Valve lists the percentage of “Steam users with VR Headsets” in December 2024 as 2.13%. Without adjustment, that’s not remarkable. But when adjusting the figures for each month since Valve started reporting this figure to be relative to the number of non-Chinese users, as China essentially has its own tangential VR market, it’s the second highest ever. Even without this adjustment, the data reveals that more Steam gamers use a VR headset than use macOS or own an RTX 4090 GPU. Further, almost as many use a VR headset than use Linux, which includes Steam Deck, and around half as many use one than own a 4K primary monitor. So PC VR remains a relative niche, yes, but no more so than a Steam Deck or the highest-end NVIDIA graphics card.
I wish I could say the same, but something broke SteamVR again on KDE (wayland) recently.
It’s really a love hate relationship with VR on Linux. When it runs, it runs fine, but it randomly breaks all the time as Valve seems to do very little testing of their Linux version 😢
PCVR is difficult enough as it is and that is why I do not try to do it on Linux.
It’s really no different from Windows. When it works it works out of the box. At least with a Vive or Index.
The problem is purely that Valve pushes out updates and doesn’t seem to check if they actually work on common setups.
SteamVR is kinda a heaping pile of trash on linux. It does not even support reprojection, which is an essential feature. Using Monado instead yields a better experience, especially when setup through Envision. lvra.gitlab.io is a great source of information about linux VR.
Afaik that depends on the GPU. On AMD cards it works pretty nicely.
Monado is an interesting project and I have dabbled about with it a bit, but it is nowhere near the ease of use as SteamVR yet.
If you use Fedora or Arch, Envision can be installed through the Terra package repo and AUR respectively. With envision, you basically just select lighthouse, hit the build button, hit the calibrate button with your headset on the floor, and you’re ready. I personally don’t like all the different windows that SteamVR opens with many having visual glitches on linux. Since I’m using a Pimax headset, SteamVR does not work for me, so Monado is my only option.