Greetings! Today we are shipping SteamVR 2.0 in beta. We see this is as the first major step toward our goal of bringing all of what's new on the Steam platform into VR. In order to use all the features in this beta,
you must also opt into the Steam Client Beta (see instructions below).
Users who opt into this beta will notice a new UI with lots of added features:
- Most of the current features of Steam and Steam Deck are now part of SteamVR
- Updated keyboard with support for new languages, emojis, and themes
- Integration of Steam Chat and Voice Chat
- Improved Store that puts new and popular VR releases front and center
This is just the beginning of SteamVR 2.0’s journey, and we’ll have more to share in the coming weeks and months as we collect feedback and work on the features mentioned above. This beta will give us a chance to work out the kinks as more and more people try it out. As with all betas, this means SteamVR 2.0 will get better and better as we prepare it for its eventual full public launch.
To opt into the SteamVR Beta,
follow the instructions in this article.To opt into the Steam Client Beta,
follow the instructions in this article.If you encounter issues with this update, please post in the
SteamVR Bug Report forum. If possible, please include a system report to aid in tracking down your issue.
Replies to this post are not tracked for bug reporting purposes. Please use the forum linked above to report issues.In addition to the new dashboard interface, this beta brings the following changes:
SteamVR:
- Floating overlay windows can now be interacted with while the dashboard is hidden.
- Fixed crash on exit for some Unity titles.
- Increased the system layer resolution limit. This was previously 1.5x the recommended render target scale, but is now applied to width and height independently.
- Fix a case where controller configuration would not be localized in the user’s preferred language (as configured in Steam).
- Added a prompt to install the Bigscreen Beyond Driver when the headset is detected.
Meta:
- Hide the SteamVR IPD slider since Meta already shows one.
Linux:
- Transition to the Steam Linux Runtime 3.0 (sniper) for improved compatibility.
Drivers:
- For drivers which provide a manifest but don’t specify “resourceOnly”, default to true if there is no bin directory.
- Add a manifest entry "showEnableInSettings" which can be set to force a driver to appear in the “addons” settings even if default rules would hide it.
- When a specific driver is forced with the "forcedDriver" setting or the VR_FORCE_TEST_DRIVER, load it even if it is disabled.
- When a specific driver is forced with the "forcedDriver" setting or the VR_FORCE_TEST_DRIVER, only allow an HMD to activate from that driver (even if other drivers are loaded due to “activateMultipleDrivers” and they activate an HMD first). The forced driver always had the first opportunity to activate an HMD before, but now we will wait for it to hotplug an HMD rather than letting another available HMD win.
- The “LastKnown” section in settings (which updates with the manufacturer and model of the last used HMD) now also keeps track of the “ActualHMDDriver” (e.g. “lighthouse”) that provided the HMD.