Valve has released its software development kit for hardware makers who want to make devices that take advantage of its OpenVR virtual reality technology.
The release is a big step toward enabling developers to start making VR applications that run on a variety of Valve Steam VR devices.
The OpenVR SDK is now availabe for download here. Applications can now access SteamVR hardware via the OpenVR SDK. That means that Valve’s SteamVR software will run on more than just HTC’s Vive VR hardware.
The Valve tech supports the HTC Vive Developer Edition, the headset debuting this fall from mobile device maker HTC. But you can also use other VR hardware in conjunction with the SteamVR controller and Lighthouse, which is a Valve technology that makes VR easier to exeprience.
Valve has also posted release notes to show what has changed from the Steamworks VR. The SDK also includes new documentation and samples.
Along with the OpenVR SDK, support has been added to Unity via the SteamVR Unity Plugin and Unreal 4.8 will support SteamVR natively. The Unity plugin is available in the Unity Asset Store, and Unreal support is available now via the Unreal Github repository.