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alvr-org / ALVR

Stream VR games from your PC to your headset via Wi-Fi
MIT License
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ALVR always tries to open Steamvr through Steam Client even if there is no steam client. #2412

Open Laince1212 opened 1 month ago

Laince1212 commented 1 month ago

Steamvr runs well without even needing the Seam client and is portable, However ALVR always runs Steamvr through the steam client. There is no option for ALVR to run SteamVR portable without needing to launch it through steam. There is a way to get ALVR to work without steam installation however no settings can be changed (ALVR settings that need steamvr restart) due to ALVR needing to restart SteamVR through steam client when there is no steam client. ALVR should be able to register steamvr without always using Steamclient. Steamvr doesn't need a steam installation to run and runs well enough.

This should be reproducable on any pc without a steam installation that runs SteamVR portable.

The issues are:

  1. ALVR always trying to launch steamvr through steam when there is no steam installation.
  2. Running Steamvr portable after ALVR sometimes works but all settings that need steamvr restarted never work due to ALVR needing steam installation.
  3. Restarting steamvr through ALVR never works due to ALVR launching steamvr through non-existent steam.

All of these can be fixed by having an option to let ALVR recognise steamvr portable without always needing to go through steam client.

Finally: Thanks for this amazing application, all your work has made PCVR more accessible and it really works so much better than expected over wifi that i stopped using the link cable all together.

gkarpa commented 1 month ago

FYI there's the exact same discussion in just the previous issue, https://github.com/alvr-org/ALVR/issues/2411 . It seems to be running if you open the dashboard first and then SteamVR manually, but you're absolutely right about point 2 and the settings. With that as a given, let's hope it will be an easy change to enjoy soon.

Laince1212 commented 1 month ago

I tried ALVR with steam fully installed and without steam installed (only steamvr) and the differences are as follows with only Steamvr installed.

  1. You have to always launch Steamvr manually. ALVR fails to launch SteamVR. (As mentioned before)
  2. You can't change ALVR settings that need steam restarted. ALVR can't restart except through steam (As mentioned before)
  3. You can't change SteamVR controller bindings without steam installed (Not related to ALVR, but worth mentioning)
  4. Steamvr standalone uses less gpu and cpu resources compared to with steam installed and running (probably a bug with Steamvr not ALVR and not sure if replicable on other pc's)

These are the differences I noticed and anyone is welcome to add their own experiences. It should be doable to make ALVR work with steamvr only.