Valve suddenly says SteamVR 2.0 is now in beta — as headset rumors swirl

theverge.com:

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

Valve built up to virtual reality for a very long time — and never stopped, but it also seemed to slow its roll while nurturing the Steam Deck gaming handheld. But for weeks now, Valve sleuth Brad Lynch has been tracking changes to SteamVR that suggest the wheels are turning again — and today, now, ahead of a rumored standalone VR headset reveal, I’ve received word from Valve that the next version of SteamVR is basically here.

If you care about Valve’s mystery announcements, you’re probably hanging on every word, so I’m not going to leave any of them out. Here’s the whole email, as bolded by Valve:

Greetings! Today we are shipping SteamVR 2.0 in beta. We see this is as the first major step toward our goal of bringing all of what’s new on the Steam platform into VR.

Users who opt into this beta will notice a new UI with lots of added features:

·Most of the current features of Steam and Steam Deck are now part of SteamVR

·Updated keyboard with support for new languages, emojis, and themes

·Integration of Steam Chat and Voice Chat

· Improved Store that puts new and popular VR releases front and center

This is just the beginning of SteamVR 2.0’s journey, and we’ll have more to share in the coming weeks and months as we collect feedback and work on the features mentioned above. This beta will give us a chance to iron out the kinks as more and more people try it out. As with all betas, this means SteamVR 2.0 will get better and better as we prepare it for its eventual full public launch.

To try out the new UI, opt in to both SteamVR Beta and the Steam