Valve’s SteamVR platform supports a wide range of hardware devices, which is great for consumer choice, but it’s hard for developers to support every SteamVR device. Valve is working on a solution that would relieve developers of the burden of supporting individual hardware profiles.
Yesterday evening, Valve released the first beta of the SteamVR Input System, which enables anyone to create custom input profiles for their favorite SteamVR games. The SteamVR Input System pulls the list of “actions” from SteamVR games and creates profiles for the hardware SteamVR detects. Valve said that the input system works with all SteamVR games, which means developers don’t even need to update their games to support the SteamVR Input System and every device it supports. However, they can alter the default input profiles or add additional options if they wish.
The SteamVR Input System also enables users to customize the input profiles for any SteamVR game, which means that left-handed players won’t have to settle for right-hand-biased inputs. The SteamVR Input System should also help inspire adoption of obscure input devices such as rifle peripherals, and it could also open the door for disabled gamers to use custom-built input devices. Hardware makers can expose any input controls that their devices offer, and anyone could create a profile to use those inputs.
Valve just released the first beta for the SteamVR Input System, but the company already made the software user friendly. The company created a simple input editor, which you can find in the in-headset settings menu for SteamVR. The profile editor gives you full control of your hardware device’s input configuration, with independent control of the left and right hands. Valve also wants to encourage people to share their settings with others. Once you’ve created a hardware profile for any game, you can share in on the Steam Workshop for others to try.
Valve’s SteamVR Input System is available now for anyone who opts into the SteamVR beta branch. You can find the beta option in the SteamVR properties menu.
