Valve launched a new ‘Spring Cleaning’ update for SteamVR today, version 1.11.11, featuring some new upgrades and bug fixes. The update also opens up access to the Half-Life: Alyx SteamVR Home environments which are now available to all users, after a period of exclusivity for Valve Index owners only.
Before Half-Life: Alyx launched last month, two SteamVR home environments, one featuring the streets of City 17 and another featuring Russell’s lab, were available to Index owners a few weeks prior to Alyx’s launch. However, now that the game has been out for almost a month, Valve has made these available to all SteamVR users, regardless of which headset you’re using.
Previously, others could only experience the Alyx environments through a shared SteamVR Home session with an Index owner. However, that was before the game’s release — now that the Alyx cat is out of the Valve bag, City 17 and Russell’s Lab have been fully revealed in-game. The SteamVR Home areas no longer act as sneak peeks, which is probably why they’re no longer exclusive.
The environments may not be quite as detailed as their in-game equivalents, but they’re still pretty impressive nonetheless. A YouTuber even managed to pull themselves through the air ascend to the top of the Citadel in SteamVR Home, giving an interesting look at how Valve put together such expansive environments for Alyx.
Public access for the Alyx environments is just one change listed in the 1.11.11 update for SteamVR, alongside some new features and bug fixes as well. You can read the full change notes here.
