Microsoft had relatively interesting ideas concerning 3D and VR content, then proceeded to do an extremely mediocre execution, simultaneously dumbing everything down while also making it hard to use, and then proceeded to discontinue their software after almost never touching it again for seven years
I have a Reverb G2 (windows mixed reality headset), it is really a good headset and is still competitive with the Quest 3 in several areas for use on PC. The WMR software itself isn’t that bad and I think if it had more care and attention put into it it could genuinely have been great. If they had better home options, user created homes, more customization and the ability to fix things in place so you don’t accidentally move them, the ability to add (even just user created) minigames and dynamic objects that stay in the world, and (most importantly) the ability to actually invite other people into the space to play with you and launch into other games. They’re Microsoft, they were large enough and early enough that I’m sure they could even have gotten game developers on board with some protocol that automatically brings people you’re playing with into a multiplayer session of whatever game you start. I think they were onto something with their home system and could have fleshed the software out into something much better than even the modern competition. Of course it’s all discontinued now, the latest version of Windows doesn’t even support it, I plan to continue to use the old version until it stops getting security patches in 2026 and then switch to Linux where hopefully the open source people will finally fully support using controllers.
I was gifted a reverb g2 some years ago. It was ok, had some problems getting custom bindings to work in Skyrim VR that killed the game for me. I want the index next since it will have linux support and hopefully won’t die like WMR did but I also want to wait for the next index, whatever upgraded headset they make next.
Microsoft had relatively interesting ideas concerning 3D and VR content, then proceeded to do an extremely mediocre execution, simultaneously dumbing everything down while also making it hard to use, and then proceeded to discontinue their software after almost never touching it again for seven years
I have a Reverb G2 (windows mixed reality headset), it is really a good headset and is still competitive with the Quest 3 in several areas for use on PC. The WMR software itself isn’t that bad and I think if it had more care and attention put into it it could genuinely have been great. If they had better home options, user created homes, more customization and the ability to fix things in place so you don’t accidentally move them, the ability to add (even just user created) minigames and dynamic objects that stay in the world, and (most importantly) the ability to actually invite other people into the space to play with you and launch into other games. They’re Microsoft, they were large enough and early enough that I’m sure they could even have gotten game developers on board with some protocol that automatically brings people you’re playing with into a multiplayer session of whatever game you start. I think they were onto something with their home system and could have fleshed the software out into something much better than even the modern competition. Of course it’s all discontinued now, the latest version of Windows doesn’t even support it, I plan to continue to use the old version until it stops getting security patches in 2026 and then switch to Linux where hopefully the open source people will finally fully support using controllers.
I’m in the same boat, assholes trying to brick a $500 headset that is only 3 years old.
here are some pages I found from the last time I looked into this
https://catwithcode.moe/Blog/2023.11.30_VR_ON_LINUX/VR_ON_LINUX.html
https://www.youtube.com/@mateosss/videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05H5a1t6HnE
Another good idea from Microsoft to be hated. What a stupid idea to remove it when it start to be interesting.
I was gifted a reverb g2 some years ago. It was ok, had some problems getting custom bindings to work in Skyrim VR that killed the game for me. I want the index next since it will have linux support and hopefully won’t die like WMR did but I also want to wait for the next index, whatever upgraded headset they make next.
Yeah, I think you have to start Skyrim VR with openvr while in the steam VR home iirc or it won’t work correctly
Using openxr would give better performance but then the bindings fall apart
And yea the index is currently pretty outdated imo, I would definitely wait