WiVRn

Fully FOSS PCVR streamer

About

WiVRn is an application that wirelessly streams a virtual reality game to a standalone VR headset from a Linux computer.

WiVRn support a wide range of VR devices:

^{A Linux client does exist, only for debugging. It has no audio or hardware decoding.}

Getting started

PC Server/Dashboard

We recommend using native packages if available for your distribution: - Arch User Repository - Fedora - Gentoo Guru - NixOS - Ubuntu PPA

For OpenVR and Steam compatibility, you also need a compatibility library such as xrizer or OpenComposite.

A Flatpak is available on Flathub for all distributions:

The Flatpak contains both xrizer and OpenComposite.

Note that due to Flatpak sandboxing, some features such as support for SteamVR tracked (Lighthouse) devices, or virtual gamepad/keyboard/input devices forwarded from the headset, may not be available.

Headset Client/App

Follow the wizard in the PC dashboard to install the client on your VR headset.

It should either lead you to the Meta Store (for Meta Quest headsets) or to download the correct APK (for other headsets).

[!WARNING] The VR client and PC server need to be on the same version of WiVRn

[!TIP] If the headset fails to connect to the computer, see troubleshooting.

Usage

Running

Prerequisites

Avahi must be running:

systemctl enable --now avahi-daemon

On SteamOS, the Avahi configuration needs to be modified to allow user services such as WiVRn to publish services on the network; see https://github.com/WiVRn/WiVRn/issues/1001#issuecomment-4940906113 for instructions on how to do so.

• If a firewall is installed, open port 5353/UDP for Avahi and ports 9757/UDP+TCP for WiVRn.
• For example, if using UFW run ufw allow 5353/udp and ufw allow 9757.

Start the PC server process

The graphical frontend is listed as "WiVRn server" in the application list, and is wivrn-dashboard on command line. On first start, a wizard will guide you through the initial steps.

The actual server for headless usage is wivrn-server. When installed through your distribution's package manager, a systemd user service named wivrn is also installed, which can be enabled to automatically start on login with systemctl --user enable --now wivrn.

For Steam games, depending on the installation method, you may need to set launch options in the Steam properties for each game you want to run. Either the dashboard or command line output will display the launch command if it is required.

Start the headset application

On the headset, when installed from the store, simply start WiVRn. If you installed the app via the dashboard, or manually via adb, it will be in an "unknown sources" section.

On first start, it will ask if you want to enable some features such as microphone, hand tracking, eye tracking, etc., as they will require permissions to be granted. It is possible to grant those later from the Settings tab.

It is highly recommended to use default settings and only tweak them if you experience issues.

Connect to the server

The headset application will start on a server list. Your computer should be visible and have a connect button. Simply click it to start streaming.

When the headset is connected, wivrn-server sets the OpenXR and OpenVR configuration to use WiVRn. Thus, applications will only be able to run in VR once the headset connection is established. The configuration is reverted once the connection ends and all running VR applications are closed.

The headset connection also triggers the creation of a virtual speaker and, if enabled in the headset app settings, a microphone. You will have to set them as the default output and input devices in your system audio configuration. This setting persists to future sessions until you change the defaults to other devices.

Start an application

When the headset is connected and no XR application is running, it will show an application launcher. Applications in that list are sourced from: - Steam games that are flagged as VR. Steam may need to be restarted for the list to be updated when new games are installed. - .desktop files that contain X-WiVRn-VR in the Categories section. Files are searched in standard locations which usually include ~/.local/share/applications and /usr/share/applications/.

You can set an application to be started automatically when your headset is connected, in the dashboard settings or manually.

Steam Flatpak

Flatpak applications are only able to access the Flatpak version of WiVRn.

If you're using the Steam Flatpak, you'll need to grant read only access to the following paths:

flatpak override \
  --filesystem=xdg-run/wivrn:ro \
  --filesystem=xdg-data/flatpak/app/io.github.wivrn.wivrn:ro \
  --filesystem=/var/lib/flatpak/app/io.github.wivrn.wivrn:ro \
  --filesystem=xdg-config/openxr:ro \
  --filesystem=xdg-config/openvr:ro \
  com.valvesoftware.Steam

When using a user installation of flatpak Steam, use override --user instead of override.

The same overrides should work for other VR applications distributed as Flatpaks.

Building

See building for building the dashboard, server (PC), and client (headset)

Configuration

Most settings are controlled through the headset app, while the server has configuration for items that are specific to the server. Use the dashboard to edit the latter, or see configuration for editing it manually.

Troubleshooting

Community Support

We are available on either Discord or Matrix space:

Please use the wivrn chat room for questions or issues specific to WiVRn.

Contributing

Translations

See translating for procedure.

Credits

WiVRn uses the following software: - ambientCG - Avahi - Boost.Locale - Boost.PFR - CLI11 - Dear ImGui - fastgltf - ffmpeg optional, for hardware encoding on AMD/Intel - FreeType - glm - HarfBuzz - librsvg - Monado - nvenc optional, for hardware encoding on NVIDIA - qCoro - Qt 6 optional, for the dashboard - spdlog - VulkanMemoryAllocator - WebXR input profiles - x264 optional, for software encoding