As we’ve said in our review of the Lenovo Explorer, Windows Mixed Reality is a solid experience, but with some room for improvements. Well, it turns out that Microsoft has been listening to all types of user feedback and will be adding new enhancements to Windows Mixed Reality come the Spring.
According to Dona Sarkar, Windows Insiders can test the new features starting with Insider Preview build 17115. This build includes a new virtual environment for Windows Mixed Reality, optimizations for Steam VR, and more. See the full list of changes below.
- A brand-new environment. In October we mentioned that the Cliff House was the first of many environments you’ll be able to enjoy in Windows Mixed Reality, and now we’re rolling out the Skyloft for you to customize and expand your MR experience. You can navigate there by selecting Places on the Mixed Reality Start menu.
- As requested, we’ve added haptic feedback to the motion controllers for SteamVR games!
- We’ve improved performance in SteamVR games with significantly lower video RAM usage. We’ve also improved the performance of live video preview in the Mixed Reality Portal on desktop.
- You can now take mixed reality photos directly from your controller by holding the Windows button and then tapping the trigger. This works across environments and apps except for capturing content protected with DRM.
- The automatic performance settings have been updated to provide an optimized experience, and we’ve added a new setting to override the default in Settings > Mixed Reality > Headset display.
- Setup now provides more detailed information about common compatibility issues with USB3.0 controllers and graphics cards.
- Many more improvements that the team has been hard at work on!
To try out these features you’ll need to have a Windows Mixed Reality compatible PC. Microsoft has an app which diagnoses your PC compatibility with Mixed Reality, and the company also sells many headsets in their online retail store.
