Highlights
vrOS 3 is here. vrOS on the Steam Frame now connects to vrOS on your PC: your PC's windows open as panels in the headset, and your PC VR games stream to it without Steam Link. Most of what we planned for v3 is in this release. A few things still need patching, and v3.0.1 follows shortly. A later 3.x update adds a signed vrOS audio driver once our EV code-signing certificate arrives.
New Features: the Steam Frame and your PC
- The vrOS PC tab: on the Steam Frame, the vrOS PC tab connects to vrOS on your Windows PC over the Frame's dongle or your home Wi-Fi. Press Connect, or turn on "Connect automatically when your PC is available" (off by default).
- Your PC's windows as panels: Connect opens your PC's main display as a panel over the Frame's Home, with no SteamVR running on the PC. Add more displays or single windows from the ADD list, displays first. Each one is its own panel to grab, move and resize, and your layout comes back at the next connect.
- Use your PC from the headset: point and click with the Frame's controllers, see the PC's cursor on the panel, and type with the VR keyboard, which opens by itself when you click into a text box. Menus open over their window, and a window you open becomes a panel of its own.
- Sharp text on PC panels: your PC's windows stream with PyroWave in full 4:4:4 colour, with a wavelet tuned for text, and a panel that stops changing gets one extra-sharp image, so small text stays crisp.
- PC VR games on the Frame: vrOS Streaming is a SteamVR headset driver on the PC that streams your PC VR games to the Frame, with your vrOS panels on top. The Frame and its controllers show up in SteamVR as themselves, finger tracking included.
- SteamVR from the headset: START STEAMVR, EXIT STEAMVR and RESTART STEAMVR sit beside STOP STREAMING, on the PC and on the headset, and each one asks first. USE STEAM LINK goes back to Steam Link with one confirmed SteamVR restart.
- Picture settings: frame-rate shortcuts, a Bitrate slider whose top follows the frame rate, Resolution per eye, and a Codec choice for games: HEVC (the default) or PyroWave. A PC whose graphics card cannot encode HEVC streams PyroWave instead.
- Foveated streaming: Off, Gentle or Strong (Strong by default) uses the Frame's eye tracking to spend the picture's detail where you look.
- Eye tracking for PC apps: "Share eye tracking with PC apps" (off by default) sends your gaze and eyelids to the PC while you stream, so VRChat face tracking through vrOS works.
- Sound and mic: "Hear the PC's sound in the headset" plays the PC's sound in time with the picture, and "Use the headset's mic on the PC" sends your voice to the PC. The connection card says which sound devices are in use.
- The PC's SteamVR dashboard: View + Menu opens it from the stream, and the "Open SteamVR on PC" button shows that chord in your controller's own button glyphs. A hand pointing at a vrOS panel keeps its game input unless you pause it.
- The PC's pages on the headset: while connected, the Frame's O·VR pages show and control the PC: playspace (recenter, drag and rotate), body tracking, tracker alignment and diagnostics, and EDIT IN STEAMVR opens the PC's bindings. PERF switches between PC and HEADSET. VRChat OSC and the Soundboard run on the PC and show on the headset.
- Starting from the Library: PLAY on the Frame shows a short handoff, or the first-run welcome, instead of Steam's loading panel spinning for 30 seconds.
- The PC's first run says what vrOS adds and leads with the Steam Frame. The vrOS mark on the dash turns violet while a Steam Frame is connected to its PC.
New Features
- Notifications from XSOverlay and OVR Toolkit apps: Settings › Notifications › SOURCES lets apps that already send notifications to XSOverlay or OVR Toolkit show them as vrOS popups. POPUPS sets top or bottom, sideways and height offsets, size, opacity and sound, with SEND TEST. Everything stays on this PC.
- Finger tracking: O·VR › FINGER TRACKING tunes each finger's curl range and splay for the Steam Frame's controllers.
- Per-avatar tuning: FINGER TRACKING and FACE TRACKING › TUNING have ALL AVATARS · THIS AVATAR, so each avatar can keep its own values.
- Eye filter: VRChat OSC › FACE TRACKING has an EYE FILTER view with every eyelid and gaze smoothing setting, and O·VR › FACE TRACKING has STUCK EYELID options for an eyelid that stops moving.
- Twitch emotes: type `:` for an emote picker ranked by the emotes you use most, or open the emote button's grid. Your emotes from every channel you subscribe to, animated Twitch emotes, emotes kept on disk, and EMOTE RAM CACHE (16 MB, 64 MB or Unlimited).
- Twitch on the headset: approve the headset's Twitch sign-in on the PC, and sign it out with SIGN OUT YOUR HEADSET.
- Playspace speed: drag and rotate multipliers are back, from 0.10× to 10×, in PLAYSPACE CONTROL.
- Logo button: Settings › General › Logo button opens picks what the vrOS mark at the top left of the dash opens: OVRL, PERF, ADD or O·VR.
- CLEAR ALL OVERLAYS: at the top of the presets list, it closes every capture panel after a second press. While a source is lost, CLEAR LOST SOURCES sits beside it.
- Optical alignment: a second Re-check a metre away corrects the room's heading, and Re-check asks again after a relocalization or every half hour. The Re-check card is smaller and translucent, with a progress bar, and a double pull dismisses it.
Improvements
- The O·VR pages are named for what they do: PLAYSPACE CONTROL (first, and where O·VR opens), FACE TRACKING, BODY TRACKING (was TRACKERS), DIAGNOSTICS, TRACKER ALIGNMENT (was CALIBRATE), VIRTUAL IK (was VIK), POSES and LINK & DRIVER (was DRIVER, now last).
- Optical alignment carries across sessions more reliably, uses the room's walls to judge SteamVR's relocalizations, corrects the Lighthouse scale, and shows an honest ± figure.
- The ADD list shows displays first, and a row's icon and plus both open it.
- SteamVR's startup overlay list shows one vrOS row.
- vrOS recovers by itself when its background service stops unexpectedly.
Bug Fixes
- The VR keyboard no longer opens and closes on every click in Firefox, Discord and other browser or Electron text boxes.
- Browser tab previews no longer open popup panels after a nearby click.
- vrOS never starts SteamVR by itself: its renderer only attaches to a SteamVR that is already running.
- The world dash waits until you look before placing itself the first time.
- Alert cards fit at every UI scale.
Known Issues
- The PC's sound and the headset's mic use Steam Streaming Speakers and Microphone when they are installed, or else this PC's default output and the Mic feed in AUDIO SETTINGS. A signed vrOS audio driver comes in a later 3.x update.
- HEVC is the default codec for games, and a PC whose graphics card cannot encode HEVC uses PyroWave. A codec change applies the next time PC VR starts, and there is no Auto choice yet.
- Streaming needs a Steam Frame and a Windows PC. Linux PCs and other headsets come later. If you rebind the PC dashboard chord but keep one of its default buttons, the glyphs still show the default chord.