SteamVR News

The SteamVR beta has been updated with the following changes.

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.

SteamVR:

• Fixed issue that was sending the UI from certain games, notably Assetto Corsa Competizione, into space. This made it difficult to use the UI from the ground.
  

SteamVR Input:

• Fixed issue that prevented ‘axis 2’ from being used as a trigger in legacy games on Index Controllers. When combined with new bindings this fixes The Forest, and possibly other games.
  

The SteamVR beta has been updated with the following changes.

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.

SteamVR:

• Simplified the user experience to more clearly and consistently communicate general VR and specific device status.
  
• Added an improved VR display view, with new docked preview and full screen modes, plus new blended left/right-eye views.
  
• To display or hide the new VR View, visit the SteamVR status window menu or right-click on the headset icon, then select this item in its context menu.
  
• Device icons updated to reflect Steam, SteamVR, and Valve Index styles.
  
• Device icons updated to support high-DPI displays for Valve Index, Valve Index Controllers, Vive, Vive Pro, Vive Controllers, Vive Trackers, Rift S, and Rift S Controllers.
  
• Fixed issue with only one auto-launching overlay app starting when multiple were set to auto-launch.
  

SteamVR Input:

• Added setting in binding configs called “Return bindings with X hand” that cause the gamepad or treadmill bindings to also apply to left/right hand devices when a SteamVR Input application restricts its action results by device.
  
• For legacy input applications, when the trigger is clicked the trigger value will not be set to 1.0 if the click action is already coming from the trigger. This fixes a bug with Oculus Touch controllers in games like VRChat, where the grip trigger value would jump from partially pulled to fully pulled. For legacy bindings that put a trigger click action on another button, the existing behavior remains and the axis value will be set to 1.0.
  

Compositor:

• Fixed a gpu scheduling issue with motion smoothing on AMD hardware which was causing motion smoothing to disable itself after a while due to poor performance.
  

Oculus:

• Fixed passing depth through to the Oculus runtime from apps which provide it.
  

Linux:

• Fixed various performance issues.
  
• Fixed IVRCompositor::GetFrameTiming() reporting bad data when async mode was enabled, correcting the reporting of impossibly long frame times in the frame timing window.
  
• Fixed a system hang when async compute is enabled.
  

SteamVR Home:

• Enabled normal engine shutdown.
  
• Fixed Friend count not showing up in lobby panels.
  

Additional Notes:

• Note to external SteamVR driver developers: The runtime now looks for icons with @2x variants and will automatically pick them up for your driver(s) if provided. See the drivers that ship with SteamVR for reference (e.g. runtime/drivers/indexhmd/resources/icons).
  
• On first launch, if the stylized icons do not exist, they will be automatically generated and saved next to your existing icons with a custom postfix, then used for subsequent launches. You are encouraged to ship these generated icons with your driver(s) alongside your existing icons, which should remain unchanged. Doing so will enable your icons to already exist on disk for users upon launch. You also should feel free to hand-edit the automated output as needed. Please contact us if you have any questions.
  
• Icon style changes can be reverted by setting they keys customIconStyle and customOffIconStyle to the empty string in your steamvr.vrsettings file. As always, exercise extreme caution when modifying this file as no error checking is performed.
  

The SteamVR beta has been updated with the following changes.

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.

SteamVR:

• Base Station 2.0 firmware version 3008 to allow an additional optional Base Station Power Management mode termed “Standby” which reduces Base Station 2.0 wake-up time to stable tracking when SteamVR starts up. See SteamVR Settings->Base Station->Power Management
  
• Base Station 2.0 wireless firmware update scheme.
  

• Improved Valve Index support with headset white-point adjustment, better USB stability, and other reliability improvements. (Some of these fixes require firmware updates.)
  
• Added thumbstick binding options, including auto-click, sticky-click, and double-click. See the full notes for details.
  
• Improved controller binding options for legacy applications.
  
• Added user control over thumbstick deadzone and forward direction.
  
• Improved startup reliability for users of all headsets including Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows MR.
  

SteamVR

• Enabled automatic firmware recovery for Valve Index and Vive Pro devices that have had certain firmware updates interrupted or failed.
  
• Changed how games launched from SteamVR Home are started to try to avoid a hang that some users (particularly Windows MR?) have seen.
  
• Fixed a rare spontaneous shutdown of vrserver caused by very briefly connected pipes.
  
• Added specific error text and recovery option for error 436.
  
• Fixed a rare case where SteamVR would stop working after a prolonged period of high CPU load.
  
• Fixed an assertion in vrmonitor when exiting without ever discovering an HMD.
  
• Fixed a Steam crash when using a driver that uses an old version of the driver interface and provides “wake on button press” functionality.
  
• Fix cases of error 422 that could happen when launching a game and letting it launch SteamVR (as opposed to launching VR first and then launching the game).
  
• Introduced fixes for error 308, plus changes to distinguish different causes of errors 308, 309, 310.
  
• Fixed one known cause of error 310 (believed to be some non-SteamVR process named “vrserver.exe” being mis-detected as an existing SteamVR session). Fixed thanks to a report in the bug report forum!

SteamVR Input

• Renamed the devices menu option and the dashboard settings option for editing bindings to “Controller Settings”. Added some new options on the left side of the app select screen and simplified the old contents of that screen.
  
• Added options to controller settings to set global rotation values for thumbsticks.
  
• Added an option to controller settings to set a global deadzone value for thumbsticks.
  
• Added screen to test any controller supported by SteamVR. This will show the raw input values from the driver, including touch, click, force, capsense, thumbstick position, and trackpad position. This is available on the controller setting screen.
  
• Added debug screen to show exactly the contents of the VRControllerState_t struct that are being provided to legacy applications. This can be helpful when debugging bindings for legacy applications. When input developer options are enabled in settings, this new UI is available as on the left side of the controller settings screen.
  
• Added some additional consistency rules for legacy bindings. The following things will happen for all legacy input applications regardless of the actual bindings specified in the UI:
  
  • If an input is clicked the “touched” bit will be set for that input. This is true for buttons, trackpads, triggers, and thumbsticks.
    
  • If a trigger with a physical button is clicked, that trigger’s value will be set to 1.0.
    
  • If a trigger has a value of 0.2 or higher, the “touched” bit will be set for that trigger.
    
  • If a trackpad is touched, that trackpad’s position will not be 0.0, 0.0.
    
  • If a trackpad or thumbstick has a value of something other than 0.0, 0.0 the “touched” bit will be set for that input.
    
• Silenced annoying log spam in vrclient_.txt and vrserver.txt about continuously reloading bindings.
  
• Fixed binding files not being editable in applications with ampersands in their names. (And possibly other applications with legal-but-special characters in their names.)
  
• Enabled Button modes in the binding UI taking their “click” input from the positions of thumbsticks and trackpads. Setting this option also enables you to set the threshold for when a stick deflection is considered clicked.
  
• Added a setting in joystick modes that allows thumbsticks to consider themselves clicked if they are deflected more than a threshold amount. This lets a user click in the center, move a thumbstick to the edge and release the physical click, but still keep the thumbstick clicked as far as the game is concerned.
  
• Added the ability to use complex button modes (double click, long press, etc.) from thumbstick or trackpad positions. This also enables those modes from pure analog triggers like those on Touch and Windows Mixed Reality controllers.
  
• Fixed an issue with some bindings not loading because they were confused about what application they belong to. This would have mostly affected developers.
  
• Fixed an issue with mirrored legacy bindings to simulated actions applying to non-mirrored configurations and vice versa.
  

SteamVR Home

• Fixed Rift S controllers from showing up as an avatar option for users with other actual controllers.
  

Lighthouse

• Improved device discovery to reduce the impact of misbehaving USB drivers and devices.
  

Linux

• Fixed Index HMD always notifying a firmware update is available.
  
• Fixed being unable to re-start SteamVR after vrserver is killed/crashes (aka LfMutexUnlockRobust crashes.)
  
• Fixed vrwebhelper crashing the Steam client.
  
• Fixed 'psychedelic' colours in the Steam client caused by exiting SteamVR.
  
• Fixed 'Restart SteamVR' prompts exiting SteamVR but not restarting it.
  
• Fixed various vrcompositor crashes.
  
• Fixed 'ioctl(GFEATURE): Broken Pipe' spam in stdout.
  
• Adjusted basic dialogs during startup to use the host's zenity program when available .
  

Valve Index

• Introduced a fix for some Valve Index users experiencing Base Station Power Management intermittency.
  
• Adjusted Valve Index headset to a more neutral (less-blue) white point. Users relying on 3rd-party white-balance controls (ex: Advanced Settings) may now prefer to disable the external control.
• Updated the default Valve Index Controller input bindings for legacy applications that have not set specific bindings. When the thumbstick is fully deflected it is automatically. considered clicked, for better compatibility with applications built for trackpads. Existing bindings can be modified to have the same behavior.
  
• Fixed a skeletal system issue where the thumb would not respond when the thumbstick is moved but no touch is detected.
  

Valve Index Headset Firmware

• Improved USB reliability.
  
• Fixed an issue that could result in displays turning off during active usage.
  

Valve Index Controller Firmware

• Fixed an issue where initiating pairing just after powering on the controller could result in a power off.
  
• Fixed an issue that could prevent pairing to a new wireless receiver until a power cycle.
  

The SteamVR Beta has been updated with the following changes. This build is a candidate for a full release and will likely roll out to everyone in the next few days.

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.

SteamVR:

• Fix a rare crash.
  

Valve Index Headset Firmware (v1564435334):

• Updated hmd firmware to release candidate (combines all recent display initialization and USB updates)