It works with both Nvidia and AMD Radeon GPUs

Feb 22, 2017 22:18 GMT  ·  By

Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais has announced earlier today on Twitter that a pre-release version of the SteamVR virtual reality system is now available for Linux and SteamOS users.

SteamVR for Linux is currently in beta testing stages of development for developers who want an early start for creating SteamVR content for Linux-based operating systems, including Valve's SteamOS, which the company ships pre-installed on numerous Steam Machines stand-alone gaming devices.

"It is intended to allow developers to start creating SteamVR content for Linux platforms. Limited hardware support is provided, and pre-release drivers are required," reads the GitHub page, where developers interested in creating SteamVR content for Linux can find all the information they need to get started with SteamVR on Linux.

SteamVR on Linux is now supported on the latest Steam Beta Client

Of course, anyone who wants to get an early taste of SteamVR on Linux is free to test drive the virtual reality system if they own a VR headset, such as HTC Vive. All you have to do is to install the latest Steam Beta Client on your Linux machine, connect the VR headset and see if SteamVR works by installing some games that support it.

Being powered by the latest Vulkan API, SteamVR requires you to have the most recent Nvidia and AMD Radeon graphics drivers with Vulkan support installed. For Nvidia GPUs, it is recommended to use the Nvidia 375.27.10 Beta driver, and for AMD GPUs, you should use a pre-release version of the open-source Radeon RADV Vulkan driver from Mesa.

All the details about how to install these drivers on Debian/Ubuntu-based distros are available in the README file on Valve's SteamVR for Linux GitHub page, along with instructions on how to enable USB access for HTC Vive devices. This being a Beta release, some known issues are present, documented on GitHub as well.