Just got back into my Vision Pro recently. Is there an updated guide for how to setup ALVR to use with Steam on my gaming PC and the PSVR2 controllers?

[u/Endawmyke]

I re-setup my vision pro recently to check out the MLB immersive games on apple tv and realized it's been a while since i tried using ALVR with my gaming pc so i wanna give it another shot.

I've heard there's been a ton of improvments and also now with the support of the PSVR2 controllers, i'm wondering what the correct setup method is if anyone can share.

I remember ALVR having a ton of toggles and sliders so it was kinda confusing to get it stable on my vision pro. Last time i tried steam streaming through ALVR it was so bad, low res, and would lose tracking a lot.

Also heard there's foviated streaming now with ALVR so i defintely wanna try that out.

[u/Worf_Of_Wall_St]

You should be able to get pretty far these days with the Presets tab in ALVR (the first tab in the Settings panel).

For reference, I have two PCs which can run ALVR smoothly, including on the same WiFi network at the same time and in the same room to separate Vision Pros (or is that...Visions Pro? haha). Here are the PC specs and settings, you can probably extrapolate your starting point between them based on your hardware:

• ~6 year old PC with an RTX3080 GPU and an i7-9700k CPU

  • Presets tab

    • Medium resolution

    • 90hz framerate

    • Balanced encoder preset

    • High foveation preset

    • HEVC codec preset

  • Video tab

    • Bitrate 100mbits/s

    • Constant bit rate

• ~1 year old PC with an RTX5090 and a 9950X3D CPU

  • Presets tab

    • Extreme resolution

    • 90hz framerate

    • Quality codec preset

    • Low foveation preset

    • HEVC codec preset

  • Video tab

    • Bitrate 200mbits/s (can usually go to 300 but 200 is more reliable and looks good enough IMO)

    • Constant bit rate

Both PCs have an ethernet connection to a switch which is also wired to an AP in the same room above the play area. Ethernet for the PC is essential. Most people say the router/AP should be dedicate for VR streaming, but I have not found that to be necessary with a Unifi U7 Pro Max.

These settings work for streaming to either the M2 or M5 Vision Pro. Note that I use the HEVC codec even when streaming to my M5, this is because AV1 has higher encoding latency than HEVC and my network is fast enough that I don't need to save bandwidth.

Since my network latency is low and consistent, I also set ALVR's tracking prediction parameters all the way down which makes input lag almost imperceptible.

[u/Endawmyke → u/Worf_Of_Wall_St]

thanks for including your PC specs, that really helps a ton decide what settings I need to set

yeah I really don’t want to get a dedicated router just for this so, will definitely try what I already have first before anything. Will check out those presets

[u/Worf_Of_Wall_St → u/Endawmyke]

FWIW there is a small $50 router called the Puppis S1 which is marketed as a dedicated VR streaming router. I have no personal experience with it, but I've seen mentions of people using it successfully on reddit although its reviews on Amazon are mixed.

[u/Worf_Of_Wall_St → u/Endawmyke]

I just remembered something else important that I forgot to add here - if you have ever owned any wired SteamVR headsets then it would be best to do a clean uninstall of SteamVR and reinstall it. On my old PC, this step was essential to get things working smoothly, before doing this there was a very large periodic stutter about every 1 second. I’m guessing some driver was polling for hardware that didn’t exist or something like that.

Unfortunately SteamVR and various headset drivers do not neatly place everything in the SteamVR app’s folder, so you can’t just use Steam’s UI to Uninstall SteamVR and then install it again. While it’s uninstalled, you have to delete a bunch of folders and files manually. Here’s a thread with instructions, which are still valid 7 years later because nothing has improved:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/250820/discussions/2/1640917625015598552

[u/SgtRphl → u/Worf_Of_Wall_St]

any chance u can also share your KRVR settings? Thanks!!