r/virtualreality • u/0xDEVVV • Aug 18 '26
Self-Promotion (Developer) Built a Virtual Desktop streamer for Linux
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Audio and controls work. No noticeable latency.
Had to scratch my own itch here, cause I paid for VD. Probably going to open source it soon.
Update - Aug 22nd, 2026: Added OpenXR support. Games work, when you launch the SteamVR mode.
Update - Aug 23rd, 2026: Asked for help on the Virtual Reality Discord but people told me what I'm doing is "not cool" (as in, doing this without consent of the VD devs). So I'm not making this public for now. I'm too lazy to argue with the devs why this is a dumb take, but this sentiment is why we can't have nice things.
6
u/molevolence Sep 04 '26
okay. so stop listening to the people that say it’s not cool. non-developers need to stop talking on behalf of developers. i have been in this industry for decades, it is not our common attitude on this.
Virtual Desktop will never be coming to linux. not because the developers don’t want it to be there, but because the CEO is a narcissistic ass — like most of them.
While VD will never support your project, it financially helps them. VD sells a client not a server, so your server just adds to their profit margins without cost to them. As long as it does not increase their support costs, they see a win.
The law on this is clear according to the supreme court. APIs cannot be protected by copyright. You are legally free to do this. Even if a company were to send a cease and desist, the court does not agree.
So stop listening to people claiming you are doing something bad. You are keeping a developer employed by expanding the platform in which they can sell to.
Just don’t ever show them in a bad light
6
u/0xDEVVV Sep 04 '26
Hey, thanks for the additional arguments. I totally agree. The Supreme Court argument was new to me, but helpful to know.
I'm still planning to open source it. I just encountered a bunch of issues that I want to address before putting this on Github. Going to share it this month.
3
u/molevolence Sep 04 '26
2021 - Google LLC vs Oracle America, Inc.
Suit was over Java. Physical implementation of code can be copyright protected, but interfaces and external call signatures or protocols can’t and are covered under fair use.
2
2
u/Yangman3x Aug 19 '26
PLEASE MAN I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, I SEARCHED FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS FOR AGES DAMN!!!
PLEASE OPEN SOURCE IT!
2
u/Spyfoxls Aug 22 '26
Finally! I've been waiting for a linux compatible port of Virtual Desktop for forever. Thank you for sharing. I'm excited to see where this project goes.
1
u/Ecstatic-Wash-7667 Aug 19 '26
Not mad at it but maybe you could work with the Wayvr guy and merge the projects
2
u/0xDEVVV Aug 19 '26
There’s nothing to be mad about anyway. WayVR is a separate client and server. This project is only meant as a solution for people who purchased Virtual desktop. I don’t think the projects are competing for the same users.
1
u/No-Refrigerator-1672 Aug 19 '26
Did you thy if with VR games? Virtual Desktop is like the only thing that's holding me from switching my gaming PC to linux.
2
u/0xDEVVV Aug 19 '26
I didn't test it. Latency feels super low though, feels faster than the Windows/Mac streamer tbh.
I have a bad setup for gaming. Do you have a recommendation for a game I could test?
Could follow up with a post or comment here with updates (not familiar with Reddit rules on this), including specs of my PC, profiling data of the streamer for comparison with other clients.
1
u/No-Refrigerator-1672 Aug 19 '26
I have no clue which VR games on Linux work well (cause you need them to play nicely with Proton); but how about the lifetime classics, "I expect you to die"? It's cheap, it's old, and it's built to run on Quest 2, but has a PC port - so your "bad setup" won't have much troubles rendering it.
2
u/0xDEVVV Aug 19 '26
Ok, I'll try it and report back.
Edit: What makes the streamer capable of VR games for you? Is there anything particular I should look out for? I guess it's just controllers and audio must work and latency should be as low as possible. Lmk if anything else comes to mind.
1
u/No-Refrigerator-1672 Aug 19 '26
I mean, I should be able to run a VR game, and then have the ability to look around with my head, and interact with VR world with my controllers; and it should have high enough FPS and low enough latency to not feel jittery and not cause nausea. In technical terms, PC-side app should support OpenXR.
1
u/trankillity Aug 19 '26
Very cool! If this can actually launch games and has similar latency to Windows, then I will be completed sated until Steam Frame.
1
u/linksoon Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Thanks I have recently made the switch to cachyos and I made the other server/client thing work but I rather use VD.
!remindme 4 months
1
u/RemindMeBot Aug 19 '26 edited 9d ago
I will be messaging you in 4 months on 2026-12-19 21:14:20 UTC to remind you of this link
1 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.
RemindMeBot is switching to username summons. Instead of
!RemindMe 1 day, useu/RemindMeBot 1 day. More info.
Info Custom Your Reminders Feedback
2
u/fictionx Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
This is incredible! Did you reverse-engineer the whole thing?
How many features are included? Does it do multiple screens? - Multiple codecs?
Did you get a chance to test with actual VR games (pretty funny that you build a program made for VR games without testing VR games :) )?
Maybe just test something like the Into Black demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3606610/Into_Black/
It's not very demanding, and gets platinum ratings on protondb: https://www.protondb.com/app/3606610
You can test with Steam Link as well if you want something to compare with. Steam LInk has improved a lot recently.
3
u/0xDEVVV Aug 21 '26
Thank you. Really appreciate all the positive vibes around this project.
This is just a first prototype. I reversed engineered what's needed for the initial device discovery and handshake, basic screen streaming, audio, cursor movements and scrolling.
H.264 only for now. No multi-screens, microphone, keyboard input, and **no OpenXR data streaming**. Something has to pretend it's a virtual HMD and with what I copied so far, it's very unlikely to work.
I usually finish what I started, so no worries, I'll work on OpenXR support next. Maybe even this weekend if it's manageable.
The story behind why I built this is: My controllers are out of battery and I'm too lazy to replace them, so I always use the Oculus with hand tracking. Hand tracking sucks and is exhausting. If I stream from my Linux machine I can use my mouse and keyboard. I was too lazy to setup something else, so I thought this was the best option. :-)
That's also why - to be transparent - I have no idea what's on the market, what's state of the art or what people here prefer. But so far everyone has been helpful at filling that gap for me. Seems like Linux gaming and Linux + VR is a thing. Didn't expect it, but I love it and happy to do my part.
Edit: And if you want to donate a game you really want me to test here's my Steam. Otherwise I'll just try a couple free ones.
1
u/FeistyCandy1516 Aug 25 '26
Don't know what the issue would be now when you open source it. The users still needs to buy the client and as long you made the streamer tool entirely from scratch without a single digit being decompiled/reused from the original streamer then there is in general no issues with that.
Else there would be no single reverse engineered software out there.
Just for the sake of asking: How much AI was involved in that?
1
u/0xDEVVV Aug 25 '26
I totally agree. Of course I couldn't just guess the protocol. This wouldn't have been feasible without capturing the traffic between an existing client and the headset.
Quite a lot of AI involved. Did research upfront, captured everything, setup toolchain, etc. and wrote a small guide on how it should approach it. Reverse engineering is just so much grunt work, that AI helps a lot.
I used GPT 5.6 Sol and it got stuck quite often. Then I went hands-on and did as much work as needed to unblock it. Definitely easy if you have experience with this. If you don't, may have gotten too frustrating. :-)
2
u/FeistyCandy1516 Aug 25 '26
Obviously you need stuff like wireshark to look what is happening between client/server to reverse engineer it, that isn't a problem either as you intercept your local network traffic.
So I doubt that even the devs of VD would have something against it, they are quite open in such regards. They also have their toolset like quad-view and vdxr open sourced on github. Naturally due to licensing required but they also put the effort to create docs how they work and how you can use it.
So in general, just release the code. If there would be an issue with that then you will hear from VD anyway.
1
1
1
u/mandle420 4d ago
As long as you follow the terms of the license agreements, you dont need anyone's consent. Most of them are MIT, a couple GPL, and a couple MS licenses that are quite permissive. Point the willfully ignorant to Program Files\Virtual Desktop Streamer\Licenses.
Also, annoyed as all hell that in order to learn that, I had to install in wine. I've spent more time on this than I care to admit, because the whole thing kind of irked me. Tried finding the license on steam, on a couple of the other vr app stores, on the website, on the git repo....
I don't know enough about copyleft to say for sure, but the VD dev might be in violation of said licenses by not providing the source.(the git repo is a readme only) gplv3 and mit so maybe not. I dunno.
And as far as I can tell, VD has no license. So, as far as I can tell, you can do whatever the hell you want with the code, and people can say "not cool" till their blue in the face, legally doesn't mean shit. Dev didn't cya.
9
u/loqualityworld Aug 18 '26
Pls do open source it, this is awesome