Until recently, Oculus Rift owners have had to maintain two separate repositories for games; Steam and Oculus Home. And depending on where you bought a game, that’s usually where you’d launch it from. Revealed in a forum post, Oculus will be pushing a general update soon that will allow you to launch SteamVR apps (provided they have Rift support) directly from Home. A public pre-release build is already available however if you want to start creating your ‘one library to rule them all’.

Ok. So in the history of hassles, managing two disparate game repositories isn’t the biggest ever, but removing friction between you and the game—regardless of where you bought it—is a welcome feature nonetheless.

To this end, you can now install a pre-release of the 1.17 software update which lets you manage your content library by letting you import, view and launch all apps that support Rift directly from Home—be it from the 2D interface or from within VR. There’s no batch import function in the current update, so for now the system automatically adds the Rift-compatible game to Home (thumbnail included) the first time you fire it up from Steam.

image captured by Road to VR

You’ll be able to filter out these “outside” titles by toggling them in Home’s library menu. You can also remove the link from your game library, something Oculus says doesn’t uninstall the actual app from your computer, but rather removes the link to Home. The company warns that removing app links can’t be undone at this time.

As for your friend’s list, when you’re in a game not purchased on the Oculus Store, your online activity simply displays as “Online”—and certainly not ‘Online playing a game I bought somewhere else’.

SEE ALSO
Valve's New 'SteamVR Home' Beta May Mean You Never Leave VR

The update comes a few weeks after Valve launched Steam Home Beta, a user-friendly 3D social space that lets you view and launch VR apps from within the headset. For Rift users looking to use Steam as their ‘one library to rule them all’ though, you can technically search for any Rift-only executable and add it to your library manually, but nothing as simple as the one-click solution Oculus has put forward.

Check out how to opt-in to the Public Test Channel for this and upcoming pre-releases below. To opt out, just toggle it off and you’ll revert back to the standard update branch.

image courtesy Oculus
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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Justos

    Seems like they’re building up for the long awaited social features. Keeping users ‘online’ in home regardless of which store theyre on is a smart move.

  • Kris Bunch

    Now they just need to add in a native web browser and Netflix then I would never have to leave Home.

    • Dan VR

      Yeah I was surprised the Netflix VR app is only for Samsung Gear VR and not the Rift. Hopefully John Carmack will port it over or at least make a native Rift version.

    • Mike549

      The native web browser on Gear VR is excellent, and it, as well as the Home screen, looks much clearer on the Gear as compared to the Rift. Whatever they did to make it appear so much better than it used to, they really need to bring to the Rift.

  • They want to avoid Vive users to launch SteamVR Home beta, since it’s a cool social place… and facebook can’t leave social domain to competitors

    • Ombra Alberto

      bla bla bla bla

      • Ryan

        I was wondering WHY Facebook would build this feature, since it encourages buying games on Steam. The original comments makes sense as a good reason. Facebook wants to protect social.

        • NooYawker

          They don’t care if you buy games elsewhere as long as you use their hardware.

          • Suitch

            They don’t really make money off of hardware, it is software sales that actually generate revenue. (although, nobody is making a true profit in VR yet)

        • Kaleo Kripton

          Maybe because 85% of steam vr games = shit… and the 15% good vr games cant be a threat to oculus store..

    • Get Schwifty!

      Yup – if anyone was under any impression that FB’s interest in VR was about anything but maintaining a footing in social media they are seriously out of touch.

  • Michigan Jay Sunde

    Not sure where these Steam VR links are defined / saved. Would very much love to customize the thumbnail so Steam games look at-home in my library and not like bastard step-children. The square-icon in the middle of a rectangular color block look is OUT, and has never been in.

  • Nimso Ny

    Hahaha… They’ll gladly try to pull SteamVR games in to their own crappy launcher, but refuse to allow you to launch Oculus games with a non-Oculus headset and have previously taken steps to actively block hacks that allowed you to do that.

    Facebook owned Oculus team are complete *expletives*, we all knew this kind of rubbish was going to happen when Facebook decided to buy it!

    Facebook buying Oculus was one of the worst possible things to have happened to VR, you can see it in every decision the Oculus team make. Everything they do is against what the users deserve, and are always steps towards overriding or blocking the competition as a way to completely control the whole system!

    • So what exactly do you find wrong with allowing users to add SteamVR games to Oculus Home?
      Seems like an obvious step forwards to me.

      Salt much?

    • Ombra Alberto

      bla bla bla bla

    • Suitch

      I think they have done nothing but prove that the partially closed ecosystem helps foster AAA titles. The only AAA title to reach SteamVR is Star Trek. The reasoning behind it is that it allows Oculus to pay severely targeted funding to high-quality developers. Where they have suffered is the social aspect, (irony, I know) in that the ability to interact with people you know is limited to in-app features and not an over-arching social feature such as friends in Xbox or Steam ecosystems.

      Also, let’s not forget, technically the Oculus launcher is no more closed than the Steam launcher. Try launching your Steam games without Steam.

      And as for blocking Revive, that was accidental and even if it weren’t they have promised to never allow it to happen again, so stop whining about ‘that one time’ and realize that they have made a commitment to ensure each new version works with Revive.

      • Sebastien Mathieu

        Foster… hummm, more Financed, anyway I’m glad they did not further block revive….

        • Suitch

          That is a given since they can be used synonymously.

          fos·ter
          ˈfôstər,ˈfästər
          verb
          1.
          encourage or promote the development of (something, typically something regarded as good).

          • Sebastien Mathieu

            Thanks for the correction, I’m french canadian and i missed this subtlety… :-)

          • Suitch

            No problem.

      • AAA?

        AAA titles? When was the last time you play an actual AAA title? There is no AAA vr title…

        • Suitch

          Yeah there are. Star Trek is the only one on Steam, but Oculus has a few: Robo Recall, Lone Echo, Echo Arena, The Unspoken, Edge of Nowhere, The Climb. And if not one of those games sticks out to you it is because you have only played them through ReVive instead of with an actual Rift and Touch controller setup. Echo Arena is the biggest VR game yet.

    • PrymeFactor

      Well, dropping the price to $399 + tons of free games is the most pro-consumer move anyone has made in the PC VR space since launch last year.

      Grow up…this is all about you being a Valve fanboy and not about any special love for VR. At least FB/Oculus does a decent job of funding high quality VR experiences and games.

      • jd2020

        The reality is that Oculus signed it’s own death certificate when it sold out to facebook. The price drop is not “pro-consumer” but “desperate” move to sell more units. Just ask yourself why is Vive outselling Rift 2:1 while costing twice as much?

        Oh, and BTW, why is HTC Vive an official partner of Ready Player One? Because no self-respecting VR aficionado wants to be affiliated with IOI/facebook.

  • Lucidfeuer

    “Revivive”.

  • Dan VR

    This is great news, since I bought over 40 VR games on Steam.

  • Simon Bowers

    How do I link the steam games to the oculus home? I’ve checked the “allow unknown sources” box on the library filter but they are not showing up.

    • θεός

      The Update isn’t out yet, Its coming soon….

      • Simon Bowers

        It is if you sign up for the public test beta, which I have done.

  • Sebastien Mathieu

    WOW!! there gonna do what Valve is doing for more than a year now, but Less… (because Steam VR accept the Rift) !!!!!! Kudos to you FaceBook!

    • Suitch

      I think they have done nothing but prove that the partially closed ecosystem helps foster AAA titles. The only AAA title to reach SteamVR is Star Trek. The reasoning behind it is that it allows Oculus to pay severely targeted funding to high-quality developers. Where they have suffered is the social aspect, (irony, I know) in that the ability to interact with people you know is limited to in-app features and not an over-arching social feature such as friends in Xbox or Steam ecosystems.

      Also, let’s not forget, technically the Oculus launcher is no more closed than the Steam launcher. Try launching your Steam games without Steam.

      And as for blocking Revive, that was accidental and even if it weren’t they have promised to never allow it to happen again, so people need to stop whining about ‘that one time’ and realize that they have made a commitment to ensure each new version works with Revive.

      • AAA?

        You must have never played a AAA game. Not a single VR game comes close to being AAA.

        • Suitch

          You are kinda being silly. Star Trek is the only one on Steam, but Oculus has a few: Robo Recall, Lone Echo, Echo Arena, The Unspoken, Edge of Nowhere, The Climb. And if not one of those games sticks out to you it is because you have only played them through ReVive instead of with an actual Rift and Touch controller setup. Echo Arena is the biggest VR game yet.

  • fulysic

    this is good news

  • Pre Seznik

    That’s a pretty good QoL improvement there. It’s pretty annoying to have to switch between Home & Steam.

  • Kaleo Kripton

    R.I.P VIVE