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The short answer
There is one clearly documented owner-facing eye-tracking adjustment: Track Dominant Eye Only. It is intended for situations in which using one eye as the tracking reference is more reliable or accessible. Try it when two-eye tracking is unsuitable, but do not assume it will solve every case involving monocular vision, amblyopia, nystagmus, or loss of tracking; Valve does not promise those outcomes.
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If both eyes track normally, there is no official recommendation to change a strength slider, force a recalibration, alter lighting, or enter a glasses-specific value. Valve’s consumer-facing material describes what eye tracking does, not a general-purpose tuning procedure. Start with the default behavior and change only a documented option that matches your need.
What Steam Frame eye tracking is used for
Valve says Steam Frame has two interior cameras for eye tracking and foveated streaming. Foveated streaming sends the best-quality streamed pixels toward the area where you are looking, while less important areas receive less detail. The purpose is to preserve perceived image quality without sending maximum detail uniformly across the entire view.
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Valve’s product description says this feature typically provides “over a 10x improvement in image quality and effective bandwidth.” That is Valve’s own product-page claim, accessed in 2026, rather than an independently verified benchmark. Treat it as a description of the intended benefit, not a guaranteed result for every network, game, encoder, or user.
The scope matters. Valve characterizes Steam Frame primarily as a standalone headset designed for low-latency streaming from a PC, while also supporting standalone VR and non-VR experiences. Eye-tracked foveated streaming advice applies to streamed content. It should not be assumed to control every standalone rendering path or every application’s internal graphics settings.
How to enable the documented accessibility option
Use this setting when one eye is a better tracking reference than the other. The menu wording comes from Valve’s Steam Hardware announcement.
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- Open SteamVR’s settings while the headset is connected.
- Turn on Show advanced settings.
- Open VR Settings.
- Select General.
- Enable Track Dominant Eye Only.
After enabling it, test the same streamed scene or application in which tracking was problematic. The setting changes which eye is used as the tracking reference; it is not a general image-quality slider and does not rewrite an application’s rendering pipeline.
If the option is missing, first note the exact SteamVR and SteamOS versions and whether you are using a beta or stable channel. Valve’s announcement does not expose a minimum version for this control, so its absence should be treated as a software-availability question rather than proof that the headset cannot support it.
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What to change for ordinary foveated streaming
For a user whose eyes are tracked normally, the practical recommendation is to keep the default eye-tracking behavior. Valve says low-latency gaze data automatically directs higher-quality streamed pixels toward your gaze. The reviewed official consumer material does not define a calibration wizard, a required room-lighting level, a glasses adjustment, or a universal foveation-strength value.
That means you should not hunt for an undocumented “best” slider or apply developer variables copied from Unreal documentation. A setting that changes how an application renders variable-rate shading is not the same thing as calibrating the headset’s cameras. Likewise, Steam Link’s encoded-video controls are not eye-tracking controls.
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If image quality appears to move with your gaze, that is consistent with foveated streaming. If it does not, determine whether the content is actually being streamed from a PC and check software availability before assuming that a calibration step is missing. The available Valve material does not establish that every standalone application uses the same eye-tracked path.
When tracking seems wrong or the option is unavailable
Use a narrow diagnostic process so that you do not change unrelated rendering settings.
1. Identify the content path
Separate PC-streamed content from a standalone VR application or a non-VR experience. Foveated streaming is a streaming feature; an application running locally may have a different rendering implementation and may not respond to the same behavior.
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2. Check the advanced menu
Make sure Show advanced settings is enabled before looking under VR Settings > General. The dominant-eye control is documented there. If it still does not appear, record the installed SteamVR and SteamOS versions and the release channel.
3. Verify version and channel details
Valve’s release notes can change which features are exposed in stable and beta software. The announcement for Track Dominant Eye Only does not state a minimum version, so do not infer one from an unrelated release note. Confirm availability for the software build actually installed on the headset.
4. Keep OSC eye-openness data separate
Current SteamVR release notes say that Steam Frame eye-openness data exposed through OSC requires SteamOS 0.4.3 or newer. This requirement concerns sending eye-openness data to software through OSC. It is not a calibration control, and meeting it does not imply that every eye-tracking feature or application is available in every release channel.
5. Avoid unsupported fixes
The official consumer sources reviewed for this topic do not document a required recalibration sequence, a lighting prescription, a fit adjustment, or a glasses profile. Those may be useful subjects for a future, version-specific support article, but they should not be presented as Valve’s confirmed procedure. If the problem persists, preserve the version information and describe whether it affects streamed, standalone, or OSC-based use when contacting support or reporting an issue.
Consumer controls and Unreal developer controls are different
Steamworks documentation describes variable-rate shading (VRS) options for developers building applications, particularly with Unreal Engine. These are project or runtime decisions, not settings that a headset owner should enter in SteamVR to improve tracking.
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| Category | What it controls | Who should change it | What Valve documents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Track Dominant Eye Only | Chooses one eye as the tracking reference | Headset users with an accessibility or tracking reason | Available under advanced settings, then VR Settings > General |
| Foveated streaming behavior | Directs streamed image detail toward the user’s gaze | Normally automatic for streamed content | Valve describes the behavior but does not publish a universal consumer tuning value |
| Runtime-provided VRS | Lets the runtime provide variable-rate shading information to an application | Application developers | Recommended by Valve’s Steamworks Unreal guidance for most projects |
| Legacy Fragment Density Map VRS | Lets an application drive its own foveation map | Application developers who need direct control | Legacy path with project-level tuning variables |
Confusing these categories can lead to the wrong conclusion. A developer can tune how an Unreal application spends shading effort without changing whether the headset’s eye cameras are tracking correctly. Conversely, enabling the dominant-eye accessibility option does not replace application-side VRS configuration.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Unreal VRS values explained for developers
If you are building or testing an Unreal application rather than configuring a personal headset, Steamworks documents the legacy variable xr.VRS.SteamFrame.FoveationLevel. Its values describe a trade-off between image quality and performance:
| Value | Documented effect | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
3 |
Highest overall image quality among the active levels | Worst performance of the active levels |
0 |
Lowest overall image quality among the active levels | Maximum performance |
-1 |
Disables foveation | Removes the foveation benefit; performance and quality then depend on the application’s remaining pipeline |
Valve recommends runtime-provided VRS for most projects and documents the legacy path for developers who want to fine-tune the map themselves. For Unreal Engine 5.5 or later, the guidance also lists additional project configuration switches. Those switches belong in the application project, not in a SteamVR owner settings panel.
The same guidance says its dynamic-foveation variable is currently unimplemented and warns that VRS has compatibility constraints with dynamic resolution. These are implementation limits to account for during development. They are not reasons for a headset owner to change eye-tracking settings or to expect a new calibration menu.
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| Your situation | Recommended action | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One eye is a better tracking reference | Enable Track Dominant Eye Only in the advanced VR Settings > General menu | This is the documented accessibility control |
| Both eyes track normally during PC streaming | Leave eye tracking at its default behavior | Foveated streaming is intended to use gaze automatically, and no universal consumer value is documented |
| Foveation appears absent in a standalone app | Confirm whether that application uses the streamed path and check software versions | The documented feature is specifically foveated streaming, not every rendering path |
| You need eye-openness data for another program | Check that SteamOS is 0.4.3 or newer and verify the OSC feature’s release channel | The version requirement applies to OSC eye-openness exposure, not calibration |
| You are tuning an Unreal project | Use the Steamworks VRS guidance and project variables | These are developer controls, separate from headset-owner settings |
Limits of the current guidance
Valve’s public product description explains the purpose of foveated streaming and identifies the two interior eye-tracking cameras. Its accessibility announcement names the dominant-eye option and its menu location. The available consumer-facing material does not establish a general calibration workflow, a guaranteed fix for a particular eye condition, or one foveation setting that is optimal for all users and networks.
That is a boundary on what can be recommended confidently, not proof that no other control exists in every future SteamVR build. Steam Frame software can change, and menu availability can differ by release channel. Use the exact labels and versions shown on your installation when checking for a feature.
A practical pre-change checklist
- Decide whether your content is PC-streamed, standalone, or non-VR.
- Enable advanced settings before searching for the dominant-eye option.
- Use Track Dominant Eye Only only when a one-eye reference is appropriate.
- Do not treat Unreal VRS variables as SteamVR consumer settings.
- Record SteamVR and SteamOS versions if a menu item or behavior is missing.
- For OSC eye-openness data, verify SteamOS 0.4.3 or newer and the applicable release channel.
- Describe the exact symptom instead of assuming that recalibration, lighting, or a slider is required.
Bottom line
Change Track Dominant Eye Only when you need the documented accessibility behavior. Otherwise, keep Steam Frame eye tracking on its default foveated-streaming path, verify that your content is actually streamed, and check software versions before troubleshooting. Leave VRS foveation variables to application developers; they do not calibrate the headset for an owner.
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