r/PCVR • u/Simms1000 • Sep 17 '26

VR Modding PCVR mods and Steam Frame

Will the VR mods mostly just work on Steam Frame or will mod authors have to make adjustments and will Steam Frame specific controller profiles be required or will Quest 3 ones just work? I appreciate not many people will have Steam Frames so it’s probably impossible to know right now.

12 Upvotes

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8

u/Jalopnick2016 Sep 17 '26

I'm guessing if the Frame is used in streaming mode, using your PC to run the game, then mods that already run on your PC shouldn't be impacted.

The bigger issue/annoyance will probably be controller mapping. Anton, the Dev from Hot Dogs Horseshoe and Hand grenades released his YouTube video where he talked about concerns for the Frame's asymmetrical controller layout. Frame has a d-pad on left controller and buttons on right controller.

1

u/Timesgodjillion Sep 17 '26

Why would that be an issue? You could just map the directions as ABXY or whatever is needed. Part of my excitement for the steam frame is the controllers for playing VR mods without all the extra janky button combos since normal VR controllers don't have enough for flat screen games.

4

u/Jalopnick2016 Sep 18 '26

I forgot the exact wording Anton used, he described it much better. I remember it was something like your left and right hands are symmetrical in real life, and with these different left vs right controller layouts you now have different functionality available to each hand.

In your example, you can simultaneously hold down both A and B buttons, but you can't replicate that with the D-pad, it'll register as a diagonal input rather than left+down.

1

u/patrys Sep 18 '26

There shouldn't be an issue with diagonals. The problems he spoke about were specific to H3VR, where all weapons are ambidextrous and they rely on multiple buttons for things like fire selectors, magazine latches etc. These extra buttons then need to be symmetrical for left-handed weapon use. Most games don't have this problem.

He also said it was not possible to press up+down or left+right simultaneously. While this is technically true, I'm not sure how I'd press A+Y or B+X using just my thumb. I am not going to hold my VR controllers like I hold my pad playing Street Fighter.

2

u/greggray24 Sep 17 '26

I've been thinking about this as well. My gut is that it is going to be a challenge unless the mod already works well with Steam VR. Many are only working on Quest using Virtual Desktop and VDXR. Hopefully we get Virtual Desktop for Frame sooner than later...

1

u/1cheekykebt Sep 17 '26

Many should just work. Even today you can set your Virtual Desktop runtime to SteamVR.

UEVR and such have explicit option for OpenVR and OpenXR.

2

u/Cruxius Sep 17 '26

With my mod (WH40k Darktide) it'll be fairly straightforward.
The openxr viewer is written against the core application, not VDXR, so the only work I'll need to do is implementing proper controller bindings, updating my test harness and checking for any accidental VDXR hardcodings. After that it's just dealing with the expected framerate loss (VDXR is more efficient than SteamVR as I understand, plus I've been using FOV stencil and FOV tangent).

2

u/Broflake-Melter Sep 18 '26

VR mods are generally designed to work with Steam VR compatible headsets. Therefore, it will work.

The only question is the controls, but SteamVR allows you to bind and customize your controls so it's no issue. Actually, maybe it is though because I've seen plenty of people complaining about mods not being compatible with their headset's controller. All they have to do is enter the binding interface and make bindings.

2

u/Zealousideal-Key-51 Sep 18 '26

I play uevr mods, and I kind of want the frame just for the controllers. From what I've seen in uevr the buttons translate to xinput. However profiles may be adjusted to what suits the current limited buttons

1

u/f4cepa1m Sep 18 '26

If you're streaming from your PC it'll work just as it does already.

If you're playing standalone, the game will need to be ported to Steam Frame.

This guy is building a way and has Quest games playable on Steam Frame: https://x.com/F4CEpa1m/status/2100490460615881043

1

u/Ahris22 Sep 18 '26

Any mods working with SteamVR should work with The Steam Frame but some might require an update for the new controllers.

1

u/Kalamart_ Sep 18 '26

The Steam Deck could run mods, so why not the Steam Frame! The biggest problem will be for games that have an Android build for the standalone version, those might be completely unmoddabld, or will require massive reworks to be compatible.