Valve Releases Hand-tracking Passthrough for Steam Link, Making Quest an Even Better PC VR Headset

Image courtesy Valve

Valve officially released a feature to the SteamVR stable branch that adds basic hand-tracking to Steam Link for Quest users.

Previously only available in the Beta test branch released back in August, the new SteamVR 2.8 update doesn’t actually bring full hand-tracking support to SteamVR’s UI, but rather allows Quest users to DIY their setup for each game by experimenting with input bindings.

To enable hand-tracking through Steam Link, make sure both SteamVR and the Steam Link app for Quest is updated and head into the Binding UI in SteamVR’s Controller Settings to toggle on hand-tracking. From there, simply tap your controllers together and you’ll be able to start experimenting.

Valve says in the SteamVR 2.8 release notes (seen below) that the update also comes along with a number of bug fixes and quality of life improvements across SteamVR, Valve’s OpenXR API, and Steam Link for Quest, such as improvements to overall 2D and 3D streaming stability via Steam Link.

“We continue to focus on OpenXR as our preferred API for new games and applications,” Valve says. “SteamVR’s official OpenXR subforum is here and we’d love to hear your feedback, as well as suggestions for new features.”

Valve hasn’t said as much, however Steam Link probably won’t service just Quest. While Steam’s latest hardware survey indicates that over half of connected VR headsets are some flavor of Quest, its continued work on Steam Link may be a key to the rollout of its own rumored standalone headset, codenamed ‘Deckard’, which has been a hot topic of conversation since 2021 following a series of code leaks.

Continued references to Deckard in SteamVR and various patent filings have fueled further speculation that Valve is indeed exploring a standalone headset to compete with devices like Meta’s Quest lineup, which would make Steam Link an important utility.

Check out the full SteamVR 2.8 release notes below:

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