Latest Version Of SteamVR Supports Oculus SDK, Runtime 0.8.0

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By Kevin Carbotte
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Valve has been working hard to get the SteamVR platform ready for the consumer release of the HTC Vive, the VR HMD Valve and HTC are co-designing, but Vive isn't the only headset that SteamVR will support. The latest release of the beta software updates Oculus support to version 0.8.0 of Oculus's runtime and SDK. Valve said this release of SteamVR doesn't require running the Oculus demo scene before starting it, which was apparently necessary with previous builds.

The SteamVR update included more than just Oculus support updates. Lighthouse tracking has seen some improvements. The tracked devices can now be turned on in any order, rather than a specific sequence and if, for any reason, the headset loses tracking, the hand controllers will no longer stop tracking with it.

There was a small change to the VR Dashboard settings that developers will want to pay attention to: Dashboard overlays can now be set to launch automatically by marking them to "autolaunch" in the settings.

SteamVR Beta is available for free through Steam. It is intended for developers at this point, but anyone with a VR HMD can try it out.

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Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • David Dewis
    I like this. I like to think that VR games won't be exclusive to just one VR headset. Its completely opposite to what PC is. It would be much better for the competition to be based on the hardware quality, such as resolution and headphone quality.
    Reply
  • Simon Ayres
    I like this. I like to think that VR games won't be exclusive to just one VR headset. Its completely opposite to what PC is. It would be much better for the competition to be based on the hardware quality, such as resolution and headphone quality.

    You would use the included head phones?
    Reply
  • David Dewis
    16958448 said:
    I like this. I like to think that VR games won't be exclusive to just one VR headset. Its completely opposite to what PC is. It would be much better for the competition to be based on the hardware quality, such as resolution and headphone quality.

    You would use the included head phones?

    Not as they are now, hell no. I intend to use my wireless Bose headphones. But that's the point. Let the competition be based on the hardware innovations. Eventually, one would come out with a decent set of headphones, if it gave them an edge over the other.
    Reply
  • Simon Ayres
    I wasn't disputing that, but it is likely that the included headphones will always be a toss away, I mean we are talking a $400+ headset running on a system that will cost 1.5k to run reasonably, who has that type of money and doesn't invest in a decent headset.
    Reply