Steam Frame
Steam Frame is a virtual reality headset from Valve. It is primarily for video games. It is an all-in-one headset, but it can also stream games live from computers wirelessly. The headset knows where it is in the user's environment by using camera-based tracking. The software is open, and allows for development of custom applications.
Steam Frame has eye tracking, which is used for foveated rendering on a connected PC, for lower bandwidth streaming of games' visuals to the headset.[1] Itss operating system is a version of SteamOS, which is based on Linux.
The headset weighs 440 grams, including the battery.[1] Its price point is about $1000.[2]
The headset uses displays that are sourced from Asia. Its LCDs are from JDI. The displays connect to the main logic board with MIPI DSI. Valve does their hardware manufacturing in China.[3]
The headset uses a separate 6Ghz WiFi 6E signal to connect to a PC for streaming games, which uses a Valve 6Ghz wireless adapter.[4] It has a dedicated wifi connection for normal internet access.[1] It is not required to stream, but it is Valve's recommended solution.[5]
Electronics[edit]
Steam Frame has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which is higher performance than the Snapdragon XR2 chips.[1]
Each controller uses one AA battery.[1]
The headset's displays are a set of two 2160x2160 high-refresh rate square LCD panels.[1]
The headset uses a lithium-polymer battery. The battery is at the back of the head strap. Battery life is a few hours.
The headset has a MIPI CSI input port (for cameras), for connecting custom cameras to the headset, such as color cameras.[6]
Optics[edit]
The Steam Frame uses custom pancake lenses that were designed in Zemax OpticStudio.[7]
It has adjustable inter-pupillary distance (IPD) using a knob at the top of the headset.[4] The two separate panels move with the IPD adjustment.
Physical design[edit]
Steam Frame's casing is made out of plastic.[1]
It uses a soft foam piece around the headset that makes contact with the user's face.[1]
The headset has permanently attached peripheral vision blockers, unlike the Quest Pro.[8]
3D tracking[edit]
Steam Frame uses markerless camera-based tracking.
Steam Frame has four outwards-facing grayscale cameras for markerless camera-based tracking of the user's environment, such as an indoor room.[1]
The headset is the first from Valve not to use SteamVR base stations.[1]
The 3D tracking works in the dark, because the headset has infra-red emitters built in.[6]
Controllers[edit]
Each controller has 18 infrared LEDs that are tracked by the headset's cameras, to track their position, which is fused with their IMU data using filtering.[6]
Pre-release[edit]
Steam Frame was known internally at Valve as the "Deckard" project for years leading up to the release.[9]
A prototype version's displays were two LPM026M648C LCDs from JDI.[9][10] The JDI LPM026M648C is a MIPI DSI panel that supports display stream compression.[11]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 "Valve Officially Announces Steam Frame, A "Streaming-First" Standalone VR Headset". 2025-11-12. https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-steam-frame-official-announcement-features-details/.
- ↑ "Valve Steam Machine, Desktop SteamOS, Steam Frame VR, & Controller". 2024-03-06. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWUxObt1efQ&t=116.
- ↑ "Valve Steam Machine, Desktop SteamOS, Steam Frame VR, & Controller". 2024-03-06. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWUxObt1efQ.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Steam Frame". 2025-11-12. https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe.
- ↑ "We Saw Valve's New Steam Frame VR Headset, Steam Machine "Console", and More!". 2024-03-06. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x49XBlrBz0.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Linus Tech Tips Steam Frame Video". 2024-03-06. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU3ru09HTng&t=308.
- ↑ Robertson, Duncan (2025-11-12). "Valve Deckard has been officially revealed as the Steam Frame, and it looks like a combination of PSVR 2 and the Meta Quest 3's best features". https://www.gamesradar.com/hardware/vr/valve-deckard-has-been-officially-revealed-as-the-steam-frame-and-it-looks-like-a-combination-of-psvr-2-and-the-meta-quest-3s-best-features/.
- ↑ Ridley, Jacob (2025-11-12). "The Steam Frame is here: 'a new way to play your entire Steam library'". https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/vr-hardware/steam-frame-specs-availability/.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Could Valve Deckard Use LCD Panels & A Quest-Like Chip?". 2025-03-21. https://www.uploadvr.com/valve-deckard-proof-of-concept-model-resolution-specs-chipset/.
- ↑ Alderson, Alex (2025-03-23). "Valve Deckard: Latest leak reveals early specifications of long-awaited Valve Index successor". https://www.notebookcheck.net/Valve-Deckard-Latest-leak-reveals-early-specifications-of-long-awaited-Valve-Index-successor.984756.0.html.
- ↑ "LKML: Junjie Cao: Re: [PATCH 2/3 drm/msm/dsi: support DSC configurations with slice_per_pkt > 1"]. 2025-10-13. https://lkml.org/lkml/2025/10/13/760.