Valve is working on the Steam Frame OLED, and some Reddit users are now wondering whether they should wait an agonizingly long time for it, even if it never happens.

Overeaters Punished

When you make a purchase through links on our site, we may receive an affiliate commission. Here's how it works.

Just a month after the release of the Steam Frame, the OLED version is already the talk of the town. Besides, it seems we humans have very short memories, because while it's nothing more than a few lines in the Steam Frame's source code — perhaps no more than someone at Valve scrambling to see what's going on — some Reddit users are already wondering if it's worth waiting instead of buying the frame today. oh so…

In the Steam Frame source code, SteamFrameHub found various references to "deckard-oled" and "deckard-plano". Deckard is the codename given to Steam Frame, so the deckard-oled branch (last edited in February) and the deckard-plano branch (last edited a few weeks ago) are versions of Steam Frame that Valve is playing with.

I've had a quick look around the tank and yes, deckard-oled and deckard-plano are there. This is a very exciting prospect, as the Steam Frame's LCD displays are decidedly lacking compared to Micro-OLED VR headsets.

The excitement isn't lost on some on Reddit, who have responded to the news with various blurbs and bits about ditching their reservations for the existing model and instead signing up again for an excruciatingly long wait for the OLED model.

"Waiting List 2: Electric Boogaloo," says Brantrix in a thread on r/SteamFrame.

Runaway42 says: "Totally panic and cancel your reservations. Everyone knows Valve moves at a very fast pace with development."

The truth is, we likely won't see a Steam Frame OLED for a long time, if at all. There are small issues like hardware, resolution, power, cooling, battery life and performance that all need to be considered. It's more than just swapping out the optics on the main module—the main part of the Steam Frame that includes the displays, SoC, cooling, sensors, and more—with multiple OLED panels.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Stay up to date with the most important stories and best deals, as selected by the PC Gamer team.

Contact me for news and offers from other upcoming brands Receive emails from us from our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information, you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy and you are 16 years or older.

Here's big VR fan and regular watcher Brad Lynch's update on all things:

As mentioned, Steam Frame is a modular thing. We should expect, or at least hope, that its modularity will translate into an ecosystem of parts. We've been using the Arcturus Vision RGB camera, and we know that Valve is working on an updated strap with out-of-ear speakers and replaceable batteries, but there's a lot more that could go into this camera. The future Currently, we have the CAD files for our upgrade.

And if you're wondering if these hints in the source files are some sort of viral marketing stunt or a hidden message intended to once again hype up an upcoming product, here's what Valve engineers told me in their office last year.

"Everyone assumes we have some kind of grand scheme to leak our information, and it's literally a fat guy fingering something," Valve employee Gab Rowe said.

Josh Hudman said, "Usually we're all looking around like, 'Who leaked?'

I wonder if he accidentally pressed the button this time?

👈 Check out our complete VR headset guide

Jacob has been writing about PC hardware and technology for over eight years. He earned his first byline on PCGamesN before joining PC Gamer. He spends most of his time building PCs, running benchmarks and trying to learn Linux.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please log out and back in, then you will be prompted to enter your display name.

How in the world are Intel GPUs still so advanced? The latest driver update claims to improve Resident Evil Requiem by up to 31% frames per second

3 months after launch, Riot announced that League of Legends Classic would be killed off in January: "Most have gone back to other parts of League".

Government lawsuits accuse OpenAI of ignoring its own safety warnings for profit: "All of these harms were foreseeable and avoidable."

Former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan downplays everything about the hero shooter after his "almost clinical" exit 5 years ago: "I don't search my name in Overwatch. I'm not looking for Overwatch. I kind of just hang up.