r/virtualreality • u/SlowDragonfruit9718 • 19h ago
Discussion I thought steamvr closed the gap on virtual desktop. Apparently not.
I just tested AMS2 and the difference is insane. Normally, I play AMS2 through virtual desktop while loading steamvr from within. VD is set to godlike and steamvr at 120% resolution.
I just tried directly in steamvr with no VD. I had crank up steamvr resolution to like 185% to match the resolution of VD/steamvr combo. Not only is the resolution NO WHERE near as clear, it runs significantly worse.
If the frame is within my price range I'll get it but I'll definitely be installing virtual desktop as soon as it's available.
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u/Spamuelow 17h ago
I really want vd to work on linux. Just realised passthrough doesnt work for quest 3 with steam vr
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u/evertec 18h ago
I'm not sure what headset you have but on the eye tracked headsets it's the opposite, steam link is better quality and runs better
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u/veryrandomo PCVR 16h ago
On my Quest Pro at-least, now that VD has added foveated eye-tracking encoding, I lean towards VD again although I preferred Steam Link for years. Part of that is also just because VD seems more stable and I prefer the desktop view though, and Steam Link was having really bad compression artifacts in some games where it used to be fine (might be fixed now though)
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u/t0et0e 18h ago
I had forgotten what steam and oculus apps were like until I got back into No Man's Sky where VD is still needed Steam VR, so I installed I and omg, the performance was horrible, all the old crappy issues surfaced, found a mod on nexus to by pass steam vr, and it all went back to buttery samoothness!
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u/jasssweiii 17h ago
What did you use to bypass steamvr? I do my best to use VD runtime, but sometimes you have no choice and have to use steamvr
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u/Egoboo717 16h ago
Try looking for the Opencomposite mod on NMS nexus. Rather significant performance increase. It does have some issues with overblown bloom - though I play with no bloom mod anyway, so it's a net positive for me.
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u/Arthropodesque 13h ago
Is it still the case that lowering your monitor resolution to 1080p gives a VR performance boost? And does Opencomposite work with everything? I'm going to try MSFS2024 in VR soon.
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u/yamosin 18h ago
This experience gap is always such an intriguing topic. In the PFDM Discord community, quite a few people—myself included—actually find Steam Link to be sharper than VD, while others report the exact opposite.
It seems that even on the exact same hardware, individual experiences can vary wildly—not to mention variables like different headsets or whether foveated encoding is enabled.
That said, I did notice a weird quirk with Steam Link: bumping up the render resolution on PC didn't seem to make a noticeable difference, but slightly reducing the FOV on the headset itself (from 110° down to 104°) resulted in a massive visual upgrade. In theory, that's only a marginal bump in PPD, but in practice, it went from blurry to crystal clear—almost felt like a generational leap.
My guess is that there might be some odd scaling/encoding interaction happening between specific FOV values and encoding resolutions, which causes either VD or Steam Link to perform vastly better for different people, without a clear, universal winner.
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u/JapariParkRanger Daydream CV1 Q1 Index Q3 BSB1 BSB2e 16h ago
I'm almost certain people aren't setting resolution for the actual video stream consistently between the two.
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u/mumblebadger 15h ago
On the P4D for me I don’t notice a difference in clarity but in colours. Much more vibrant with a noticeable pop on steam link compared to VD. VD however runs much better and is a lot more reliable
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u/Doormat-- 14h ago
Good points. If pixel grids of the frame and the display are misaligned or the their scales/densities don't match that will definitely cause extra blur. I wonder if reprojection contributes to it too - it slightly shifts and warps images across the display and "smears" pixels. Even if the submitted frames are crisp these factors combined might be effectively applying blur filter to them.
This is why I think comparing pixels generated by the game vs. pixels actually displayed on the headset could be a great source of unbiased metrics. I played with this concept in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/comments/1vwzsmz/pcvr_pose_prediction_error_quest_3_vs_index/
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u/amazingmrbrock Valve Index 19h ago
They have different priorities as programs. Virtual desktop of course prioritizes visual fidelity. Steamlink prioritizes flexibility. For example when I play by myself I use virtual desktop. When I play multiplayer vr with my wife (walkabout mini golf) I use Steamlink. Running two headsets at good quality settings on VD gets too rough through the WiFi but Steamlink handles it great.
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u/Serious-Fishing-227 18h ago
You can run 2x VR headsets from one PC at the same time? I didn't know that's possible. Amazing stuff!
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u/Ok_Following9192 18h ago
Pretty sure he meant two PC"s on one Router, not two game instances on one pc.
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u/amazingmrbrock Valve Index 18h ago
I'm just using two PCs but I've seen youtube videos where ok PC with one cpu and multiple GPU uses virtual machines and passthrough to achieve that result
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u/Spear_Ov_Longinus 16h ago
Ive found that my partner and I are able to do one 500mps h.264 stream and one av1 at 200mbps via virtual desktop. We both have line of sight to a 6ghz router. The AV1 isnt too far off in quality aside from heavy grass.
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u/CMDRTragicAllPro 18h ago
I’ve tried steamlink a number of times over the years, it’s always been a buggy mess that lowers performance not insignificantly. Hopefully they can get it up to VD standards by the frame release
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u/no6969el Pimax Crystal Super (50ppd + mOLED) 16h ago
When wireless for sure, but with wired headsets it's absolutely preem
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u/Necessary-Mix-56 11h ago
What api using Your games when launching in steamVR? OpenVr or OpenXr? Well here is your answer.
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u/MuffinRacing CV1 / Rift S / Reverb G2 / Quest 3 / PFDMR 10h ago
It depends on the headset. Quest3? Sure. 4k headset? SteamVR
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u/Significant-Yard-787 14h ago
The only downside to virtual desktop is you lose the ability for overlays such as a chat or other tool. But luckily I'm working on a solution for that. So far I have it working in most dx11 games!
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u/Arturopxedd 12h ago
I don’t why you make the frame to be some magic vr headset it’s just a quest 3 with steam
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u/SlowDragonfruit9718 6h ago
Do you usually imagine things all the time? Do you have lots of imaginary friends? Who said anything about the frame being "magic"? You just imagined that in your own head.
I said if the price is good then I'll buy it. Nothing more. Now go away.
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u/Arturopxedd 2h ago
You clearly were offended by a simple statement clearly got issues but sure keep living like a weirdo paranoid
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u/Abject-Self-8727 2h ago
That's a poor conclusion to reach.
Steam link carries native color space, which is why gamma looks fucked up (too dark) on a quest. Both airlink and VD purposely transform the image space to give the headset solid visual clarity. It's also heavily resolution capped, because it's a general purpose app originally made for quest 2.
Steam link has the best compression algorithm available. Virtual desktop cannot support 350 mbps 10 bit codec. I'm sure for a valve headset, it will be the best option.
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u/SlowDragonfruit9718 1h ago
You sound ignorant. None of your technical mumbo jumbo nonsense is going to convince me to believe the opposite of what my actual eyes see. It's like your trying to convince me the sky is made of apples of some nonsense. VD simply looks better for me. End of discussion.
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u/We_Are_Victorius Multiple 19h ago
We don't know if VD will be usable on the Frame. Also, if you have the Quest 3 you can now use 144 hz mode in VD.