Valve launches SteamVR beta for Oculus Rift
Something to goggle at.
Steam now has an experimental mode for use with virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, Valve has announced.
Users report that the mode shows the client projected as if on a giant floating screen in front of you, and that head tracking works well.
"As of the most recent Steam Client Beta, Steam now supports an experimental VR mode," Valve's Joe Pudwig reported (thanks, Road to VR).
"If you own an Oculus Rift dev kit you can try it out by starting Steam with '-vr' on the command line. Then press the Big Picture button to enter Big Picture + VR mode."
Valve's announcement comes just a day ahead of the company's Steam Dev Days, scheduled to take place on 15-16th January. It is here that Valve is expected to show off its own VR hardware.
The first time you run you may need to do the following:
- Run Steam in the desktop client without the -vr option
- Find "SteamVR" under "Tools" in your library. (If you don't have it installed, install it.)
- Bring up properties on SteamVR and opt-in to the "Beta Update" beta. Let the update download.
- Quit the Steam Client again and start it with -vr