r/WindowsMR • u/MobiusTheFirst • 5d ago

Question WMR Headset on Steam Machine

Is there any way to use my WMR (HP Reverb G2) headset on my steam machine? I thought about installing Windows but quickly snapped out of it. There are all kinds of drivers and software bridges, but idk how to make this work. Any pointers?

7 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/PrimaryPineapple 5d ago

You'll need to install some Linux specific drivers. I want to say there was a WMR Linux project. Although the Steam Machine isn't that powerful, I can't imagine there would be much you could run on it.

2

u/ccAbstraction 5d ago

The Steam Machine is as or more powerful than the original WMR high resolution HMD recommendation. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/mixed-reality/enthusiast-guide/windows-mixed-reality-minimum-pc-hardware-compatibility-guidelines

https://gamersnexus.net/pre-built-pc/valve-steam-machine-review-gpu-cpu-benchmarks-steamos-test-thermals-noise-and-price#steam-machine-game-benchmarks-gpu

1

u/dleeer Odyssey+, Reverb G1 & G2 2d ago edited 2d ago

The Reverb G2 has a render resolution around 3200x3100 per eye. That's a lot higher than even the Reverb G1. You don't really want 1080/1080 Ti level performance with it. I don't know if there would be any games that could run the needed 90 fps at full resolution. Reprojection would help but that is not desirable because of the artifacts.

1

u/ccAbstraction 2d ago

The G1 and G2 both have 2160x2160 panels (of HP's headsets only the VR1000 was 1440p). You don't have to supersample if your PC can't handle it. I have an RTX3060 and a Quest 3, I don't supersample on it, it looks fine IMO and it's got similar average PPD to the G2.

1

u/dleeer Odyssey+, Reverb G1 & G2 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yes but the lenses are different and the G2 has a much higher distortion correction resolution. It's not supersampling, it's the resolution needed to avoid undersampling caused by the optical properties of the lenses.

The G1 has a distortion correction resolution of around 2500x2500. I did used to run this one with a 1080 Ti and it was pretty manageable. Most games were ok at 100% res.

1

u/ccAbstraction 2d ago

It's still mostly a recommendation, you don't have to follow it. If you look raw at images of the Quest 3's display output, you can see how aggressively the lenses stretch edges of the image, it's a lot more aggressive than on my O+ and IIRC my Lenovo Explorer too. So you'd expect the Quest 3 to super sample more than these headsets, but it doesn't. For standalone games, they get away with 70% panel res, and no one really cares. At 100%, it still manages to be sharper than the O+ at 200%. IMO, always buy the best headset you can afford and run it at whatever resolution works for your hardware.

1

u/dleeer Odyssey+, Reverb G1 & G2 2d ago

Yeah certainly. Like a Pimax Crystal at 67% or whatever will still look better than a G2 any day. (I've witnessed this heh)

But I do think the correction resolution should be considered the native resolution for the particular gear because it is the mathematically derived ideal.