14 DAY TRIAL // Just three days ago, we reported about the latest stable Steam Client update Valve pushed to Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows users, which brought numerous Steam Controller and SteamVR features, and now a new Beta version is out.
Yes, that's right, Valve has just pushed the first Steam Client Beta build after the March 28 stable update, bringing more improvements to the Steam Controller, such as a new option that automatically changes the action sets based on cursor visibility, as well as support for game developers to include their own set of custom icons for the touchmenu.
"An action set can be switched to when the mouse is visible, then back to the first when it's hidden. Only works with hardware cursors, not software ones. Useful for games which hide the mouse while in game, but have mouse driven menus or UIs," the Valve developers have explained.
Talking about the touchmenu, today's Steam Client Beta release improves the touchmenu mode-shift support, thus making the touchmenu buttons fire more reliably on release of a mode-shifted trackpad button. Moreover, the action set on-screen indicator and Controller HUD should now support non-Steam games.
Among other changes, we can mention that the Steam Controller is now supported on OpenVR games, as well as SteamVR's Desktop Game Theater and VR Dashboard, and there's a fix for a crash that occurred when the user repeatedly entered the Big Picture mode's downloads page and then exited.
Lastly, it looks like the screenshots section is now longer displayed for OpenVR games. You can get this Beta build of the Steam Client by switching to the Beta channel from the Steam menu -> Settings -> Beta participation section. It's available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows systems.