Valve released a developer preview for OpenXR support in SteamVR.
The release is a big step toward what should ultimately represent industry-wide support for an open standard in VR and AR. Facebook’s Oculus Quest Android-based standalone also includes “prototype” support for OpenXR and Rift is also expected to gain support for the application programming interface (API) as well. There are still significant differences between PCs and Android-based VR systems, but the broader support of OpenXR should generally make it easier for developers to target more platforms with a single API.
“With OpenXR, for the first time, developers will be able to build their content in a way that will allow them to span the myriad types of hardware and software platforms,” a statement from Valve explains. “Thanks to The Khronos Group and the extensive hard work of OpenXR’s many members (AMD, ARM, Epic, Facebook, Google, HTC, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Unity, Valve, and many more) VR now has a consolidated API to enable developers to bring universal VR support to their applications.”
Valve is releasing initial support for the 1.0.9 OpenXR release and the developer preview can be accessed by opting into the SteamVR Beta by right-clicking SteamVR in your Steam library, selecting properties, clicking the betas tab and select ” beta – SteamVR Beta Update.”
“Our definition of initial support is that SteamVR is currently passing 95% of conformance tests. This means now is the time to start testing things,” Valve explains. “SteamVR’s OpenXR implementation supports D3D11 on Windows, and Vulkan on both Windows and Linux. Support for both D3D12 on Windows is on the way.”
