Hello all,
I wanted to know the state of VR gaming on Linux: does VR work ? Are most games playable ?
I plan to buy a Valve Index, wanted to know how it would hold on a Linux system.
Thanks
Yes, it mostly works (HTC Vive Pro here). It can be janky at times when you have to restart SteamVR and fiddle with the audio output. Also on Gnome you need to use X11, while on KDE it works already with Wayland. Ah and turning off the base-stations via Blootooth doesn’t work, so you need to unplug them or use a phone app to turn them to sleep mode.
Okay, thank you for your input.
I’ve heard that Beat Saber no longer works on Linux, have you tried it recently ?
In any case, I might try to run Windows on a VM with GPU passthrough.
Hmm, it was working as of a few weeks ago. I don’t play it so regularly, as the updates always break the custom mods and I am too lazy to fix that each time I want to play. See also: https://github.com/geefr/beatsaber-linux-goodies
Beat Saber is the only VR game I play on my HTC Vive (2016 model) and it works fine. If you want mods, however, you need to switch to the legacy branch in Steam (1.29.1) since 1.30 had major changes and mods haven´t been updated for it yet.
For mod installation, I use Beataroni, but there are alternatives.
While Steam does not support sending the base stations to sleep via Bluetooth, there is a python script which (after setting it up) can do so for you. My process is:
- Start the python script in a terminal -> base stations wake up.
- Plug in the headset. Primary audio is automatically switched to it.
- Launch SteamVR and play.
- Exit VR, unplug headset. Primary audio is returned to my speakers.
- Press Ctrl+C in the terminal to terminate the script. After a few seconds, the base stations turn off.
Since I have old base stations, I use the script for controlling v1 lighthouses: https://github.com/risa2000/lhctrl. The author also made a script for v2 lighthouses: https://github.com/risa2000/lh2ctrl. I only have experience with the HTC Vive so your mileage may vary.
Any idea if sway is supported?
Very likely not.
I have a Valve Index, and for the most part my experience has been really good. I do recommend using an AMD GPU if you are investing in a VR system. I currently have a Nvidia GPU, and the main issue is the lack of async reprojection support.
Lots of games work great, Skyrim VR, Alyx, Contractors, No Mans Sky VR, Boneworks, you name it!
That’s good to know! VR has been my main hesitation for moving off of windows for gaming. And I was considering an AMD GPU
I’m on Linux too and interested on VR headset but i struggle with the vaste amount of informations.
Do you have any good technical article/news about vr headset (lens, tracking, cpu, weight…) to share ? Thank a lot for your help !
I want to avoid meta (facebook) but the cost of the whole vr kit from Valve is astoundly expensive. And i’m also looking for a good hand tracking system.
You can get a well enough knowledge (I guess) from some of the more well known youtubers. (MIXED REALITY TV, VRelity, ThrillSeeker).
Thank for your suggestion, it will greatly help my research. I’m bookmarking it. :)
I have an HTC vive and it has worked pretty well. I have a script to turn on the basestations and manually kill the script and they power off. HL:A works well. I don’t have a lot of experience with other games yet though.
How do you toggle power to your base stations? Mind sharing the script?
I don’t mind doing so, but I cuurently am away from my desktop and won’t be for a couple weeks. I didn’t find the repo for the program, but did find this one though. Looks like it should work. At least with the vive, linux doesn’t/can’t use its bluetooth controller, so you need a compatible bluetooth controller in your system.
This works, thanks!
If you have Quest/Quest 2 you can still play VR games on Linux using ALVR.
I did make it to work on my Arch desktop, but the experience is not great as you need a lot of tweaks not to mention better to have Wifi6 and very good GPU/CPU to handle game and high resolution video encoding on top of it as both game and video encoding will eat you FPS.
But once it get connected and works with SteamVR rest works mostly fine.
But it’s better to buy Index if you want to play VR games on linux.
From my experience, it’s possible to play VR games via proton, but i’m not sure about the performance
I am no VR user (yet). Apparently it’s pretty meh. Basically only the Valve Index and HTC headsets support VR Linux (these are the main ones). Some games officially support Linux fortunately, for example VRChat, so that shouldn’t be an issue.
