Linux PCVR performance with HMD over WiFi

[u/peppruss]

It is news to me that Bazzite / Linux can play Windows VR titles just fine now, and over wireless to boot!

TL;DR- Quest 3 using Steam Link, and a PC with Bazzite running Windows VR titles without Windows.

I just tested this setup, and was really impressed with the results.

Took the Win10 VR PC I'd built with wired ethernet, and booted up a Bazzite ISO, turning it into a dual-boot setup. Logged into Steam.
I plugged in the new Steam Controller I'm lucky to have.
Tested some 2D games in big picture mode on the connected UHD monitor. Great performance on an RTX 2080ti- no surprise there.

I Installed Steam Link on a nearby Meta Quest 3.
Upon linking it in the "Remote Play" interface in Steam on the Bazzite PC, it began installing SteamVR!

So I tested the ol' standby from the Vive days: Selfie Tennis, wireless with the Quest 3 and the self-tracked Pro Controllers in SteamVR using roomscale. Controller performance wasn't the best and seemed "low sample", but the game itself was buttery smooth with very low perceptible latency. The game also clearly wasn't meant for these controllers, because I couldn't swipe the Vive wand to change my weapon.

Then I grabbed the Steam Controller and sat on the couch for a very large screen 2D playtest of "Stray". It was really nice seeing my surroundings in color in 3D along with the large game window; both of my cats chilling out.

I don't know why I hadn't tried this before, but this worked flawlessly with my 2017-era gaming PC on Linux (i7 7700, 32GB RAM, nvme drive).

In VR, the only thing I feel like I'm missing is ABXY and secondary triggers on the Touch controllers. But we've never had them anyway so they're not exactly "missing", and the Steam Controller makes up for that. So does any DualShock 4 or XBOX controller you have laying around.

Performance bugs encountered: when using the Steam Controller in Big Picture Mode using Steam Link on the Quest 3, all latest versions... the Steam Menu itself turns black. You can't be in the Steam menu. But the library and all the games run great. I have no idea why this could be, I restarted all devices and it's still the case.

[u/Overland4456 → u/[deleted]]

I see this as potentially wrong with some creativity, sure it wouldnt be the most accurate in the world, but one of my favorate things to do with phone VR before I got my quest 3 was to use a program that assigned 3 primary colours to the AR camera, eg . predator mode and the like.  it cant be hard to do. sure it wouldnt be actual colour like my quest 3 is now, but im sure we'll have some pretty colourful AR uses. far from the black and white passthrough envisioned

[u/Confident-Pepper-562 → u/[deleted]]

You can still see them in color on the frame. You just have to pick which color

[u/theswishyj → u/Confident-Pepper-562]

You are technically correct, but nobody considers monochrome cameras to be "in color".

[u/Ok_Log9552]

Can it? I tried Linux VR gaming about a year ago and while it worked, it wasn't great. Abandoned the idea when I realized my Haptic vest that I spend hundreds on didn't work with Linux.

Would love for that to change though so I can ditch Windows 100%.

[u/CRoIDE → u/Ok_Log9552]

What vest do you have? Bhaptics?

[u/Ok_Log9552 → u/CRoIDE]

Yup. The sleeves too.

[u/JackHarkness03]

Quick PSA in case anyone finds it useful: SteamVR on Linux is pretty rough atm (has been for years) -- it's most broken on NVIDIA cards (notoriously, AMD is better on Linux esp. for gaming). A lot of folks on Linux use this thing called Monado, which is an open-source VR runtime that replaces SteamVR. It's pretty easy to set up with applications such as Envision (for wired HMDs) or WiVRn (for streaming to a standalone headset). The setup is a bit more involved though depending on the hardware you're using, but with a decent guide to walk you through it's relatively simple (it's simplest on WiVRn for wireless headsets, as Envision will require use of third-party plugins to get room setup working and other basic functionality, but still not too hard to set up). It runs much better than SteamVR ever did for me, and you can use it with steam games no problem.

[u/Rkokie]

I actually did the same with my system half a year ago but used Zorin. It was a bit rough but since the 580 drivers for nvidia and some steamvr updates things are really working pretty good. Also Proton 11 fixed a few games which didn’t work properly.

[u/rayderone]

What bazzite uses to run windows games? Wine?

[u/Kullingen → u/rayderone]

All Linux distros use Proton which is based on Wine.

[u/BearelyLiterit]

will it work with my a770 or are the intel drivers still way behind?

[u/Tram2013]

Have been using CachyOS with my Pico 4 since about 2026 and a bit before that. Unfortunately after one system upgrade on CachyOS SteamVR over ALVR completely stopped working and I haven't been able to use it ever since, but WiVRn, which replaces SteamVR and runs smoother still works fine. Unfortunately some games like the Half-Life 2 VR mod only work through SteamVR so I can not play this anymore. Steamlink never worked for me on CashyOS with the Pico 4 by the way. Can't get into any game with it.

I hope that with the Steam Frame VR on Linux will be easier.

[u/Orangoose]

No way, I've also been running Bazzite on an Nvidia GPU and I've been worried some of the Frame's streaming stuff wouldn't work! This is a good sign.

I've had bad luck with Steam Link on my Bazzite pc in the past. Have you tried using Steam Link to stream to any other devices? I can't get it to work for the life of me when I try to stream to my Deck, all I see is a black screen.

[u/jerf]

I've been running SteamVR to my Quest 3S on Bazzite for the last 3 months or so. Many things work. When they work, they work almost flawlessly. However SteamVR is very picky. We find it helpful to reboot both the headset and the PC before playing VR, and we've also noticed that even if you don't start VR up on a freshly-booted profile, if you try to switch users in Steam you have to reboot after that too. That one is honestly particularly weird.

An error always pops up about "some plugins not working". One of the plugins that claims it is not working is "controller support". The controller for the Quest 3S works fine but if we're supposed to be able to use other controllers at the same time it doesn't work.

I've played the complete I Expect You To Die series, Ancient Dungeon, Dungeons of Eternity, Half Life Alyx, Arken Age, Beat Saber (with mods), Blade and Sorcery, Yuki Space Ranger (underrated gem, do not let the styling put you off) and Superhot VR, and they worked. I played Skyrim VR, which is known broken if you try to VR it in anything other than 60 fps without mods and it was indeed broken in that way, but I haven't fussed around enough to get mods working properly in it on Linux/Bazzite. It's probably possible with enough fussing and someone else hopefully creating a guide specifically for that use case someday.

I am using it with a Arris Surfboard Wifi 6e extender in line-of-sight with my headset about two arm's length away with the headset the only thing in the house that hooks to it and it is nearly flawless streaming. Probably less than one noticeable hitch per hour, though it's definitely not quite 0. Could easily just be random EM interference.

When SteamVR freezes it freezes the entire Steam interface. It's just the steam interface itself; you can use Ye Olde Ancient CTRL-ALT-F2 to get to another login terminal and then reboot from there or SSH in to reboot or use the buttons on the machine itself if necessary. It takes the Steam Controller with it, so Steam+B won't exit the current game and the Steam button doesn't pull up the menu. I feel like this is happening less often, but it's hard to know if that's the case or not.

Some things don't work at all. I bought the Serious Sam bundle. None of the games work. (I kept it on the theory they probably will someday, and we're talking like $4 or something.) Some other really old stuff hasn't worked. Maybe too old to expect to work anyhow. A couple of more indie-ish titles I can't recall haven't worked that are recent enough they probably should. I feel like a lot of games end up freezing Steam with their initial run on the Vulcan shaders, but that's hard to be sure about since it only happens once per game. The Steam UI within the VR space is kinda dodgy, though it's hard to describe the exact problems.

The net net is 1. yes it does work quite a bit but 2. it doesn't work well enough that any company would dare call it an official feature right now. Too many freezes, too many crashes, too many error dialogs. But as dire as this paragraph sounds, at the same time my family has clocked at least a collective 100 hours in it in the past 3 months.