Valve is expanding its Steam Link to the Apple Vision Pro through a new TestFlight, giving gamers a way to play their Mac and PC games on Apple's headset.

Valve's Steam platform provides gamers with features like Steam Link, which lets them play PC and Mac games on another device. While this has previously been available for hardware like the iPhone, Mac, and the Apple TV, it's now being expanded to the Apple Vision Pro.

A Steam Community post from Valve employee Sam Lantinga on April 4 states that there is a native version of Steam Link for visionOS in development. It's also being provided to gamers via TestFlight, Apple's testing platform.

In normal use, Steam Link can stream a live video feed of game play across a network from a gaming PC or Mac to another piece of hardware. In this case, the app allows the gameplay to be viewed on the Apple Vision Pro.

The app takes commands from the client, relaying them back to the host computer, which inputs them into the game. In effect, players are able to play the game across a network.

For the Apple Vision Pro, the post advises that it can stream at a resolution of up to 4K. It is represented as a large 2D screen in the Apple Vision Pro, with users able to adjust the curve of it in panoramic mode.

A good sign for VR gaming

Steam Link only works to provide a 2D view of games, namely a stream of a screen, and doesn't support VR content. However, this is a good indicator that it could be on the way soon enough.

While Steam VR does work wirelessly with some headsets, that functionality is not currently available on the Apple Vision Pro. At least, not through Valve-created methods.

Apple Vision Pro users have to use apps like ALVR and iVRY to handle the streaming of games from their Steam library. The addition of Nvidia CloudXR support for the Apple Vision Pro in March also opens up another avenue for games to provide VR content to Apple's headset.

The existence of Steam Link for Apple Vision Pro is a good step in the right direction for Valve to eventually introduce Steam VR support in the future.

When that will eventually happen is a mystery. Valve's almost glacial production scheduling is famous enough to have the term "Valve Time" associated with it.