Development on Viveport is an ongoing process, and as we get closer to our two-year anniversary, we wanted to give you an update on what’s changed ‘under the hood’ since we shared a comprehensive look at our improvements since launch.

2017 was mostly spent working on the biggest issues highlighted by community members. We wanted to make sure we had a solid foundation to make Viveport the best platform possible. After our last update, we finished up the year by adding many notable features like Search, Shopping Cart, and a revamped home page.

In 2018 we accelerated our pace of software updates, growing our engineering team and continuing to prioritize tasks based on community feedback. We’ve released over 50 updates this year across Viveport in all its forms; the desktop app, website, VR app, and in-VR dashboard.

Here’s what we concentrated on improving, and why.

Overall stability

General reliability of Viveport continues to be the primary focus of our engineering team. Reported crashes in the Viveport PC client have continued to drop in 2018. We’ve continued to leverage our new crash reporting system to focus on root causes and eliminate issues as quickly as possible. Initialization and startup times have been improved across the board.

Improved usability

As Viveport’s content selection quadrupled in size between 2017 and 2018, it became even more important to make it easy to find VR content. This year we’ve added new filter and sorting options like type (Game or App), language, name, and hardware support (VIVE Tracker, VIVE Pro). Just this week, we added a quick jump list for “Games” or “Apps” to the home and search results pages.

As a direct result of user feedback, we re-ordered the Subscription catalog page alphabetically to make it easier to find specific content, and keep track of content you’ve considered for your subscription choices. (Our tip: use the Wishlist to mark titles you want to subscribe to in the future.)

Improved Viveport Subscription

Viveport Subscription has only grown in popularity since we launched the service, so we’ve been making enhancements throughout 2018. As every VIVE hardware purchase now comes with two months of Viveport Subscription included, we made it easier to add a title with a subscription button on the product page. We made it possible to purchase a title you’re already enjoying in subscription, and add it to your permanent library.

As we have given away several free titles to Viveport Subscription members (yes, free, no strings attached!) we merged all our redemption code portals for different products like titles, subscription and wallet into one place, available via both web and PC client.

Last but not least, we added a much-requested feature to allow subscription members to have more control over expired and uninstalled subscription content, allowing you to hide them completely from your library if you wish.

Viveport client improvements

Little annoyances we know can get tedious have also been addressed. For example, you can now save and manage multiple payment methods for your convenience. For safer browsing, especially with family, content with mature 17+ ratings require age verification. We also improved the uninstall mechanism for the PC client.

New features

An Early Access version of Viveport VR was launched this year, giving you a new way to discover, experience and acquire VR content – VR Previews. These are interactive glimpses of content in 360 or room-scale and provide a VR-first way to preview a title before purchasing or downloading.

What’s next

Today, our first downloadable content (or DLC) releases on Viveport: Arizona Sunshine’s Dead Man DLC. We’re thrilled to offer users and developers a way to extend their favorite titles with more content over time. DLC can be searched and filtered like other Viveport titles and appears on the base title’s product page.

On September 4, we’re making good on our promise to create a hardware agnostic store that serves the largest VR community we can, as Oculus Rift compatibility comes to Viveport. As announced, titles that support Oculus Rift headsets will be marked as compatible. New title cards and sections on titles’ product pages will show their OS and headset support. We’re also adding an Oculus Rift filter which provides a convenient way for Oculus Rift users to find content that supports their headset.

There are still three months of 2018 to go, and we’re going to fill those months with even more updates to improve Viveport. Thank you to everyone who has shared feedback with us, and please keep it coming – we’re listening! Talk to us on our community forums and via social media.

-Viveport Team