Valve has released the 1.18.5 update for SteamVR that has a focus on improving the experience for those using Oculus headsets or the OpenXR platform.

On the Oculus side of things this update should mean that players will need to restart SteamVR less.

While Oculus has been in hot water lately because of adverts in paid games this comes as a welcome update to the platform looking at some comments.

For Valve’s own headset, the Index, the company tries to remind users to unplug their controllers. Leaving the charging cable connected during gameplay is apparently a good way to damage the port. Those who may have missed this are encouraged to contact Steam Support and developers who prefer having their controllers wired are recommended looking into breakaway cables.

It seems this problem is so prevelant that there is now even a warning that will pop up every month if a control is in use with a wire still attached.

As for OpenXR the additions are small here but anything is appreciated when it comes to official support for this open platform.

The full patch notes can be found below:

SteamVR:

• Fixed Logitech VR Ink not being detected properly.

OpenXR:

• Changed Touch controllers to use Facebook provided grip and aim offsets.
• Enable OpenXR Grip pose for WMR controllers (requires WMR SteamVR driver update).
• Fixed left thumbstick axis input for HP Reverb G2 controllers.

Oculus:

• Increased robustness of error handling for Quest2 over both wired and air link. Connection loss to the HMD is now survivable in many cases.
• Changed trigger and grip inputs to use raw values instead of filtered values. This should improve the behavior of rapid trigger pulls.
• Added addition button textures to Quest2 controller model.
• Fixed Oculus Rift S Left Grip Pose.

Valve Index:

• Added a dismissible monthly reminder when wired controller activity is detected.
• Fix regression (crash) when using RoomView3D.

SteamVR Home:

• Avatar hands render as controllers when close to chaperone bounds.
• Changed tutorials to show Rift S/Quest controller images if the controller type is unknown.

Linux:

• Enable async-reprojection on compatible NVIDIA 470 series drivers.