
Ask HN: What is the status of VR on Linux? - usernam
I&#x27;m a programmer with a lot of experience with GL. I&#x27;m mostly working with data visualization in general, but I wrote several non-toy 3D engines in the past.<p>I&#x27;ve been rather oblivious with VR as of date, even though I toyed with 3d glasses on an SGI Octane decades ago. After a couple of experiences with the Oculus though, I&#x27;d love to start hacking on VR technology.<p>As my development platform for the last 10+ years as been exclusively Linux, and again almost exclusively targeting high-end NVidia cards, I have no interest in switching OS whatsoever.<p>What is the status of VR on linux? It seems that most headsets are platform and vendor-locked. Why is this the case? Are some devices more hackable than others?
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shazow
If you want to be part of the "platform", then it's not ready yet. Valve
demoed SteamVR working on Linux a couple of months ago at Steam Dev Days, but
it's not released yet. Given Valve Time, it could be anywhere from weeks to a
year from now.

It's possible to write your own OpenVR driver with whatever headset, but it
would be quite an undertaking.

If you're just messing around on your own, OSVR is n standalone open source
initiative (which also has SteamVR support) that is largely cross-platform but
I haven't played with it.

Finally, last month Khronos Group announced [1] that they're going to be
developing a joint VR standard with all the big players which should also
advance VR towards being more cross-platform.

tl;dr: Unless you're building just for yourself, I'd wait or bite the bullet
and install Windows for the duration. (I did the latter, sigh.)

[1] [https://www.khronos.org/news/press/khronos-announces-vr-
stan...](https://www.khronos.org/news/press/khronos-announces-vr-standards-
initiative)

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corysama
In theory, [http://www.osvr.org/hdk2.html](http://www.osvr.org/hdk2.html) is
exactly what you are looking for. In practice... well, it's open-source and
the software team would appreciate contributions.

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MegaDeKay
You might be interesting in following along with this:
[https://github.com/cnlohr/libsurvive](https://github.com/cnlohr/libsurvive)

Hacker extraordinaire Charles Lohr is reverse engineering the Vive protocols
and has made good headway so far. It also seems that Valve has been giving him
the odd hint along the way.

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norcimo5
I'm with you! This is one of the last few articles related to 'vr on linux'
that I read before the Holidays: [http://www.roadtovr.com/steamvr-to-get-
linux-and-mac-osx-sup...](http://www.roadtovr.com/steamvr-to-get-linux-and-
mac-osx-support-in-a-few-months/)

AFAIK both Unity and Unreal Engines have 'experimental' linux builds
available. I started the year hardware-strapped, but hopefully sometime in
2017 I'll start dabbling with these linux alternatives.

Good luck!

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RRRA
You might want to look at this lightning talk from 33c3:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5uqQL-
dKBU&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5uqQL-
dKBU&feature=youtu.be&list=PLOcrXzpA0W82Z49Pj0v-cehuvA9qCDuX9&t=5120)

We really need to standardize VR drivers with a hardware class that needs to
support, in a standard fashion, x types of standard i/o.

------
Zikes
The various VR platform vendors have only recently come together on a
universal standard, which will ideally be implemented on both Windows and
Linux: [https://www.khronos.org/vr](https://www.khronos.org/vr)

~~~
elsonrodriguez
Serious question, what's the incentive for the current vendors to do this? I
feel that given how nascent the space is, everyone is rushing to try to be the
next iPod/iTunes store combo, and you don't get that by sharing.

~~~
Zikes
If there were only a single major vendor, then they would have an effective
monopoly which would take years to catch up to, such as iPhones/Android.
Instead, we had both Vive and Oculus release at around the same time, and both
have seen reasonable success. Prospective buyers worry that they'll get locked
into one ecosystem, hoping that the decent games on other platforms get ported
over eventually. That indecision probably also stops a large number of
prospective buyers from purchasing _either_ platform, because they would
rather play it safe than to spend $800 on backing the wrong horse. I know a
guy that got burned buying an HD-DVD player, it sucks.

With a shared standard, games developers can build to a common target, and
consumers can buy hardware based on actual hardware differentiators. Oculus
will be able to say "buy our headset, it has better feature X _and_ it
supports all the Vive/GearVR/Cardboard games!" Customers will feel more
comfortable just picking a horse, knowing that even if it doesn't win it'll at
least finish the race.

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criddell
VR makes an excellent demo, but has anybody found themselves playing VR games
regularly? For me, it seems a little like the 3D situation a few years ago. I
bought a TV, got the glasses, and was able to play some PS3 games in 3D. It
was a lot of fun... for an afternoon.

~~~
mustacheemperor
The 3D TV comparison is completely tired at this point. VR is a new form of
HCI, not a questionably improved display technology. Besides that point, if
you're only looking at VR as "games" you're missing the boat entirely.

~~~
criddell
> The 3D TV comparison is completely tired at this point

Why do you say that? I think the 3D TV comparison is fairly accurate. If VR
(or AR) requires anything more bulky than regular eye glasses, I can't see it
becoming a huge success. Part of why I think VR makes a neat demo only is
because the current crop of VR headsets get uncomfortable very quickly.

> VR is a new form of HCI

New? I first tried VR 25 years ago and I know it's older than that.

> if you're only looking at VR as "games" you're missing the boat entirely

So if gaming isn't the primary user and driver of VR hardware and software,
what is? What industry is putting the most investment into VR right now? From
the current generation, I really have only looked at consumer setups like
Vive, Playstation, and Oculus. I haven't tried Microsoft's product or Magic
Leap so maybe they would change my mind?

~~~
falcor84
> So if gaming isn't the primary user and driver of VR hardware and software,
> what is?

Perhaps pornography? VR could offer a completely novel set of experiences

~~~
mustacheemperor
The porn industry has already dumped an insane amount of money into VR and is
presumably seeing quite a return, since the major players have only
accelerated their pace of output. Just like with other technologies, porn
companies have already driven the consumer innovations streaming VR video from
the internet, capturing 3D 180 footage, and defining best practices for
immersive content. I'm sure "novel" experiences are on their way eventually,
but right now the money's being made just making 3D180 videos for mobile VR
platforms.

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pidge
The open-source Vrui VR toolkit[1] has some level of support for the Vive and
Rift[2].

[1]
[http://idav.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/ResDev/Vrui/](http://idav.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/ResDev/Vrui/)

[2] [http://doc-ok.org/?p=1508](http://doc-ok.org/?p=1508)

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angryasian
If you want to do VR dev on linux I think Web VR is probably your best bet
right now.

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buttershakes
I believe Openvr does work on Linux, with some modifications. Valve is
actively developing it.

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xpaulbettsx
> What is the status of VR on linux?

It doesn't work, at all. Sorry.

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rocky1138
Even OSVR?

