Update: SteamVR and Windows VR (Mixed Reality) are now compatible in Steam Preview. All you have to have are a Windows VR headset, Windows VR controllers, and a Steam account with SteamVR and Windows Mixed Reality driver for SteamVR installed. There’s a detailed guide on setting it all up right here.
Original: Starting today SteamVR is officially accessible using Windows Mixed Reality (aka Windows VR) headsets like the Acer, HP, Lenovo, and others. Previously the Windows VR headsets could only access and launch apps that were natively available within the Windows store.
Last week we got the chance to try out this functionality for ourselves at an event where we went hands-on with the Samsung Odyssey Windows VR headset and came away impressed. Playing The Lab’s Longbow game I was able to easily move around the environment, shoot stick figures, as well as knock and loose arrows with ease. Support isn’t 100% across all of Steam yet, and it won’t be for some time, but it’s a step in the right direction. You can see what it’s like to launch into SteamVR right here:
Now it’s worth saying that all of this functionality is still in testing, it’s not officially released, and even today it’s only in Steam Preview. This isn’t a 1.0 iteration of the support by any means. According to the online documentation from Microsoft, in order to use SteamVR Preview with a Windows VR headset you need to meet the “Ultra” specifications on this page. At this time, however, you also need a GTX 1070 and 7th-gen Intel i7 for testing SteamVR. I tried running the SteamVR Preview with a PC running the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update with 32GB RAM, an Intel i7-6700k and a GTX 980 Ti and it wasn’t good enough. All of those components surpass the published “Ultra” specifications but don’t seem to match that GTX 1070 requirement.
Check it out when the update arrives today and let us know what you think if you’ve got a Windows VR headset! Tell us your thoughts down in the comments below!
Clarification to Original: We updated the post above after receiving clarification about the specifications needed to properly run the SteamVR Preview right now.
