Steam Frame — What It Gave Up, and What It Kept: Comparing the Specs Against the Major Headsets
When you’re upgrading a VR headset, new features and screen sharpness matter too, but whether the peripherals you already own will carry over is also a real concern. Valve is about to release a new headset called Steam Frame.
Reading the official spec sheet, it has two inward-facing cameras for eye tracking. On the other hand, all four outward-facing cameras are monochrome — no color on the outside world. So what happens to body trackers and face-tracking hardware on this device?
This article records what I found reading Steam Frame’s official specs and developer documentation, lining it up against the major headsets along four axes: eye tracking (face tracking), full-body tracking, passthrough (AR), and whether it works on Linux. Weight and resolution are confined to the tables; the body of the article is spent on these four axes.
This reflects the situation as of September 2026.
- 1. What I Checked — Four Axes and Sources
- 2. What Steam Frame Is Packing
- 3. Does Eye Tracking Reach an Avatar’s Eyes?
- 4. Does It Even Have Face Tracking to Begin With?
- 5. Do Face-Tracking Tools Run on Linux?
- 6. Base Stations Aren’t Mentioned Officially
- 7. Do Full-Body Tracking Devices Run on Linux?
- 8. Can You See Outside? Passthrough Is Monochrome
- 9. Does It Work on Linux?
- 10. Lined Up Against the Major Headsets
- 11. What You Get, and What Comes With It
- 12. What This Research Left Unresolved
- 13. Closing — What Was Given Up, What Was Kept
- 14. Gear Mentioned in This Article
- 15. Sources I Checked
What I Checked — Four Axes and Sources
First, a note on what kind of article this is. Steam Frame has not been released as of September 7, 2026. So this entire article is research — it does not cover things you can only learn hands-on, like speed or comfort.
Steam Frame’s specs came from Valve’s product page. That page renders via JavaScript, so reading it directly gives you no body text. I extracted the data embedded in the HTML and read through every field of the spec sheet. Wherever the body text says “officially stated," it refers to this spec sheet or to Steamworks’ developer pages. Where the only source is media coverage or third-party explainers, I say so.
For the other headsets: Quest 3 and Quest 3S came from Meta’s comparison page, Bigscreen Beyond 2 from Bigscreen’s direct sales page, and Valve Index from Valve’s product page. Some fields — like weight or field of view — are not disclosed by the manufacturer at all. In those cases I note in the text that the number is a third-party tally, and mark anything I couldn’t pin down as 【unconfirmed】.
The six headsets compared are Steam Frame, Quest 3, Quest 3S, Quest 2, Bigscreen Beyond 2 (2e), and Valve Index. Quest 2 stays in the mix because it’s the one I actually own.
What Steam Frame Is Packing
Headset Specs
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4nm) / ARM64 architecture |
| Memory | 16GB unified memory (LPDDR5X) |
| Storage | 256GB / 1TB (UFS) / microSD card slot |
| Power | Rechargeable 21.6Wh Li-ion battery / one USB-C 2.0 port on the back (charging and data) / charges at 15V 3.0A (45W max) |
| Display | 2160×2160 pixels per eye, LCD |
| Refresh rate | 72–144Hz (official notes say 144Hz is experimental) |
| Lenses | Proprietary pancake lenses / up to 110° field of view |
| Tracking | Inside-out (camera-based). This single line is all that’s written |
| Cameras | 4x outward-facing monochrome (tracks the headset body and controllers) / 2x inward-facing (eye tracking and foveated streaming) |
| Passthrough | Monochrome passthrough via the outward-facing cameras |
| Low light | An infrared emitter (used for tracking and passthrough) |
| Expansion | A user-accessible expansion port on the front / two high-speed camera lanes (8-lane @2.5Gbps MIPI) or PCIe Gen4 (1 lane) |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 7 (2×2). Dual radios — handles 5GHz Wi-Fi and 6GHz VR streaming at the same time / Bluetooth 5.4 / a dedicated 2.4GHz link for the controllers |
| Wireless adapter | Included / Wi-Fi 6E (6GHz) / connects the headset directly to a PC |
| Head strap | Built-in speakers and battery. 245g on its own. Detachable from the body |
| Dimensions / weight | 175×95×110mm / 440g (body + head strap) / 185g (body only) |
| OS | SteamOS 3 (Arch-based) / KDE Plasma desktop |
Two numbers appear in the weight field: 440g including the head strap, and 185g for the body alone. Since the head strap is stated to be detachable, there’s evidently room for a different way of wearing it. The refresh rate is 72–144Hz, with the top end of 144Hz officially flagged as experimental, in parentheses.
Controller Specs
| Tracking | 6-DOF plus inertial sensors, tracked by the headset’s own cameras |
| Buttons | ABXY (right) / D-pad (left) / full-size magnetic sticks (TMR, capacitive touch) / left and right analog triggers and bumpers / two-stage grip buttons |
| Finger tracking | Capacitive finger tracking across all input surfaces |
| Connection | 2.4GHz link to the headset’s dedicated radio |
| Dimensions / weight | 126×73×87mm / 130g with battery, 107g without |
| Power | One AA battery (replaceable), about 40 hours |
Camera-based bare-hand tracking — hand tracking, as it’s usually called — isn’t mentioned in the official spec sheet. The four outward cameras are described as serving “tracking the body and controllers." Reading fingers is left to the controllers’ own capacitive sensors. Whether bare-hand control is possible is treated as 【unconfirmed】.
Release Date and Price?
Both are 【unconfirmed】. The official product page has no date; the only line touching on timing is “The Steam Hardware family officially expands in early 2026," wording that appears to be left over from the announcement. No price is listed either. A note at the bottom of the page states specs are subject to change.
On availability in Japan, the official text states: “The new Steam Hardware will be available via KOMODO in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan & Hong Kong." A retail partner is set, but pricing and a reservation start date for Japan are likewise 【unconfirmed】. I found several articles floating price estimates, but since I couldn’t verify them against a primary source, this article does not state a price.
Does Eye Tracking Reach an Avatar’s Eyes?
The first axis. Having two inward-facing cameras is officially stated. But the use the official page describes is foveated streaming — sending high detail only where you’re looking, a mechanism for cutting bandwidth. Avatar facial expression doesn’t come up on the product page at all.
The Mechanism Valve Names Directly
It’s absent from the product page, but present in developer documentation. Steamworks’ Steam Frame developer page has this line:
Our current support for eye tracking uses the XR_EXT_eye_gaze_interaction OpenXR extension.
OpenXR is a common interface for handling many different VR devices through the same API. One of the extensions bolted onto that interface is XR_EXT_eye_gaze_interaction, and Valve names it directly in its own documentation. The Godot-facing page states, “Steam Frame supports Eye Tracking in Godot using the Eye Gaze Interaction extension," and even walks through where to enable it in the settings screen.
Everything up to here comes from Valve’s own documentation, not media reporting. It seems fair to say a path for an app to read eye-gaze data does exist.
What That Mechanism Can and Can’t Give You
But what this extension hands you has limits. Reading the OpenXR spec text itself, the stated use case is “aiming or targeting" — pointing at things. What it delivers is a single gaze vector combining both eyes, described as originating “from a point between the two eyes."
Separate left/right gaze direction, eyelid openness, and pupil size are not part of this extension. Plenty of eye-tracking devices exist in the world, but the job of driving an avatar’s expression in a social setting is split off to a different extension. Meta’s own developer documentation likewise states a separate extension exists for social use.
The Receiving End on VRChat’s Side
Worth checking the receiving end too. VRChat’s official documentation states that gaze data can be received through a mechanism called OSC. But it immediately continues:
This is an advanced feature! It is NOT plug-and-play. You must create your own program to transmit this data to VRChat using OSC.
In other words: this isn’t something that just works when you plug it in — someone has to write a program that reads from the device and sends it over OSC. The addresses provided as the receiving end are as follows.
| Eyelids | /tracking/eye/EyesClosedAmount (value 0–1) |
| Eye direction (pick one) | /tracking/eye/CenterPitchYaw / CenterPitchYawDist / CenterVec / CenterVecFull / LeftRightPitchYaw / LeftRightVec |
It also states that if no data arrives for 10 seconds, the avatar reverts to automatic gaze and automatic blinking.
The Path Gaze Data Would Have to Travel
Let’s connect all of this into a single chain and lay it out.
The extension doesn’t include the raw material that would go into EyesClosedAmount
Here’s what I can read straight off this diagram. 【Inference】 On a mechanical level, a path for moving an avatar’s eyes is in place. The single combined gaze vector lines up with VRChat’s CenterPitchYaw receiving address. What’s missing is the program connecting the two. Since this is an unreleased device, it seems reasonable to assume nobody has written that yet.
On the other hand, blinking cannot travel this route at all. Because the extension carries no eyelid data, there’s nothing to feed into EyesClosedAmount. What’s left, as an 【inference】, is a picture where the eyes move but blinking stays automatic. How much this matters depends on how much you’re asking of face tracking in the first place.
On face tracking itself, I have a separate article on what to buy: I Wanted to Move My Avatar’s Face While Wearing a Headset — Here’s What I Found on What to Buy for Face Tracking.
Does It Even Have Face Tracking to Begin With?
Eyes and face are different things. Reading how your mouth opens, your cheeks move, your eyebrows rise and fall requires a camera pointed at your mouth.
Steam Frame’s official spec sheet contains no mention of face-tracking hardware. Both inward cameras are described as serving eye tracking and foveated streaming; nowhere does it say a camera is positioned to capture the mouth. Nothing is there, and I’m stating that plainly.
There’s room to add it later, though. The official spec sheet lists “a user-accessible expansion port on the front," described as two high-speed camera lanes (8-lane @2.5Gbps MIPI) or PCIe Gen4 (1 lane). A port built with camera attachment in mind is there from the start. My own 【inference】 is that there’s room for a face-tracking accessory to attach here. As of September 7, 2026, I found no announcement of such a product 【unconfirmed】.
Worth laying out where other headsets stand too. The Quest Pro was Meta’s only device with inward cameras that read both face and gaze. The Quest 3 and Quest 3S have no inward cameras at all. Meta’s developer docs state that on devices without inward cameras, expressions are instead estimated from microphone audio — guessing from your voice rather than a camera-captured face. The Bigscreen Beyond 2e tracks gaze but has no face-tracking hardware. The Valve Index has neither.
Do Face-Tracking Tools Run on Linux?
Steam Frame runs SteamOS internally, which is Linux. Whether face-tracking tools run there is a concrete question for this particular device.
The relay software commonly used to drive face and eye movement in VRChat is called VRCFaceTracking. It reads data from a device and streams it to VRChat over OSC. As of September 7, 2026, the system-requirements field on its Steam listing lists only “OS: Windows 10/11." No SteamOS, no Linux.
On the development side, though, something has moved. A request for Linux support had been open since February 2024, and was closed as “completed" on August 13, 2026. The author’s closing comment reads:
We now have an experimental avalonia branch on Steam. Please feel free to give it a try whilst we iterate on it. Eventually, we will be switching our UI framework away from WinUI3 and Avalonia will be our target.
Avalonia is a UI toolkit that lets the same program run on both Windows and Linux. An experimental branch has been put up on Steam, and the author states the project will eventually move over to it entirely. It’s neither “still Windows-only" nor “already supports Linux" — it’s mid-transition. Even before this, a community port called VRCFaceTracking.Avalonia had been distributed for Windows, Linux, and macOS, and there’s also a Linux-native alternative called OscAvMgr. Neither of these is official.
As for a way to add actual face-tracking hardware afterward, there’s Project Babble’s Baballonia. It describes itself officially as a “cross-platform, hardware-agnostic XR eye and face tracking application," pitched as not tied to any particular headset. You mount a camera under the headset to capture the mouth; there’s no fixed mounting position, and the official docs say you’re meant to experiment to find placement. It reaches VRChat two ways: through a VRCFaceTracking module, or by sending OSC directly.
Looking at the distribution, the latest is v1.1.1.0rc6 (March 12, 2026). A Windows installer and a Linux tarball are both listed, and the Linux side has both x64 and arm64 builds. Since Steam Frame’s insides are ARM64 SteamOS, my 【inference】 is that there’s a real prospect it could run on the Frame itself. It’s not yet listed in any compatibility table, and it’s at the stage where nobody has tried it.
Base Stations Aren’t Mentioned Officially
Onto the second axis: full-body tracking. Start with the facts.
The tracking field of the official spec sheet contains just a single line: “Inside-out (camera-based)." The word “base station," or “Lighthouse," appears nowhere on the product page — I counted zero occurrences. The four outward cameras are described as serving “tracking the body and controllers," and the infrared emitter for low light is described as serving “tracking and passthrough."
So this article will not state that “base stations can’t be used." All I can say is “it’s not mentioned officially." Whether it works is treated as 【unconfirmed】.
A Base Station Is Not a Tracking Device
Worth pinning down the mechanics here, since the name is easy to misread.
A base station (Lighthouse) is just a device you set in the corner of a room that sweeps a laser — closer to a lighthouse than a sensor, and it never sends data to a PC. The side doing the position calculation is whatever is bathed in that laser — the headset or the trackers. The receiving side is lined with sensors that read the light, and it works out its own position from the order and timing of the flashes hitting it.
Steam Frame’s body determines its own position using its four outward cameras — a design that doesn’t need a base station. Whether it also carries the light-receiving sensors is not stated officially, so I don’t know.
Not Needed for the Headset — Set One Up Just for the Trackers?
This is the part that snagged me the most while writing this article.
Designed to not need a base station
Needs a base station
There’s no answer to this with the information available right now
The standard trackers used for full-body tracking assume a base station. But Steam Frame’s own body is built to not need one. Would you end up placing something in your room that the headset doesn’t need, purely for the sake of trackers? That looks like where the decision will hinge. This article can’t answer it. I’m stating plainly that it can’t be answered here.
Standalone Use vs. Streaming from a PC
Read these two scenarios as one and the discussion stalls a step too early.
Steam Frame is a headset that runs standalone, with SteamOS running inside. At the same time, an official path exists for streaming video to it from a PC — the product page states, “Stream from your PC, laptop, Steam Deck or Steam Machine." How trackers get handled differs between these two cases.
| Standalone | You need a way outside the Frame itself to track anything beyond head and controllers. Candidates are trackers that don’t require a base station, or VRChat’s OSC trackers |
| Streaming from a PC | SteamVR runs on the PC side, so tracker position gets handled there. 【Inference】 In theory, if you have a base station and trackers connected to the PC, feet and waist could be tracked |
There’s a catch, though. The headset measures its own position, while the trackers measure relative to a base station, so you have to overlay two different coordinate systems. The Quest has the same problem, historically solved by a community tool called OpenVR Space Calibrator. On setups using Monado or WiVRn, a tool called Motoc fills the same role. Third-party reports were split between people saying it’s basically unusable and people saying it works but needs periodic recalibration. Whether the same trick works with Steam Frame is 【unconfirmed】.
Do Full-Body Tracking Devices Run on Linux?
This is where the research paid off the most.
Steam Frame is a machine that runs SteamOS. Adding full-body tracking to it runs into a wall separate from the tracker hardware itself: does that device’s PC-side software run on Linux. I went through the official site and repository for each device.
Device-by-Device Support
| Device | Base station | PC-side software OS support | On Linux | Official or community |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SlimeVR | Not needed | Officially distributes a Linux build (deb / rpm / AppImage / Flathub / AUR). Latest v21.0.0 (September 1, 2026) includes an ARM64 build | Works | Official |
| HaritoraX 2 / 2 Pro | Not needed | Official system requirements: “Windows 10 (64-bit only) / 11 / SteamVR 2.8.8 or later." No mention of Linux | No Linux route in the official guidance. Reportedly works via SlimeTora | Native software is official / SlimeTora is community |
| HaritoraX Wireless (older model) | Not needed | Shiftall itself describes the native Haritora Configurator as “Windows software" | Same as above | Same as above |
| Vive Tracker 3.0 | Needed | SteamVR. Valve itself describes the Linux build as a “development release" | Reports of it working exist. If the pairing screen doesn’t appear, lighthouse_console is used as a workaround | SteamVR is official / the procedure is community-documented |
| VIVE Ultimate Tracker | Not needed | Requires a Windows app called VIVE Hub. HTC officially states “requires a Windows PC" | 【Inference】 Reads as unusable on Linux (no mention of Linux officially) | Official (Windows only) |
| Tundra Tracker | Needed | SteamVR (native support added in version 1.20.4) | Reportedly works. Published configuration examples exist for Linux | SteamVR is official / write-ups are community |
| PICO Motion Tracker | Not needed | PICO Connect. Official system requirements: Windows 10 22H2 or later. macOS is desktop-mirroring only; PCVR is Windows-only | 【Inference】 Reads as unusable on Linux | Official (Windows only) |
| Camera-based (Mediapipe-VR-Fullbody-Tracking) | Not needed | The author states plainly, “I haven’t been able to test the Linux-side changes myself." The SteamVR driver installer is a Windows executable | 【Unconfirmed】. Sending straight to VRChat’s OSC would bypass SteamVR entirely | Community |
| VRChat’s OSC trackers | Not needed | Handled on the game’s side, so it doesn’t depend on the OS | OS-independent | Official (VRChat) |
There’s a reason I made the rightmost column “official or community." Something like SlimeVR, where the maker itself distributes a Linux build, and something like HaritoraX, where the community has built a separate path, carry different odds of staying maintained going forward. On the latter, the author itself notes there are times it can’t keep pace with upstream updates.
On VRChat’s OSC trackers, the official documentation lists up to 8: waist, chest, both feet, both knees, both elbows. Just like gaze, it’s explicitly “NOT plug-and-play" — you need a program on the sending side too.
Using SlimeVR on Linux, three connection methods are documented. The first is registering it as a SteamVR driver, which material compiling VR on Linux flags with, “Using SteamVR isn’t recommended due to general unreliability." The second is connecting directly to Monado or WiVRn, described as giving results on par with the native SteamVR driver. The third is the OSC tracker, explicitly stated to be “only available in VRChat" — less setup, but also noted as “less accurate due to OSC limitations." For standalone use, the third option is the realistic choice.
Can You Really Just Say “ARM Means It Won’t Run"?
Worth flagging one more wall here. Separate from whether something runs on Linux at all, there’s the question of whether the instruction set matches.
Steam Frame’s official spec sheet states Architecture: ARM64. Most of the desktops and laptops people have are a different architecture, x86-64. Even Linux software, if it’s built for x86-64, doesn’t just run as-is on an ARM64 machine. So “it says Linux support" isn’t quite enough on its own — there’s one more step to check.
But something caught my eye looking through the distributions. SlimeVR’s server, at its latest, v21.0.0 (September 1, 2026), lists these files:
SlimeVR-aarch64.AppImageSlimeVR-aarch64.debSlimeVR-aarch64.rpm
aarch64 is another name for ARM64. SlimeVR ships ARM64 Linux builds. Baballonia, the face-tracking tool, also has a Baballonia.arm64 tarball.
This needs to be phrased carefully.
| What can be said | 【Inference】 In theory, there’s a realistic prospect SlimeVR’s server would run on a standalone Steam Frame. For these two tools specifically, the ARM64 wall has already been cleared |
| What cannot be said | 【Unconfirmed】 I found not a single report of it actually running on Steam Frame. Unsurprising, since it hasn’t shipped yet |
“There’s a prospect" and “there’s a report of it working" are two different claims. All I’ve confirmed is the former; nobody is yet in a position to confirm the latter. I’ll also note that SlimeVR’s release notes don’t mention ARM64 in the text itself — this is something I read off the file names.
Given that, “ARM means it won’t run" can’t be stated as a blanket rule. The answer differs device by device, depending on whether that build format exists in the distribution. Same split as the rightmost column above — whether the maker provides it, or a community builds it separately, is what decides the outcome.
Conditions for Using the Base-Station Method on Linux
Using a Vive Tracker or Tundra Tracker on Linux comes with a handful of specific conditions, pulled from material compiling VR on Linux.
- In a WiVRn setup, enable “Enable SteamVR tracked devices support" in the settings. Requires SteamVR to be installed (doesn’t need to be launched)
- It’s explicitly stated that the Flatpak build of WiVRn cannot be combined with SteamVR’s lighthouse driver
- Device discovery only happens the first time you connect, so power everything on first and place it somewhere visible to the base stations beforehand
- If the pairing screen doesn’t render, use
lighthouse_console, bundled with SteamVR, from a terminal - To overlay the two coordinate systems, use OpenVR Space Calibrator or Motoc
Looking over this list, my takeaway is that devices requiring Windows-only software are likely unusable on a standalone Steam Frame 【inference】. The VIVE Ultimate Tracker and PICO Motion Tracker fall into this shape. SlimeVR, by contrast, has that wall lowered, precisely because the maker itself ships a Linux build.
On which tracker to pick at different budgets, I’ve compiled that separately: I Want Full-Body Tracking in VRChat — What Should I Buy at Different Budgets?
Can You See Outside? Passthrough Is Monochrome
The third axis. Seeing the outside world while wearing the headset is called passthrough.
What’s Officially Stated
Steam Frame’s official spec sheet has a dedicated passthrough field. It states just this one line:
Monochrome passthrough via outward facing cameras
Monochrome passthrough via the outward-facing cameras, stated plainly. The camera field also says “4x outward facing monochrome cameras" — all four outward cameras are monochrome. You can see outside. There’s just no color.
“Checking Your Surroundings" vs. “Overlaying Objects on Reality"
Worth splitting passthrough’s use case into two here, since they look like the same feature but demand different things.
| Use case | What you’re doing | How Steam Frame stacks up |
|---|---|---|
| Checking your surroundings | Seeing your keyboard or controller, noticing someone walked in, avoiding obstacles | Black-and-white is enough for this. Since passthrough is officially confirmed, this looks achievable |
| Overlaying objects on reality (proper AR) | Overlaying visuals onto a colored real-world view; recognizing a desk surface and placing objects on it | No color, so it’s not suited to Quest-3-style use. There’s also no disclosure about surface or depth recognition 【unconfirmed】 |
For readers of this blog, I’d guess the top row is the practically relevant one. If you’re wearing a headset while running AI on your own PC, whether you can see your keyboard and controller is what determines usability. Black and white is fine for this. The same goes for grabbing a drink or standing up.
The bottom row is a different story. Overlaying visuals onto a real desk requires color and an understanding of spatial shape. Steam Frame has no color, and no disclosure about plane detection. Without color, it’s not suited to Quest-3-style use.
Passthrough by Device
| Device | Passthrough | Spatial awareness |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Frame | Monochrome (officially stated) | Not disclosed 【unconfirmed】 |
| Meta Quest 3 | Color, reportedly with a depth sensor (third-party) | Reportedly reads depth and can place objects in reality |
| Meta Quest 3S | Color. Reportedly no depth sensor (third-party) | Reportedly weaker than the Quest 3 |
| Meta Quest 2 | Monochrome (third-party) | Basically “checking your surroundings" only |
| Bigscreen Beyond 2 / 2e | Official specs make no mention of outward-facing cameras 【unconfirmed】 | — |
| Valve Index | Monochrome video via a front-facing camera (third-party) | Meant for checking surroundings |
In this table, only the Steam Frame row is quoted from official specs; the rest come from third-party sources. That includes depth-sensor presence — Meta’s comparison page doesn’t have that field, so I sourced it from third-party articles. Given that, here’s what I can say: on the passthrough front, Steam Frame stands on the same level as the Quest 2 — the same, in terms of color or its absence, as a device I already own from 2020.
What this suggests is that 【inference】 Steam Frame isn’t going after AR. There’s clear effort in the camera count and placement, but it’s aimed at streaming quality rather than color. Foveated streaming, too, is about improving the video sent from the PC, not about how the outside world is displayed.
Does It Work on Linux?
The fourth axis. This blog’s main subject is local AI, and I use a desktop PC with Ubuntu installed for it — the same PC whose build I described in My Whole Local AI Setup, Published — A Build Example with Ubuntu + RTX 3090 + Ollama + ComfyUI. Whether I could stream video from that machine to a Steam Frame was, for me personally, a pressing question.
The clue lies in the list of streaming sources the official page names. Of “PC, laptop, Steam Deck, Steam Machine," the last two are both machines that run SteamOS. Frame’s own OS field also says SteamOS 3. 【Inference】 Streaming from a Linux PC seems to fall within what Valve has in mind. But this only names SteamOS machines — it’s not a guarantee it works on general Ubuntu.
What about other devices? Meta’s native connection method lists only “Windows 10, Windows 11" in its official help’s supported-OS field — no Linux. Bigscreen Beyond 2’s official system requirements are Windows 10/11 only, as well. Valve Index has a Linux build of SteamVR, but Valve itself describes it: “This is a development release," “Limited hardware support is provided." Wherever you look, trying VR on Linux comes with some caveat attached, regardless of device.
I’ve written a separate article specifically about connecting my current Quest 2 to Ubuntu — what I found about Meta’s native route being closed on Linux, and what’s left instead.
Lined Up Against the Major Headsets
There are too many axes to fit on one table, so I split it into three. Weight and resolution are confined to here.
Body — Weight and Display
| Device | Weight | Resolution (per eye) | Field of view | Refresh rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam Frame | 440g (body + head strap) / 185g (body only) | 2160×2160 pixels | Up to 110° | 72–144Hz (144Hz experimental) |
| Meta Quest 3 | 515g (third-party) | 2064×2208 pixels | 110° horizontal / 96° vertical | 72 / 90 / 120Hz |
| Meta Quest 3S | 514g (third-party) | 1832×1920 pixels | 96° horizontal / 90° vertical | 72 / 90 / 120Hz |
| Meta Quest 2 | 503g (third-party) | 1832×1920 pixels | About 97° 【unconfirmed】 | 72 / 90Hz (120Hz experimental) |
| Bigscreen Beyond 2 / 2e | 107g / 108g (body only) | 2560×2560 pixels | 116° diagonal / 108° horizontal / 96° vertical | 75Hz / 90Hz |
| Valve Index | 809g 【unconfirmed】 | 1440×1600 pixels | 【Unconfirmed】 | 80 / 90 / 120 / 144Hz |
Where the weight numbers come from differs by device. For Steam Frame, both 440g and 185g are on the official spec sheet. But for the Valve Index and the various Quest models, neither Valve nor Meta discloses headset weight — the table numbers here are third-party tallies. Field of view is in the same boat: Valve doesn’t give a number for the Index, and third parties are split between roughly 130° and 108°. Picking one would mean stating a falsehood, so it’s marked 【unconfirmed】. Meta also doesn’t disclose the Quest 2’s field of view.
Four Axes
| Device | Eye tracking | Face tracking | Full-body: feasible? conditions? | Passthrough | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam Frame | Yes (2 inward cameras). Readable via XR_EXT_eye_gaze_interaction | No. Room to add via the expansion port 【inference】 | Base station not mentioned officially 【unconfirmed】. Standalone: body-worn method. Streaming from a PC: handled by PC-side SteamVR 【inference】 | Monochrome (officially stated) | SteamOS. SteamOS machines are officially named as streaming sources |
| Meta Quest 3 | No | No (has voice-based expression estimation instead) | Cameras track upper body, legs are estimated. Real trackers are external | Color plus a depth sensor (third-party) | Native guidance is Windows-only. Alternate routes exist |
| Meta Quest 3S | No | No (same as above) | Same as above | Color. Reportedly no depth sensor (third-party) | Same as above |
| Meta Quest 2 | No | No | No camera-based torso tracking; legs are estimated | Monochrome (third-party) | Listed as supported in WiVRn’s compatibility table |
| Bigscreen Beyond 2 | No | No | Needs a base station. Vive trackers work | Not in official specs 【unconfirmed】 | Official guidance is Windows-only |
| Bigscreen Beyond 2e | Yes. Officially supports “blinking and VRCFT integration" | No (add externally) | Same as above | Not in official specs 【unconfirmed】 | Same as above |
| Valve Index | No | No | Base station + Vive trackers is the most straightforward path. No coordinate-overlay work needed | Monochrome video from a front camera (third-party) | Linux build of SteamVR (development) |
The thing to watch most closely in this table is that what “has eye tracking" means differs by device. The Bigscreen Beyond 2e’s official page states it supports blinking and integration with VRCFaceTracking — a path all the way to avatar expression, provided by the maker itself. Steam Frame, meanwhile, has Valve naming the extension directly, but that extension excludes blinking, and there’s no relay program yet. Both are labeled “has eye tracking," but right now it’s the Beyond 2e that actually reaches an avatar — Steam Frame is still at the 【inference】 stage. That gap remains.
Connectivity and Price
| Device | Wireless design | Works standalone? | Path to a PC | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam Frame | Dual radios (streaming + home Wi-Fi). Wi-Fi 7. Dedicated adapter included | Yes (SteamOS 3, 16GB) | Streaming (PC, laptop, Steam Deck, Steam Machine) | 【Unconfirmed】 |
| Meta Quest 3 | Wi-Fi | Yes | Native Link / Air Link (Windows 10/11 only) / Steam Link / WiVRn | ¥102,300 (512GB) |
| Meta Quest 3S | Wi-Fi | Yes | Same as above | ¥59,400 (128GB) / ¥77,000 (256GB) |
| Meta Quest 2 | Wi-Fi | Yes | Same as above | Discontinued (September 2024). Used units only 【unconfirmed】 |
| Bigscreen Beyond 2 / 2e | None (wired only) | No | DisplayPort 1.4 + USB 3.0 | $899 / 2e is +$200 / 2e VRChat Edition is +$250. Base station and controllers sold separately |
| Valve Index | None (5m tether) | No | DisplayPort 1.2 + USB 3.0 | Full kit $999 at launch. Reportedly discontinued |
The Quest prices are the yen figures on Meta’s comparison page. Only the 512GB configuration is shown there for the Quest 3, so I’ve marked current pricing for other capacities 【unconfirmed】. Bigscreen’s prices are as listed on the direct sales page, with the 2e shown as an add-on over the base model. Since the base station and controllers are sold separately for this device, a full kit adds up to more.
What You Get, and What Comes With It
I’m not trying to rank these. All six are aiming at different things, and every one of them comes bundled with both gains and trade-offs. Here’s how it shakes out.
| Pick this | What you get | What comes with it |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Frame | Works standalone / dual radios keep streaming independent / 2160×2160 pixels per eye / 440g / carries eye-tracking hardware / SteamOS-machine streaming is officially anticipated | Base station status not stated officially 【unconfirmed】 / no face tracking / no relay yet from gaze to an avatar / passthrough is monochrome, not suited to color-dependent use / release date and price both 【unconfirmed】 |
| Quest 3 / 3S | Affordable / works standalone / cameras track the upper body / color passthrough (the 3 reportedly has a depth sensor too) / a large user base means more information available | No eye or face tracking / native PC connection guidance is Windows-only / full-body tracking is external plus coordinate calibration |
| Quest 2 | I already own one / Linux-side WiVRn supports it | Can’t do full-body or face tracking standalone / passthrough is monochrome / feature updates reportedly end December 2026 |
| Bigscreen Beyond 2e | As light as 107g / 2560×2560 pixels per eye / officially supports blinking and VRCFT integration = reaches expression | Needs a base station (sold separately) / wired only / doesn’t work standalone / passthrough isn’t in the official specs 【unconfirmed】 / official system requirements are Windows-only |
| Valve Index | Base station + Vive tracker is the most straightforward combo / 144Hz | Reportedly discontinued / wired / heavy / no eye or face tracking |
I don’t think it’s fair to describe Steam Frame as a device that gave up on full-body tracking, face tracking, and AR. What it didn’t reach for is colored passthrough — it isn’t going after AR. What it picked up instead is standalone operation and streaming quality via dual radios. It carries eye-tracking hardware, and an official path exists for developers to read it — it’s just that the path from there to an avatar isn’t wired up yet. And on base stations, the official page simply says nothing.
For anyone who already has a base station and trackers set up in their room, how to treat that existing investment looks like the deciding factor. Streaming from a PC leaves 【inference】 a path to keep using them together, at the cost of coordinate-calibration work. Conversely, for anyone starting from nothing, not needing to buy a base station just for the headset itself carries real weight.
On what’s worth buying right now, from the hardware side: Full-Body and Face Tracking in 2026 — How Far VR Body Tracking Has Come.
What This Research Left Unresolved
Since this covers an unreleased device, more was left unknown than known. Writing it out.
- Steam Frame’s release date. No date on the official page — only the announcement-era phrase “early 2026"
- Price, price in Japan, and reservation start date. KOMODO is officially named as the retail partner, but no amount is given
- Reports that Valve said it would be “cheaper than the Index." Several outlets carry this, but I couldn’t verify it against a primary source
- Whether base stations can be used. Not mentioned on the official page, so it can’t be judged
- How well a base-station tracker actually performs when used alongside PC streaming
- Whether the VIVE Ultimate Tracker works with Steam Frame
- Whether Steam Frame can recognize planes or depth. Not stated officially
- Support for camera-based bare-hand tracking. Also not in the official specs
- Whether a program exists to relay Steam Frame’s gaze data to OSC. I found none, but can’t say for certain none exists
- A face-tracking accessory for the expansion port. No announcement found
- Whether SlimeVR’s or Baballonia’s ARM64 builds actually run on Steam Frame. I confirmed the builds exist; I found no report of them actually running
- Whether SlimeVR’s firmware-flashing tool runs on Linux. Couldn’t find this in the official docs
- What running camera-based full-body tracking on Linux is actually like. The author states outright, “I haven’t been able to test this"
- Whether the Bigscreen Beyond 2 / 2e lacks outward-facing cameras. It’s simply absent from the spec sheet — not stated as “absent"
- The Quest 2’s field of view, and the Valve Index’s field of view. Neither is disclosed by its maker, and third-party numbers disagree
- The weight of the Valve Index and the various Quest models. Also undisclosed by the makers
- The Valve Index’s discontinuation date. Reportedly November 12, 2025, but I couldn’t confirm this against a primary source
- Current used prices for the Quest 2, and current prices for Quest 3 capacities other than 512GB
- Everything you can only learn by testing a physical unit — how the field of view feels, latency, perceived sharpness, comfort. I don’t own one.
Closing — What Was Given Up, What Was Kept
Folding up the results across the four axes: eye-tracking hardware is present, and Valve’s developer documentation names a common interface, XR_EXT_eye_gaze_interaction. But what that interface delivers is only a single combined gaze vector for both eyes — no blinking, no separate left/right direction. There’s no face-tracking hardware; adding it later would mean the front expansion port, or an external camera. Full-body tracking can’t be judged, because the official page says nothing about base stations; standalone use points toward body-worn trackers, and streaming from a PC leaves PC-side SteamVR handling trackers, as an 【inference】. On top of that sits the wall of “does that device’s software run on Linux." But “ARM means it won’t run" couldn’t be stated as a blanket rule. SlimeVR and Baballonia both have ARM64 builds, so 【inference】, in theory, there’s a realistic prospect of them running on a standalone Steam Frame. No report of it actually working has turned up yet 【unconfirmed】. Passthrough is officially stated to be monochrome, and isn’t suited to color-dependent use.
What stopped me repeatedly while researching this was the distance between a single official sentence and what that sentence actually lets you do. “Supports eye tracking" doesn’t tell you whether an avatar’s eyes will move — you have to look at the shape of the data being handed over. There’s the same kind of trap when running AI on your own PC: a feature marked as “supported" often turns out not to work for your particular use case. Reading a single line of a spec sheet down to your own actual use — that doesn’t seem to change between these two worlds.
On a related note, here’s an article on how large a model I’ve managed to run on my own PC.
Gear Mentioned in This Article
Here’s a list of the gear covered in this article that you can currently buy. Steam Frame is excluded since it hasn’t shipped.
[kimono_kw name="Meta Quest 3″ kw="Meta Quest 3″]
[kimono_kw name="Meta Quest 3S" kw="Meta Quest 3S"]
[kimono_kw name="VIVE Ultimate Tracker" kw="VIVE Ultimate Tracker"]
SlimeVR and the HaritoraX 2, both mentioned in the body, are left out here because shopping-site searches for them turn up unrelated products — anti-loss tags for “SlimeVR," and other brands’ trackers or unrelated items for “HaritoraX." Both are best bought directly from their official sales pages (SlimeVR official / HaritoraX 2 official).
Sources I Checked
- Steam Frame (Valve official, spec sheet)
- Steam Frame – Custom Engines (Steamworks, eye-tracking extension name)
- Steam Frame – Godot (Steamworks, enabling eye tracking)
- OpenXR spec (XR_EXT_eye_gaze_interaction)
- VRChat official documentation – OSC Eye Tracking
- VRChat official documentation – OSC Trackers
- VRCFaceTracking – Linux support request (closed as completed August 13, 2026)
- VRCFaceTracking (Steam, system requirements)
- Project Babble / Baballonia
- SlimeVR official
- SlimeVR – Linux installation steps
- SlimeVR Server release list
- HaritoraX 2 (Shiftall official, system requirements)
- SlimeTora (community bridge connecting HaritoraX to SlimeVR)
- VIVE Ultimate Tracker (HTC official)
- Tundra Tracker user manual
- PICO Connect (PICO official, system requirements)
- Mediapipe-VR-Fullbody-Tracking (camera-based, community)
- Linux VR Adventures Wiki – SlimeVR
- Linux VR Adventures Wiki – WiVRn
- Linux VR Adventures Wiki – Pairing
- OpenVR Space Calibrator
- Meta Quest comparison page (resolution, field of view, price)
- Meta developer docs – Body Tracking
- Bigscreen Beyond 2 / 2e (direct sales page)
- Valve Index headset (Valve official)
- Meta official help – PC connection system requirements
- SteamVR for Linux (Valve official repository)
- WiVRn (device compatibility table)