Steam Frame isn’t here yet, and we’re no closer to knowing the price or release date, although the component supplier behind the headset’s built-in camera tracking system is officially producing a color passthrough module for Frame.
Steam Frame only includes monochrome passthrough, which the headset primarily uses for computer vision tracking in addition to letting the user to check their surroundings, albeit in a less immersive way than with a full color sensor.
Komodo Station, Valve’s hardware vendor in Asia, appears to have published a product page a little too early showing off an official color passthrough module for Frame, which is built by Arcturus Industries, the third-party computer vision specialists behind Steam Frame’s camera tracking system.
According to the leaked page captured by Reddit user ‘gogodboss’ (seen below), the official Arcturus Vision Camera for Steam Frame will include dual 32 megapixel sensors, 10 bit HDR capture, and a 64mm interpupillary distance (IPD).
The page notes it’s capable of capturing 5K 4,928 × 2,464 capture (stereo 2,464 × 2,464) native at 60 FPS, and up to 72 FPS and 144 FPS with special configurations and software.
And it’s set to do a lot more than just give users a full color view of the world though, as the device is said to do real-time environment mapping, spatial video recording, and also support Gaussian Splatting with tools.
Notably, that 64mm IPD is intended to be similar to typical eye spacing, meaning images are captured in 3D; according to the page says will offer a field of view (FOV) of 125 x 105° binocular, and up to 125° vertical with software updates.
Check it out in action below, videos courtesy Brad Lynch:
Setup
Color Passthrough
Environmental Capture – Gaussian Splatting
Much like Valve Index, Steam Frame is being built with modability in mind, as the headset features a Gen 4 PCIe (1x) slot alongside two MIPI connectors and support for dual 2.5 Gbps bandwidth lanes.
Valve says they’ll also release official CAD files at some point so the community can easily design their own accessories, one such hypothetical possibility being facial tracking.
That said, here’s the usual proviso you’ll find appended to any scrap of Steam Frame news right now: we still don’t know the price or release date of Valve’s first standalone headset.
What we do know is that we seem to be awfully close: the company has imported tons of the headsets, FCC filings are done, the full slate of setup and unboxing videos leaked, and free promo copy of Half-Life: Alyx (2020) is reportedly coming too.
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