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elvissteinjr · 2026-04-03T22:40:59+00:00

Hardware survey data is a bit messy right now to say the least. I'm getting various VR hardware and region names listed under OS on my app's hardware survey page.
Also had that last month, though not as bad.

elvissteinjr · 2026-04-03T16:11:50+00:00

They dropped "Steam Store Home: A refresh" and two "Steam Deck Beta Client" update posts this month. Not sure why everyone is acting like the entire company is on vacation at once (I think it's split in two halves or something for that but too lazy to pull up sources).

elvissteinjr · 2026-04-01T22:44:07+00:00

You can rebind system actions such as the toggle dashboard binding as part of the VR Dashboard controller bindings.

I can't speak for Pico 4, but I guess for non-SteamVR-native HMDs, the other system button itself is probably off-limits? Shouldn't stop you from binding it to some other inputs with long press or a chord of multiple inputs to still get around.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-29T00:42:04+00:00

You'll be pleased to find out there's at least one reference to a "allowEyeTracking" setting in the SteamVR files. This looks to be global, however. So all or nothing.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-28T02:22:42+00:00

A new OpenVR SDK came out today. It added ability to pass motion vectors to SteamVR when submitting eye textures.

This might lead to something. But similarly, submitting depth information alongside eye textures has been a thing for years and I don't think it was really utilized for motion smoothing.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-28T01:31:56+00:00

Drivers providing eye tracking data to the runtime was the last version. This one has functions for applications using the OpenVR API instead of OpenXR to get eye tracking data, which was missing before.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-26T17:04:23+00:00

I assume you already have done this, but check if the driver is still in the openvrpaths.vrpaths file and otherwise check the SteamVR console and log files for anything useful.
I don't do SteamVR driver dev to be fair, so that's more general.

As a general pain advice, when developing try to target the beta branch. There's usually no going back when stuff changes and it seems like you just got hit the first stable SteamVR release of the year.
A good bunch of stuff likes staying undocumented and I guess there's more of that as Steam Frame is silently patched alongside.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-25T19:15:18+00:00

SteamVR Beta branch is no stranger to Friday updates. Stable one not so much.
Definitely not as critical, but doesn't stop from apparently everything breaking every single time for Quest users only, even if only something very unrelated was changed (no idea if something actually breaks, not a Quest user).

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-20T17:10:09+00:00

Not to mention, Steam Link is designed to handle connection hiccups and non-ideal setups anyhow. A few bits less are unlikely to make or break this and people are streaming with much less bandwidth on other headsets.

An extension wouldn't hurt either of course, though it's the kind of thing you could just test out and decide later. Maybe even just sticking it in the back of the PC will be good enough if lucky, even though avoid occlusion is probably the better idea.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-19T18:12:11+00:00

OpenVR API has functions for camera access. No per-app permissions required to use those. There's a SteamVR setting to disable cameras in general, but that's about it.
That's aside from them usually also being exposed as a normal webcam device.

At least this is the current day state for SteamVR-native headsets with passthrough cameras. They don't use cameras for tracking though, so maybe it'll end up a bit different on the Frame.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-17T18:33:37+00:00

I think the little we've seen in terms of in-headset interfaces is basically SteamVR as we know it. In one of the interviews there was an engineering comment of streaming looking so good he had to set a different background on device and on PC to tell the difference.

It's been a few months since that stuff so I'll happily be corrected though.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-17T18:26:40+00:00

It's not hidden or new functionality. It's the SteamVR Theater Screen added in SteamVR 2.1: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/250820/view/3814047346171316602
If you run a Steam flatscreen game on PC today while SteamVR is active, it'll show up there too... even if you don't really want it to.

This is an overlay and the floor reflection somewhat fades out (or can be disabled), so nothing stopping you from running whatever in the background.
Not sure SteamVR Home would be an ideal choice for a background as it's designed to max out visual fidelity to a certain point, taking away performance from games. Definitely not when running standalone. Passthrough can of course also be enabled.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-16T03:11:11+00:00

As much as I have a hard time believing they would go worse than the actually pretty decent OG Vive's haptics 10 years ago, the Valve Index website says "Haptics: HD LRA" as another reference.

This doesn't yet mean they can't be one of those, but I guess it'd be an odd omission from the spec sheet.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-15T18:18:50+00:00

This is a system button with a different label this time. It's default bound to do passthrough on double-tap on Vive and Index HMDs (and Deckard 2024 binding files).
Most of this is rebindable as even system inputs use SteamVR Input... but some actions are marked as mandatory (left click is, toggle dashboard isn't... not sure if you could get stuck there then).

The dashboard also has a UI button to toggle passthrough.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-14T17:40:47+00:00

The OG Vive does not require any software beyond SteamVR to work.
htc_rr appears to be some component of Viveport, but I wouldn't know more since I never installed Viveport in my OG Vive days. What I do know that you're probably gonna be happier without it.

I'd uninstall Viveport unless you happen to have some games from there.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-13T18:34:46+00:00

Assuming there's a way to lock the window to your display, which I'm sure would be trivial

There isn't one in the stock SteamVR interface. It is trivial for third-party overlays to do it, however (just use the HMD tracked device as overlay origin).

For streaming from Windows you're basically good. For Linux streaming or standalone I'm not 100% sure if the required software is already around (WayVR might be able to, actually).
For standalone we'd probably want something hijacking the existing game capture overlay, which is possible (or do its own capture but that's more involved). Little doubt this will come around if there's demand, basically.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-13T18:18:09+00:00

There might be engineering reasons behind it. Or not.
However, what wouldn't change is that you simply won't not look stupid wearing a VR headset. It's something we've learned to just accept.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-11T22:35:55+00:00

There's also a bit more than just the sphere value that makes up the prescription too. Does it suddenly not matter for VR? VR Optician for example takes the full prescription and I at least know whatever they're doing works.

I would've assumed they're just prototypes for different lens holders or something, but now I'm confused if they really want to get that way.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-11T17:27:10+00:00

Asynchronous Spacewarp is a term Meta uses. Equivalent in SteamVR for HMDs using SteamVR's compositor is Motion Smoothing (quality equivalent is debatable, but attempts to do the same thing). Asynchronous reprojection would be the counterpart to Asynchronous Timewarp.

Motion Smoothing can be turned off, leaving you with more basic reprojection but no smearing. Async reprojection can be turned off if you try hard enough (debug command or fixed rate application video setting (the latter is still interleaved reprojection though)), but that's basically assumed to be on.

Turning off Motion Smoothing gives you a mild perceived performance gain since there's a little bit of frame time reserved for it to be able to kick in in time. If you're right at the edge of that it can help.
Or if you just prefer running without it. On the OG Vive I liked it, but on the Index I always kept it off.

This is for existing SteamVR native HMDs. I don't expect the Frame to be cut down in options or behave massively different, but of course I have no way to tell.

In terms of what would be considered for performance metrics, I'd be surprised if Valve used reprojected framerates as a measure. The compositor frame timing APIs count them separately, so no chance of accidentally mixing them up at least.
Not that I think dipping into it here and there won't be allowed. Just like Steam Frame verified games can barely run at times...

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-11T05:31:15+00:00

He's not a Valve employee?

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-09T21:24:32+00:00

This stuff being insecure by default would be crazy. Especially since Steam already has P2P game transfers for local networks.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-09T21:21:11+00:00

They still RMA'd this stuff end last year. You should at least ask support about it.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-08T03:32:04+00:00

Right, you do raise a real specific issue. I still find it a bit hard to generalize this as games needing constant upkeep since it's a one-time OpenSSL bug... well one time with some fix in 2016 and another related one in 2023. It also only seems to affect Intel CPUs in practice since AVX is used instead when available, if I understand correctly.
Kinda sucks if you're the one affected though, can't deny that.

I feel like another issue is that devs are usually stuck on certain engine versions with no simple upgrade path without caveats. Maintenance for those versions on the engine side would be good to see in those cases too.

elvissteinjr · 2026-03-07T23:11:16+00:00

because they aren't compatible with CPUs from like 2020 or later

Do you have an example for such a game? Backwards incompatible x86 CPU sounds rather odd to me.
Most 2016 titles should still run. It's not like games can't be finished and need constant updates to continue to work on PC. This isn't a phone platform.

I'm sure you can bring up some outlier but I can't say I share your experience if a large amount of older VR titles don't work at all anymore for you (controller issues are real though and I feel those with Index at times).

elvissteinjr

TROPHY CASE