The creator of a PC VR driver which includes support for the original PSVR 1 headset says it is stepping away from hacking PSVR 2 to work with PC VR, citing frustrating technical, financial, and social challenges.

Mediator Software, the developer of a PSVR-to-PC SteamVR driver called iVRy, says it is putting efforts to hack PSVR 2 for PC VR compatibility on hold. Just days after saying it had managed to authenticate PSVR 2 on PC, the developer says the project is now on ice.

“I’m walking away from this project for the time being. Between spiralling costs, a never ending set of obstacles put forward by the PSVR2, unrealistic hype in blogs, abusive commenters and accusations of fraud, it has ceased to be fun. I’ll be back. Some time,” reads the announcement.

The creators also shared screenshots showing what kind of social media strife they were facing, apparently with regards to Mediator Software seeking financial support for the project from the community.

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Aside from the social challenges, struggling to get PSVR 2 working on SteamVR isn’t surprising. Despite their best efforts, the iVRy developers themselves previously said it was “unlikely” that PSVR 2 would be useable for PC VR “within five years of its release,” if ever.

That’s a shame considering PSVR 2 is one of the market’s best consumer headsets to date, and even has the basic ability to act like a proper display when plugged into a PC.

While we’d love to see PSVR 2 work with PC VR, the reality is that Sony has little incentive to let it happen.

Thanks to our pal Daniel Fearon for the tip!

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • ViRGiN

    yuppie!
    that was a stupid idea from the beginning.
    imagine being so desperate to get a tethered headset with no audio running for playing pcvr crap!
    let it die in peace! soon those elitists can put down their 6dof controllers indefinietly, and switch to good old 90s style mouse & keyboard & vr with the long over-hyped unreal injector.

    • VR ViRGiN…Your name reminds me of that Unity VR Injector long abandoned…

      • xyzs

        he’s just the mean weirdo of this website.

        • James Cobalt

          And he keeps making new accounts because we keep blocking him. I think this is his 4th account. :-(

    • martin johansen

      you sound so happy

  • Dragon Marble

    To be honest, I am more interested in using my Quest Pro on PS5 than using my PSVR2 on PC. Or, Quest Pro + Sense Controllers. That’s not possible but would be perfect.

    • Rupert Jung

      If wireless VR would work with PS5, I would sell my PSVR2 the same day.

    • Cless

      Difference being, the Quest Pro on the PS5 is never going to happen, no matter what, while the other way around, there is a chance.

  • XRC

    Typo at end:

    “The creator of a PC VR driver which includes support for the original PSVR 1 headset says it is are stepping”

    • Ben Lang

      Thanks, fixed!

  • VR5

    The creators also shared screenshots showing what kind of social media strife they were facing, apparently with regards to Mediator Software seeking financial support for the project from the community.

    Facepalm.

    You don’t get things for free. Either you support efforts to get this hack done (for a chance, it’s not guaranteed) or you don’t.

    If you don’t want to invest in something you can just do so without harrassing those who do. One decides over exactly one instance of finances, one’s own. What others do with their money is none of your business.

    • ViRGiN

      this is the internet, get real, get thicker skin, or don’t ever go to social media.
      you can communicate one way instead being exposed to potential customers comments.

      iVRy has always been nothing but crappy vr experience. it’s not open source either – he doesn’t contribute to the vr ecosystem at all – he is just trying to get richer with it.

      0.08% of steamvr are using psvr. his software is virtually obsolete. trying to run psvr1 on pc was a crazy idea to begin with.

      • Have ye ever made an app named after yourself?

      • VR5

        It’s important how these criticism are communicated. You certainly raise some relevant points. But if this hack can be pulled off, it would be much more feature complete and useful than the PSVR one.

        I say the people who are asking for PSVR2 for PC are free to support any effort towards it. And if they don’t it’s unlikely to ever happen.

        • ViRGiN

          “if this hack can be pulled off”
          Obviously it can’t. Quest hasn’t been rooted to this day, and it’s just an Android device. It’s better to remain realistic about what is and what isn’t possible, than just get blindly optimistic to suit the narrative.

          It’s just yet another obsolete headset, important to self-masturbators of tech jargon like “HDR”, “pixel pattern” and such. It’s an inside out tracking, it’s not just getting raw data to display on it’s screen. Extremely high bar to cross, and after years of PSVR1 compatiblity, the experience is nothing but subpar. It’s not a PCVR headset, let’s stop acting like it would be a good one too.

          Until it’s done, it’s impossible. No amount of optimism and self stroking is going to change that. Rooting Quest was even incentivized monetarirly by Palmer Luckey – with a silly $5000 lol. Still never happened, and nothing points it to being done. If actual hackers can’t, or have no interest in just doing the common root thing, why would anyone ever believe reverse engineering PSVR2 with all it’s tech onboard, inside out tracking, controller tracking, vibrations, eye tracking. It’s just not feasible, and the guy in question isn’t even open sourcing his finding. That’s not how most hacker communities work. They usually share their findings for exploits, and collaborate with a large group of people.

          • VR5

            You could offer funding on condition of making the results available as open source. And of course you can just not fund.

            Overcoming encryption and probably having to implement the tracking based on the raw camera data seem two identified hurdles which are pretty big and probably beyond the capabilities of this hacker. But that we even know that reprojection is done onboard and that it has a 3dof cinematic screen independent of the PS5 is thanks to the costly virtual link port adapter that was provided to the hacker by a benefactor.

            I guess maybe other parties will push forward on an adapter. Personally one that allows me to watch random HDMI sources on the cinematic screen (which is already in reach with established findings) would be enough for me. Just keep the price reasonable.

            [quote]Until it’s done, it’s impossible.[/quote]I guess you mean, it should be assumed impossible. Because if it IS impossible, by definition it can never be done.

            Sometimes we don’t know if something is possible. In this case we do. If Sony can do it, so can do others. There are plenty of visual inside-out tracking implementations already, the question is, can the hacker get ahold of one or can he implement it from scratch.

  • it is are putting it on hold….

  • david vincent

    That was predictable but it’s a shame, maybe that would have helped for the sales because for the moment the PSVR 2 is a total commercial failure.

  • iVRy

    This article is inaccurate sensationalism (ie. pretty standard click-bait stuff). The project hasn’t been put on hold indefinitely. It is incredibly frustrating work, but as I’ve sunk close to $10K in hardware and software into it, and hundreds of hours of work, I’m not about to give up on it any time soon.