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VR Gaming Comes to Linux

Accepted submission by CoolHand https://Soylentnews.org/~CoolHand at 2017-02-22 20:32:18
Software
GamingOnLinux covers Valve's new foray into VR Gaming on Linux [gamingonlinux.com].

Valve have put up SteamVR for Linux [github.com] officially in Beta form and they are keen to stress that this is a development release.

You will need to run the latest Steam [steampowered.com] Beta Client for it to work at all, so be sure to opt-in if you want to play around with it.

VR on Linux will exclusively use Vulkan, so it's going to be a pretty good push for Vulkan if VR becomes more popular. Vulkan is likely one of the pieces of the puzzle that held it back, since Vulkan itself and the drivers are still so new.

On NVIDIA, you need to have the 375.27.10 "Developer Beta Driver", which can be found here [nvidia.com]. There's also this PPA [launchpad.net] for Ubuntu users. It's likely it needs some newer Vulkan extensions not found in the current stable drivers.

For AMD GPU owners, you need a very recent build of the open source radv driver (Mesa), Valve provide this pre-release on their github page.

Intel GPUs are not supported and it's probable it will be a long time until they are, since VR generally requires some beefy hardware to run smoothly. It's possible they may work in future, but I imagine the Intel 'anv' Vulkan driver needs more work done.

GoL also covered shortly after that Valve's announcement of Destinations & Dota VR Hub now available [gamingonlinux.com] on Linux..

Destinations lets you explore both real and imaginary places in virtual reality with friends. Visit and learn about different countries, explore your favorite game environment, or play games with other players – invite your friends and go explore!

Dota 2 VR Hub [...] lets you watch live matches, replays and more in your VR headset. You can do a VR theatre with up to 15 friends too, which sounds pretty sweet.


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