SteamVR Gets a UI Revamp with Latest Update

Valve has announced the release of a new major version of SteamVR. The update, SteamVR 2.0, brings with it a completely revamped new interface, and is available to all VR users playing games on Steam.

As part of the UI revamp, SteamVR now also has most of the current features available on Steam and Steam Deck. There is also now support for dual-cursor typing, allowing VR users to type faster. SteamVR users can now also make use of the new integrated Steam Chat and Voice Chat features.

The update spent some time as a beta, and Valve was able to take into account quite a bit of feedback when it came to introducing new features to the UI.

For those out of the loop, SteamVR is the layer of Steam that kicks in if you use your VR headset to play games on Steam. The older version of SteamVR, while featuring quite a few interesting things to play around with, was considered fairly barebones, ultimately allowing players to do little more than launch their game of choice.

Patch Notes for SteamVR 2.0.8

General

• 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.
• Improved double click reliability in desktop view.
• Added a button to toggle multitasking view for desktop overlays (Windows 10 and 11 only).
• Fixed scaling issues with floating dashboard overlays.
• Fix for SetSkyboxOverride always showing only the last texture.
• Fix issues caused by running vrstartup from a different SteamVR install when SteamVR is already running.
• Laser pointer smoothing, click, and double-click refinements.
• Added support for dual-laser typing on the new keyboard.
• Fixed a bug where dismissing the keyboard would dismiss it forever in controller binding UI.
• Fixed cases where binding callouts would stay up even when they should be dismissed.
• Desktop windows now show their actual icon in addition to their name.

Dashboard

• Refreshed styling of the VR Settings and Now Playing overlays when using the new 2.0 UI (connected to a Steam Beta client).
• Sound effects are more consistent across SteamVR UI elements.
• Adjusted more UI colors for consistency.

Index Controller Firmware

• Fixed a bug where haptics could stop responding after playing certain repeated haptics events.
• Restored grip input functionality for EV3 developer controllers that was broken in the previous update.
• Only EV3 and older developer hardware will be flagged for this update.

Meta

• Hide the SteamVR IPD slider since Meta already shows one.
• Meta controller dashboard default bindings: B and Y navigate ‘Back’ through Steam UI, and right clicking in desktop view has been moved to thumbstick click.

Linux

• Transition to the Steam Linux Runtime 3.0 (sniper) for improved compatibility.
• Fix runtime configuration to launch in Steam Linux Runtime 3.0 (sniper), addressing startup issues on some systems.
• Fix vrcompositor to launch under legacy scout runtime, addressing startup issues on some systems.
• Fix SteamVR Home to launch under legacy scout runtime.

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.

VR Changes in Steam Client

General

• Remove warning messages that came up when you started a 2D game when in VR.
• Fix crash in SteamVR when certain notifications were sent. This fixes the crash that could occur when taking screenshots from within SteamVR.
• Fix notifications not showing up when a game’s desktop window was focused.
• Dashboard Tabs are now horizontally scrollable if you add a large amount of desktop windows or dashboard overlays.
• Fixed back button occasionally taking you back twice.

Interface

• Added mouse- and touch-friendly sort and filter buttons in library when in VR.
• Improved reliability of clicking on Dashboard and Steam UI elements with the laser mouse.
• Tab bars now show clickable arrows instead of L1/R1 bumper glyphs.
• Fixed the dashboard UI not working if Steam is in a Logged Out state (e.g. asking you to pick a user.)
• Hide the search bar from the header when Steam is in a Logged Out state.
• Some purchase flows weren’t showing up in the Dashboard when started from within a game.
• UI takes up full width of the display in several cases where it was being centered such as the Friends tab.
• Filter options won’t show Steam Deck compatibility filters when viewing from VR.

Linux

• Fix an issue that prevented SteamVR from starting on Debian/Ubuntu systems.