Feb 24, 2018

Vive Pro tested: the visual upgrade VR desperately needed, but is it enough?

SteamVR - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

vive-pro-1

A short while ago, I got to stick my sweaty face into HTC’s second generation PC VR headset, the Vive Pro, which was on show in the UK for the first time. The headset boasts a higher resolution and OLED displays, among other upgrades, and so the question is whether or not this can overcome VR’s visual shortcomings and give the medium a much-needed second wind.

Well, it’s definitely a big improvement – but that’s also something of a double-edged sword. (more…)

Feb 23, 2018

SteamVR Beta Updated (1519347848)

SteamVR - aaron.leiby

The SteamVR Beta has been updated with the following changes.

Compositor

Fix for async-mode on supported AMD hardware.
Fix for apps which would exit on receiving any GL error (e.g. Medium).
Fix for incorrect timing reported in non-async mode for headset which require rolling reprojection.
Fix for 1-frame of latency in non-async mode for headset which require rolling reprojection.
Fix for losing compositor timing info when switching between non-async and async mode for headsets which require rolling reprojection.
Explicitly disallow async mode when using virtual display driver.

Feb 23, 2018

SteamVR Beta Updated (1519347848)

SteamVR - aaron.leiby

The SteamVR Beta has been updated with the following changes.

Compositor

Fix for async-mode on supported AMD hardware.
Fix for apps which would exit on receiving any GL error (e.g. Medium).
Fix for incorrect timing reported in non-async mode for headset which require rolling reprojection.
Fix for 1-frame of latency in non-async mode for headset which require rolling reprojection.
Fix for losing compositor timing info when switching between non-async and async mode for headsets which require rolling reprojection.
Explicitly disallow async mode when using virtual display driver.

Feb 19, 2018

SteamVR Beta Updated (1519061910)

SteamVR - alfred

The SteamVR Beta has been updated with the following changes.
General:

Fixed IPD display not working

Linux:

Improved compatibility when running Mono based applications

Feb 19, 2018

SteamVR Beta Updated (1519061910)

SteamVR - alfred

The SteamVR Beta has been updated with the following changes.
General:

Fixed IPD display not working

Linux:

Improved compatibility when running Mono based applications

Feb 15, 2018

SteamVR Beta Updated (1518750031)

SteamVR - Programmer Joe

The SteamVR Beta has been updated with the following changes.
General:

Fixed a bug that could cause all of SteamVR to hang.
Catch occasionally dropped vsync events in some versions of nvidia graphics drivers.
Fix for apps dropping to 30hz in some cases in non-async mode.

Gamepads:

Moved Toggle Dashboard to a long press on the back button to avoid interfering with certain applications.

Unity Editor:

Fixed issue with failing to find render model interface (and associated hitching) when runtime wasn’t already active.

(This update was pushed again just now to pick up the 30Hz fix for real.)

Feb 15, 2018

SteamVR Beta Updated (1518750031)

SteamVR - Programmer Joe

The SteamVR Beta has been updated with the following changes.
General:

Fixed a bug that could cause all of SteamVR to hang.
Catch occasionally dropped vsync events in some versions of nvidia graphics drivers.
Fix for apps dropping to 30hz in some cases in non-async mode.

Gamepads:

Moved Toggle Dashboard to a long press on the back button to avoid interfering with certain applications.

Unity Editor:

Fixed issue with failing to find render model interface (and associated hitching) when runtime wasn’t already active.

(This update was pushed again just now to pick up the 30Hz fix for real.)

Feb 13, 2018

SteamVR Updated (1518226924)

SteamVR - Joe Prime

SteamVR has been updated with the following changes.

General:

Rewrite of the Vive’s Link Box Bluetooth subsystems to provide for wireless Base Station firmware updates and Power Management. Added SteamVR->Settings->Bluetooth.
Fix for hotplugging displays in direct mode for both Nvidia and AMD.
Added a dismissible warning when an application attempts to render using the wrong video card (requiring user to plug headset into different port).
Restored presence of USB topology section in System Reports in 64-bit VRMonitor.
Fixed issue with input events disappearing after a system button press even when the dashboard was disabled.
Additional debug logging for devices.
Fixed sporadic issue with controllers not appearing in SteamVR when they are turned on after SteamVR starts up.

Lighthouse:

Added system for recovering from permanently tilted world. Level should improve immediately, but in the most severe cases the first play session may take a few minutes to show improvement. Corrections are saved on the PC, so moving the HMD to another computer may briefly show the problem again.
Improved Basestation 2.0 support.
Try to prevent third “ghost controller” that appears sometimes.
Additional Basestation 2.0 stability fixes

SteamVR Dashboard:

Fixed issue with laser mouse clicks on web pages.
Fixed trackpad scroll events in certain dashboard overlays (like the Desktop overlay.)
Added binding for right click in certain dashboard overlays. This is bound to the right side of the trackpad on Vive and Windows MR controllers, and to the B/X button on Oculus Touch controllers.

Compositor:

Fix for reusing old frames when newer ones are available during interleaved reprojection in async mode in cases where applications took too long to call Submit.
Minor fix for potential frame hitches with Windows MR headsets.

Oculus:

Support for Dash 2.0. The Rift Dashboard will now render on top of the scene (where supported) rather than swap to a white room. Depth can be passed from applications for proper compositing, but will require individual applications to update to use the latest OpenVR SDK: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr/releases/tag/v1.0.12
Hooked up new OVR status for hiding controllers, lowering rendering requirements and pausing.
Fix for some hitching in Doom VFR

Oculus / Windows MR / VRidge:

Increased timeout when waiting for new frames from poorly behaved applications. This fixes rendering artifacts associated with
submitting textures with different poses than they were rendered with.

Vive:

Fixed issue with the system button on Vive controllers.
Fixed issue with the screens on the Vive going to sleep even though the user was wearing the headset.

MacOS:

fixes support for IVRVirtualDisplay-providing drivers
fixes Room Setup
removes some non-macOS UI and dismissible warnings
Fixes detection and initial acquisition of headset poses on some hardware and when resuming from suspend/sleep.
Corrects inability to sleep/suspend in some cases.
Initial Mirror Window developer support
makes more native UI elements, icons and menus.
fixes situation where IVRSystem::GetOutputDevice could return the incorrect graphics adapter while the compositor was still initializing

Linux:

Fixed a problem with the dashboard crashing on startup.
Fixed 32-bit clients such as Steam not getting events properly.
Fixed a launch failure in some situations if a previous instance of SteamVR had terminated abnormally.
Fix texture artifacts in recent versions of radv.

SteamVR Home:

Added checks for error map state
Fixed crash loading saves from certain environments (notably, Driftwood)
Additional crash fixes

Feb 13, 2018

SteamVR Updated (1518226924)

SteamVR - Joe Prime

SteamVR has been updated with the following changes.

General:

Rewrite of the Vive’s Link Box Bluetooth subsystems to provide for wireless Base Station firmware updates and Power Management. Added SteamVR->Settings->Bluetooth.
Fix for hotplugging displays in direct mode for both Nvidia and AMD.
Added a dismissible warning when an application attempts to render using the wrong video card (requiring user to plug headset into different port).
Restored presence of USB topology section in System Reports in 64-bit VRMonitor.
Fixed issue with input events disappearing after a system button press even when the dashboard was disabled.
Additional debug logging for devices.
Fixed sporadic issue with controllers not appearing in SteamVR when they are turned on after SteamVR starts up.

Lighthouse:

Added system for recovering from permanently tilted world. Level should improve immediately, but in the most severe cases the first play session may take a few minutes to show improvement. Corrections are saved on the PC, so moving the HMD to another computer may briefly show the problem again.
Improved Basestation 2.0 support.
Try to prevent third “ghost controller” that appears sometimes.
Additional Basestation 2.0 stability fixes

SteamVR Dashboard:

Fixed issue with laser mouse clicks on web pages.
Fixed trackpad scroll events in certain dashboard overlays (like the Desktop overlay.)
Added binding for right click in certain dashboard overlays. This is bound to the right side of the trackpad on Vive and Windows MR controllers, and to the B/X button on Oculus Touch controllers.

Compositor:

Fix for reusing old frames when newer ones are available during interleaved reprojection in async mode in cases where applications took too long to call Submit.
Minor fix for potential frame hitches with Windows MR headsets.

Oculus:

Support for Dash 2.0. The Rift Dashboard will now render on top of the scene (where supported) rather than swap to a white room. Depth can be passed from applications for proper compositing, but will require individual applications to update to use the latest OpenVR SDK: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/openvr/releases/tag/v1.0.12
Hooked up new OVR status for hiding controllers, lowering rendering requirements and pausing.
Fix for some hitching in Doom VFR

Oculus / Windows MR / VRidge:

Increased timeout when waiting for new frames from poorly behaved applications. This fixes rendering artifacts associated with
submitting textures with different poses than they were rendered with.

Vive:

Fixed issue with the system button on Vive controllers.
Fixed issue with the screens on the Vive going to sleep even though the user was wearing the headset.

MacOS:

fixes support for IVRVirtualDisplay-providing drivers
fixes Room Setup
removes some non-macOS UI and dismissible warnings
Fixes detection and initial acquisition of headset poses on some hardware and when resuming from suspend/sleep.
Corrects inability to sleep/suspend in some cases.
Initial Mirror Window developer support
makes more native UI elements, icons and menus.
fixes situation where IVRSystem::GetOutputDevice could return the incorrect graphics adapter while the compositor was still initializing

Linux:

Fixed a problem with the dashboard crashing on startup.
Fixed 32-bit clients such as Steam not getting events properly.
Fixed a launch failure in some situations if a previous instance of SteamVR had terminated abnormally.
Fix texture artifacts in recent versions of radv.

SteamVR Home:

Added checks for error map state
Fixed crash loading saves from certain environments (notably, Driftwood)
Additional crash fixes

Feb 12, 2018

SteamVR Beta Updated (1518226924)

SteamVR - Programmer Joe

The SteamVR Beta has been updated with the following change.

General:

Fixed sporadic issue with controllers not appearing in SteamVR when they are turned on after SteamVR starts up.