Desktop+ NewUI Preview 10 now available

The tenth preview build of the new in-development Desktop+ version is now available.

These builds are supposed to give a glimpse into the ongoing development process. The NewUI branch should be fine for daily use if you can live with the missing features. Don't treat it as stable, however, as it just isn't. While bugs are to be expected and there are a few known issues already, feel free to report anything you find in the NewUI Preview Build bug report thread.

What is Desktop+ NewUI?

Desktop+ NewUI is what eventually will become Desktop+ 3.0. See the announcement post for the NewUI Preview Build 1 for more details.

What's new in Desktop+ NewUI Preview 10?

Application Profiles Application profiles allow to automatically load an overlay profile or execute actions when a SteamVR application is launched. Profiles for non-Steam applications can be configured while they're running. This isn't needed if the said application installed a permanent application manifest in SteamVR... but that's rather rare.

Note that changes to overlays aren't saved automatically while an application profile has loaded an overlay profile (save the associated overlay profile manually instead). The global overlay layout that has been used before will be restored when the profile's application is closed, however.

An action can be selected for when the profile's application is launched or exited. Actions in the NewUI branch are still to be revamped overall, so this will probably be more useful in future builds.

Overlay Position can now be Locked To lessen the amount of accidentally dragging the dashboard overlay (and any others), the position of overlays can now be locked. This can be done by either ticking the checkbox in the Overlay Properties window or long pressing the drag-mode toggle in the Floating UI. The lock state is temporarily toggled off for the respective overlay when using the Position Change page in the Overlay Properties window, but is restored when leaving that page.

Note that this option only prevents dragging. Position-locked overlays will still move along with their set origin.

Steam Cloud Since all of this is taking a little bit longer than expected, Steam Cloud syncing is now enabled for the NewUI branch-specific config file and the application profiles file.

Other Changes

• Added workarounds for invalid SteamVR dashboard state on launch

• Fixed total desktop cropping size not being set in desktop mode

• Fixed browser navigation state not being restored after restarting UI process

• Fixed "To HMD" button being offset for dashboard origin overlays

• Fixed Floating UI initially being position incorrectly after the capture was lost on a window overlay

• Performance Monitor now caps most performance values to their maximum & ignores very small decimals for average FPS display While not truest average anymore, it avoids the issue of never reaching the target refresh rate in the session again after a small hiccup.

• Floating UI no longer uses fixed sizing for primary dashboard overlay fallback if isn't positioned close to the dashboard

• Floating UI now displays the overlay name when the output is invalid (i.e. window capture lost)

• "Focus Window when Pointing at Overlay" and "Focus Game when Laser Pointer leaves Overlay" are now applied to the VR keyboard as well if the focused overlay is a window overlay

• Reverted Desktop+ laser pointer workaround from New UI Preview 9 (underlying issue was fixed with SteamVR Beta 1.25.3)

• Various other minor UI fixes and adjustments

The NewUI Preview branch also includes all changes of the stable branch up until now (v.2.7). Browser overlays are available in the separate NewUI Preview + Browser branch, as explained in the initial browser overlay announcement.

Development continues with the new year. A bit of a smaller update this time. Tried to keep the gap between releases a bit smaller. February? I guess it already is February, huh.