Valve has now released its second piece of software for the HTC Vive virtual reality system: a free spectator hub for its hugely popular online-battling game Dota 2. While the Wednesday release isn't a game per se, my brief test with the surprise-launched VR experience proves that this may very well be a game-changer for the system, and maybe even for e-sports.

The Dota 2 VR Hub got its first tease as early as this April, shortly before the Vive hardware saw its commercial launch, but word about the app dried up shortly afterward. And unlike other functions added to Dota 2, including a switchover to the Source 2 engine and Vulkan API support, this VR hub didn't launch in a separate "test" branch or with any major "beta" indication. The mode requires a roughly 300MB installation, which can be toggled in the "DLC" list in the game's Steam "Library" section.

What's it like inside? Quite honestly, Dota 2 VR Hub is a total trip.

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The VR interface, which arrives juuuust in time for next month's official Dota 2 tourney, The International, recreates what its spectators have come to expect: the ability to watch either live or archival game matches within the interface. But before talking about how that experience changes in VR, there's the matter of a surprising new feature to the Dota 2 viewing system: lobbies. Players can elect to join a public lobby or create their own private one, and both options support up to 16 viewers, all with voice chat enabled.

They can also watch alone, but the VR Hub lobbies are clearly designed with social aspects in mind. That's because viewers can virtually walk around in one of two VR Hub interfaces, complete with visible hands and masks, to talk to each other about a match and even noticeably point at players or moments. (FYI, those masks include game heroes like Anti-Mage and Lina, and real-life Dota 2 players like rtz and Puppey, according to Ars' resident series expert Peter Bright. No sign yet of any mask-related DLC, but for a company as hat-crazy as Valve, we figure it'll be here before long.)

The mode starts in a "VR theater," which displays a giant screen of traditional Dota 2 play within a giant, blue-tinged castle. On both sides of the screen are giant, living statues of the heroes in a match, and their statues include a small indicator of which items they have equipped at any point in the match. Other drop-down menus in this castle contain the same kinds of data that Dota 2's default spectator mode offers.

The juicy stuff comes from the full-map view, which is larger in this VR interface and unlocks entry into the full VR experience. Point anywhere on the map and click a trigger to warp into the game at that moment—like, really, you can walk and look around a Dota 2 match. Moving around the action works the same way as in most Vive VR games, by either moving around in real-life space or pointing at far-off places you'd like to "teleport" to. Viewers can also quickly change their size to one of three height levels. Grow to giant puppeteer size and watch the match like a god or shrink to a seemingly one-to-one height ratio and stand among the game's combatants and creeps. Or, split the difference with a mid-range height.

Too much fog—but also so much possibility

In bad news, players' view distances in VR are somewhat limited by a dismal, gray fog of war. We're not sure if it's because of graphical limitations to run the game smoothly in VR or because Valve doesn't want viewers to see the entire field of battle for some reason, but it's an unfortunate visual compromise for now, if only because the generic fog makes the game look like it has been ripped out of a boring day in London. Still, viewers can see quite a swath of action even with the fog in play.

Get ready for a learning curve as a Dota 2 viewer in this mode, as well, because what is easily framed in the traditional, rectangular field-of-view can look all kinds of chaotic when players become the match's cinematographer. Thankfully, the mode includes a "director's view" button that, when tapped, automatically warps viewers to the same spot where the traditional game's camera is hovering. It doesn't spin players toward the action, however, which is possibly a nausea-related setting.

The mode is otherwise absolutely comfortable, with hitch-free performance while walking around the VR warriors and what appears to be a smooth, 90 frames-per-second refresh of the game's normal 2D action within the "theater" castle. (This is no small feat; the default Steam Theater mode, which transposes traditional 2D games into the Vive's interface, continues to hitch on trying to run 60 frames-per-second games while respecting the Vive headset's 90 frames-per-second refresh.)

Let's stop and think about this. No other traditional, 2D video game has ever received such a spectator mode before. It's hard enough to think of games that include default spectator modes, let alone ones where viewers can manually adjust their camera angle as they please, let alone ones that let viewers do so in virtual freakin' reality. Dota 2 is the only one.

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And in a gaming industry where e-sports popularity is growing by leaps and bounds, this kind of functionality is the stuff that will attract serious attention from gamers and non-gamers alike. People have dreamed about this kind of crazy, in-game viewing scrutiny in professional sports leagues for years, but instead of having total control of how we watch Lebron James or Lionel Messi, viewers can do just that for the likes of Dendi and AdmiralBulldog. (Conveniently, those players' faces are also available as masks in the Dota 2 VR Hub lobby.)

Though the mode's launch isn't listed as a "beta," we can only assume more functionality will come to the hub in future updates; at the very least, we'd love to see graphical options to reduce fog of war on a powerful enough PC or to let viewers pull up more charts and data when warped directly into the match. And in our dream world, we'd see slightly better spell indicators, since those don't translate as neatly from a VR perspective.

Still, this is a gem of a free release, especially with voice-chat and VR avatar functionality baked into the product. The Dota 2 VR Hub is going to make this year's International tournament—whose prize pool is up to $18.7 million and counting—that much more fun for any viewers who have made room in their homes for an HTC Vive.

Listing image by Sam Machkovech