Valve’s Steam Frame still ships with monochrome passthrough out of the box — but a supplier listing that went live a little early shows an official color camera module is already in production. Road to VR reports that Komodo Station, Valve’s hardware vendor in Asia, briefly published a product page for an Arcturus Vision Camera add-on built for Frame by Arcturus Industries, the computer-vision shop behind the headset’s tracking cameras.
That matters because Frame’s base sensor suite is deliberately lean. The Verge’s hands-on comparison notes four outward-facing monochrome cameras for tracking and situational awareness, not the dual RGB passthrough stacks that Meta Quest 3 and Samsung Galaxy XR treat as table stakes. Color mixed reality has been framed as a modular upgrade path since Frame’s reveal — not a day-one feature.
What the leaked Arcturus page claims
According to the listing captured by Reddit user gogodboss and detailed by Road to VR on September 2, 2026, the Arcturus Vision Camera for Steam Frame is specified with:
- Dual 32-megapixel sensors with 10-bit HDR capture
- Native stereo capture at 4,928 × 2,464 (5K aggregate / 2,464 × 2,464 per eye) at 60 fps, with 72 fps and 144 fps configurations called out for special modes
- 64 mm interpupillary distance for stereo depth capture
- Claimed binocular field of view around 125 × 105 degrees, with up to 125 degrees vertical via software updates
- Software features beyond color view: real-time environment mapping, spatial video recording, and Gaussian Splatting tooling
Those numbers come from a supplier page that appeared before Valve had announced pricing or a firm ship date for Frame itself. Treat them as vendor marketing until Valve confirms an accessory SKU, price, and availability window.
Why the expansion port exists
Frame’s front face is designed for add-ons. Road to VR notes a Gen 4 PCIe (x1) slot plus two MIPI connectors with dual 2.5 Gbps lanes — the kind of bandwidth a high-resolution stereo camera module needs. Valve has also said it will release official CAD files so the community can design accessories, including hypothetical facial-tracking hardware. The Arcturus module, if it ships as described, is the first concrete third-party product filling that slot rather than a slide-deck promise.
Earlier coverage, including analysis of Valve’s own specs, had already flagged that base Frame units would do black-and-white mixed reality natively, with color requiring a separate front-port accessory. The Komodo listing is the first public artifact that names a vendor, sensor stack, and capture rates for that accessory.
Still no price or day for Frame
None of this resolves the two questions buyers keep asking. Valve confirmed a summer 2026 window and has cleared U.S. regulatory gates, imported hardware, and leaked finished unboxing assets — but as of September 2 it still has not published an MSRP or a calendar date. Color passthrough as a paid or optional module would push the all-in cost further above Quest-class hardware if Frame already lands near the high end of current street estimates.
For XR watchers, the signal is clearer than the SKU sheet: Valve is prioritizing a lightweight, streaming-first headset with an open accessory bus over baking full-color MR into every unit. That is a different product thesis from Meta’s Quest line and Apple’s Vision stack. Whether buyers accept monochrome day one — and whether Arcturus or Valve ever put a buy button on that camera — will be one of the first real tests after Frame finally goes on sale.
Sources: Road to VR, The Verge, NerdZap, Steam Frame hardware page.