SteamVR Beta Restores Windows VR Headset Support on Windows 11 Thanks to Third-party Driver

By
Ben Lang
-
6

The latest version of the SteamVR Beta automatically installs the third-party ‘Oasis’ driver, enabling compatibility with Windows VR headsets after Microsoft discontinued their support in the latest versions of Windows 11.

For years Valve has sought to support as many VR headsets as possible on SteamVR. That included Windows VR headsets from a wide range of companies including Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Samsung.

But Microsoft itself made the decision to end support for WMR headsets on the latest versions of Windows 11, making them not just incompatible with SteamVR, but the operating system entirely. For WMR users running Windows 11, 24H2 and beyond, that rendered their headsets useless.

But now the third-party ‘Oasis Driver for Windows Mixed Reality‘ has been released, which restores support for WMR headsets on SteamVR, without requiring the installation of the Mixed Reality Portal application, which is no longer available on the latest versions of Windows. Note: a major caveat of the Oasis driver is that it only supports NVIDIA GPUs, due to a lack of developer support by AMD.

Valve is taking things one step further to make sure that WMR headsets work well on SteamVR. In the latest SteamVR Beta (v2.13.1) the software will automatically install the third-party Oasis driver for users with WMR headsets that are running a version of Windows 11 that no longer supports supports the official driver from Microsoft. You can find instructions here for installing the SteamVR Beta if you’d like to check out the update for yourself.

SEE ALSO
Amazon Reportedly Developing Smart Glasses with Display to Rival Meta

The move is the latest in a respectable list of pro-consumer moves Valve has made to ensure seamless compatibility between SteamVR and third-party headsets. That includes making its flagship VR game, Half-Life: Alyx (2020), compatible with all SteamVR-supported headsets, and even launching a Steam Link app on Quest for wireless SteamVR play.

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. See here for more information.

Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."

  • Big kudos to Mbucchia for having created this driver

  • Ad

    That's fantastic to hear. Hopefully Valve can contribute a bit to the project if needed as well.

  • Oxi

    That's fantastic to hear. Hopefully Valve can contribute a bit to the project if needed as well. I would really love if Valve could add things like SteamVR features that right now only work with the things with the SteamVR compositor (vive, vive pro, index) like SteamVR's motion smoothing, frame limiting, etc, as well as the ability to just enable full view passthrough instead of just the flashlight.

  • Lee Collins

    Bet some people that threw them away are peed off now. Guarantee there are some.

  • xyzs

    Amazing. My odyssey + will be back as my goto pc headset

  • ZarathustraDK

    Oof… Imagine being someone who bought a Reverb G2 just before they discontinued WMR, then sold it for pennies on the dollar, then seeing these news.