r/SteamFrame • u/aurimoonglow • 9h ago
Discussion Thoughts on the Deckard-Plano - OLED SteamFrame
Several sites are reporting on Valve source code that show development for an OLED frame; Codenamed Deckard Plano
https://steamframehub.com/exclusive-here-we-go-again-valve-is-making-an-oled-steam-frame/
OLED Steam Frame References Appear in Steam Frame Kernel Code
Similar to the Galaxy XR a per eye panel resolution of 3552x3840, but a default of 1776×1920 at 90hz.
The code is a long way off from complete but had recent Oct commits. It appears they are still tooling with how to get 120hz off the current snapdragon chipset... but it looks to be a mid gen refresh as we've seen with the Deck.
If its anything like the original Deckard wait.. we're looking at maybe 2029? Interesting developments though!
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u/someone8192 WAITLISTED 9h ago
IMHO
I don't really care about it being OLED. But I want that resolution. It would be great for watching movies or productivity.
I have also some (small) hope that they will switch the soc to something more powerful. Sadly I doubt that they will do that because it might divide the standalone ecosystem to much (And I think that they want to build one considering that they have add a "Run on Frame" tag/program.)
If they only switch to OLED 2029 might be realistic. If they also change the soc and make it more like a frame 2 i think it is more 2031-32.
We will see.
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u/elev8dity Soon™ 5h ago
I think if they can do the OLED on silicon it will be well worth it since it has none of the downsides of OLED
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u/crozone 1 TB 1h ago
All uOLED panels are OLEDoS. Given the stated resolution, these are the same Sony/Samsung made panels that are used in the Meganex, Pimax Dream Air, Crystal Super and Samsung Galaxy XR.
It also has most of the same downsides of OLED. They still burn in, they still don't get super bright.
Maybe you mean QDEL or other non-organic LED on silicon displays?
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u/MrWendal 4h ago
It would be great for watching movies or productivity.
You do you but in my opinion even a single 1080p monitor or TV would be a far superior option, other than the once every two years I get on a plane.
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u/Syzygy___ 2h ago
That's mostly correct. I think the goal would be something like 60 PPD for that ideally for a "retina" like experience. But I don't think there are any headsets with that resolution (and a wide FOV) yet.
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u/crozone 1 TB 1h ago edited 1h ago
Yeah AVP is as close as we have currently, although the new Meta VR Glasses will be a new competitor.
I also have a set of the Goovis Art HMDs, which are 1080p OLED but with a extremely narrow FOV through a fully compensated lens stack (ASPH) and no tracking whatsoever. They look really nice and have a PPD of around 55, and are excellent for productivity, but it's basically like strapping a dumb PC monitor to your face vs an actual VR/AR device.
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u/Syzygy___ 53m ago
A dumb monitor is honestly good enough, if it has good tracking and supports a dongle (which I guess it has to by definition).
I tried with the RayNeo Air 4 Pro, and they just barely weren't good enough for this, in part because their IPD was too low for me. The limited FoV for VR type devices is also not ideal because it gives a claustrophobic feeling (at least for me, someone used to a 40 inch central monitor and satellite monitors.
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u/SousaDawg 9h ago
As a dev, them committing to the repo doesn't mean anything whatsoever
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u/MisterSheeple MOD 7h ago
Them committing it to the main Steam Frame kernel branch means a hell of a lot and proves their intentions to ship this at some point soon. Valve never experiments on main.
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u/aurimoonglow 9h ago
Thats not completely genuine is it?
Commits just show that their saving their work. but why do/save any work this late into 2026 if it werent an ongoing project?18
u/Jinkguns 9h ago
It could just be an experiment or a bored Valve employee hacking something up. Valve employees are allowed to work on unbacked/unofficial projects.
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u/aurimoonglow 8h ago
I think the comment still stands. This was a publicly released official valve kernel.
Work on it from Dec '25 through Oct '26 does show that something is happening.But ok.. even if its just someone's pet project, that's still really neat.
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u/RTooDeeTo Soon™ 8h ago
You also gotta remember deckard (the frame) was first found in jan 2021 in code,, imo this might just be the first prototype for the next headset and after the cost of components change.
Imo if it does end up being a refresh I'd say 2030 at best,, as everything is extended now.. and the price of an microOLED model even in the next 2 years would still probably be $2k+ (sure some will pay especially for a valve product but that group is likely small)
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u/Pterodactyl_Time 9h ago
Gonna throw out that maybe that panel was used in prototyping the frame, so support had to be added to the kernel, but then they wound up going in a different direction due to cost or brightness or battery, and then they just wound up leaving this scrap in there.
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u/aurimoonglow 9h ago
In the steamframehub article they show dev began on the Deckard-OLED branch in Dec 2025 - Feb 2026. Then a new branch was created in Mar 2026 called Deckard-Plano, with recent commits on Oct 2nd.
I dont want to throw around too much hopium, but continued work on coding even after the Frame was released shows that there working on something.
Maybe they'll abandon it at some point?
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u/greggray24 Soon™ 9h ago
I hope they don't abandon it but I highly doubt we will see it any time soon. And even if we did, it would be more than double the price.
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u/FierceDeityKong Soon™ 5h ago
Some of valve's guys seemed not too hyped about the frame cause they knew that they'd never want to use it when plano exists
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u/Bright_Eyes83 1 TB 9h ago
Didn’t they do the same thing with the deck? Oled but the same chip? I’ll be legit angry if they get better lenses and we can’t upgrade just that, but other than that I don’t mind
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u/MonorailPurple 1 TB 7h ago edited 46m ago
They can’t really just go oled with the frame though. The deck got away with it as the resolution was similar and the same SOC was given a tiny boost by moving to a more efficient chip package. The resolution difference on the frame would be massive, so keeping the existing SOC would not be an option, and unlike “works on steam deck” which applies to both models, the same could not be true for an lcd and oled frame.
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u/Syzygy___ 2h ago
Well, reportedly they have that display driver that can push 4 pixel at once. Combine that with foveated rendering and you get high resolution where you're looking and 1/4th for the rest making the resolution roughly similar to the frame.
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u/elev8dity Soon™ 6h ago
No, it moved from 7nm to 6nm processor node, and all efficiency went to lower thermals and increased battery life.
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u/invidious07 Soon™ 6h ago
If it were out now I would definitely pay more for the higher res OLED, but I'm not going to skip the LCD Frame to hold out for a potential OLED that will take years to hit market if at all. I'm beyond ready for an upgrade from my Index. By the time an OLED refresh comes out I can get that for myself and hand down the LCD Frame to my kids, that's what I did with the Steam Deck.
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u/GremioXXII 9h ago
Interesting indeed! Maybe they can integrate display port?
All in all it's a good thing for the whole vr ecosystem; even if it takes Valve years to release it, it shows that they are still interested in supporting vr.
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u/someone8192 WAITLISTED 9h ago
the problem with DP-in is that they use a standard mobile soc and they just don't have one. Adding one means adding additional hardware which would add cost.
They might do it when they feel it is needed. But I have my doubts.
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u/KamenGamerRetro 3h ago
something internal, means nothing
for all we know it was just a test unit that went no where due to cost
Oculus went from OLED to LED after testing
Oculus Rift (CV1): 2 x AMOLED
Oculus Rift S: Single LCD panel
Oculus Quest (Original): Pentile OLED displays
Meta Quest 2: Fast-switch LCD display
all the units after this also use LCDs
People really looking for anything in nothing at this point
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u/erikchan002 2h ago
It's obviously a real completed product and coming very soon and we should all leave the waitlist immediately.
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u/Future-is-bright 6h ago
If we compare to the steam deck, it took 1 year and 8 months between both deck and deck oled launches. I think it is a good benchmark.
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u/DingbatSam 3h ago
This would really be targeted more towards being a streaming only headset as driving games at that resolution on the headset is going to be a real struggle.
That said, it does seem that most people are using their Frame more for streaming than natively so there is definitely a market there (I much prefer on device, but maybe if I upgraded my PC I'd change tune)
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u/EbbNorth7735 9h ago
It's highly unlikely we'll see it any time in the next two years. It's likely just tech demos and may require another processor platform before its ready for consumers. Price is also likely prohibitive in the short term.