Valve brings 360-degree videos to Steam VR
The Steam 360 Video beta works with VR headsets now and will come to the desktop soon.
While it's not quite as immersive as a full virtual reality experience, 360-degree videos and photos are becoming more common (especially on Facebook and YouTube), and now Valve has released a Steam 360 Video Player. It uses adaptive streaming from a company called Pixvana, which should enable playback with just one click on your Rift or Vive headset. According to the FAQ, even if you don't have a headset, it will soon support playback on the desktop with control and navigation by mouse.
Currently, playback requires users to run Windows 10 64-bit, with a minimum NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290 GPU. To play 4K x 4K stereo video, you'll need to bring at least a GTX 1070. Steam's marketplace is offering a few sample videos to try out, including the recently released Alien Covenant in Utero.
