Valve Steam Frame : Findings about the new Valve Index2-Deckard-Frame

[chiliwili69]

It seems that in the last days the initial rumours has been consolidated more and more by that guy (Brad Lynch).

 

Yesterday MRTV had him in the show and they were talking about several potential features of this new headset.  It is the last part of the video below.

 

- 4Kx4K per eye with OLED microdisplays

- Thin varifocal lenses using liquid crystal layers

- Potential Inside-out tracking

- Potential standalone option (making an upgradable headset)

 

According to Brad this new headset could be release in the next 6 months.

 

 

 

Edited November 14 by chiliwili69

[chiliwili69]

I am still amazed by this Brad guy, he seems to know everything about what Valve is doing.

 

The concept of having 4 different headstrap design with one common superheadset is really clever! It will be an upgradable headset based in the individual needs !! (Standalone compute unit, wireless, basic, AR).

 

 

[Varibraun]

On 10/3/2021 at 7:47 AM, chiliwili69 said:

I am still amazed by this Brad guy, he seems to know everything about what Valve is doing.

 

Yes, thanks for posting...I have been watching his videos over the past few weeks too.  I hate to get my hopes up, but I really hope he is correct in putting all these patents and code puzzle pieces together.  If so, it appears Valve has something awesome on the near horizon for us.  Has @SCG_Fenris_Wolf commented on this anywhere yet?

[chiliwili69]

An interesting video about potential standalone & PCVR combo.

Came on Valve!!  WE WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING OFFICIAL NOW!!

 

[dburne]

Well as Meta's goal is more about the collection of and selling of user data, it would be nice to see a serious competitor like Valve do something like this for the gamers. Still seems nothing official though.

[chiliwili69]

some more info about the Deckard, I hope they will release this year but who knows...

 

 

[Dagwoodyt]

Deckard YouTube vids are all clickbait. The VR YouTubers are in desperate need of content.

[simfan2015]

Deckart is only interesting if it will be sold everywhere. In the US no problem, but World-wide??? 

We may get the issue like with the pico 4... Unavailable in the US. 

The Deckart hopefully not the other way around. 

It is no surprise the Meta quest 2 is the most succesfull.. at least it can be bought everywhere! 

[dburne]

Re: Valve - seems to continue to be just click bait with no factual evidence.

[chiliwili69]

3.5 years after initial rumours still more rumours... I hope this time will be true....

 

https://www.roadtovr.com/valve-deckard-report-release-date-price-leak/

[Charlo-VR]

Woo hoo, looking forward to flying Star Citizen in VR while sitting in my Yaw 3 with the Deckard!

[Aapje]

I doubt that it will be a great headset for us. Having PCVR built into the headset will mean that it is ahead of smartphone-based standalone games, but behind pairing a headset with a strong PC. So it's probably too weak for high quality flight simming, but you will pay for that advanced standalone capability that you won't use.

[chiliwili69]

4 hours ago, Aapje said:

Having PCVR built into the headset will mean that it is ahead of smartphone-based standalone games, but behind pairing a headset with a strong PC. So it's probably too weak for high quality flight simming, but you will pay for that advanced standalone capability that you won't use

 

Yes, we will pay for a kind of Steamdeck inside the headset, this is totally different from the Index which is a just a wired true PCVR headset.

 

I am also paying an extra (in cash when buying the Quest3 and in soul and data after it) for the XR2 chip and batery.

 

Ideally Valve could produce a version of the Deckard for people who will need the PC (flight sim, etc), putting as optional the computing unit and batery... But I am just dreaming.

[chiliwili69]

Looks like the panels are LCD 2160x2160, same resolution than G2. For most of Steam games it is enough, but not for sims!

At least, I hope they will give us a good HFOV and VFOV

 

 

Edited March 21 by chiliwili69

[Aapje]

That's a slightly higher resolution than a Quest 3, so in itself it is perfectly usable for simming, if the lenses are as good as the Quest 3 lenses. But as I said before, I think that the price/performance won't be great for simming, since that is not what they are targeting.

 

Note that Bradley warns us that these are just the specs of the proof of concept and not necessarily the final specs.

[chiliwili69]

The rumours say it will release for this year 2025...

 

 

[chiliwili69]

Here Sebastian comment about the Steam Frame and the Index 2, two separate things. It looks like a good idea if this is finally true.

But perhaps not good enough for fly sims.

 

[giftgruen]

Why is the content of a native german speaker obvisously "spoken" by an AI generated voice ?

 

Could well be in this case, that Sebastians well known face is taken - but some completely other AI generated content is on the Audio.

[Picchio]

52 minutes ago, giftgruen said:

Why is the content of a native german speaker obvisously "spoken" by an AI generated voice ?

 

Could well be in this case, that Sebastians well known face is taken - but some completely other AI generated content is on the Audio.

 

Are you referring to the video just above your post? 🤨

[giftgruen]

Yes.  You probably dont speak german ?   But ... just hear to sound and look lips. it's not synchronous

Edited October 31 by giftgruen

[Picchio]

On 10/31/2025 at 3:27 PM, giftgruen said:

Yes.  You probably dont speak german ?   But ... just hear to sound and look lips. it's not synchronous

 

But... in the video he's speaking English? 🤨

Check your YouTube settings 😜

Edited November 3 by Picchio

[FTC_Mephisto]

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe
 

It is happening 

[von_Tom]

My initial thought is that it is underwhelming and not for flight sims. 
 

A shame. 
 

von Tom

[Charger_]

It could be alright. Maybe their wireless solution may have some gains. Flight simming untethered in a lightweight headset (ala Pico 4) does have a lot of advantages.

 

The low resolution resolution is a bummer. If it was higher and also used OLED screens....that could have been awesome. 

 

Wait and see!

 

 

[Dagwoodyt]

Even with higher resolution HMD's on the market availability and reliability are still issues. If the Frame turns out to be reliable it could perhaps function in a standby capacity.

[chiliwili69]

Definetely it is a headset to try. I will order as soon as it is available.

 

An paper, strong points are:

- Light weight --> low rotational inertia mor comfort

- Batery in the back --> better weight compensation

- pancake lenses --> thinner design --> less rotational inertia

- Nice FOV, they say 110 in all directions. The VFOV is important.

- Cordless

- Inside-out tracking --> no basestations

- IR tracking cameras --> able to play in darkness

- Dynamic foveated streaming (for any PC Game including IL-2) --> so the bandwidth which is 250Mbps is used optimally for the important pixels (to what your eyes are looking).

- Batery a bit bigger ( 21.6 Wh) than quest3 ( 19.44)--> more play time

- Large edge-to-edge clarity

- Large lenses (I prefer lenses of Quest3 over the BSB2)

- Integrated audio

- Reliable

- Core module open for modders

- no persistance motion-blur from OLED (BSB2) when moving head.

- Easy streaming with a dongle (no dedicated Wifi routers or interferences)

 

But weak points:

- Not top resolution (like G2 or Pico4), I wish they at least had 2500x2500 or even2800x2800, since they have DFR.

- No OLED (IMHO OLED are overvalorated, the LCD Quest3 are good enough for me)

- Reported SDE

- Battery to recharge every time

 

https://www.roadtovr.com/steam-frame-hands-on-valve-vr-headset-index-2/

 

Edited November 13 by chiliwili69

[Dagwoodyt]

It's not just the inside out tracking that's noteworthy, but that it is said to be functional in poorly lit environments. That is where base stations excel. So the frame would appear to have a decisive advantage there.

[giftgruen]

As a simmer - I ask myself where now this thing is that much better than a QuestPro or Quest3.

Similar resolution, no OLED. Lenses of the Quests are already okay.

 

Hmmm. Disappointed, at first glance.

[chiliwili69]

This is a nice video with the Valve guys, they talk about the relevance of good stereo overlap and FOV over PPD.

 

[chiliwili69]

3 hours ago, giftgruen said:

As a simmer - I ask myself where now this thing is that much better than a QuestPro or Quest3

 

Well..., on paper, I would give you three reasons to move from Quest3 to Steam Frame.

 

1. Better images: The real bottleneck of the Quest3 to have better image quality is no the panel resolution or the lenses, it is the decoding bandwith of the GPU of the Snapdragon XR2 gen2 chip which is Adreno 740. That limit is 200Mbps for H265 (it doesnt matter the streaming method: Airlink,or Virtual Desktop or USB link). The Steam Frame has a better GPU in the chip Snapdragon 8 Gen3 which is Adreno 750 with a bit more bandwidth (250Mbps) but the important thing is not just 50 Mbps difference. The key thing is that the Steam Frame used a new technology "Foveated Streaming" which uses more effciently that 250Mbps since they focus in sending more quality for the foveated area.

Extract from here:

 

2. Less weight on front: Since the battery is in the back, the front side is only 190g. And less rotational inertia for quick turns. Perhaps not like the BSB2, but quite closer. Believe me, this is very nice for combat sims.

 

3. More vertical FOV: The original Index had good fov in both axis, vertical and horizontal. Here Valve has put priority of FOV over PPD. So the Steam Frame has better vertical FOV than the Quest3. As reported by uploadVR.

 

Again this is just on paper. That´s why I will order the Steam Frame as soon it is available to really check myself this and decide if it is better than BSB2.

All these factors can only be seen by a A-B-A-B-A... comparison.

 

 

[Aapje]

8 hours ago, giftgruen said:

As a simmer - I ask myself where now this thing is that much better than a QuestPro or Quest3.

Similar resolution, no OLED. Lenses of the Quests are already okay.

 

Hmmm. Disappointed, at first glance.

 

GabeN has high standards and not a penny pincher mindset, so I do expect it to be nicer than the specs suggest. That said, it is pretty much impossible to beat the Quest 3 in price/performance, and it is also very hard to make big hardware gains over it. But perhaps the software tricks make a large difference?

[Dagwoodyt]

I am still trying to process all of what is being said here.

[chiliwili69]

In this video finally someone explain well the differences with Quest3, specially the foveated streaming (reason 4 at minute 11) which I think is the big thing from now on for all standalone devices:

 

 

Edited November 16 by chiliwili69

[giftgruen]

Yes, for a non-tethered device, this is all fine and probably a good idea.

However - this is a workaround only to minimize the standalone device disadvantage.

 

As a maximum, you have 2160x2160 LED pixels ( and - yes - uncompressed in the sweetspot )

No OLED, not even local dimming, far far away from even an "old" CrystalLight. The FOV is said to be 110 which is good but not exceptional.

 

So this maybe is a great "universal" headset for all type of games and in details also superior to the Meta Quest series.

But it is not a state of the art simmer headset, the specs are clear here. Neither resolution nor FOV nor display type are any near of "high end".

 

Don't get me wrong: For people new to VR, Steam Frame probably is a good and solid choice.  

But for me, personally, these specs simply mean that I can keep my QuestPro for occasional "non-simming" like Alyx, Boxing and so on.

For sims, I will rather go for tethered - right now I am trying a Crystal Light and maybe a Beyond or DreamAir ( or even Super ) is the way to go here for me.

 

Edited November 17 by giftgruen

[Aapje]

The alleged price range won't be high-end either.

[chiliwili69]

9 hours ago, giftgruen said:

es, for a non-tethered device, this is all fine and probably a good idea.

However - this is a workaround only to minimize the standalone device disadvantage.

 

As a maximum, you have 2160x2160 LED pixels ( and - yes - uncompressed in the sweetspot )

No OLED, not even local dimming, far far away from even an "old" CrystalLight. The FOV is said to be 110 which is good but not exceptional.

 

So this maybe is a great "universal" headset for all type of games and in details also superior to the Meta Quest series.

But it is not a state of the art simmer headset, the specs are clear here. Neither resolution nor FOV nor display type are any near of "high end".

 

Don't get me wrong: For people new to VR, Steam Frame probably is a good and solid choice.  

But for me, personally, these specs simply mean that I can keep my QuestPro for occasional "non-simming" like Alyx, Boxing and so on.

For sims, I will rather go for tethered - right now I am trying a Crystal Light and maybe a Beyond or DreamAir ( or even Super ) is the way to go here for me

 

Yes, I think many of us (Flight Simers) we are in the same boat here.

 

If you ask me I would prefer also that Valve used a 2500x2500 or 2800x2800 panel resolution here. Or even more why not.

But they took that 2160x2160 which is what make more sense for their ecosystem, obiously not the best for flight simmer.

 

But having said that, and as a IL-2 player (I don´t play other games) and as a BSB2 user, I will buy Steam Frame just to know how good it is for me and IL-2.

Panel resolution is just one thing, it doesn´t automatically translate to better detailed images, it depends on other factors like lenses resolving power and distorsion profiles, so image quality together with all the other aspects (confort, VFOV, HFOV, rotational inertia, eye-box, edge-to-edge clarity, glare, render/physical ratio, cable, GPU load, etc) is what determine what headset is better for every individual.

 

Are micro-OLED panels ideal for Flight Sims? it depends, if they force you to have lower FOVs, perhaps not.

 

I have been always a big defender of tethered devices for three reasons:

1.- No quality image losses by compression

2.- No need to setup router/Streaming app

3.- No need to charge batteries.

 

So, in general I was not initially convinced with the Standalone devices like Quest3. But I was greatly surprised by the quality of the compressed images and now, Steam Frame, with the foveated encoding is doing a giant step in that direction, making the bullet points 1 and 2 something fro the past.

 

In fact, the foveated encoding can be used with Steam Link beta by anyone who has an standalone VR headset with eye-tracking and compatible with Steam Link. For example the Play for Dream. This foveated encoding could unlock the true potentil of that device. (for me the PlayForDream is a non-go because the small vertical FOV).

[giftgruen]

12 hours ago, Aapje said:

The alleged price range won't be high-end either.

True!  And for the rumoured price tag ( probably - let's wait for RL experiences ) a valid choice.

[giftgruen]

1 hour ago, chiliwili69 said:

Panel resolution is just one thing, it doesn´t automatically translate to better detailed images, it depends on other factors like lenses resolving power and distorsion profiles, so image quality together with all the other aspects (confort, VFOV, HFOV, rotational inertia, eye-box, edge-to-edge clarity, glare, render/physical ratio, cable, GPU load, etc) is what determine what headset is better for every individual.

 

Absolutly true.

In another thread here, I actually describe my trials to get a good experience out of a Crystal Light.

 

Compared with my QuestPro ( 1.9x1.9 ) a Crystal Light ( 2.8x2.8 ) should be a clearly superior solution.

It somehow is now, after some work, but not in each regard. But it is not a 'Switch-on-and-WHOOOW' - thing.

( And - yes - I had this, by switching from a G2 to the QuestPro for example )

 

In the end - a headset is more than just resolution?   YES!

 

Nevertheless, the pure specs of the Steam frame do not really catch me. It is a "why should I" announcement.

Maybe I am wrong and all the other features mix up o a great VR experience.

So - giving it a try, sure, it's always interesting to try out new stuff.

 

For curiosity only: The BSB2 you have atm, is it a good step from a Quest3 or Crystal Light or rather a sidestep ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aapje]

@chiliwili69

 

I'm a big fan of the Quest 3 solution of doing more with less power, rather than brute forcing it like Pimax. I'm not interested in buying a 5090, so high resolutions would probably not be a real advantage. And while I got a Quest 2 just for tethered content, I ended up enjoying standalone gaming a lot too (also now with my Quest 3).

 

Quote

with the foveated encoding is doing a giant step in that direction

 

Do keep in mind that the only benefit of foveated encoding is that it works for games that don't support foveated rendering, but it is inferior to it, since still requires the entire view to be rendered at the higher resolution, but then sends a lower resolution to the headset for the parts of the view that the person is not looking at directly.

 

So I see it as an intermediate technology like driver-level upscaling, that is inferior to game-level upscaling.

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

I believe fixed foveated encoding is also implemented in VD and it works with all supported devices and they are  working to implement tracked foveated encoding for compatible devices (eye tracking).

Edited November 18 by 1PL-Husar-1Esk