How To Stream VR

Use Oculus Rift to play SteamVR and download VR games in just four steps

Although Valve has been calling for Rift players to install SteamVR, the number of users who want to use Oculus Rift to enable SteamVR is still far lower than planned. Today we will list the following steps and operations to teach you how to easily download your favorite games on SteamVR using a VR device.

The first step to start SteamVR with Oculus Rift, of course, is to make sure that your Oculus Rift has been installed correctly and is in a working state. If not, then you may have to download the "Oculus Home Installation Package", it will help you install the user version of Oculus Rift (even if you are using Oculus Rift DK2, you can also use it to install Oculus Home). Once successfully installed, check whether you can enter the Oculus Home VR environment normally.

Take off your headset and focus on the Oculus desktop app. Click the gear icon on the top right to enter "Settings". In the left menu, click "General", then click the "Unknown Sources" button, and finally click the "Allow" button. Remember not to close the Oculus desktop app during the setup process.

Now we start Steam. If the interface does not automatically pop up the SteamVR installation option at this time, select "library> Tools" and choose to install SteamVR in the displayed list.

Once SteamVR is installed successfully, you will see a VR logo (near the minimize and maximize buttons) at the top right of the Steam window. Click it to start SteamVR. Your Oculus Rift should be detected right now, and when you can put on the headset, you will surely see the VR version of SteamVR. (Note: The Oculus desktop app may need to continue to run in the background.) After putting on the headset, clicking the Back button on the Xbox One controller (a supporting facility for the user version of Oculus Rift) will display the SteamVR menu.

After you can run SteamVR with Oculus Rift, you need to know which games are "for Oculus Rift" and which are not. Be aware that the games on SteamVR are designed for different headsets, input devices and gaming venues (do you need extra space when playing games).

The Steam Search function allows you to find games on SteamVR that suit your device through classification search. (Expand the "Narrow by VR support" option on the right side of the screen).
Common categories are:

Headset

HTC Vive

Oculus Rift

input device

tracked motion controllers

Gamepad

Keyboard / Mouse

Gaming place

Seated

Standing

Room-scale

Some games can be compatible with any of the above devices and can be played anywhere, while other games can only be played with a handle while sitting down. Of course, more often it is played with a motion controller in a place almost the size of a room. When you want to buy or download a game marked "VR Support", you may wish to pay more attention to whether the headset, input device and required game venue in the game information match yours.

If you are using an Oculus Rift, you may be restricted when you want to play games that support gamepad and keyboard/mouse on SteamVR (after all, Oculus has not released their Touch controller yet). Of course, if you want to play games that support Seated or The same goes for the Standing Play Areas game (because you only have one tracking sensor, while the 360-degree wide field of view area game requires two tracking sensors).

If you play games on a computer, there must be many non-VR games, and you may be confused about how to play these games with a VR device. The SteamVR desktop theater mode may help you solve this problem: you can play any game you want in the virtual world through a virtual large-screen TV. Hurry up and put on your headset, use this feature of SteamVR to play your non-VR games, and enjoy the immersive joy that the game brings to you!