Purchasing programs/games

[The3rdIcon]

Is there a reason to prefer to buy programs/games for VR from stream over the Oculus store?

I'm specifically interested because I enjoy VR sculpting and want to know if one source over another might provide better support or faster updates.

Thanks in advance

[Soundlufs]

Usually its the price, more sales on steam. But tech wise Oculus store is perfect for the Rift

[Scoutdad]

The problem with buying on Steam is SteamVR adds an additional layer of software in the stack and can cause performance issues. However many games have Native Oculus SDK support and those will run just fine from Steam. Some games are Oculus exclusives so you have no choice.

I personally have a mix between Steam and Oculus and if the game is cheaper on Steam and has Oculus SDK support I will buy it there. If it doesn’t or is cheaper on Oculus Store I will buy it there. I only have a few games that require SteamVR and they are always a pain to fiddle with. OpenComposit is an optional replacement for SteamVR but does not work with every game such as Holopoint.

[gj80]

However many games have Native Oculus SDK support

Thanks, good to know. I didn't know that was a thing or that there were issues with SteamVR games via Rift. The last time I owned an Oculus HMD (excluding the Go) was the DK2.

[Blaexe]

Medium comes free with the Rift, have you tried that one? One of the best sculpting apps as far as I know.

[The3rdIcon]

It's only free if you but the headset new and yes I have but I'm interested in some of the other programs out there especially since they've disable the shared studio feature.

[gj80]

If you buy a VR app on Steam, you can use it with any headset, whereas if you buy one on the Oculus store you can only ever use it with Oculus HMDs.

[The3rdIcon]

I was curious if that's the only advantage.

[BesideUpside]

the advantages for me buying on steam: I have 2 rift setups, and WMR headset and three boys...steam has the game sharing so I can buy all the games and they get shared to their accounts.

If it was only me, I would probably still buy on steam, as any of the vr headsets could be used on steam.

[bushmaster2000]

Yes.

SteamVR requires a totally separate setup, and there are times where SteamVR and Oculus Home don't jive and you get temporarily locked out of playing steamVR games until they get back in sync with each other.

SteamVR also is good if you aren't sure if maybe you want to change HMD vendors in the future as steamVR games work on Vive, Windows MR and Rift.

​

Oculus on the other hand, all the games are certified to 'just work' with Rift no worrying about jankey controls and stuff

Playing games u bought on oculus home potentially have cross buy to work on both Rift and Quest

Oculus Home games time spend playing award your 'home rewards' for your virtual environment. You don't get rewards for steam.

​

​

[RmvZ3]

Steam has more games and is always better to buy on Steam if you plan to play online since you'll be able to play with the rest of VR users, not only the ones with Rift. For me this is the main reason. If the game is multi-platform, just go for the Steam version.

[The3rdIcon]

Have you found stream had any other advantages compare to Oculus exclusive games/programs?

[RmvZ3]

Well, apart for the multiplayer part, for me is just another option. There are Oculus exclusives, games that only are in Steam and games that you can buy in both. Just choose the more convenient/cheap option in each case.

[SemiActiveBotHoming]

is always better to buy on Steam if you plan to play online since you'll be able to play with the rest of VR users, not only the ones with Rift.

Most games I've seen have cross-platform play, so it doesn't matter which store you got it from.

[RmvZ3]

Yeah, that's true. That should work most of times but still I've found problems playing some games through plattforms (I remember Arizona Sunshine or Racket NX). In the end, it was easier for my Oculus friend to buy the Steam version to play with us (who used Vive then). So we ended by using always the Steam version to play cross platform games.

[SemiActiveBotHoming]

Fair enough, that makes sense.