Dashboard

Dashboard is an overlay for VR Apps in SteamVR. It allows the player to access Steam functionalities while playing a VR game. Dashboard UI enables users to access system-level features such as Library and Community alongside contextually-relevant content such as achievements, guides and news while in VR.

Valve introduced the Dashboard in July 2015 as "a new system-level interface available in VR", opened by pressing the system button on a controller. It hosts overlays, which are separate applications drawn on top of whatever VR app is running; the first overlay was Steam itself, running as a modified version of Steam's Big Picture mode. The interface was rebuilt in 2020 with SteamVR 1.10, which replaced the Big Picture view with a curved launcher, and again in 2023 with SteamVR 2.0, which brought most of the features of the Steam client and Steam Deck interface into VR. SteamVR 2.17, released on 10 September 2026, added the Steam Deck's Quick Access Menu to the dashboard bar.

Reviewed 27 September 2026. Checked every Valve SteamVR and OpenVR announcement cited (2015 to 2026) via the Steam news API, the Road to VR and UploadVR articles, the OpenVR IVROverlay wiki and the OpenVR Advanced Settings repository against the dates, quotes and features stated. About review dates.

History

Introduction (2015)

Before a dashboard existed, the OpenVR SDK already carried a hook for one. Version 0.9.5 of the SDK, released on 14 July 2015, added a ShowDashboard function to the IVROverlay interface; Valve noted that it would "make the dashboard visible if a dashboard manager is present" but that no dashboard manager was shipping yet, so the call did nothing.

The Dashboard itself first appeared on 28 July 2015 in a Steam Client Beta update paired with a SteamVR beta. At that point it could only be opened with the small black system button on the HTC Vive Developer Edition controllers, and other headsets were not supported. Valve described the first version as "pretty basic" and stated its goals as giving users "easy access to both system-level features and contextually-relevant content while in VR", and, because SteamVR runs on a PC, creating "a space where any software can be accessed while in VR". The Steam overlay gave access to a game's achievements, guides and news. The feature reached all SteamVR users in the 6 August 2015 update, which described the Dashboard as "a system-level interface designed for quick access and simple interaction while in VR" and said support for opening it from Oculus devices was in the works.

In June 2018 Valve made the Steam Big Picture and Desktop panels, "the same overlays that are accessible from the SteamVR Dashboard", placeable as saved panels inside the SteamVR Home environment. SteamVR 1.8 (November 2019) changed the default bindings on headsets with a button (Vive, Vive Pro and Valve Index) so that the dashboard could be shown and navigated with the headset button alone, using head pose as the laser pointer, and added gamepad controls that bring up the dashboard with a long press on the back button.

New dashboard (2020)

Valve began testing a redesigned dashboard in the SteamVR beta in early 2020. Road to VR reported that the beta, version 1.10.9, replaced the Big Picture interface, which had been designed for television screens rather than VR. UploadVR described the new layout as six buttons along the bottom: a menu for exiting SteamVR or opening Big Picture, Desktops, Library, Store, Volume and Settings, and noted that the SteamVR user interface had been mostly unchanged since its 2016 launch. According to Road to VR, the new Store section listed Top Singleplayer, Top Multiplayer and Top Free games.

SteamVR 1.10 shipped to all users on 28 February 2020. Valve said the new dashboard "gets you into your games quickly": it sat closer to the user, was curved "for increased clarity" and showed a list of recent games. The release also let users change volume by dragging left or right on the volume button, added a dashboard position control and settings to toggle UI elements, re-positioned the dashboard when the headset was put on, and added a three-second countdown before resetting the seated tracking origin from the dashboard. Desktop View was split into separate tabs for each monitor, with per-desktop scaling, a keyboard button and a "lights-off" mode. For headsets with their own runtime and chaperone, such as the Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets, SteamVR stopped launching its tutorial automatically and instead showed an overlay explaining how to open the dashboard the first time the user started SteamVR.

Later 2020 releases filled in controls. SteamVR 1.11 (April 2020) added microphone volume and mute controls, a separate slider for mirrored audio heard by spectators, and a "Far" dashboard position option. SteamVR 1.13 (July 2020) added a "reset standing position" button that adjusts standing position and orientation for the current session.

Window views and docking (2021)

SteamVR 1.17, released on 3 June 2021, let users open views of individual desktop windows instead of a whole monitor and dock those views to the left or right controller, where they stay visible inside games; Valve gave monitoring chats as an example use. SteamVR 1.19 (August 2021) added the ability to float desktop views in the world, pull docked views off a controller, and dock a floating view by placing it near a controller.

SteamVR 2.0 (2023)

Valve released SteamVR 2.0 as a beta on 25 September 2023, calling it "the first major step toward our goal of bringing all of what's new on the Steam platform into VR". Using the new interface required opting into both the SteamVR beta and the Steam Client Beta. The general release followed on 25 October 2023. Valve listed these changes:

• most of the current features of Steam and Steam Deck became part of SteamVR;
• an updated keyboard with dual-cursor typing, new languages, emoji and themes;
• Steam Chat and voice chat inside VR;
• a store that places new and popular VR releases at the front;
• access to Steam notifications.

Road to VR noted that chat, voice chat and the modern Steam Store and Library had long lacked a native SteamVR implementation, and that Valve had originally planned SteamVR 2.0 for 2020. Valve said the change was part of an effort to "better unify the Steam ecosystem" across devices and would let it add Steam features to VR "much faster and more frequently". The same release set default dashboard bindings for Meta controllers, with B and Y navigating back through the Steam UI.

SteamVR 2.1 (November 2023) added the Theater Screen, which replaced the older Desktop Game Theater app. Non-VR applications launched from Steam now appear on the Theater Screen and the dashboard hides automatically; a toggle at the bottom of any dashboard tab moves that tab's content onto the Theater Screen. SteamVR 2.4 (March 2024) made the dashboard tilt down toward the user when it is summoned while looking up, and SteamVR 2.8 (October 2024) gave the dashboard's grab handles a movement model with accelerated motion toward and away from the user.

Quick Access Menu (2026)

SteamVR 2.16 (June 2026) fixed dashboard memory leaks on AMD hardware and a bug that could stop the dashboard from starting, particularly on hardware that creates many devices at startup. In July 2026 the SteamVR 2.17 beta previewed a reworked dashboard, again requiring the Steam Client Beta. SteamVR 2.17 was released on 10 September 2026 with these dashboard changes:

• in-game Steam features, including achievements, community guides and notes, can be viewed in VR;
• the Quick Access Menu, "familiar to Steam Deck users", sits on the VR Dashboard bar and combines notifications, volume, brightness and battery status, including batteries of additional VR devices;
• hovering over the dashboard bar shows shortcuts for common tasks such as exiting and redocking;
• a Quick Access slider controls environment and camera brightness;
• overlay apps can be quit from inside the dashboard;
• grab handles can be moved in depth with the thumbstick, less-used window controls moved to an "Additional Options" menu with a curvature toggle, and a new preference sets laser pointer length.

Road to VR covered the update in the run-up to the launch of Valve's Steam Frame headset. The SteamVR 2.18.1 beta of 23 September 2026 added a setting to disable game dimming while the dashboard is open.

Features

Opening and controls

The dashboard opens with the system button on a SteamVR controller. On headsets with a button, a single click of the headset button can also show the dashboard, and on a gamepad a long press of the back button brings it up. Users point at the dashboard with a laser pointer; with the headset-button binding, head pose acts as the pointer. Clicking anywhere other than a panel dismisses it.

Desktop and window views

Desktop View shows the PC's monitors inside VR, one tab per display, with scaling, keyboard and "lights-off" controls. Since SteamVR 1.17 it can also show individual windows, which can be docked to a controller or, since SteamVR 1.19, floated in the world.

Third-party overlays

Developers can add their own tabs to the dashboard. Valve's 2015 announcement pointed developers to the overlay APIs and an overlay sample in the OpenVR SDK. OpenVR's documentation calls a dashboard overlay "the most common type" of overlay, one "which adds a tab to the VR Dashboard"; such an overlay is created with CreateDashboardOverlay, its application is signaled when the user selects its tab, and it receives simulated mouse events when the user points a tracked controller at it. The open-source OpenVR Advanced Settings is one example: it "adds an overlay to the OpenVR dashboard" for settings such as supersampling, motion smoothing, chaperone and audio devices.

Behavior of running games

Valve asks VR applications to respond when the dashboard opens. Applications receive a VREvent_InputFocusCaptured event when the dashboard becomes visible and VREvent_InputFocusReleased when it is hidden, and can call IVROverlay::IsDashboardVisible() to check its state. Valve encourages developers to hide objects attached to the controllers while the dashboard is up, since the dashboard draws its own controllers, and, where appropriate, to pause gameplay but not rendering.

Version timeline

Date	Release	Dashboard change
14 July 2015	OpenVR SDK 0.9.5	ShowDashboard API added before any dashboard shipped
28 July 2015	Steam Client Beta and SteamVR beta	Dashboard introduced; Steam runs inside it as a modified Big Picture mode
6 August 2015	SteamVR update	Dashboard released to all SteamVR users
5 November 2019	SteamVR 1.8	Headset-button and gamepad dashboard bindings
28 February 2020	SteamVR 1.10	New curved dashboard with recent games list, replacing the Big Picture view
20 April 2020	SteamVR 1.11	Microphone controls, audio mirroring slider, "Far" position
9 July 2020	SteamVR 1.13	"Reset standing position" button
3 June 2021	SteamVR 1.17	Individual window views, docking to controllers
19 August 2021	SteamVR 1.19	Floating desktop views in the world
25 October 2023	SteamVR 2.0	Steam and Steam Deck interface brought into VR, new keyboard, chat
17 November 2023	SteamVR 2.1	Theater Screen for non-VR applications
13 March 2024	SteamVR 2.4	Dashboard tilts toward the user when summoned while looking up
25 October 2024	SteamVR 2.8	New grab-handle movement model
10 September 2026	SteamVR 2.17	Quick Access Menu, in-game Steam features, overlay quitting
23 September 2026	SteamVR 2.18.1 (beta)	Option to disable game dimming while the dashboard is open

See also

• SteamVR
• SteamVR Home
• OpenVR
• Steam Deck
• Virtual Desktop