Holy Crap!!

[Slammin]

SteamVR Beta just added OpenXR support!

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I had just enabled SteamVR to have a quick round in Star Wars Squadrons and to my surprise, SteamVR Beta had an update notice.  And even though I had disabled OpenXrToolkit, switched OpenComposite back to Steam as well as PimaxXR Control, I launched Squadrons as well as tried FS2020 and to my surprise, I had both FPSVR as well as OpenToolkit status displaying.  Not only that, the experience was so smooth!

I will try a few more games, but as far as I can tell so far, this is HUGE!!  Less hoops to jump through because I do always miss the SteamVR interface for VR stuffs, but love the customization you can do using OpenXRToolkit.

Next, World peace?

Edited March 4, 2023 by Slammin

[dburne]

Pretty sure Open XR via Steam VR has been in there a while now, under Developer section I think. At least I know I have been running Steam's Open XR with DCS for a while.

Edited March 5, 2023 by dburne

[Baldrick33]

A couple of years in fact!

However, DCS only added native support recently so we can use the SteamVR option using its OpenXR runtime.

[Slammin]

Well, I know for WMR, but this seems new for Pimax users. 

Probably not a big deal for anyone playing DCS on the non-Steam version, but since most of my library of things I play are in the Steam library, this was a welcomed surprise!

[mbucchia]

5 hours ago, Slammin said:

SteamVR Beta just added OpenXR support!

SteamVR had OpenXR support for years, you are clearly mistaken. Even on Pimax (this was the only way to play MSFS until I created PimaxXR).

Their conformance submission is officially tracked here and dates from early 2021:

https://www.khronos.org/conformance/adopters/conformant-products/openxr#submission_11

SteamVR OpenXR support works with all headsets, but for platforms that also offer native OpenXR support, it will cost you a lot more memory to run via SteamVR. 

And the important part is about game support. It's not enough for your platform to support OpenXR, your games must be developed to use it. I'm pretty sure Squadrons isn't, so I'm highly doubtful that OpenXR Toolkit worked with Squadrons, and if it did work I'd appreciate that you send me the OpenXR Toolkit log file.

Edited March 5, 2023 by mbucchia

[Slammin]

Sorry about the confusion I have caused.  I guess I just got so overly excited seeing that Steam update message.  Probably had a little beer in my eye as well, but, I had never seen the OpenXRToolkit status and FPSVR stats at the same time in any game before, but I do now see both when I play FS2020.

Big o'l oops from me!!

 

[Slammin]

I've tried several other games in VR but it appears MSFS is the only one I have that allows OpenXRToolkit to function while in SteamVR mode.  Maybe it always had and I just happened to stumble upon it.

It would be awesome if OpenXRToolkit worked on all VR titles while in SteamVR mode.  I especially like some of the Post Processing you can configure with the tool and it really makes this particular sim more enjoyable.

It's also just a matter of convenience for me since I play several games that require parallel projection be enabled in PiTool, which means I have to switch off all the OpenXR stuff, play my game, and then switch back to OpenXR when done.  Not a huge deal, but it was quite the ah ha moment for me to actually see it!

[dburne]

59 minutes ago, Slammin said:

I've tried several other games in VR but it appears MSFS is the only one I have that allows OpenXRToolkit to function while in SteamVR mode.  Maybe it always had and I just happened to stumble upon it.

It would be awesome if OpenXRToolkit worked on all VR titles while in SteamVR mode.  I especially like some of the Post Processing you can configure with the tool and it really makes this particular sim more enjoyable.

It's also just a matter of convenience for me since I play several games that require parallel projection be enabled in PiTool, which means I have to switch off all the OpenXR stuff, play my game, and then switch back to OpenXR when done.  Not a huge deal, but it was quite the ah ha moment for me to actually see it!

 

Hmm pretty sure MSFS only has native Open XR support ?

[Slammin]

I am the village idiot on the subject.  Someone else would have to answer but I can say that WMR natively supports OpenXR as well as SteamVR.  I don't think it did back when I had a Valve Index and I only found out after recently getting a G2.  99% of the time I use a Pimax and 99% of that time I'm using OpenXR tools (OpenComposite, PimaxXR).

Maybe OpenXRToolkit always worked with MSFS while in SteamVR mode, but it certainly was a surprise to me.

[mbucchia]

What you are calling "SteamVR mode" sounds like an umbrella of 2 things:

- using OpenVR, which locks you into SteamVR (unless using OpenComposite)

- using OpenXR via SteamVR (as opposed to OpenXR via native platform support)

They are two very very very different paths, and therefore using "SteamVR mode" to reference both is a bad idea.

OpenXR Toolkit will only work with apps using OpenXR, regardless of whether you choose to use the SteamVR OpenXR support or the native OpenXR platform support. This has been the case since the very first version.

What we need is more developers like Asobo writing their apps with OpenXR, and like ED porting their apps to OpenXR.

[Slammin]

Again, I do not claim to be an expert in any of this nor do I want to be.  I was just 'trying', it seems poorly, to describe something I 'discovered' that I thought someone else might find useful.

I did the same in another thread where I discovered that flipping the orientation of MY AIO waterblock seriously reduced the heat profile on a 5800X3d and I seemed to get the same type of critical response I got here.  It's not like I was telling everyone to flip their waterblocks.

So many Karen-type folk these days.  I am not trying to be controversial in any way, although my delivery/presentation may sometimes not be perfect.  Been a long-time DCS fan, and have been quietly benefiting from some of the knowledge of folks here, and just thought I'd try to repay some of that.  I guess I suck at it and will go back into view-only mode.

"What we need is more developers like Asobo writing their apps with OpenXR, and like ED porting their apps to OpenXR."

This, I concur!

Also, I very appreciate your work, Sir.  Brilliant!

[mbucchia]

I don't think the replies where "critical", every reply seems like it just added some extra information to clarify what you were seeing and what how SteamVR works.

The place of SteamVR in the ecosystem creates a lot of confusion (probably just because it's a very rich platform).

Without the replies to clarify what you are experiencing, the takeaway of this thread, which is your opening statement "SteamVR Beta just added OpenXR support!", could only create misinformation.

[Baldrick33]

4 hours ago, Slammin said:

So many Karen-type folk these days.  I am not trying to be controversial in any way, although my delivery/presentation may sometimes not be perfect.  Been a long-time DCS fan, and have been quietly benefiting from some of the knowledge of folks here, and just thought I'd try to repay some of that.  I guess I suck at it and will go back into view-only mode.

I don't agree, you should see my Facebook feed!

Social Media is full of people getting hot under the collar and offended over opinions. Of course that can happen here over debates on what ED should and shouldn't do but there is an awful lot of good technical advice and help to be found on these forums.

This is a quite complex and factual subject. Being corrected by those with expert knowledge isn't critical although it can be a bit humbling (many of us have posted something we didn't get quite right, as I said it can be complex stuff). It is an important reference for advice, so it needs to be right. Don't let it damp your enthusiasm!