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SteamVR beta updated to fix a radv crash and 'fixes' Vive Pro on Linux

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A small SteamVR beta is out that fixes an OpenGL crash with the AMD radv drivers and it also fixes support for the Vive Pro on Linux.

Here's what's changed:

SteamVR Home

  • Fixed large PNG backgrounds failing to load

Linux

  • Fixed a crash with OpenGL clients on recent radv drivers
  • Fixed Vive Pro support 

As pointed out in our comments, it's a little odd mentioning OpenGL and radv, since radv is the Vulkan driver. Essentially, even OpenGL games will end up hooking into Vulkan with SteamVR.

It's interesting that they say they "Fixed Vive Pro support", going over past changelogs it seems this is the first time the Vive Pro has even been mentioned in relation to Linux. This is good to know for those who can afford it that you will be able to use it on Linux. See more about the Vive Pro here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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TheRiddick Mar 8, 2018
Field of view: 110 degrees

When Vive gets a larger FOV such as 140+, then I'll be interested. My IRL FOV is quite high so 110 would look a bit like goggle vision for me.


Last edited by TheRiddick on 8 March 2018 at 10:31 am UTC
Ardje Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: TheRiddickField of view: 110 degrees

When Vive gets a larger FOV such as 140+, then I'll be interested. My IRL FOV is quite high so 110 would look a bit like goggle vision for me.

I can assure you that screendoor is a bigger problem than FoV. You can easily adapt to the lower FoV, as long as you can quit looking at pixels or low resolution screens and start looking at the scenery. It's like the first time you look at a computer and move the mouse to look around you. Moving your head instead of the mouse really is an eye opener.
And 110 is already much bigger than 90 :-).
Also the pro has "hardware" IPD correction (you have two separate screens. Trust me when watching stereoscopic content like games, IPD correction is important). The resolution seems to low at that FoV to do something about low resolution or screendoor effects.
(My FoV was also very high until I got night contacts. Now I have a very high FoV with a warble at the edge of my correction.)
I hope somewhere in the future it's possible to render lowres big FoV and very high res low FoV.
Maybe by having 8K screens and upscale lowres and overlay highres in the middle?
TheRiddick Mar 8, 2018
Yeah screendoor is a issue. In all honestly I would probably wait for the 4k helmets anyway, one coming out later this year already (they advertise it as 8k but yeah, that's marketing BS). PIMAX is the brand. I'll wait for reviews. Not sure if a 1080ti is enough for it however...


Last edited by TheRiddick on 8 March 2018 at 11:19 am UTC
AzP Mar 8, 2018
OpenGL and RADV? I don't understand, RADV is pure Vulkan.
muell Mar 8, 2018
There is no radv OpenGL driver and apparently you're blindly copying release announcements.
Liam Dawe Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: AzPOpenGL and RADV? I don't understand, RADV is pure Vulkan.
Yeah, I've adjusted the article to mention that. My bad for not paying 100% attention there, but as an NVIDIA user I don't use AMD stuff so it's easy to forget things here and there.

Quoting: muellThere is no radv OpenGL driver and apparently you're blindly copying release announcements.
See above.
haagch Mar 8, 2018
The SteamVR compositor runs exclusively with Vulkan (on the radv driver). If you start an OpenGL SteamVR application, it submits frames (as OpenGL ids) to the SteamVR compositor which then uses the EXT_external_objects OpenGL extension to import the frame into its own Vulkan context.

Apparently something in radv broke recently so that didn't work anymore and it segfaulted instead. Bug report over there: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/97
The segfault happened in
#1  0x00007fffe827a2fe in CSharedBufferLinux::CreateVulkanBufferForExport(void*, void*, unsigned long, unsigned int, bool) ()
   from /home/chris/.local/share/Steam/SteamApps/common/SteamVR/bin/linux64/vrclient.so

which is closed source so there's not much more info to be found what actually went wrong.

Vulkan SteamVR applications were not affected, it looks like it was specifically a problem with the OpenGL interop.


Last edited by haagch on 8 March 2018 at 12:57 pm UTC
coeseta Mar 8, 2018
I will definitely get the Vive pro.

Btw I understand Liams mistake with the AMD stuff. I sitll don't get it. With nvidia you have proprietary and open source. With AMD it feels like you have to install 3 different things out of 20 or something. At some point I should really take my time and look into that stuff :)
drlamb Mar 8, 2018
I'll see if this update will allow me to try VR under linux. Previously the headset itself "works" but when I attempt to run room setup nothing happens and thus I can't proceed. I might see if I can import previously made room settings.
Expalphalog Mar 8, 2018
Sweet. So, who wants to buy me one?

Pretty please? I'll be your best friend... Nobody?
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