Valve has just announced that the latest release of SteamVR beta, its virtual reality platform SteamVR just upgraded its rendering pipeline to support Direct Mode, a way to bypass unnecessary operating system clutter to render directly to a VR headset. In this case, the HTC Vive Pre.
Those that remember the earlier days of the Oculus Rift DK1 will recall the somewhat challenging nature of getting VR demo’s to appear let alone perform correctly, with the device being treated, ostensibly as another monitor attached to your face. Things have come along way, and following in the wake of Oculus’ SDK 0.7 release last year, Valve have released an updated beta version (1454970580) of SteamVR.
Valve claim that “SteamVR’s Direct Mode allows direct communication with the Vive’s displays, bypassing the operating system’s typical display communication path. This results in a more consistent experience for Vive users, as its composited view renders independent of other desktop application windows. For example, flashing displays upon headset detection, confused display destinations for desktop applications, and fullscreen compositor warnings are all resolved by Direct Mode. Additionally, Direct Mode allows the headset to go into standby mode, preserving power and display life.”
HTC Vive owners wanting to take advantage of this new mode will need to ensure they’re running compatible GPU drivers 361.75 (NVIDIA) or 1.0.3.16 (AMD) or newer as well as updating to the latest SteamVR beta.