Update October 12, 2016 22:00: Steam Dev Days has some hot controller news for you too as a new Vive controller is in development and Steam will now support the DualShock 4.
For more on the best VR games you can find at the moment, look no further.
The Vive controller prototype shown reportedly had “grip control” suggesting you will be able to haptically engage with things in the virtual environment by simply grabbing at them instead of pressing a button to pick things up.
New Vive controllers coming soon. Prototype available at #SteamDevDays pic.twitter.com/C5HMvOrwt4
— Robert Merki (@robmerki) October 12, 2016
Also Sony’s DualShock 4 can now be programmed within Steam’s Big Picture mode to be used with games without requiring any third party apps. Apparently this was a lot easier to do that it might have seemed according to presenter Jeff Bellinghausen.
“Believe it or not, when you use the PS4 Controller through the Steam API, it’s exactly the same as a Steam Controller,” Bellinghausen said. “You make the exact same API calls, you only get actions, not inputs, and the Steam API takes care of everything.”
Here’s what the UI looks like when assigning those buttons:
Original story:Valve has announced that Steam Link will be integrated into Samsung TVs and hinted at wireless Vive technology as part of its opening keynote at Steam Dev Days today.
The biennial gathering of developers in Seattle continues today and tomorrow with announcements expected on Valve’s VR direction, as well as updates on other hardware and Steam business practices.
As part of DJ Powers’ (seriously, what a name) presentation after Greg Coomer opened the show, we can now expect Valve’s in-home game-streaming technology, Steam Link, to be built into any future Samsung TVs.
Coomer himself, after assuring everyone at the event that there were no press present (like that’ll stop us), had some impressive figures to share about Steam’s growth as a platform since the last Dev Days event in 2014.
Since then, Asia has grown almost 500% to become the third largest regional source of revenue on the Steam store while worldwide the number of users has grown three times.
The discovery queue update also helped push 4,800 unique titles through the main capsule carousel at the top of the store front page which is a great deal more than the 12 rotating titles Valve would need to choose manually every few weeks.
Team Fortress 2 programmer Joe Ludwig also took to the stage to explain Valve’s approach to VR would continue to be “all-in” with VR support for SteamOS, OSX and Linux as well as investments in content.
As part of this strategy, Valve have invested in several VR-related companies including Quark VR and Nitero which develops 60GHz wireless video transmitting technology, confirming plans for wireless Vives are already on the cards.
What content Valve are involved with for VR is unknown though we expect the company to let slip a few more details as the event goes on. We’ll obviously bring you these illicit details once we’ve snuck past yet more Valve goons they’ve posted at all the entrances and exits. Luckily they think journalists only wear plaid so they’ll never catch me in this medium t-shirt with a niche gaming reference on the front. Or I’ll just keep jumping into the Periscope feeds of helpful devs in the audience.
Photo courtesy of Sergey Galyonkin