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
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!
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.
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.
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.
