Valve released an updated SteamVR today, version 1.11, which is the culmination of the last several weeks of smaller updates to the beta branch. The company calls this a “Spring cleaning” update in that it focuses on tweaks to the new dashboard, performance improvements, and bug fixes.
SteamVR version 1.11 is now rolling out to all SteamVR users. The most noticable changes are to the SteamVR Dashboard. It now includes a volume and mute control for the headset’s microphone, as well as an improvement for Audio Mirroring which allows users to independently adjust the volume of the headset and the mirrored output. The option can be enabled in the Audio section of the SteamVR Settings (when Advanced Options is enabled). Valve notes that this feature is still in beta.
The Play Area settings, which adjust the SteamVR “chaperone” boundary, also got some new capabilities, including a ‘Wall Height’ setting (to control the height of the boundary walls) and the option to turn on a visualization to show the Activation Distance (which defines when the boundary appears).
The update also fixes some bugs in SteamVR Home and opens the Half-Life: Alyx Home environments to all users (originally they were released ahead of the game as a pre-order bonus).
Along with tweaks to the dashboard to “improve visual consistency,” the update also brings a heap of crash fixes, bug fixes, and performance improvements, the complete list of which you can see in the official patch notes for SteamVR 1.11.