I play with an Oculus Quest 2

[Ki11s0n3]

Does it matter if you choose the Steam or Oculus launch option? Is there a difference in content?

[LoKey]

You can use oculus quest with steam, plus steam version has mods

[Ki11s0n3]

Originally posted by StarBucks Employee:

You can use oculus quest with steam, plus steam version has mods

I know.

I was asking when you launch the game and the window pops up for SteamVR or Oculus Launch if there was a difference between the two options or if I have to choose the Oculus launch option since I'm using the Oculus.

[nickytwist]

I always just open steam vr from my desktop then open the game from there.

[Ki11s0n3]

Originally posted by Kurtsyy:

I always just open steam vr from my desktop then open the game from there.

You guys aren't getting what I am saying. When you launch the game on Steam a box pops up to launch via SteamVR Mode or Oculus Mode.

If there a difference between the two modes.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Ki11s0n3:

Does it matter if you choose the Steam or Oculus launch option? Is there a difference in content?

In all honesty, they should be mostly the same. I'd recommend to try both and pick the one you like more.

As for the difference, the difference is that the game can talk to your headset either through SteamVR or through Oculus. In some case picking one over another might affect amount of lag, but neither is universally better.

[Espionage724]

Originally posted by Ki11s0n3:

You guys aren't getting what I am saying. When you launch the game on Steam a box pops up to launch via SteamVR Mode or Oculus Mode.

If there a difference between the two modes.

Every comment in this thread so far manages to avoid answering this.

Short answer: The difference is performance; use Oculus mode always for any game when given a choice.

Long answer: SteamVR acts as a compatibility layer for Oculus headsets and thus has higher performance overhead, and latency. This is the case for Rift (CV1 and S), and Quest headsets when using either wired or Air Link. The worst situations of this were with Star Wars Squadrons and Medal of Honor, where the Steam versions only had SteamVR and had significantly worse performance compared to buying those games on another platform that had native Oculus modes.

The exception to this is when using Quest headsets with a 3rd-party streaming tool (Radeon ReLive VR, ALVR, Virtual Desktop). For ReLive and ALVR, you can only do SteamVR for games. For Virtual Desktop, you'll be forced to SteamVR in most cases (including with Blade & Sorcery for some unknown reason). The performance penalty isn't as-significant when using these tools because they handle SteamVR directly through their own more-optimal means.

So the process for games to communicate with VR hardware is:

- For Oculus headsets and SteamVR: Game -> SteamVR -> Oculus

- For Oculus headsets and apps with native support: Game -> Oculus

- For Oculus headsets and 3rd-party streaming apps: Game -> SteamVR -> Streaming App

Basically, SteamVR is a slow middle-man, and should only really be used if you don't have a choice (most VR games on Steam only ship with SteamVR), or if you have a very specific reason for doing so (like that steering wheel SteamVR add-on). Native support in this case means either support for Oculus's specific API (deprecated), or OpenXR (new standard that Valve, WMR, and Oculus support natively).

There's discussion about SteamVR's compatibility layer overall being non-optimized and bad, and this affects every headset that does anything with SteamVR (Oculus, WMR, Vive Connect, etc), except Valve Index and (I think) the original Vive as they have native SteamVR drivers.

Blade & Sorcery needs as-much performance as it can get and benefits from avoiding SteamVR.

[Ki11s0n3]

Originally posted by Espionage724:

Originally posted by Ki11s0n3:

You guys aren't getting what I am saying. When you launch the game on Steam a box pops up to launch via SteamVR Mode or Oculus Mode.

If there a difference between the two modes.

Every comment in this thread so far manages to avoid answering this.

Short answer: The difference is performance; use Oculus mode always for any game when given a choice.

Long answer: SteamVR acts as a compatibility layer for Oculus headsets and thus has higher performance overhead, and latency. This is the case for Rift (CV1 and S), and Quest headsets when using either wired or Air Link. The worst situations of this were with Star Wars Squadrons and Medal of Honor, where the Steam versions only had SteamVR and had significantly worse performance compared to buying those games on another platform that had native Oculus modes.

The exception to this is when using Quest headsets with a 3rd-party streaming tool (Radeon ReLive VR, ALVR, Virtual Desktop). For ReLive and ALVR, you can only do SteamVR for games. For Virtual Desktop, you'll be forced to SteamVR in most cases (including with Blade & Sorcery for some unknown reason). The performance penalty isn't as-significant when using these tools because they handle SteamVR directly through their own more-optimal means.

So the process for games to communicate with VR hardware is:

- For Oculus headsets and SteamVR: Game -> SteamVR -> Oculus

- For Oculus headsets and apps with native support: Game -> Oculus

- For Oculus headsets and 3rd-party streaming apps: Game -> SteamVR -> Streaming App

Basically, SteamVR is a slow middle-man, and should only really be used if you don't have a choice (most VR games on Steam only ship with SteamVR), or if you have a very specific reason for doing so (like that steering wheel SteamVR add-on). Native support in this case means either support for Oculus's specific API (deprecated), or OpenXR (new standard that Valve, WMR, and Oculus support natively).

There's discussion about SteamVR's compatibility layer overall being non-optimized and bad, and this affects every headset that does anything with SteamVR (Oculus, WMR, Vive Connect, etc), except Valve Index and (I think) the original Vive as they have native SteamVR drivers.

Blade & Sorcery needs as-much performance as it can get and benefits from avoiding SteamVR.

Thanks for the Answer that makes sense. I was using the Oculus option anyway so good to know I made the right choice.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Espionage724:

Short answer: The difference is performance; use Oculus mode always for any game when given a choice.

Not quite true and depends on your config and the game.

Quest streaming can perform worse than virtual desktop on lower end vr hardware. That's why I recommended to try both.

[Cthulhu_enjoyer7]

I just use Steam VR to run it.

[Dagda]

I personally use the Oculus mode since it'd make sense that performance would be better if you're running the game with the native vr software.

And, remember: The oculus' software will still be running and rendering while you're passing it through to SteamVR.

[Kyle]

It's nice that they give you in-game stats for your frame time and dropped frames, makes it easy to troubleshoot the settings.

With my Quest 2, I get way better performance with the Oculus mode. The frame time at home is around 8ms for Oculus, and claimed to jump up to around 200ms in Steam mode. A big difference, to say the least. But you should always experiment based on your particular setup. I'm not using any streaming software, just the basic cable link mode, on a fairly old setup.

[D-Glucose]

why when i launch the game i dont get to choose ? i have a quest 2 (and using airlink)

[[MEAT]Sorrow]

Originally posted by Ki11s0n3:

Does it matter if you choose the Steam or Oculus launch option? Is there a difference in content?

I have a quest 2 with a link cable and I find the game runs better if I choose the Oculus launch option (mods still work).

[Chaoz]

I don't remember which option I chose, is there a way to switch between Steam and Oculus mode? I wanna make sure I am using Oculus since Espionage said it was better for performance? Or maybe I had the issue D-Glucose had, not sure.

[Captain Eierstock]

Originally posted by D-Glucose:

why when i launch the game i dont get to choose ? i have a quest 2 (and using airlink)

I think you need to choose it through the libary and not through the short cut