ah. there's actually already a whole sort of ecosystem of VR on Linux, which i made a thread about a while back...
but even if you mean specifically native linux, there is also the Simula One, though i suspect that project will... probably die a slow death now that the steam frame is coming out, unfortunately.
i'm looking forward to the improvements in linux VR, but i'm also very worried about what this might do to the existing FOSS VR ecosystem. rant about that below.
Aizen goes on for approximately (too long) about worries of the future
okay so basic background first: VR on linux is not a new thing. it dates back to before the index, but admittedly the start of it being at the "index" wouldn't be a bad place to start. so when valve released the index, one of their claims was that the index & steamvr could work on linux.
to their credit, this is true.
VR on linux has been around for a while. SteamVR works on linux, if you're willing to go through it.
Problem: steam dropped the ball on SteamVR on Linux. not going into the nitty gritty of it, cause that is WAAAY too much for me to explain here. but suffice to say, using VR on linux sucked.
Solution: a lot of people worked very hard on FOSS VR, to make it good, and bring it to the current point, where it is on-par (and in some ways better) than SteamVR is on windows. Unfortunately though, all the FOSS VR is basically completely locked to Linux.
there's not really demand to set up FOSS VR stuff on windows, though i believe there has been ongoing work to port Monado to Windows, but it's slow.
so most push on FOSS VR has been purely because of the linux scene.
to put it simply: I worry that with the steam frames, and Valve's renewed focus on SteamVR on Linux, the demand and work on FOSS VR will dry up.
this is 100% an unfounded and probably unnecessary worry, but it's there anyways.
i want FOSS VR to remain because SteamVR needs a competitor.
SteamVR needs competitors for... well, several reasons
Firstly, for the sake of OpenXR... which is more or less what a lot of new VR applications are based off of. i really don't want to get into the weeds too much, but suffice to say: if you've played anything in VR in the last 5 years, it was probably based on OpenXR. OpenXR as a standard allows devs to create applications that can run on a bunch of different platforms, cause the different platforms create their own OpenXR runtimes (like Monado), but they all speak the same language, more or less.
while the SteamVR implementation of OpenXR now is perfectly up to (basic) spec, they were rather slow with getting there, and the most likely reason for that is because of OpenVR.
OpenVR, of course, was what Valve created prior to OpenXR, with similar goals...
but, of course, it's not a standard. OpenVR apps generally has more restrictions on where they work compared to OpenXR.
to some extent, i am definitely being paranoid here, but, Valve has very much been keeping OpenVR around when it would quite possibly be better if it simply wasn't. anyways.
secondly, for the oh-so-classical argument of "competition breeds improvement", or whatever. possibly fallacious. doesn't matter, mentioning it anyways.
thirdly, because VR should not be the domain of one company, or even a set of companies. VR as a technology should remain open access. that's what FOSS VR is about. i very much hope that Monado, and WiVRn, and all the other wonderful things the folks at LVRA have put together, remains around. being able to access all of this technology, to freely create your own headset, your own trackers, your own programs and everything...
i really don't want to lose that.
again, i'm probably being a bit melodramatic. but i will remain to say: please don't treat Valve as some kinda savior or definer or something. Valve is still a company, and while slightly better than others, they are still guilty of that which all companies tend to be.
anyways that ridiculous (thing) over with.
still really excited about the steam frame, and i'll probably try to pick one up as soon as that's an option....
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