Valve confirmed to UploadVR the company has progressed to sending developers prototypes of its next generation VR hand controllers.
This was to be expected but provides us with a rough sense of the advancements being pursued by the VR technology company. Recent updates from Valve, which partnered with HTC to create the Vive,
The controllers are being seeded to developers to gather their feedback, and only being built in a limited quantity in this version, according to Valve. The new controllers certainly look slim and ergonomic, and we wonder what kind of release timeline Valve has for them.
We know Valve is developing multiple VR games internally alongside the controllers, and exploring game design alongside these new interaction paradigms puts the company at the forefront of VR development with Facebook, Microsoft and Google.
While Valve is more commonly known as the company behind Steam, which is effectively the global App Store for PC gaming, the company also has millions of fans of its games like DOTA 2, Half-Life, Portal, Counter-Strike, and Team Fortress. As a privately-owned company with a flat management structure, Valve also remains a bit of a wild card in the fast-developing VR ecosystem. Valve released its innovative tracking technology royalty-free, and is releasing a second generation that has potential to upend the market currently occupied by expensive cameras used to track VR headsets through warehouse-sized spaces.
Nevertheless, the Vive headset Valve partnered with HTC to make remains incompatible with content purchased from Facebook’s Oculus store. The Rift remains compatible with content purchased from both Steam and Facebook’s own Oculus store. There is a hack to work around the division on Vive, but that is far from direct compatibility with the Oculus store and makes using some of the Oculus-exclusive games difficult to access with HTC’s headset. The issue has been a frustrating one for early adopters who want to buy the best content available and play it on whichever headset they own.
This is relevant because Microsoft is soon to enter the fray with its own controllers and line of headsets, and Windows 10 is evolving to support Microsoft-backed VR headsets from some of its PC manufacturing partners. It is unclear where Vive and Rift will sit in the evolving Windows ecosystem even as Microsoft plans a push for its plans by the holidays this year. It should be noted Valve also partnered with Apple now and is bringing SteamVR system to Mac computers.
We will report back when we know more about the distribution and release plans for Valve’s new “knuckle” controllers. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Now that the HTC Vive has been out for a while, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of content flow onto Valve’s flagship VR headset. Hundreds of games live on Steam with HTC Vive support, although it’s worth clarifying that the majority of them offer very little in the way of engaging content beyond a simple gameplay mechanic that’s fun for 30 minutes.
As a result, we feel the need to provide a definitive source with an up-to-date list regarding the very best Vive games that you can play right now. We’ll keep an eye on the VR gaming landscape and update this list over time, as appropriate, to better represent what’s available.
Obviously, it goes without saying that the first three Vive games you should play are the original three that came bundled with the Vive’s very first preorders: Tilt Brush, Job Simulator, and Fantastic Contraption. While these titles may not be bundled any longer, they’re still awesome demonstrations of what VR can accomplish by focusing on very specific concepts. Additionally, The Gallery: Episode 1 – Call of the Starseed, and Zombie Training Simulator were included with Vive bundles for a long time and also deserve recognition as being excellent games in their own right. Plus Google Earth VR, The Lab, and Rec Room are three of the best apps period, but since they’re totally free we opted to leave them off this list for now.
But this list is focused on games you don’t have access to out of the box. If you just got a Vive or are cruising for something to play, you already tried the bundle games. You want something more. And that’s where this list comes in.
None of these games come bundled with the device, prices will likely change depending on which week or month you’re reading this list, and chances are they’ll all receive updates and patches making them even better than they are today. But the fact remains that at the time of writing, these are the 9 must-play Vive games available right now, in no particular order.
What else can be said about this game that hasn’t been said already? It’s amazing. If you for some reason don’t know about this game, it goes like this: you’ve got a red and blue lightsaber, one i neach hand, and you’re tasked with slicing blocks that come cascading towards you to the rhythm of the music. It’s like DDR with lightsabers, basically.
Beat Saber is easily one of the most addictive VR games to date and it’s dead simple to pick up and play by anyone regardless of VR experience. And in the PC VR version you can download amazing custom songs!
As the winner of our 2017 Vive Game of the Year Award, it was only appropriate that we commemorate the occasion by adding the title to our Best Vive Games list as well!
In LA Noire VR you take on the role of Cole Phelps as you explore 1940s-era Los Angeles solving crimes, inspecting crime scenes, and interrogating people. The massive, sprawling city is one of the largest sandboxes in VR to date and it sports some of the best, most immersive visuals we’ve seen.
It’s not a perfect game, but it’s a strong indicator of the direction VR is headed if AAA game studios like Rockstar are getting involved with adapting their IPs to the VR format.
For a game that wasn’t originally designed for VR at all, Skyrim VR is nothing short of impressive. This really is the Skyrim that you know and love, but now you can enjoy it like never before with the immersive presence of a VR headset. With a large variety of control schemes to choose from and hundreds of hours of content, this is a game that all RPG fans should play as long as you can look past the wonky controls, downgraded visuals, and frustrating UI. Not to mention all of the mods for the PC version!
There is just something special about the sensation of walking down the dirt road to Riverwood in VR for the first time, or staring down the throat of a fire-breathing dragon, or even gazing out upon Tamriel from the top of the Throat of the World. Whether you’re a Skyrim-veteran or one of the lucky few that get to see this world for the first time, Skyrim VR is enrapturing.
The Exorcist: Legion VR is without a doubt one of the best VR horror experiences available. The slow-building tension is expertly paced, each and every scare feels visceral and dangerous, and the sheer sense of terror you feel while methodically exploring the richly detailed environments is staggering. It honestly felt like I could hear the voices inside my own head and I could feel the heat from my crucifix as I stared down the faces of demon and eradicated the evil within.
The Exorcist: Legion VR will turn even the most hardened horror fans into whimpering piles of fear.
This is the hardcore VR shooter for hardcore VR gamers. If you grew up playing games like Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, SOCOM, and other similar tactical military shooters, then you’ll feel right at home in Onward. It has much more in common with the grueling teamwork of those games than the run-and-gun hip firing found in modern shooters like Call of Duty, and it was all created by one guy.
From holding your rifle with both hands and using your walkie talkie on your shoulder, to pulling out your knife to sneak up on an opponent, Onward is the visceral, realistic VR game many people have been waiting for. It uses full roomscale tracking with motion controllers and artificial locomotion attached to the trackpad — no teleporting here. The community is healthy and fun, making this one of the clear standout titles for the HTC Vive so far.
SUPERHOT VR is a pure, distilled, injection of unadulterated adrenaline that will get your blood pumping just as quickly as time stops in the game itself. With every movement you make, time creeps forward ever so slightly, and everything from the level design to the way it feels to dodge a series of bullets in slow-motion is orchestrated to reinforce the core ideals of the experience. From start to finish it plays out like a fantasy ripped from the screen of every action movie; an indulgent cacophony of visual and gameplay excitement.
This is easily one of the best titles available for Rift with Touch and the recent Forever update makes it even better with expanded game modes, more challenges, and an improved sense of replayability.
This is a VR game that really came out of nowhere and surprised us this year. Ninja Theory went from being hush-hush about projects to announcing and releasing Hellblade in VR within a manner of just a couple of weeks. And oh boy are we glad that they did!
Hellblade may not have been made originally for VR, but it adapts so perfectly. The game tells the story of Senua on her journey to save the soul of a loved on as she slowly descends deeper and deeper into both the bowels of celtic hell and the depths of her own mind. Voices constantly talk to you and pull you in various directions and it all sounds incredible with the 3D spatial audio that VR affords.
Undoubtedly Hellblade VR is an experience like no other.
You may have heard of most other games on this list at some point, but I’d be willing to bet you’re not familiar with Transpose at all. Allow me to introduce you to one of the most mind-bendingly cool puzzles games you’ll see this side of Portal. In Transpose you create “echos” of yourself and your past actions to solve a variety of puzzles.
An excerpt from our review:
“Transpose is a stunning VR puzzle game that elevates the genre and delivers an out-of-body-like experience about manipulating gravity and bending time. There isn’t much of a story to follow and not all of the puzzles are as satisfying as the rest, but fans of the genre would be doing themselves a disservice to not play this excellent adventure from Secret Location.”
These two go hand in hand and should be experienced in sequential order. The Gallery is building towards becoming one of the best, most intimate narratives experienced in VR thus far and does an excellent job of showing how the “adventure” genre has evolved over the years to allow for something beautiful and emotional.
You can get through each episode in just a handful of hours but you’ll be left with your jaw on the floor after it’s all over. We can’t wait to see where the story goes next.
11/22/18 Update: This is a big, long overdue update. We’ve removed Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Arizona Sunshine, Island 359, Project Cars 2, and Raw Data from this list to make room for Skyrim VR, Beat Saber, Hellblade VR, The Exorcist: Legion VR, and In Death.
12/27/17 Update: Vanishing Realms has been removed from this list and replaced with LA Noire VR.
11/23/17 Update: Redout, AirMech, The Brookhaven Experiment, and Chair in a Room: Greenwater have been retired from this list and replaced with SuperhotVR, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, The Gallery Episodes 1 & 2, and Project Cars 2.
4/5/2017 Update: The Lab and Rec Room have been retired from the formal list and added to the intro section of free titles. They were replaced by Arizona Sunshine and AirMech Command.
8/30/16 Update:The Gallery was moved into the ‘bundle’ paragraph at the start of the article, while Unseen Diplomacy, Space Pirate Trainer, and #SelfieTennis have been retired. The list has also been expanded from 7 games to 9, opening up 2 new spots. In the 5 total vacant slots, we’ve added Raw Data, A Chair in a Room: Greenwater, Island: 359, Battle Dome, and Rec Room.
This article was originally published on 4/13/16.
Editor’s Note: Another version of this list, specifically focused on multiplayer games, has been retired and will no longer be updated. This list is our definitive collection of the overall best Vive games we’ve identified as of the last time the list was updated.
When PC VR headsets first launched a year ago now, we worried that there wouldn’t be enough support from developers, and Oculus Rift and HTC Vive owners would be facing a content drought. In the end, the opposite turned out to be true.
In the past year well over 1,000 pieces of VR content have released for Vive and Rift on Steam. We’ve seen loads of great games like Fantastic Contraption and Arizona Sunshine hit the platform over that time but there have been a lot of lackluster titles too. That doesn’t just mean games that looked proming but had unfortunate issues; there are a huge number of titles that look rushed, under-developed and, frankly, a little lazy. But that’s a problem with Steam as a whole, and Valve might be doing something to fix it.
Following a rare press day at its offices in Seattle to discuss VR and more, Valve recently invited YouTubers John Bain, better known as TotalBiscuit, and Jim Sterling to its HQ to discuss content curation on Steam. Both personalities have heavily focused on that topic in past shows. There the company laid out plans for a future version of Steam that doesn’t allow developers to get away with quickly hashing together games, which they reportedly refer to as ‘fake games’.
Part of those plans include an overhaul of Steam that will apparently push good games to to the top of the pile while these other projects sit at the bottom. To ensure good games aren’t lost in that lower echelon, the company will be using a team of Steam Explorers — which anyone can apply to be — that play through low-selling games and can help boost the good ones for better recognition.
Sources of monetization for troubled projects are being changed too. Valve reportedly told Sterling that many of these titles make money off of Steam’s Trading Cards economy, which it’s looking to address too.
The company suspects that we’ll start seeing changes to Steam with its new Direct service, which allows developers to put their games straight onto the platform for a fee. We’re hoping this means that, as with the wider store, we’ll see less VR games but with overall better quality releasing on Steam going forward.
We’re eagerly awaiting the three VR games that Valve is working on right now but, at the same time, modders are bringing Rift and Vive support to the studio’s most beloved game, Half-Life 2. New footage of that mod has been released today.
The trailer below starts off by offering a glimpse of City 17, which serves as the game’s memorable opening location. We can’t wait to explore it in VR, but far more tantalising is the second half of the footage, which shows the game’s iconic Gravity Gun being controlled with position-tracked devices like the HTC Vive wands or the Oculus Touch controllers. The idea of running through the entire campaign inside the Rift or Vive is, quite frankly, very exciting indeed. No word on when the mod will be released yet but you can’t be sure we’ll keep an eye out.
Over the last week we learned that by spending essentially $300 to purchase three Vive Trackers, you will be able to bring your legs, feet and torso into VR — so you can kick a dinosaur in the face without even looking at it. Dinosaur kicking for $300 is certainly funny, but it’s also a great example of a broad effort by developers and hardware manufacturers to make virtual worlds more responsive to human behavior. Another is more robust hand and finger tracking, so the incredible variety of quick and precise movements in your hands are accurately represented in a virtual world. Still another example is eye tracking, and we’ve seen demonstrations from both Tobii and SMI in the HTC Vive offering a glimpse of how much better future VR systems will be at understanding our behavior.
A look inside a headset with eye tracking from Tobii.
New Tools For Game Designers
After a few minutes using the tech from SMI and Tobii, I noticed I was starting to unlearn a behavior I’d grown accustomed to in first-generation VR. Namely, I’ve gotten in the habit of pointing my head directly at objects to interact with them. That’s because current VR systems only understand where your head is pointed. Some games, particularly those on mobile VR, use this “gaze detection” as the primary method of interacting with the world. Tobii, in contrast, offered a very interesting test where I tried to throw a rock at a bottle in the distance. My aim was so-so on the first few throws, but that was without eye-tracking. When eye-tracking was turned on, they asked me to pick up a glowing orb and throw that instead. This time, almost every throw collided with a bottle.
Initially, I couldn’t understand why I’d want the computer to help me so much. As long as I kept my eye on the bottle and made a decently strong throw I’d hit my target every time. The glowing orb could be recalled by pressing a button on the controller too, so I could throw the ball and the instant it collided with a bottle I could recall it back to my hand like Thor’s hammer. It was just a simple tech demo but once my brain started getting accustomed to this new capability, I made a game out of seeing how quickly I could eliminate all the bottles by throwing the orb, recalling it the moment it collided, locking eyes on the next target and then immediately throwing it again.
This is what it took for me to realize just how empowering eye tracking will be for VR software designers. The additional information it provides will allow creators to make games that are fundamentally different from the current generation. With the example of throwing that orb, it was like I had been suddenly handed a superpower and I naturally started using it as such — because it was fun. It is up to designers to figure out how much skill will be involved in achieving a particular task when the game knows exactly what you’re interested in at any given moment.
This is a screen grab from Tobii’s demo showing my eye movements over ten seconds. The purple lines represent what caught my eye in that virtual world over that length of time. This type of data is already used to optimize video game design.
Higher Resolution Headsets May Need Eye Tracking
Eye tracking will be useful for other purposes too, including foveated rendering and social VR. Foveated rendering focuses the most detail in the center of your vision where your eyes are actually pointed. Your eyes see less detail in the periphery, so if the computer knows exactly where your eyes are pointed it dials up the amount of detail in the right spot while saving resources in places you’ll never notice. As manufacturers look at putting higher resolution displays in VR headsets, eye tracking that enables foveated rendering may become fundamental to that effort because it could help keep computers at affordable prices despite pushing more pixels.
Make Eye Contact
Eye tracking also dramatically increases the expressiveness in communication. In Valve’s booth at GDC, both SMI and Tobii demonstrated a 3-person social VR experience in which I hung out with other folks in VR and had a conversation. Tobii showed its technology integrated with the popular multiplayer world Rec Room while SMI allowed me to chat with someone in Seattle as if he was standing right next to me. Social interaction in VR with current consumer technology is fairly awkward. You can get some sense of a person’s interest via their hand and head movements, but to really connect with someone you need eye contact and both Tobii and SMI enabled that natural connection regardless of physical distance.
I wouldn’t say any of these technologies are consumer ready just yet, but they do show a sophistication, ease of use and affordability that we haven’t seen before. In fact, all the technologies mentioned in this post are being distributed to select developers as kits so they can start to build software around these upcoming advancements. FOVE is distributing a eye-tracking headset too. Meanwhile, both Google and Facebook have acquired eye tracking technologies within the last year — underscoring the expectation that the technology will power future headsets. It indicates that we are getting much closer to the realization of next-generation systems that will enable far more compelling and responsive virtual worlds compared with the ones we have today.
“I like to think of this as an extension of the development of the human-computer interface,” said Valve Developer Yasser Malaika, in an interview with UploadVR. “You started with command lines where you needed a lot of memorization, then moved to GUIs…now with VR we’re bringing more of the human body into it…your whole body the computer can now respond to. And adding eyes is another layer where it’s more responsive to you. It is the computer adapting to you rather than it asking you to adapt to it.”
AMD had a press conference at GDC to demonstrate their engagement with the gaming community and had some major VR related announcements. AMD has long supported VR through their own Liquid VR technology and have been evangelizing VR for quite some time. So these announcements at their Capsaicin and Cream event made complete sense. GDC is a developer-focused conference so its worth remembering that many of these announcements will not have a direct impact on consumers, but rather an indirect effect as a result of decisions made by developers.
The first major announcement from AMD was that they have worked with Valve to support asynchronous reprojection, which is Valve’s own feature that exists to improve the VR experience and eliminate judder. This feature is akin to Oculus’ asynchronous time warp but for Valve’s Vive platform. The hardware manufacturer will support this feature through a driver update and Valve will support it through an update to SteamVR which is the company’s component of the Steam gaming platform. Valve actually launched this feature back in November along with NVIDIA, but now AMD is bringing support for this feature to their GPUs in March, which is a welcome addition for anyone running an AMD GPU with a Vive.
AMD also added support for a forward rendering path with Unreal Engine 4, which is one of the most popular engines in the world and is commonly used by some of the top game developers in the world. This forward rendering path feature is yet another VR-related feature that improves overall image quality in VR since HMDs are not the same as computer monitors and behave differently. As a result, lots of applications support forward rendering to deliver faster and better looking VR applications. Not all developers necessarily find forward rendering to be their cup of tea, but having support for the option is important for AMD to be relevant in VR.
Last, but not least, AMD announced their biggest partnership of the year and possibly in the company’s history with game developer and publisher Bethesda. This partnership will very likely stretch outwards into areas like VR, which is why it’s such a big deal. After all, Bethesda is releasing Fallout 4 in VR and it sounds like it will very likely ship with Vulkan which is a very good low level API that can squeeze the most performance out of virtually any CPU and GPU combination. However, AMD’s partnership with Bethesda is clearly designed to help them get better support for their GPU and CPU features in games and to accelerate performance in VR and other applications.
AMD did not announce anything regarding their new GPU code named Vega other than the fact that it will commercially be called Vega. Many people have been anticipating AMD’s newest GPUs using the new Vega architecture, but in the meantime, NVIDIA has announced their own GTX 1080 Ti which appears to once again raised the bar for AMD to compete with them
Disclosure: Anshel’s firm, Moor Insights & Strategy, like all research and analyst firms, provides or has provided research, analysis, advising, and/or consulting to many high-tech companies in the industry, including AMD, NVIDIA and others. He does not hold any equity positions with any of the companies cited.
Eye-tracking is arguably one of the most important pieces of VR’s future, and SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) and Valve are working together to bring the tech closer to reality.
As reported by Tom’s Hardware, SMI partnered with Valve to integrate its eye-tracking tech into OpenVR SDK and API, which will allow other companies to implement support into their VR software. Not only that, but the pair have also successfully integrated SMI’s tech into select HTC Vive units.
Those units have been shipped out to research partners who are currently busy toiling away at getting the most out of VR eye-tracking. In fact, this tech is apparently behind the mixed reality face-scanning tech that Google demonstrated last week, bringing a user’s full face into these videos. It’s not clear if Valve or HTC currently has any plans to offer any sort add-on device for consumers to bring eye-tracking to Vive, nor if a future iteration of the device includes it, though the latter is a safe bet, no matter how far off it is.
On the surface, eye-tracking might only appear to be useful as another means of input for VR experiences, but its importance actually runs far deeper than that. Firstly, the tech is vital for foveated rendering, a term that refers to a VR experience only fully rendering its graphics directly in the center of where a user’s eyes are looking. This hugely efficient process means apps won’t have to render a full screen at all times, and could feasibly lower the barrier to entry for VR hardware.
That’s something that eye-tracking headset FOVE is looking into, as announced this week, and will no doubt become an important feature of many devices in the future.
Furthermore, eye-tracking will one day be essential to recreating virtual avatars of ourselves for social VR experiences. If our virtual bodies are to become truly indistinguishable from our real ones, then incredibly accurate eye-tracking will be required, the kind not seen by any current device.
We’re hoping to go eyes-on with this solution at GDC this week, so stay tuned.
We just had a juicy bit of information dropped on us by Valve — LG is showing a headset prototype at the company’s booth.
Very little is known about the device right now, though Valve did confirm to UploadVR that this is a SteamVR tracking headset, making it the second such device to be revealed, two years after HTC first introduced its Vive headset and nearly a year after it was released.
According to a statement from Valve, the device will offer a “high fidelity, next generation VR experience.” Though not confirmed, we assume that makes it another PC-based device rather than another mobile-based headset, with LG has dabbled with in the past. The company intends to meet with developers during the event to showcase its prototype and collect feedback. Final pricing and launch dates are not being revealed at this time.
Don’t expect this to be the last SteamVR device; last week Valve dropped requirements to attend a $3,000 class for its platform and 500 companies having signed up to work with its Lighthouse tracking technology, be they new headsets, controllers or otherwise.
SteamVR isn’t alone in licensing VR technology, however. Microsoft is also working with companies like Dell and Asus to produce its own VR headsets using inside-out tracking and running on its Windows Holographic OS.
There are still a lot of questions about this headset to be answered, then, and we’ll be sure to hunt answers down during GDC week.
Here’s the statement from Valve:
LG Electronics will unveil its first VR HMD prototype at this year’s GDC in San Francisco, CA. Being shown in Valve’s GDC booth, the LG HMD prototype is designed to deliver a high fidelity, next generation VR experience.
During the show, LG will be meeting with developers to collect feedback and impressions as part of its effort to define the first commercial units. Pricing, launch dates, and territories will be announced at a later date.
Welcome to the community download. This is a place for people from all different walks of life to come together as one and disagree on the room-scale capabilities of different VR headsets. In all seriousness though, this is a post meant to inspire thoughtful, informed discussion about virtual and augmented reality. Today we stand on the cusp on one of our industry’s most significant times of year. Next week, the Game Developers Conference (GDC) will be getting underway in San Francisco and this year’s show should be a big one for VR.
Last year, going into the event, the only headsets we had commercially available to us were powered by smartphones. This year, the gaming PC your friends all said you’d “never use” is now happily humming away, powering your eighth straight hour of Space Pirate Trainer without a bathroom break.
Last year’s GDC was all about teasing an amazing new era of gaming. This year, it’s all about delivering on that promise. We’ve already ran through what we expect to happen at GDC, so now our question for all of you this week is this: out of all the VR studios, manufacturers and conglomerates attending GDC this year, which do you think will be bringing the most exciting VR games?
Before you answer let’s consider your options.
HTC/Valve/Vive: The double threat of VR companies, HTC and Valve worked together to release the Vive VR headset. Thanks to an early emphasis on room-scale VR and hand tracked controllers, the Vive has become the best selling PC-powered VR system on the market today, according to third party estimates.
Since last year Vive has started Vive Studios, an organization with the sole purpose of finding, supporting, and developing the best VR games it can. On top of that, Valve itself has recently teased that they it will be releasing not one, not two, but three new VR games in the near future. What better time than GDC to shine a light on these mystery projects?
Sony:Sony is a GDC veteran. These guys were likely running keynotes at the Moscone Center back when VR meant the virtual boy. Sony knows how to make great content and how to communicate it to the world. Its PSVR headset is projected to be quite a hot seller already, but there hasn’t been a huge amount of high profile games lately other than Resident Evil 7, or rumors that there will be more on the horizon.
GDC is Sony’s chance to prove its commitment to PSVR and remind us all who the video game legend in the room really is. Fingers crossed its got some tricks up its sleeves.
Oculus: GDC has been around since before Oculus was even so much as a glimmer in Palmer Luckey’s dad’s eye. However, Palmer Luckey has a new dad now named Mark Zuckerberg. And Daddy Zuck has very deep pockets.
Oculus has already made a name for itself as “the platform with the AAA content” but that content has come at a price. At OC3 Zuckerberg announced that Facebook has already spent $250 million facilitating high quality VR content. He also revealed that his company would spend at least that all over again on even more content for the future. Now’s the time for Oculus to show us what that big war chest can do.
—
What do you think? Which of these companies, or any other company, is going to be keeping you glued to livestreams next week? Let us know in the comments below.
It was over four months ago now that Valve showed SteamVR running in Linux for the first time. Today, it’s finally launching the platform on the operating system, albeit in a limited form.
SteamVR comes to Linux as a development release, meaning it’s intended for content creators to start working on apps for the open-source OS, and not for regular Linux users to access. To that end, users must have opted into the public Beta for Steam or SteamVR to access it along with obtaining pre-release drivers. On Nvidia cards that means the 375.27.10 “Developer Beta Driver”, while AMD users will need a pre-release version of the radv driver. You’ll also need Unity 5.6 to actually create content through Linux.
The SteamVR version of Linux is built on top of the Vulkan API. Currently, you’ll find essentials like the compositor, dashboard, VR status windows, and the room setup and tutorial software. Known issues include the desktop view currently not working properly and power management of base stations not being properly implemented. It’s available over on GitHub, but there’s no word on when a more stable build will be releases.
Significantly, Valve’s own operating system, SteamOS, is built upon Linux, and is used in the company’s Steam Machines, designed for gaming. Bringing Linux support to SteamVR will open up the number of people that can actually use these headsets, then, even if it’s not as significant a number as the amount of Windows users out there.
Late last month, we also reported that Valve had added “initial support” for Apple’s OSX, suggesting we may soon see SteamVR on Apple’s Macs too.
Linux support, meanwhile, was added as part of a wider SteamVR update which also includes things like improve quality of supersampling, and changes to the desktop theater mode. It’s release apparently caused an issue with brightness in Euro Truck Simulator 2, but Valve has just fixed that. How’s that for service?
