The developer leading the push to make PSVR 2 compatible with PC VR games says they’re working on a SteamVR driver that aims to bring unofficial SteamVR support to Vision Pro, controllers and all.

You may have heard earlier this week that independent programmer Zhuowei Zhang had installed a modified version of Wi-Fi PC streaming app ALVR on Vision Pro, which gave users the first look at SteamVR compatibility.

Now iVRy, a project dedicated to bringing SteamVR support to officially unsupported headsets such as PSVR 2, says they’re turning their gaze to Vision Pro as well.

Since iVRy’s announcement yesterday, Valve has actually approved the iVRy Driver for Vision Pro, a paid app that the creator also hopes to offer through Apple’s App Store.

There’s no word on when we can expect it. As UploadVR notes, it may take quite a while until it’s at a functional state. Guy Godin, developer behind Virtual Desktop, maintains Apple’s tech makes support “a lot more complicated” than Android-based standalones such as Pico, noting he expects multiple months of work.

Another issue is bringing motion controller support to Vision Pro, which doesn’t support them natively. iVRy Driver supports various VR controllers, so while we can expect it to open up the usual ecosystem of devices to Vision Pro too, which was a major sticking point with the ALVR Wi-Fi streaming app, it’s not without its issues.

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The team says in a post on X that support is being added to iVRy Driver for Quest Pro controllers, however it will require Quest 2/3 as a sort of ad hoc controller hub. The software also supports other controller ecosystems, such as SteamVR (aka Lighthouse) tracking, which critically requires not only its own base stations to run, but either a headset to work as a controller hub, or a special dongle to bypass that need, like the one from Tundra Labs.

That said, iVRy for Vision Pro isn’t exactly promising a plug-and-play experience. If you’re just looking to play Half-Life: Alyx (2020) on the $3,500 device right now, you may as well just buy a separate headset that’s officially SteamVR supported (Quest 2/3/Pro, Pico 4. Valve Index). Otherwise, you’ll not only be left waiting, but probably need to be passionate about kitbashing VR ecosystems too.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • xyzs

    Cool, but the amount of people who have at the same time lighthouse + vision pro, that might be very light.
    That would be more successful in year 2024 to release new Valve Controllers with inside out camera tracking.

    • ViRGiN

      Valve is primarily a file hosting company. Making new, modern headset requires actual talent and money, which Valve has neither.
      Anyone can put together a mobile PC with controller on the sides, and that’s what Valve is exclusively focusing on. Valve Index, or broader, entire PCVR was an extreme flop, the butt of jokes for entire industry. Valve learned their lesson and fully exited it. And if you think making a mobile VR app is evidence of their dedication – look at this page; single developers are doing the same as Valve.

      • ASADVD

        Name checks out.

        • Gabe Zuckerwell

          That’s the most cringe reply ever coming from someone who listens to incest radio. Strong virginity vibes from someone who names himself after double vag, double a-nal.

          Valve not doing anything for the past 5 years really made tons of people absolutely braindead.

          • GunnyNinja

            This clown just can’t afford a PC, so he hates PCVR. Valve still has people paying full retail for a first gen HMD.

        • Gabe Zuckerwell

          You need to mark your profile as private, or asshats like ViRGiN will snoop on your feed and activity. He’s a notorious cult you know.

          Of course I actual love a bit of anal…!

          • Gabe Zuckerwell

            Hi, I’m Brad.

          • Gabe Zuckerwell

            Hi ViRGiN sorry Brad. I assume you love Steam, PCVR and the smell of penis too?

      • ViRGiN

        Yet again I’ve forgotten to cite my sources for PCVR being an “extreme flop”.

        VR is niche, but rather than support all companies whatever they have done to make VR more successful, I focus on sniping from the side-lines.

        Everybody blocks me anyway except two other accounts who love my cult status, and it’s so sad when only Gabe Newell reads my important missives.

        • ViRGiN

          imagine being an imposter

        • GunnyNinja

          VR Virgin…

    • wcalderini

      I do! I do!
      :)

      well. I do.

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        That awesome! How motivated are you to compile ALVR (I hope you also have the required Mac with Apple Silicon) following Zhuowei Zhang’s instructions, configure OpenVR Space Calibrator, take HL:A for a spin on AVP and report back here how it all worked?

        • wcalderini

          Not very. Have other headsets for PCVR steam tracking.
          I can’t believe I actually got a Vision Pro before my Bigscreen VR shipped. (Ordered mid October and I’m kind of pissed).
          But now that I think about it, it might be worth the experience to see HLA in what I consider to be the best screen(s) I’ve ever used.

          I am kind of new to this idea though. I have an M1 MAX Macbook Pro 64GB/4TB. Would you have to run steam natively on the Mac? What would RUN HLA? Guess I’ll do some research as you probably DON’T want to be my personal CHAT GTP, eh? Won’t have time to play until the weekend (gotta work for the toys), but hopefuly I can mess around with it then. VR is the only reason I left the Mac EcoSystem in the first place, so I guess I’m coming full circle. Weird.

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I didn’t expect you to be motivated, unless you’re looking forward to dozens of hours of configuration “fun” just to get it working. At the current pace someone might release a pre-compiled ALVR client soon, saving you a lot of steps. iVRy or VirtualDesktop coming out with a more polished version including documentation for the elaborate controller setup would be best.

            You need the Mac to compile ALVR for AVP, and have to be registered as an Apple developer. It can’t do the VR part (unless you are really into experimental nightmares), for that you need your VR PC. Once you have a working AVP ALVR client, the connection works similary to AirLink/VirtualPC/SteamLink. You get a local component sending data to the HMD, with the extra step of making two devices (AVP via ALVR for display, Index to connect controllers) work together, and then align their tracking spaces.

            And no, I wouldn’t want to ChatGPT anyone through this. It would end up with a lot of “hallucinations”, as I don’t have an AVP and won’t be able to try one until it releases in Europe. And debugging a complex process without being able to try it yourself is an exercise in futility.

        • wcalderini

          Oh. Wait. I’m not doing this right.

          Asshat! Imposter! Incest Radio Listener! Quest 3 RUZLE! PCVR DRULZ! (Or that backwards)

          This is how we play, right?

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I have no idea. Still trying to figure out which part of the incest radio listener is having the issues, due to the ambiguity of the English language.

            I never said I screwed your mother.
            I never said I screwed your mother.
            I never said I screwed your mother.
            I never said I screwed your mother.
            I never said I screwed your mother.
            I never said I screwed your mother.
            I never said I screwed your mother.
            I never said I screwed your mother.

            So confusing.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    Great development, but an extremely niche application. Most who bought a Vision Pro didn’t do it for gaming, which Apple pretty much ignored so far, focusing AVP on media consumption, iPad apps and virtual monitor for Macs. The main overlap with VR HMD gamers/owners using lighthouse is thatIndex/Vive Pro/Beyond/Pimax HMDs are also positioned at the higher end, targeting enthusiasts with larger budget, like AVP.

    To benefit from AVP, you’d also need rather powerful hardware. 3660×3200 per eye are nice, but can make even an RTX 4090 choke without foveated rendering. So unless you absolutely cannot tolerate a cable, a Beyond or Pimax Crystal may still provide a much better VR experience with a lot less hoops to jump through to get it working.

    The one thing that may prove very beneficial is the AVP onboard ETFR. AFAIK the eye tracking information on Quest Pro can be used for ETFR with VirtualDesktop, only the tracking quality is too low to provide significant performance benefits. The same was true with Tobii eye tracking on the HTC Vive Pro Eye, though it seems to work pretty well now on PSVR2, and apparently also on Pimax Crystal.

    ETFR on AVP seems to be driven by the dedicated R1 chip and very good. So IF AVP ETFR turns out to be above average AND IF the data can be accessed by software like iVRy AND IF ETFR will allow rendering at/above native AVP resolution AND IF NVENC can encode 23+MPixels fast enough, this may lead to the only wireless VR experience at 3.5K available

    • XRC

      Pimax demoed their 60G Airlink wireless solution at CES; hardware is already built into every Crystal headset, it requires a dongle that plugs into the top USB port, and a small receiver on the PC end.

      Should be receiving a test unit soon, will let you know how it performs! steamVR reports 100% resolution as 4312×5104 per eye, thankfully DFR is reducing the horrendous workload on my RTX4080, and DFR is confirmed working with the wireless module.

      • STL

        Did you try the Air Bridge dongle solution? I had to abandon it on Quest 3. It became instabile.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      I agree this version and indeed this AVP is not be the ideal solution, both are more a proof of concept But as a development, if they actually pull it off, or a competitor like Virtual Desktop manages to get this working, then all of a sudden you have a new absolute ultimate combo for PCVR. People able to buy the current AVP should not balk at the cost of a top notch game PC with a 4090 or something like that – spending 10.000 $/€/£ on a VR gaming system – so what? Of course, but that time, Quest may finally have high res OLED and foveated rendering as well…

  • STL

    I have my experiences with iVRy. There is never a complete, customer friendly solution. You end up buying 3-4 additional hardware and software components and it is rather something for software engineers than for gamers.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      I assume you tried iVRy with your PSVR 1. This version only uses the 3DoF IMU inside the HMD, as all the tracking was done outside-in from the PS4 via a camera. So you absolutely need to add at least a webcam for anything beyond 3DoF, and AFAIK they never got it beyond 5DoF, meaning 3DoF plus left/right, up/down, but not backwards/forwards. You’d obviously need to add PS Move controllers (plus bluetooth adapters) too, so the extra hardware is very similar to what you need for the PSVR itself. But the setup with multiple software components from different sources is VERY elaborate and in no way plug’n’play.

      The tracking on AVP should be a lot easier to get working once a client is available, no more complicated than getting ALVR to work with the Quest. Additionally using a separate headset just to connect the controllers and aligning the tracking spaces is not trivial, and it remains to be seen whether this process can be smoothened. But all in all I agree, this is something that requires a lot of setup/tinkering/engineering, nowhere near as user friendly as e.g. getting Quest to stream PCVR via Steam Link. And unless someone manages to get self-tracking controllers to work with AVP, it never will be.

      • STL

        As I said, iVRy develops components, not solutions. And the guy gets very upset if you point that out to him.

  • Welp, that didn’t take long ….
    8^ 】

  • Technically, it sounds very cool. But I don’t know if it will be much practical

  • guest

    Great but too pricey by 10 times

  • nicki gentry

    Lucid dreaming is the ultimate vr experience I did a lucid dream last night and I said to myself this is what I call vr