How to use the Oculus Rift S headset on Steam VR?

Summary

• Oculus Rift S on Steam VR: all the tips for an optimal experience

Good news ! The Oculus Rift S is finally supported by the SteamVR. Now, users of Facebook's new VR headset can therefore play the many virtual reality games available exclusively on the Valve platform.

Be aware, however, that SteamVR's Rift S support is not native. In reality, SteamVR behaves like an Oculus app. This automatically translates calls from the SteamVR API used by the game developer to calls from the Oculus API.

Generally, the process works very well. However, it may happen that bugs occur or that the performance is poorer only if the game was launched directly on a native compatible headset.

On the other hand, some games use the SteamVR API directly without going through the Oculus API. So you shouldn't have any problem with these games.

Unfortunately, the Steam pages don't specify whether the games are headset compatible natively or through SteamVR. It is therefore necessary to check this detail on the official website or forum of the game you are interested in.

Oculus Rift S on Steam VR: all the tips for an optimal experience

In general, games based on the Oculus API will automatically transmit audio to the Rift S. This even if another audio output is selected in the Windows taskbar. On the other hand, for Steam VR games, it will be necessary to choose the Rift S as audio output for Windows. To do this, go to the Audio tab of SteamVR settings.

If you use the Rift S with Steam VR, you will also notice that your PC is launching two platforms simultaneously: Oculus Home and SteamVR Home. You will therefore have access to the Oculus Dash and SteamVR Dashboard dashboards. If you want to use only SteamVR content without the platform, you can disable it in SteamVR settings.

If you are experiencing performance issues or bugs while using SteamVR with the Oculus Rit S, you can use the open source OpenComposite runtime as an alternative. This one works the same as SteamVR, but turns out to be lighter and optimized for Rift headsets. You can download this runtime on GitLab at this address.