SteamVR 2.0 Beta released with a big UI overhaul

Valve have now released a Beta for SteamVR 2.0, which brings with it a much needed overhaul to the interface along with lots of new features. Work towards whatever Galileo and Sephiroth are? The long-leaked Deckard probably.

In the announcement Valve note it's the "first major step toward our goal of bringing all of what's new on the Steam platform into VR". To access it you need to be in the Steam Client Beta and then opt into the Beta for SteamVR too.

Image - Valve - SteamVR 2.0

This integrates:

• 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

Image - Valve - SteamVR 2.0

Here's the rest of the changes:

SteamVR:

• Floating overlay windows can now be interacted with while the dashboard is hidden.
• Fixed crash on exit for some Unity titles.
• Increased the system layer resolution limit. This was previously 1.5x the recommended render target scale, but is now applied to width and height independently.
• Fix a case where controller configuration would not be localized in the user’s preferred language (as configured in Steam).
• Added a prompt to install the Bigscreen Beyond Driver when the headset is detected.

Meta:

• Hide the SteamVR IPD slider since Meta already shows one.

Linux

• Transition to the Steam Linux Runtime 3.0 (sniper) for improved compatibility.

Drivers:

• For drivers which provide a manifest but don’t specify “resourceOnly”, default to true if there is no bin directory.
• Add a manifest entry "showEnableInSettings" which can be set to force a driver to appear in the “addons” settings even if default rules would hide it.
• When a specific driver is forced with the "forcedDriver" setting or the VR_FORCE_TEST_DRIVER, load it even if it is disabled.
• When a specific driver is forced with the "forcedDriver" setting or the VR_FORCE_TEST_DRIVER, only allow an HMD to activate from that driver (even if other drivers are loaded due to “activateMultipleDrivers” and they activate an HMD first). The forced driver always had the first opportunity to activate an HMD before, but now we will wait for it to hotplug an HMD rather than letting another available HMD win.
• The “LastKnown” section in settings (which updates with the manufacturer and model of the last used HMD) now also keeps track of the “ActualHMDDriver” (e.g. “lighthouse”) that provided the HMD.

I'm not sure if my system is just being a special case, or if Valve forgot Linux but currently on both the Steam Client Beta and SteamVR Beta, I still see the old UI. So it may not be working on Linux right now in this first Beta. Let me know what you find in the comments if you try it too. I have a bug report up so maybe the issue can be found.

As for the future of SteamVR, I think it's pretty clear this is work towards a new VR kit from Valve. Why else would you continue investing in it and give it such a big overhaul to include more main Steam features directly?