The latest update for SteamVR added a button on the control panel, which allows you to easily override the orientation “forward” and “center” of your game space, a simple but useful function for certain games.
SteamVR exist from the earliest days of consumer virtual reality, but now that Valve has finally added a simple way to refocus and presenterat your play space.
How to refocus the gaming space in the SteamVR
When you download the latest update for SteamVR, the main branch, version 1.13, you will see a new button on the toolbar SteamVR (the person icon with the arrow around it).
Pressing the button starts a three second countdown timer, after which your position and the view direction will be used to override the center and the direction of your gaming space.
Why is this useful?
It’s extremely useful for certain games, especially those that assume that the player will be standing or sitting mostly in a certain place. This is especially useful for small or rectangular playing spaces.
For example, Beat Saber will benefit from the possibility to move the “center” of the game a little further from the centre of the playing space, allowing the hands more room to swing movements in front of you.
In sedentary games such as driving simulators, you can easily sit on a chair and then reset the forward position of the play space below your seat and the head was perfectly aligned with the position of the car around you.
In addition, some players may benefit by re-directing the forward direction of your gaming space into an optimal direction for tracking of the base station. Especially useful in scenarios where you can use a single base station.
Why wait?
The root of the missing functions could be in the early commitment of Valve to the virtual games on the scale of the room. The game scale of the room, which is designed with virtual zero movement, do not rely on the concept of “forward” and don’t need a clear “center” for the Central point of the boundaries of the playing space. Over time, however, it becomes apparent that there are practical reasons for easy refocusing and re-centering, even with the games at the scale of the room (not to mention the fact that only a few VR games today, are designed exclusively for move the scale of the room).
Other changes in SteamVR 1.134
SteamVR 1.13 also adds a few other changes in the beta version, including improved end-to-end performance headset Index, which Valve calls, Room View 3D.
In addition, with the beta version 1.13 came out prior standard support OpenXR in SteamVR, an open standard for the development of VR which is designed to help developers create VR content that can run on different handsets with minimal changes to your code.
Source
