SteamVR for Windows Mixed Reality leaves early access

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

After months of tweaks and fixes, Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR is now out of early access.

HP WMR and SteamVR
HP WMR and SteamVR (Image credit: Windows Central)

Along with all of the goodies packed in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, SteamVR is leaving early access for Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) headsets. Steam announced the news this week, coming five months after SteamVR initially entered into preview for WMR headsets.

Over the course of the preview period, Steam says that it managed to ship 10 updates for all users and 24 for beta users. As a result, performance and stability have greatly improved, while the motion controllers have received haptic feedback and more. Microsoft also boasts that it's now easier to take photos while in mixed reality environments by holding the Windows button and tapping the trigger.

As for content, you'll now find that 422 games in the Steam Store officially support Windows Mixed Reality. The Microsoft Store already boasts a number of major titles, but having access to SteamVR opens up a far greater breadth of content.

Best SteamVR games for Windows Mixed Reality in 2018

"We wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU to the members of our community who have given us great feedback to help make SteamVR a better experience for Windows Mixed Reality," the SteamVR said. "We will continue to release regular updates with new fixes and features, and you will still find us here in the discussion forums."

Windows Mixed Reality launched alongside the Fall Creators Update last October. A number of hardware partners – including Lenovo (opens in new tab), Samsung (opens in new tab), HP (opens in new tab) and Acer (opens in new tab) – have released their own headsets, harnessing the platform for mixed reality and virtual reality experiences built directly into Windows 10.

See at Steam

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the Editor in Chief for Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. Got a hot tip? Send it to daniel.thorp-lancaster@futurenet.com.

10 Comments
  • Is there a good way to launch steam from the cliff house without having to use the desktop?
  • Not that I can find. If you already had it running, you will see the sleeping window. But I can't figure out how to launch from the WMR House. Also though, for some reason Steam Home doesn't work for me. Games play fine, but Steam Home always shows as Not Responding or whatever. In all though, between WMR and Steam, WMR has been a really great experience so far. Having a blast.
  • Disable Steam Home through settings it can't run well in WMR for whatever reason. When in Cliffhouse or Sky Loft just say "Hey Cortana open SteamVR" automagically you are launched into the default steam environment.
  • Thanks for the tip! It would be so amazing if we could set Steam games as apps right in the cliff house. They let us pin steam games on the desktop, might as well interface it with WMR. What happens when you disable the steam house? Does it just take you to the generic steam menu?
  • Cortana as mentioned, but another way (and worth doing anyway) is to switch the PC into Tablet Mode before putting on the headset. Assuming you have a desktop on the wall, you can then just click the Steam tile. Of course Continuum ought to automatically select Tablet Mode when in VR using touch controllers, but as usual for Continuum fails to select the appropriate mode so you'll need to do it manually.
  • this may be what you're referring to by using the desktop but you can pin your desktop out in your cliff house wall and open steamvr that way too so you don't have to lift up your headset. I haven't looked into it but there's got to be some kind of tweak or shortcut you can create to get it to appear in your all apps area of start menu in wmr.
  • Well, now we just need video card prices to reach levels of sanity...
  • WMR support for Xbox X with same access to stream VR store. That's all I need now!
  • Ironically, you can't download Steam from the Microsoft Store. Which also ironically has a competitor gaming selection from Xbox. Which also ironically doesn't let Steam run on Windows 10 S. So... why is Steam even on board with this? ;)
  • They like customers? I know, coming from the Microsoft world this seems an odd approach but I hear that customers are often quite sought after by some companies out there...