bought your car? Not sure if that matters in small claims?

 

[lb92677]

Those look like bad video ram. Coming from a IT consultant of 35 yrs.

Thank you.. I’ll mention that to Tesla service.

 

[Rocketfan30]

Sure, I don't even necessarily disagree. But at the end of the day, this is ALWAYS Elon-speak, which is as far from reality much of the time as you can imagine (and see). What you actually bought was not advertised as playing Cyberpunk 2077. Nowhere in the paperwork did it mention this. Now, whether Tesla just does what I feel would be the "right thing" and retrofits owners gratis... well, guess we'll see. I do think a lawsuit would fail, though.

"Not advertised" is a neat argument when Tesla doesn't have a PR dept or any paid advertising and solely advertises via Musk, its sole advertiser in chief. I agree that Elon speak/ well Elon promises are a bit legendary at this point but there is one big distinction here in that Musk was talking about an actual feature in an actual car because Tesla included reference to the high end GPUs and hardware in launch materials and statements in connection with the launch of the refresh, on the Tesla site (w/ Witcher 3), and even at the launch event with people playing Cyberpunk on the launch car's "hardware" and Elon touting this supposed fact on stage (actual functionality to be delivered via software update because the hardware is already there).

I agree with others that Steam was never promised and I kind-of expected Elon to create a lame underpopulated Tesla app store with Witcher and Cyberpunk or whatever else available for purchase. What I wasn't expecting was to get nothing that was "advertised" (which by the way is not limited to formal paid for print or digital advertising and can include any public statement made by the advertiser to induce purchase which Musks statements at the launch event and elsewhere about a product actually available for purchase seem to qualify).

That being said, it's too much trouble suing Tesla and class actions likely won't give anyone other than the lawyers any real benefit (they'll get their legal fees paid for and we'll get a coupon redeemable on purchase of a new Tesla or maybe some supercharging miles but nothing close to the retrofit cost). If Elon was still paying attention to Tesla instead of romping in the Twitterverse with his new friends, I might have a tiny bit of hope that he would do the right thing for his customers spending the most money on his products but . . .

So, if Elon doesn't make a change and it really costs $2k to retrofit and we still want to play Steam games in our car, our best bet is to save $1k+ and buy the most expensive Steamdeck so we can play all of the same games but aren't limited to playing them in our garage or at the supercharger.

 

[TheWalkingDad]

Things you could buy with 2K:

4 Playstation 5s
5 Steamdecks
1 Alienware Aurora R15 Desktop Gaming Computer
167 Tesla Shares
8 GB Ram Upgrade to use Steam on unrerefreshed Model S/X

 

[WilliamG]

Things you could buy with 2K:

4 Playstation 5s
5 Steamdecks
1 Alienware Aurora R15 Desktop Gaming Computer
167 Tesla Shares
8 GB Ram Upgrade to use Steam on unrerefreshed Model S/X

Given the performance of Steam in the car, you're much, much better off just buying a gaming PC with that retrofit money.

 

[Xenopotamus]

No, the ability to run The Witcher 3 was advertised at launch.

This whole thing pisses me off more than any other thing Tesla has done, and that's not a short list. It boggles my mind to think that all the extra processing power they put in these early MS cars amounts to NOTHING. We have no more capability than a 2018 M3. No disrespect to the M3 gang, but this car was sold on PS5-level gaming capabilities, and we'll never see any of those without a stupidly unrealistic >$2k upgrade - which I'll never pay on principal even if it were actually less than the cost of 16GB of ram (<$100, btw)

Recognizing the irrationality, I am so pissed about this I want to sell my Tesla, despite the fact that I might only occasionally use Steam. This is the worst case of false advertising I've been dealt by Tesla yet, and that includes the $6k I paid for FSD on my M3P in 2019 that amounted to ****-all.

Agreed and it makes me also want to sell this car simply because I no longer respect Tesla, given its treatment of early adopter customers. Tesla in my eyes went from an innovative company to a fraudulent charlatan company literally overnight. It’s not so much that I need the feature versus I was told the car I was purchasing could play AAA games using its totally amazing GPU… and the fact is, it cannot.

 

[Blakesplay]

Had the retrofit done, still need to replace the ethernet controller at some point. It runs amazing! No input lag, I think maybe something is wrong with yours William. I know what 100 ms of latency is and mine does not have it at all.

Used a t7 2tb I had lying around doing nothing and found steam stopped downloading after about 2 hours of me leaving the car. Was annoying but only took 3 days to download a good 1 tb of games. Now my days waiting for the gym to open are spent catching up with my massive steam library backlog. Working through Warhammer 40k space marine right now.

I'd say the upgrade is worth it, sure I could bring along a steam deck, but then I miss out on an awesome sound system and have to play on a 720p display with only 1 hour of battery life depending on the game. Now if only I could get my screen to tilt...

 

[WilliamG]

Had the retrofit done, still need to replace the ethernet controller at some point. It runs amazing! No input lag, I think maybe something is wrong with yours William. I know what 100 ms of latency is and mine does not have it at all.

Used a t7 2tb I had lying around doing nothing and found steam stopped downloading after about 2 hours of me leaving the car. Was annoying but only took 3 days to download a good 1 tb of games. Now my days waiting for the gym to open are spent catching up with my massive steam library backlog. Working through Warhammer 40k space marine right now.

I'd say the upgrade is worth it, sure I could bring along a steam deck, but then I miss out on an awesome sound system and have to play on a 720p display with only 1 hour of battery life depending on the game. Now if only I could get my screen to tilt...

Glad you got it working. Now load up a game with cutscenes of people speaking. You’ll see the a/v sync issues pretty easily. Tesla says this is running in a VM, which explains all the issues pretty well. It’s clear many are not sensitive to the input latency either, but I posted on it here in a thread about just how bad the infotainment is in general:

Gaming:

Tesla TV apps (Netflix etc) frame rate = bad.

My 2019 is sitting outside until my 2015 sells, so I just checked my 2015 in the garage that also has MCU2. I recorded at 60fps and counted dropped 27 frames on playback. If anyone doesn't see dropped frames in the "60fps tester" video, make sure you're watching the video in 60 fps. Sometimes...

teslamotorsclub.com

Video playback:

Tesla TV apps (Netflix etc) frame rate = bad.

Serious question: How does anyone watch anything in any serious manner in their Tesla? For example, the frame-rate is so poor/uneven it's maddening. For something advertised as the best place to watch movies etc, I'm amazed there's been zero improvement for this over the years. It was bad in...

teslamotorsclub.com

In addition here’s another user who recorded a video of God of War in his S. Go to 1:55 and you’ll see the obvious audio latency when Atreus is trying to punch Kratos’ hands. It’s hilariously off.

As a side note, yes - Steam is pretty inconsistent in the car as far as whether it will continue to download after you leave. God of War took a few attempts to get downloaded fully, but other games were just fine.

Also, for those without swiveling screens, it’s really awkward to game on in my opinion but ymmv. With the screen swiveled it’s much, much more comfortable. That said I’d still advise saving your money or putting that ~$2k toward a good gaming pc.

 

[Blakesplay]

Glad you got it working. Now load up a game with cutscenes of people speaking. You’ll see the a/v sync issues pretty easily. Tesla says this is running in a VM, which explains all the issues pretty well. It’s clear many are not sensitive to the input latency either, but I posted on it here in a thread about just how bad the infotainment is in general:

Gaming:

Tesla TV apps (Netflix etc) frame rate = bad.

My 2019 is sitting outside until my 2015 sells, so I just checked my 2015 in the garage that also has MCU2. I recorded at 60fps and counted dropped 27 frames on playback. If anyone doesn't see dropped frames in the "60fps tester" video, make sure you're watching the video in 60 fps. Sometimes...

teslamotorsclub.com

Video playback:

Tesla TV apps (Netflix etc) frame rate = bad.

Serious question: How does anyone watch anything in any serious manner in their Tesla? For example, the frame-rate is so poor/uneven it's maddening. For something advertised as the best place to watch movies etc, I'm amazed there's been zero improvement for this over the years. It was bad in...

teslamotorsclub.com

In addition here’s another user who recorded a video of God of War in his S. Go to 1:55 and you’ll see the obvious audio latency when Atreus is trying to punch Kratos’ hands. It’s hilariously off.

As a side note, yes - Steam is pretty inconsistent in the car as far as whether it will continue to download after you leave. God of War took a few attempts to get downloaded fully, but other games were just fine.

Also, for those without swiveling screens, it’s really awkward to game on in my opinion but ymmv. With the screen swiveled it’s much, much more comfortable. That said I’d still advise saving your money or putting that ~$2k toward a good gaming pc.

My brain must autocorrect for the latency, as I can't see it. I'm still holding out for a screen retrofit. I have the motors just can't enable the configuration in the gateway.

 

[WilliamG]

My brain must autocorrect for the latency, as I can't see it. I'm still holding out for a screen retrofit. I have the motors just can't enable the configuration in the gateway.

Yeah Tesla are being stubborn about this for reasons unknown.

 

[vberber]

My brain must autocorrect for the latency, as I can't see it. I'm still holding out for a screen retrofit. I have the motors just can't enable the configuration in the gateway.

Which service center retrofitted yours?