Glossary:Virtual reality headset
Graphics and video
Resolutions
Video settings
- Field of view (FOV)
- Windowed / borderless fullscreen
- Anisotropic filtering (AF)
- Anti-aliasing (AA)
- High-fidelity upscaling
- Vertical sync (Vsync)
- Frame rate (FPS)
- High dynamic range (HDR)
- Ray tracing (RT)
- Color blind mode
Hardware
For a list of games, see List of VR games.
General information
Key points
- Virtual reality (VR in short) means simulated enviroment experienced by user, with PC gaming, this means usage of virtual reality headset with games. This replaces monitor as window for the game and places the player inside the game instead.
General
Current standards that are being utilized by the games are following:
- SteamVR (also known as OpenVR, which is not to be confused with OSVR)
- Oculus SDK
- Open Source VR (OSVR)
- Windows Mixed Reality (WMR)
- OpenXR
Currently compatibility is up to what standard the game is utilizing and what headsets the standard supports. With compatibility layers, it is possible to make game use another standard or headset to work with another standard, but compatibility is not always quaranteed.
OpenXR is standardization effort to fix this fragmentation. Stable version was released in July 29, 2019, meaning adaptation will take for a while
Software
Official software
SteamVR
- Steam is required to install the software, however Steam is not required to run SteamVR.
Oculus App
- Oculus or Facebook account is required.
Mixed Reality Portal
- Windows 10, and a Microsoft account is required to download the Mixed Reality Portal from the Microsoft Store.
OSVR HDK
- Natively supports SteamVR.
Compatibility layers
Compatibility Layer | Application Type | Runs Under | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Revive | Oculus | SteamVR OpenXR |
|
OpenComposite | SteamVR | Oculus |
|
Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR | SteamVR | Windows Mixed Reality |
|
RiftCat VRidge | Oculus SteamVR |
Google Cardboard HTC Vive Focus Oculus Go Samsung Gear VR Google Daydream |
|
Trinus PSVR | SteamVR | PlayStation VR |
|
Trinus Cardboard | SteamVR | Google Cardboard |
|
Trinus VR | SteamVR | Google Daydream |
|
VR drivers
- VR drivers mean software which can take games designed to be played with traditional monitor and make them playable with VR headsets, including stereoscopic vision and head movement.
vorpX
- Commercial.
- See vorpX page for list of game support.
Vireio Perception
- Currently only games using DirectX 9 are supported.
- Has not been updated since 2016, no compatibility with newer headsets.
Other software
Software | Notes |
---|---|
OpenVR Advanced Settings |
|
OpenVR-InputEmulator |
|
OpenVR-SpaceCalibrator |
|
ChaperoneTweak |
|
TurnSignal |
|
fpsVR |
|
OVR Toolkit |
|
Virtual Desktop |
|
Play Area
- Game should always adjust the playing area based on headset and room setup process automatically. Some games offer choises to change between differend kind of play areas, but usually this is determined by virtual reality headset setup process and changing it e.g. from room-scale to standing might require re-setup.
- Games which require room-scale might not be playable with standing or seated setups, however games requiring seated should always work with all setups.
- If games do not offer or detect play area correctly, there can be issues e.g. being able to clip outside intented areas like helmet character is wearing or seeing chaperone when playing game seated near or outside room-scale area.
Seated
- Common with games made for regular monitors having VR mode or using VR drivers, racing games, etc.
- This is the basic level of support and all headsets should support at least this play area. This is also only supported play area with something like google cardboard.
- Heads spacial movement is completely disabled in this mode as in you can look around, but you cannot move your heads position from its current position, alternatively extremely limited. Position is usually centered when game is launched and can be re-centered if it drifts from headset overlay.
- Games usually prefer keyboard and mouse or controller for the gameplay, motion controllers can be supported but overall interactivity with them is also limited.
Standing
- More common with games made specifically for VR and games which utilize motion controllers.
- Usually featured in more higher end headsets with some level of spacial tracking. Allows rotational movement, crouching and sometimes small amount of spacial movement, but generally player is assumed to not leave single spot.
- Allows generally wider range of movement with head inside the virtual reality space and usually requires motion controllers to be used.
Room-Scale
- Overall really similar to standing experience, but on top of everything you can physically move around in the virtual space. Requirements for space vary, but for SteamVR smallest area is at least 1.5m*2m.
- Utilizes features like chaperone, virtual boundry to tell where real life boundries are or camera passtrough so that when physically moving in virtual space you won't get out of real life bounds.
List of VR headsets and peripherals
Valve
HTC
PC VR only
Standalone
Oculus/Meta
PC VR only
- Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2
- Oculus Rift
- Oculus Rift S
Standalone
Windows Mixed Reality
- Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset
- Dell Visor
- HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset
- Lenovo Explorer
- Samsung HMD Odyssey
- Asus Windows Mixed Reality Headset
- Samsung HMD Odyssey+
- Acer OJO 500
- HP Reverb G2
Open Source VR
Sony Playstation
Mobile