What Is Steam VR Mode – Here’s How You Can Do it!

Are you wondering what Steam VR mode is?

Let’s find out.

What is Steam VR Mode?

You can launch your games in either Steam VR or Oculus VR modes.

You can choose which controllers you want to be used by selecting “Oculus” from the list.

There isn’t any difference in game performance between platforms except for what you get by not emulating the input on another platform.

Using SteamVR with Windows Mixed Reality

Windows Mixed Reality for VR lets users play SteamVR games using Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

With the installation of Windows Mixed Reality for VR, SteamVR applications can be launched from the user’s desktop or Steam library and played directly on their Windows headset without having to use any additional software.

Get Your PC Ready

• To ensure that there aren’t any pending update notifications, go to Start > Settings > Update & security > Windows Update.

If there are any pending update notifications, click Install now. Otherwise, click Check for update, and then install any newly found update(s).

• Some games require specific hardware configurations. Check out the minimum system requirements for each game.

A computer with a GeForce GTX 1070 graphics chip (or equivalent) and a quad-core CPU should be able to run most games at high settings.

• If you haven’t set up Windows Mixed Reality yet, go ahead and do so now.

Set up Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR

1. Install SteamVR.
2. Once you’re ready, start SteamVR by pressing the “Start” button. The SteamVR tutorial should start automatically.

If you’re having trouble setting up SteamVR, make sure you’ve got these additional software components:

1. Log into Steam and install the game.
2. Install SteamVR. Once you’ve installed SteamVR, open Steam and go to the Library tab. Find SteamVR in the Games category and double-right-clicking on it to install it. * You may also find SteamVR under Other Apps in the main menu.
3. Install Windows Mixed Reality (SteamVR) for SteamVR.

Set up Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR in an Environment without Internet Access

Keep the necessary files on a portable storage device.

1. Follow these instructions to install SteamVR and Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR on a computer running Windows 10.
2. In Steam, open the Library section and find the part labeled “Tools”.
3. Right-clicking the SteamVR shortcut and then clicking Properties from the resulting popup menu allows you to change its properties.
4. A new window with several tabs will appear. Choose the tab labeled “Local Files”, then select the button labeled “Browse Local Files”.
5. Open the folder where you installed SteamVR. Copy the entire contents of this folder (SteamVR) to a portable storage device (USB thumb drive).
6. You can use the same method to get SteamVR running on your target computer.

Run SteamVR on the target PC

1. After plugging the USB drive containing the SteamVR, Mixed Reality VR Driver, and other files into the computer, move them to a convenient location on the computer.
2. To ensure SteamVR and MixedRealtyVRDriver are installed correctly, open a command window and type “C:\SteamVRInstall\MixedRealityToolkit_x64_VS2017_Setup.exe” /qn /logfile=install.txt”. Then, copy/paste the output from install.txt into a word document.

chdir “C:\SteamVRInstall”

.\SteamVR\bin\win64\vrpathreg.exe adddriver

“C:\SteamVRInstall\MixedRealityVRDriver”

If you’re using a 64-bit operating system, then you need to use the full path for the executable file.

This will allow the Runtime to locate the Windows Mixed Reality for VR SteamVR drivers in your custom installation.

1. In order to run SteamVR you should double-click the file “vrstartup.exe” located at SteamVR\bin\win64\vrstartup.exe, or SteamVR\bin\win32\vrstartup.exe if the target PC is running a 32-bit version of Windows.

Play SteamVR Games

1. Connect your headset to your PC and turn on your motion controllers.
2. When the Windows Mixed Reality Home Hub loads, go to the Steam app on your computer.
3. Launch a VR game using the Steam mobile application.

If you want to play SteamVR games without removing your headset, open the Desktop application (Start > All apps). Then click on the icon for “Windows Mixed Reality” to access your computer’s desktop.

Using Motion Controllers with SteamVR

Different games require different motions for your controller. Here are some basic tips to get you going:

• Press down on either the left or right thumb stick to access the Steam Dashboard.
• To leave a SteamVR game and go back to the Windows Mixed Reality Home screen, tap the Windows button.

Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR Beta

To use SteamVR with your Windows Mixed Reality headsets, you need to download and run the Windows Mixed Reality for Steam VR component from the Steam store.

We update our “bridges” frequently and Steam installs them automatically for us.

We encourage you to sign up for our public beta if you’d like to receive frequent update emails. These emails contain new features and improvements that we’re working on.

If you’re not part of our beta program, you’ll eventually receive all of the same fixes, but once they’ve been tried out by our beta testers.

To join:

1. Under the “Library” menu, select “Software.”
2. Right-click Windows Mixed Reality for Steam VR and select properties.
3. Click on the Beta tab.
4. If you want to participate in the closed beta, click “Beta – Public Beta” and then enter the closed beta code. Leave the beta code field empty if you don’t want to participate in the beta.

SteamVR Beta

SteamVR is developed and published by Valve. It works similarly to how Steamworks operates; it releases updates for beta testers first, then publishes them to everyone else.

To join:

• To access the tools in Steam, click the down arrow next to the Library menu and select Tools from the list.
• Right-click SteamVR and select properties.
• Click on the Beta tab.
• If you want to participate in the closed beta test, enter the beta access code here. You don’t need to fill out any additional fields.

Conclusion

Windows Mixed Reality for Steam VR is a great experience for using SteamVR on Windows Mixed reality headsets. We hope you enjoy using it!

Feel free to comment below if you have any questions.