While VR fans continue to endure the long wait for Valve’s newest VR headset, the Steam Frame, everything surrounding it is being improved in the meantime. The new SteamVR 2.17 update is a big one, and the first major release since the introduction of version 2.16 back in June. It seems Valve is more ready than ever to launch the Frame, but there’s still no official date just yet.

With version 2.17, Valve has made more Steam features VR-accessible, along with general quality-of-life design changes. Users now have easy access to achievements, community guides, and notes – all of which we’ve taken for granted on a normal desktop setup. Many improvements also come to Steam Link, which the Steam Frame will heavily rely on as a “streaming-first” headset.

Despite earlier speculation, a reputable leaker dismissed the idea of the Steam Frame launching this week, which kicked off with Labor Day in the United States on Monday. So far, that prediction has held, but we’re keen to see what Valve may soon introduce following the big SteamVR 2.17 update. We’ve got all the patch notes down below if you’re looking for every detail.

SteamVR 2.17 patch notes

General:

• More in-game Steam features are now accessible in VR, including viewing achievements, community guides, and notes.
• The Quick Access Menu (familiar to Steam Deck users) is now available on the VR Dashboard bar, integrating notifications, volume, brightness, and battery status.
• The VR Dashboard bar now exposes shortcuts to common tasks on hover, such as exiting and redocking.
• Added new slider in Quick Access to control environmental and camera brightness.
• Overlay apps can be quit directly within the dashboard.
• Improved orientation of overlays positioned above or below the player.
• Quick Access Menu shows batteries for additional VR devices.

• Refined appearance of grab handles (for moving / resizing frames)
• Grab handles (theater / dashboard / torn-off / keyboard) can be moved in depth using thumbstick
• Keep floating frames centered when resizing
• Updated Laser Mouse appearance
• Updated theater mode placement
• Recenter (long press system button) is cancellable (B button)
• Fixed cases of SteamVR dashboard bar disappearance
• Show user notification when headset framerate changes
• Move less frequently used window controls to “Additional Options” Menu, and added option to toggle curvature.

• Improve dashboard placement and motion behavior. New user preference tune laser pointer length (Advanced -> Dashboard -> Laser Pointer Length)
• Fix missing dashboard icons for non-Steam VR apps.
• Fix stale Per-App Video Settings when switching the dialog from one app to another, then back again.
• Environment dimming now handled in a unified manner. Users may tune environment brightness in both theater and non-theater modes under VR Settings.
• Fixed some rendering issues related to dashboard / overlay cursor visibility
• Room view now only pauses input to apps when intentionally enabled and set to a style other than “Translucent”
• Fix for crash when taking screenshots.
• Fix bug with headset initialization on 3rd party headset when many body trackers are in use.

Steam Link (Streaming):

• Improved VR streaming on slow connections
• Fix stutters when using Steam Link on NVIDIA cards.
• Fix an issue causing 1 frame to be dropped every few seconds.
• Fixed being unable to switch active laser pointer hand when using hand tracking
• Numerous stability improvements
• Adds initial support for USB streaming.  Note: Requires new Steam Client Beta.
• Fix loading spinner flickering when framerate in game is low.
• Fix case where wrong framerates could show in SteamVR Settings.
• Latency improvements.
• Fixed scene dimming when dashboard is up.
• Added support for Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) prior to encoding. Can be tweaked in SteamVR Settings -> Steam Link -> Sharpen image before encoding.
• Prevent several cases that would cause video corruption on NVIDIA cards when using Steam Link.

OpenXR:

• Fix XR_EXT_view_configurations_changed event returning width for both the recommended width and height.
• Fix XrEventDataUserPresenceChangedEXT’s session parameter being unset when using XR_EXT_user_presence
• Improved integrations between HMDs with cameras and chaperone
• Added support for 32-bit OpenXR applications. Users will be prompted to set SteamVR as their default OpenXR runtime after installing this Beta, which will set up the 32-bit runtime alongside the 64-bit runtime.

Linux:

• Additional improvements to wired headset support on Linux (which previously required third-party add-on layers)
• Improvements to stability and logging of error states on Linux.
• Fix crash using Steam Link on Linux when games submit invalid textures.

• Improve streaming recovery when using Steam Link on Linux.
• Improved support on vrgames that invert nearZ/farZ

Developers

• Added setting to disable vr streaming auto-connect on resume
• Added setting to disable chaperone bounds
• Fix for EVROverlayFlags.MinimalControlBar overlay handling
• Fix OpenXR bug with image submission for certain non-standard image sizes

Source: Steam Community

Other than this major SteamVR update, more parts are falling into place in time for the Steam Frame release. The list of Steam Frame compatible games grew to triple digits last week, now with 130 titles (at the time of writing) on the ‘Great on Frame’ section of the Steam store, found here. Both the Steam Deck and Steam Machine prominently feature their respective ‘Great on’ sections when you boot into the device, so we can probably expect the same with the Frame.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.