Skip to main content

Let’s all go to the lobby: Update of VR app takes you to new locale in Valve HQ

valve lobby destination vr app valvelobby
Virtual reality has the ability to transport you to wondrous and mystical places, from fantasy worlds to places in our solar system, to real-world caverns and mountaintops here on Earth. It can also transport you to more benign locations — like the lobby in Valve’s offices.

HTC Vive adopters who played around with The Lab’s destinations system may have discovered that if you plug the machine into the pipe, you could transport yourself to the original VR test room Valve created. It turns out that wasn’t the only time we’d visit Valve headquarters in VR — following a new update for the Destinations Steam application, the Valve lobby has been added to the list of available locations.

Destinations acts like a virtual reality lobby system, letting you hang with your friends and the public in a variety of locales around the world. You can visit planet surfaces, famous buildings, game-levels, and now, Valve’s lobby.

This ability comes as part of the latest update (content build 1349679), which also adds public lobbies, mute commands for other “players,” tweaked physics, and a few performance improvements. Besides Valve’s headquarters, you can also visit new destinations such as Arcade Toss and La Pedrera.

Developers have also included new props and avatars in the update, letting VR users play around with new items and dress themselves up differently. You’ll need to visit the new locations to unlock them.

For those who have yet to try the Destinations app out, it works quite similarly to the system of location teleportation within The Lab. The environments are virtual destinations created using the photogrammetric technique of stitching together high-resolution images to create a room-scale VR environment.

While it might not sound so, you would be surprised how realistic it feels when standing within this VR environments. Despite their static nature, they can offer some of the greatest feelings of presence available in VR right now.

And best of all, Destinations is free. Download it on Steam now.

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
Trying to buy a GPU in 2023 almost makes me miss the shortage
Two AMD Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards on a pink surface.

The days of the GPU shortage are long over, but somehow, buying a GPU is harder than ever -- and that sentiment has very little to do with stock levels. It's just that there are no obvious candidates when shopping anymore.

In a generation where no single GPU stands out as the single best graphics card, it's hard to jump on board with the latest from AMD and Nvidia. I don't want to see another GPU shortage, but the state of the graphics card market is far from where it should be.
This generation is all over the place

Read more
HP printers are heavily discounted in Best Buy’s flash sale
The HP - OfficeJet Pro 8034e Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer on a desk with a smartphone.

There’s good news in store if you’re looking to land a new printer at a discount this weekend. Best Buy is having a 48-hour flash sale on HP printers, with several that can compete with the best printers seeing some good prices. HP is almost always one of the best laptop brands, and it’s one of the same when it comes to printers. So if you’re looking for a new home or office printer, read onward on how to save on an HP printer at Best Buy.
HP DeskJet 2755e — $60, was $85

The HP DeskJet 2755e is a good entry-level printer. It’s got you covered if your printing needs are pretty basic, or if you don’t need to print in mass. This is a color InkJet printer, which makes it good for almost all uses. It can also make copies and scan in color, and it has mobile and wireless printing functionality. You can get set up quickly and easily with the HP Smart app that guides you through the setup process, and you can also use this app to print, scan and copy documents from your phone.

Read more
This tiny ThinkPad can’t quite keep up with the MacBook Air M2
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 rear view showing lid and logo.

While the laptop industry continues to move toward 14-inch laptops and larger, the 13-inch laptop remains an important category. One of the best is the Apple MacBook Air M2, with an extremely thin and well-built chassis, great performance, and incredibly long battery life.

Lenovo has recently introduced the third generation of its ThinkPad X1 Nano, one of the lightest laptops we've tested and a good performer as well. It's stiff competition, but which of these two diminutive laptops stands apart?
Specs and configurations

Read more