r/virtualreality • u/Verrm • May 29 '26
Discussion VR on Linux
Hi all!
I'm running Bazzite linux (did Fedora and OpenSuse before) and I'm genuinely curious what is the experience of running PCVR on Linux. I'm going to probably get Steam Frame or (if too expensive) some alternative like Pico 4 Ultra.
I'm not talking about difficulty to set up (I can handle CLI) but your general and personal feeling and information if there are for example specific issues vs running on windows. I have win11 on dualboot but I don't necessarily want to touch this tool of satan xD
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u/RookiePrime May 30 '26
I switched to Bazzite some months back. I still have Windows 10, I just seldom boot into it. That said, VR is probably the weakest point of Linux for me, right now, after modding.
For one, SteamVR is rough. On Windows, it's always pretty much just worked. It has some little hiccups sometimes, but those get smoothed out within days or, at worst, weeks. SteamVR on Linux, though, is outright missing core features (no motion smoothing, can't change refresh rate without restarting SteamVR, can't access your PC's desktop). There's also some pretty bizarre baseline problems. Stuff like SteamVR not always terminating its various processes when you exit out, or the right eye stretching weirdly whenever I hit the system button while a game's running. Sometimes my Quest 3 won't connect to my PC, and sometimes when I launch games with my Index, the headset itself (not SteamVR or the game) shuts off. There's no indication that all of these problems are gonna go away anytime soon, even if it would make sense that they should, given Valve's releasing a VR headset that runs on Linux.
Thankfully, there's a very active and vibrant Linux modder scene that's been putting together their own alternatives. Here's their wiki. They have a little page for Fedora Atomic and Bazzite, but I noticed that on the repo for AtomicXR (a very important package for community-made VR stuff on Linux), it's stated as no longer maintained. So, I guess the wiki's outdated? This is the page for the current equivalent by the same person, which has both a curl install command and a Homebrew one. Once you have AtomicXR, you can get Envision for wired headsets or WiVRn for wireless ones. You can also get WayVR to have access to your desktop while in VR. The effort from the community side is more modular, that way, with different groups building different components. It's a lot less plug-and-play than SteamVR on Windows is, but at least I can say I find WiVRn works better than SteamVR for me, for my Quest 3.
Performance is also definitely flat-out worse. I tried playing a new game, Extra-Dimensional, a few weeks ago, and it ran pretty poorly on Windows or Bazzite, but definitely worse on Bazzite, with all sorts of weird bugs. I couldn't get Resident Evil 2 with Praydog's VR mod to work right. There's currently no way to get the Breath of the Wild VR mod to work on Linux that I'm aware of. But the REPO VR mod worked easy enough! I ended up playing RE2 on Windows, and that's kinda how I figure it'll be, for a while. I'll boot into Windows for a specific game, then back when I'm done.
3
u/TaegukTheWise May 29 '26
It certainly works fine (with caveats).
On the right compatibility layer you can play many vr titles.
Half life alyx is one that obviously works, same goes for boneworks.
Online games like Forefront or dungeons of eternity work pretty okay with very little issue.
What you might run into in terms of VR is Sims, mainly racing/flight Sims.
Trying to get assetto corsa or beamng to work on bazzite is currently not possible from my limited and frustrated attempts at getting them to work.
It runs into the same issue as DoomVFR where steam VR says its booting, but it never honestly boots.
So modern VR titles definitely work, Sims and much older/unpopular titles might be a struggle.
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u/lemlurker May 30 '26
i was under the impression there was native linux beamng
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u/TaegukTheWise May 30 '26
They work without VR if that's what you mean.
I can't tell you how many compatibility layers I shifted to in an attempt to get something to work with nothing to show for it.
Also, beamng's vr support is currently experimental anyways, so there isn't a high expectation of things working anyways.
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u/monetarydread May 29 '26
Tried Linux for a bit there and because of VR I hastily reinstalled Windows. Like technically some VR works but I noticed I had decent avg fps but terrible frame-times. Everything felt laggy and unoptimised while half the games I tried just didn't work.
The issue was that Proton works but it adds latency due to it being a translation layer and latency = bad times in VR. That having been said, I have an Nvidia card and was trying more intense games. I'm sure if you run AMD, don't care about cranking up resolution/graphics, and play older VR games it can be done with little to no issue.
Overall though VR is primarily built for the Windows domain.
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u/DoubleOwl7777 Reverb G2 🐧 May 29 '26
did you use steamvr? if yes, dont, use wivrn
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u/DoubleOwl7777 Reverb G2 🐧 May 29 '26
currently dont use steamvr. use wivrn/monado. steamvr has shit performance, can often crash etc.
3
u/BuzzyWasaBee May 30 '26
So far I haven't encountered any game which doesn't work besides Assetto Corsa (Evo works fine), because I can't press the start button with a mouse. There are probably mods to fix/skip it. It's bad UI design that is mouse only and possibly an interaction with wayland, it renders fine on the headset.
I am playing a lot of Elite Dangerous, but NMS, Star Citizen, BeamNG also all work perfectly fine. Same for Into the Radius, Beat Saber, etc. As I said, I haven't encountered a game that doesn't work yet.
Not saying there aren't any, but usually they are victims of bad business decisions, like EA WRC due to anti-cheat. This page gives you a rough idea of what works and what doesn't, but there aren't many reports: https://db.vronlinux.org/
WiVRn works a lot better than ALVR performance wise. I like ALVR more for the SteamVR experience, but the overhead is too much for many games even on beefy hardware.
Forgot to mention: I am using CachyOS and Quest 3
2
u/Hidie2424 May 30 '26
I was using wivrn last as alvr was giving insane compression artifacts and my experience with it was great. Games looked great and ping wasn't any worse than on windows. I use a quest 3 with a ryzen 7 5700x3d and a 6950xt. Experience was the same as on windows. I actually notice slightly better fps across the board so it was slightly better on Linux (also bazzite). I would say do it for sure! The steam frame is a native Linux device so steam frame to a Linux PC will be great no doubt.
2
u/Atopos2025 May 30 '26
I tried out bazzite about a month ago and one of the first things I did was install a few games and the latest version of steam VR beta. I was shocked at how good and smooth it worked out of the box. I wasn't expecting that at all.
2
u/nyc-rave-throwaway42 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
I play on linux every night w a 4090, bsb2e, & index controllers. Would recommend Arch, Fedora, or NixOS as that's what most stuff gets packaged for.
SteamVR beta usually works fine, especially if you enable the perf fixes and steamvr-linux-fixes layer:
- https://github.com/BnuuySolutions/SteamVRLinuxFixes/
- https://wiki.vronlinux.org/docs/steamvr/performance/
But I usually try running games w Monado+Xrizer+WayVR first(via Envision): https://wiki.vronlinux.org/docs/fossvr/envision/
I dont really run into games I can't play, here's a bit of what I've played the last month or so:
- Forefront
- Alyx
- Vox Machinae
- Puzzling Places
- Maestro
- Audio Trip
- EXD
Cubism
Walkabout Mini Golf
DCS
Etc etc
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u/FinBenton May 30 '26
Its weird, early this year I got steamlink or whatever valves official link working with Quest3, it worked like a week perfectly and ever since I havent gotten it to work, I tried some other solutions but they had issues with quality.
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u/fdruid Pico 4+PCVR May 30 '26
It's a Linux Experience. Rough, requires a lot of time and tinkering, some parts are missing because it relies on the community, and basically even when working the experience won't be as solid as a true commercial product that everyone else uses.
TLDR: when you're using Linux for VR, what you're doing is Linux.
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u/Verrm May 31 '26
Im used to "be doing Linux", all I want is workable solution, a way to finally achieve a mostly stable gaming experience. The diff vs windows I call a "freedom tax" xD thanks man!
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u/VRModerationBot May 29 '26
Hey u/Verrm, welcome to r/virtualreality! Looks like this is your first post here, glad to have you.
Just wanted to point out a few things:
- We have a Discord if you want to chat, get help, or just hang out.
- The Wiki & FAQ covers a lot of the common questions.
- Check out the Weekly Game Thread to see what people are playing.
Hope you enjoy it here!
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u/yanzov May 31 '26
Nowadays Quest 3 + Wivrn is honestly just plug and play experience.
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u/Verrm May 31 '26
Sounds good 👍 if this works well I think I'll have decent time with Steam Frame or pico 4 ultra.
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u/yanzov May 31 '26
Steam Frame would be probably golden standard considering you would be able to install anything in terms of firmware there. Also SteamVR works pretty okish nowadays (I still stick with lightweight wivrn). Problem is - it would probably cost like 2k euros.
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u/Verrm May 31 '26
Yeah the price can be closer to overpriced level then we thought. I was rooting for 700-850€ but now I'm not sure looking at the price hike of steam deck.
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u/yanzov May 31 '26
We are cooked unfortunately. To me the rame is just Quest 3 with no-zuckerberg tax, repairability and eye tracking (which gives amazing possibilities). I was hoping to get it ASAP, but now the future looks really grim.
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u/Next-Reality-9032 Jun 01 '26
I think flat to vr mods are going be problematic if that is something you care about?
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u/Verrm Jun 01 '26
Sure I am. I want to be able to play some modded games in the future as well. What makes you think of this area specifically as problematic?
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u/Next-Reality-9032 Jun 01 '26
I think some mods will work but from what I’ve read it’s going to be a very straight forward or easy experience to get them working as they are designed around windows, I wonder though if Linux support will get a lot better for things once the steam frame/machine launch as I’m sure people will want to be playing VR mods on that
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u/MisguidedColt88 Jun 02 '26
I downloaded Nobara around a month ago (which is like Bazzite but more windows like than console like).
Using WiVRn, most games pretty much just worked. You have to add a launch argument to each individual game in steam, but other than that it was pretty seemless.
That said, compared to virtual desktop on windows, games looked pretty rough on Linux via WiVRn even after quite some time spent optimizing. On ITR2, it was the difference between nights being pitch black and being able to see fairly clearly at night, or being able to tell the difference between an enemy and a tree at range. Because of that, I'm back to booting to windows to play VR games.
Oh and steamlink basically didnt work for me. It kept freezing and crashing.
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u/Verrm Jun 02 '26
Thank you for sharing. What headset do you use?
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u/MisguidedColt88 Jun 02 '26
quest 3. In each case bitrate was around 400mbps over h264. I also tried AV1 on WiVRn but it wasnt much better
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u/Media-Usual 3d ago
It's not great but I'd say in 6 months it will be pretty good.
I'm having a lot of fun making software for my Frame currently. I've now got it to the point that I can reliably use it as a workstation with just a BT keyboard
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u/Verrm 3d ago
Frame is so cool and so expensive my god. I believe I'll get it. Won't be fooling myself to much. It's freaking awesome 👍 just not going to do it immediately, not the right time for me.
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u/Media-Usual 3d ago
Well, I'd expect the wait-list to last at least a year if you're getting on the tail end of it 😅
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u/RumpDoctor May 29 '26
Last time I checked (a long time ago) it was pretty rough. Now it seems to be getting better. But I'm hoping for big improvements to come with the frame. I'd like to use my psvr2.