Coming back to DCS and VR. OpenXR or Steam

[AKA_Clutter]

Hi,

 

I have a friend coming back to DCS and VR. His current setup goes through Steam VR.  I know that OpenXR was/(is?) is a thing. With all the changes of late, I've lost track of things.

1) Is OpenXR still the "way to go"?
2) If so, does it need to be installed or has something been integrated into DCS itself?
3) what is the best setup (i7, 9700k, 3080 RTX, HP G2)

[sleighzy]

Not sure if by "OpenXR" you mean the "OpenXR Toolkit" when you were asking about installing stuff and that's the way to go now? The OpenXR Toolkit is no longer maintained and there are other options. Wouldn't worry about installing it right now.

When you say his current setup goes through SteamVR is he using the Steam version of DCS and using SteamVR as his OpenXR runtime, or Mixed Reality Portal / Windows Mixed Reality (which should work for his OpenXR runtime)?

Also note that the latest Windows 11 release (24H2) will kill WMR so do not upgrade to that. Best to stay on Windows 10 for now.

Might be good to get him on this thread as well if things like DCS logs need to be bounced around or troubleshooting.

Edited November 4, 2024 by sleighzy

[AKA_Clutter]

27 minutes ago, sleighzy said:

Not sure if by "OpenXR" you mean the "OpenXR Toolkit" when you were asking about installing stuff and that's the way to go now? The OpenXR Toolkit is no longer maintained and there are other options. Wouldn't worry about installing it right now.

When you say his current setup goes through SteamVR is he using the Steam version of DCS and using SteamVR as his OpenXR runtime, or Mixed Reality Portal / Windows Mixed Reality (which should work for his OpenXR runtime)?

Also note that the latest Windows 11 release (24H2) will kill WMR so do not upgrade to that. Best to stay on Windows 10 for now.

Might be good to get him on this thread as well if things like DCS logs need to be bounced around or troubleshooting.

 

Yeah, I meant OpenXR Toolkit, and I knew it was no longer supported and therefore wasn't sure that was the way to go.

His version is NOT the Steam DCS version, but stand alone.  I'm pretty sure he is still on Windows 10.

For the longest time DCS VR went through Steam VR.  And yes it's WMR, SteamWMR, Steam VR IIRC.

So would he need to do anything to go though OpenXR runtime?  

And yes, I sent him a link to this thread. 

Thanks for the response.

[sleighzy]

16 minutes ago, AKA_Clutter said:

Yeah, I meant OpenXR Toolkit, and I knew it was no longer supported and therefore wasn't sure that was the way to go.

His version is NOT the Steam DCS version, but stand alone.  I'm pretty sure he is still on Windows 10.

For the longest time DCS VR went through Steam VR.  And yes it's WMR, SteamWMR, Steam VR IIRC.

So would he need to do anything to go though OpenXR runtime?  

And yes, I sent him a link to this thread. 

Thanks for the response.

DCS uses OpenXR so as long as he (and probably does) have a default OpenXR runtime set then should be all good.

You can use this tool as well to see what the default is set to, and if you need to easily change it. https://github.com/rpavlik/xr-picker

Glad to hear he's on the Standalone version as well. Makes life easier and get all the good stuff like free trials etc.

[Phantom711]

If doesn‘t have it already, he needs to “OpenXR tools for Windows Mixed Reality“ from the Microsoft store. In that tool he needs to set WMR as his OpenXR runtime…and then that‘s it.

You can alternatively also still go via SteamVR.

[AKA_Clutter]

Thanks Sleighzy and Phantom711, I'll pass this information along.