Along with the current UI for selecting games /profiles for installed games…I think it would be neat to include a desktop view behind my back ( 180° turn around from the current UI ). There are several apps that only work once you have started Steam VR like fpsVR and OVR Drop.
Is there any chance these can be integrated into PE?
You start steamvr when you start a steam game so when game started just press homebutton on controller and start fpsvr.
Desktop viewer is something I have looked into already, and it seems a bit more complex than I expected, but I still have it on the to-do list. And indeed, having it at the back side is a nice idea. Or simply hiding the UI menus (in front of you) when desktop is viewed.
I need some more time getting this done though, but its definitely something we will see in VRExp soon!
Yeah, but running SteamVR is not a sin 
Last time this came up, I suggested contacting the Virtual Desktop and OVRDrop developers. I have no doubt they already have the interest and the technology to splice in.
@mmorselli Last time I used the headset my VR PC had not been used in a while. I was more than a little concerned it would turn into yet another day trip down a rat hole to fix whatever Valve/SteamVR broke this time. So far, it worked, but I have yet to retest the flight sim. I am still worried.
Running SteamVR not a sin? Maybe. Depending on SteamVR is definitely a sin.
I want VirtualDesktop or something like that to work without SteamVR or any other middleware.
@SweViver By the way, you may be getting into more of a challenge than you realize trying to implement that yourself. There are a lot of bugs caused by things like a few different varieties of UAC prompts, multiple monitors, really funny things like X11 display servers for MSW, VNC clients (both native and X11) doing weird things, VirtualBox being somewhat weird, and many other things, that VirtualDesktop and OVRDrop developers have worked through over the years. How do I know those bugs exist? I have hit every single one of them, I have no doubt there are others, and I rely on things like VirtualBox for my ‘ship computer’ panel VM every time I use seated VR.
MSW is a terrible OS by the way.
yeah thats one of the reasons I havent put this on high-priority yet. I spent a day or two trying some solutions, ended up with crashes, white screens, weird performance issues and incorrectly rendered assets in the UI. So yeah I think I’ll need help with this one!
but the majority of the games that users will use in the end will be SteamVR, so… You can avoid SteamVR for the Desktop Manager, but not for the game you are supposed to run.
Not relevant. Sure, SteamVR needs to work. But we need to be able to reconfigure that and anything else from within the VR headset, especially if no physical monitors are attached because for example we are trying to create 8k virtual screens.
Of course in a monitor-less scenario it would be useful. This gives me an idea for future applications: the possibility to run different versions of SteamVR (it’s possible with a bit of scripting, and can be downloaded from Steam repository)
That sounds highly useful, and would be greatly appreciated (especially if it doesn’t involve a hex memory editor that could get me a VAC ban). However, SteamVR can take a minute or two to startup, which is basically unacceptable if things are broken and that round trip has to be made more than once.
Using a different version of SteamVR is as easy as renaming the
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR
folder and replacing it with a different one.
StateFlags = 4
in appmanifest_250820.acf prevents auto-update
old versions can be downloaded from Steam depots using download_depot command line utiltiy
Finally, a way to maintain a locked version of SteamVR. I will try that, thanks, that helps!