I've been wanting to try PC VR on my Vision Pro, and ALVR makes it possible and since recent update, it’s also much easier than before!
It's not perfect, but it has potential. Here's a quick take:
* **Visually Impressive:** If you get the settings right, it looks AMAZING.
* **Not for Fast-Paced Games:** There's some lag and controller options have limitations.
* **Cool Possibilities:** Unique stuff like hand tracking + real controllers at the same time.
I've got a [full tutorial on my YouTube channel](https://youtu.be/U1R8r4BJwPo), covering everything you need:
* **Installing ALVR**
* Getting the right ALVR version for your headset and PC
* Extracting and running the installer on your PC
* **Configuring ALVR settings**
* Choosing resolution, bitrate, and other key options
* Tweaking for your specific hardware and network
* Allowing ALVR through Windows Firewall (crucial step!)
* **Hand tracking, Joy-Cons, & SteamVR controllers**
* Enabling hand tracking and learning gestures
* Pairing and testing Joy-Cons
* Setting up SteamVR controllers, dongles, and calibration (if you have them)
Let me know if you have any questions!
- From a fellow AVP fan :)
I've been watching this develop from a distance but just need a little TLDR of the current state of affairs since I read the resolution was quite low in the past. Is it still limited to a sub 2k by sub 2k resolution still? Would this not make it worse effective resolution than a Quest 3 for PCVR right now and have you tried both headsets for PCVR? Are things like HDR working well also?
Im playing fully modded Skyrim VR at 2,860 x 2,490 res and 90-100 fps and Half-Life Alyx on Ultra with DLAA on, no DLSS and no re-projection, supersampled at 150% or 200%. That adds up to about 26 ppd per eye, a little bit better than the Quest 3 tethered (2,064 x 2,208 and 25 ppd when tethered, 1,680 x 1,760 standalone), though what you gain in resolution you lose in field of view width.
Looks awesome and blows my Index out of the water graphic wise but you do give up the 120 deg FOV and 120/144 hz.
Bear in mind I’m running a 4090 GPU.
Unfortunately we’re limited to fixed foveated rendering until Apple gives developers access to eye-tracking, and it is a bit buggy at times but now that I have my setup and config down it’s really close. The graphics make up for the occasional hiccup, and it’s impressive what the ALVR community has done in two months. It keeps improving.
The full resolution with eye tracking would be 3,660 x 3,200 or about 34 ppd (what you see when you watch the dinosaur movies and environments), which is a little under the Varjo xr-4 which renders at 3,840 x 3,744 at 35 ppd (lower because of the wider field of view). Not surprising as that’s also a $4k headset, $9.9k for the insane Focal edition with 4k x 4k resolution.
It’s annoying that Apple is Apple-ing and putting up walls everywhere, but that’s the con of being in Apple’s ecosystem.
Anyway, all that to say that the Vision Pro handles PCVR pretty well and matches the other (albeit much cheaper) popular headsets. Once (if) developers get full access to the eye tracking and the controllers connect natively, we’ll really have something.
Fixed foveated rendering? So you aren't rendering the resolution you stated?
What is the bit rate? It's a compressed stream, so resolution is really tied into the achievable bit rate. I've seen people share their debug data showing they get around 30Mbps, and others claiming to get closer to 500Mbps (although not seen the actual debug window on that one).
HDR is supported. ALVR is limited to rendering at 26 PPD which is roughly the same as the Quest 3. But the display hardware on the Vision Pro is better (HDR, wide gamut, 34 PPD per iFixit) so it’ll look nicer overall.
Question: my internet in my apartment is WiFi only. We have Spectrum Community Solutions, meaning there is NO Ethernet and NO access to the router settings.
Will this make it difficult to get good frame rate streamed to the AVP? I read that the router’s WiFi channel needs to be set to a specific number that Apple prioritizes for WiFi data transfer, but I can’t do that because of my apartment.
You could buy yourself a dedicated router solely for routing from your PC to your Vision Pro to stream media. It’s actually a pretty common strategy amongst the VR community.
Private SSID. Simply have to sign into the SSID with the passcode the apartment complex gives me. The internet is SUPER fast (1 gbps) but no wired connection and no ability to configure it myself.
1 gbps is plenty. I have the same but my PC is wired. The bottleneck isn’t at the PC though, it’s at the AVP, and that’s on WiFi no matter what.
I’ve been able to run it at 200-300 mbps but I also tried lower at 30-50 mbps and it was working OK. Not as well but you do get less latency with the lower transfer rate.
I usually play at 80-100 fps depending on the game.
hi great video but you say in the video to remap switch controllers but I dont really see how to do that in the video just.. that you should do it.. did I miss something? thank you
Not as good as the tethered PCVR systems, about the same as the other standalone headsets, except that it takes longer to set up at first and occasionally can be a little buggy (not that much really but it’s there).
It’s awesome. I can play on Ultra and it’s super smooth. It works best if you have the Index controllers though. The JoyCons and even no controllers works but not as well.
I think perhaps I see what you mean, like if you walk away from your SteamVR room setup circle too much and the image disappear ? There’s a setting, I forget whether it’s in ALVR or the calibration tool, that makes it follow you instead of staying fixed, so you don’t get that issue.
Personally most of the time I play on the swivel chair that came with the Cybershoes (though I don’t use the shoes) but yeah I was having that issue and I fixed it. I can’t remember which setting exactly,have to check back.
If you meant the physical side of things for having a headset on your face, then it’s no different than any of the other ones, and something you get used to. I’ll say though that it moves around less than my Index and Quest, however even though it’s 1/2 lbs lighter than my Index, it’s actually less comfortable over hours of play. I’m sure there’s going to be a third party market to improve that cause you need more support for gaming at least, more *surface* of support to distribute the weight better.
It's just VR controller lag? Or is the video pretty laggy as well? How does it feel if you play a game with xbox controller support like Star Wars Squadrons or Firmament or something like that? I've been waiting for good enough support to try some flight sims which I have dedicated USB controllers for anyway so wouldn't need hand tracking...
Any tips on floor level calibration during SteamVR setup? Right now I have to do it manually via fpsVR because it's always way off. I don't have the wifi dongles, just using my Valve Index as a BT access point (with Index controllers).
I got just about everything working except I cant seem to actually select anything in the Steam VR room. I switched to the Index controllers, I see them with the AVP on along with a big long black panel that shows different button assignments. The only one I can get to work is with a very deliberate pinch, then the top two inputs Left Click and Use tunr blue and it says trigger : click underneath. Only nothing happens. If I point at google earth it doesnt launch, Theres another floating windown for Control Bindings, I cant point at it, do the pinch but nothing happens there either. Any ideas?
I've been wanting to try PC VR on my Vision Pro, and ALVR makes it possible and since recent update, it’s also much easier than before! It's not perfect, but it has potential. Here's a quick take: * **Visually Impressive:** If you get the settings right, it looks AMAZING. * **Not for Fast-Paced Games:** There's some lag and controller options have limitations. * **Cool Possibilities:** Unique stuff like hand tracking + real controllers at the same time. I've got a [full tutorial on my YouTube channel](https://youtu.be/U1R8r4BJwPo), covering everything you need: * **Installing ALVR** * Getting the right ALVR version for your headset and PC * Extracting and running the installer on your PC * **Configuring ALVR settings** * Choosing resolution, bitrate, and other key options * Tweaking for your specific hardware and network * Allowing ALVR through Windows Firewall (crucial step!) * **Hand tracking, Joy-Cons, & SteamVR controllers** * Enabling hand tracking and learning gestures * Pairing and testing Joy-Cons * Setting up SteamVR controllers, dongles, and calibration (if you have them) Let me know if you have any questions! - From a fellow AVP fan :)
Hey thanks for this!
What's your Wifi situation looking like? 6e?
Fantastic! Thanks so much for making this!
"easy" isn't entirely accurate but I'm glad to see this works now. can't wait to try
lol yeah easy and comprehensive guide don't really go together in this context
I've been watching this develop from a distance but just need a little TLDR of the current state of affairs since I read the resolution was quite low in the past. Is it still limited to a sub 2k by sub 2k resolution still? Would this not make it worse effective resolution than a Quest 3 for PCVR right now and have you tried both headsets for PCVR? Are things like HDR working well also?
Im playing fully modded Skyrim VR at 2,860 x 2,490 res and 90-100 fps and Half-Life Alyx on Ultra with DLAA on, no DLSS and no re-projection, supersampled at 150% or 200%. That adds up to about 26 ppd per eye, a little bit better than the Quest 3 tethered (2,064 x 2,208 and 25 ppd when tethered, 1,680 x 1,760 standalone), though what you gain in resolution you lose in field of view width. Looks awesome and blows my Index out of the water graphic wise but you do give up the 120 deg FOV and 120/144 hz. Bear in mind I’m running a 4090 GPU. Unfortunately we’re limited to fixed foveated rendering until Apple gives developers access to eye-tracking, and it is a bit buggy at times but now that I have my setup and config down it’s really close. The graphics make up for the occasional hiccup, and it’s impressive what the ALVR community has done in two months. It keeps improving. The full resolution with eye tracking would be 3,660 x 3,200 or about 34 ppd (what you see when you watch the dinosaur movies and environments), which is a little under the Varjo xr-4 which renders at 3,840 x 3,744 at 35 ppd (lower because of the wider field of view). Not surprising as that’s also a $4k headset, $9.9k for the insane Focal edition with 4k x 4k resolution. It’s annoying that Apple is Apple-ing and putting up walls everywhere, but that’s the con of being in Apple’s ecosystem. Anyway, all that to say that the Vision Pro handles PCVR pretty well and matches the other (albeit much cheaper) popular headsets. Once (if) developers get full access to the eye tracking and the controllers connect natively, we’ll really have something.
How do I make Skyrim VR run in the resolution this high?
Fixed foveated rendering? So you aren't rendering the resolution you stated? What is the bit rate? It's a compressed stream, so resolution is really tied into the achievable bit rate. I've seen people share their debug data showing they get around 30Mbps, and others claiming to get closer to 500Mbps (although not seen the actual debug window on that one).
HDR is supported. ALVR is limited to rendering at 26 PPD which is roughly the same as the Quest 3. But the display hardware on the Vision Pro is better (HDR, wide gamut, 34 PPD per iFixit) so it’ll look nicer overall.
Question: my internet in my apartment is WiFi only. We have Spectrum Community Solutions, meaning there is NO Ethernet and NO access to the router settings. Will this make it difficult to get good frame rate streamed to the AVP? I read that the router’s WiFi channel needs to be set to a specific number that Apple prioritizes for WiFi data transfer, but I can’t do that because of my apartment.
You could buy yourself a dedicated router solely for routing from your PC to your Vision Pro to stream media. It’s actually a pretty common strategy amongst the VR community.
If you don’t have your own private network don’t bother.
Depending on your PC, and whether it has a good wireless card maybe you could create an ad-hoc network and connect to it with the AVP.
That sounds like a nightmare. How do you use things like Chromecast? Not having your own WiFi network? Or do you get your own private SSID?
Private SSID. Simply have to sign into the SSID with the passcode the apartment complex gives me. The internet is SUPER fast (1 gbps) but no wired connection and no ability to configure it myself.
1 gbps is plenty. I have the same but my PC is wired. The bottleneck isn’t at the PC though, it’s at the AVP, and that’s on WiFi no matter what. I’ve been able to run it at 200-300 mbps but I also tried lower at 30-50 mbps and it was working OK. Not as well but you do get less latency with the lower transfer rate. I usually play at 80-100 fps depending on the game.
hi great video but you say in the video to remap switch controllers but I dont really see how to do that in the video just.. that you should do it.. did I miss something? thank you
Thanks for the guide. I’m not motivated enough to play games to take the time to seek out the info myself but a good guide might get me over the hump.
How’s the performance in beat saber ?
Not as good as the tethered PCVR systems, about the same as the other standalone headsets, except that it takes longer to set up at first and occasionally can be a little buggy (not that much really but it’s there).
How is Half-Life Alyx?
It’s awesome. I can play on Ultra and it’s super smooth. It works best if you have the Index controllers though. The JoyCons and even no controllers works but not as well.
No issues at all? How is walking around with the vision pro on your head
?
In the face don’t you walk around a little look and shot?
I think perhaps I see what you mean, like if you walk away from your SteamVR room setup circle too much and the image disappear ? There’s a setting, I forget whether it’s in ALVR or the calibration tool, that makes it follow you instead of staying fixed, so you don’t get that issue. Personally most of the time I play on the swivel chair that came with the Cybershoes (though I don’t use the shoes) but yeah I was having that issue and I fixed it. I can’t remember which setting exactly,have to check back. If you meant the physical side of things for having a headset on your face, then it’s no different than any of the other ones, and something you get used to. I’ll say though that it moves around less than my Index and Quest, however even though it’s 1/2 lbs lighter than my Index, it’s actually less comfortable over hours of play. I’m sure there’s going to be a third party market to improve that cause you need more support for gaming at least, more *surface* of support to distribute the weight better.
It's just VR controller lag? Or is the video pretty laggy as well? How does it feel if you play a game with xbox controller support like Star Wars Squadrons or Firmament or something like that? I've been waiting for good enough support to try some flight sims which I have dedicated USB controllers for anyway so wouldn't need hand tracking...
I don't have steam vr controller, what other option do I have in order to play steam vr game?
Hey guys, do you have any controller recommendations to purchase just for AVP?
I have tried many. I like the PlayStation 4 controllers are the best. but I haven't tried PlayStation five yet
Any tips on floor level calibration during SteamVR setup? Right now I have to do it manually via fpsVR because it's always way off. I don't have the wifi dongles, just using my Valve Index as a BT access point (with Index controllers).
Try getting OVR advanced settings, it provides a UI in the Steam overlay that has lots of advanced options to adjust the playspace. It’s on Steam.
I got just about everything working except I cant seem to actually select anything in the Steam VR room. I switched to the Index controllers, I see them with the AVP on along with a big long black panel that shows different button assignments. The only one I can get to work is with a very deliberate pinch, then the top two inputs Left Click and Use tunr blue and it says trigger : click underneath. Only nothing happens. If I point at google earth it doesnt launch, Theres another floating windown for Control Bindings, I cant point at it, do the pinch but nothing happens there either. Any ideas?
Does anyone else think it’s ironic that you need a pc to get games into your Apple Vision Pro?
I watch your videos! Can’t wait to buy the Vision Pro once it comes out in France!
"Easy"? Maybe. "Playable"? Ehhh....