I own a valve index. I use it only on linux (mint) via proton. I can say that it does work. There are quirks. don't expect it to be seemless. For instance, more than half the time I start SteamVR but have to then "restart" the headset. Once it is working it is working.

Not all VR games support linux but many do, probably a higher proportion than amongst non-VR games. VR games tend to come from smaller developers who are generally not implementing the things that bork linux (eg DRM).

IMho now is not the time to get into VR, on any OS. You need a serious graphic card. Whatever you are running now, you will want something better once you plug in a VR headset. Good luck with that atm.

The restarting issue also occurs for me on Windows 10. Although, it usually occurs 80% of the time rather than half for me. I suspect it might be due to me plugging in power to the headset after starting the system, but I've seen it occur without doing that as well, so I am unsure.

That's my thinking too. I have my VR hardware (2 tracker things+headset) on a power bar that I turn on separately after boot.

I cannot speak to VR stuff specifically, I have heard of some issues with VR from lurking on other forums but I have no personal experience with them.

As for performance implications in my experience it tends to vary. Some games running on Proton run better than the GNU/Linux native ports and their Windows alternatives. Sometimes the native ports are better when compared to ones using Proton but for someone who is a "casual" I have not seen any noticeable performance difference. Of course this might not be the case if you are running on cutting edge hardware and playing the latest games.

There will tend to be at least a little performance difference from Windows, but personally haven't tested it. I have an Index and it works great [0], though I really need a GPU upgrade (which is impossible these days, as others here noted). I only play on Linux so can't compare to Windows, but besides some little things not being supported like passthrough camera, base station power management (though you can do it through your phone), it works without any fuss.

[0] https://boilingsteam.com/the-valve-index-on-linux-on-a-min-s...

This should answer your questions https://boilingsteam.com/the-state-of-virtual-reality-on-lin...

I've been using an HTC Vive on linux. It usually works pretty great. The performance might be percentage-points worse than a "clean" Windows install, but in my experience Windows didn't manage to stay clean.

I've got a gtx 1070, which at this point is pretty far from top-of-the-line VR-capable card. I'd probably get significantly better performance improvement per effort spent by upgrading my card than I would by tweaking the OS.

I can pretty consistently enjoy VR games. I haven't tried vr web browsing in a while; I remember it being pretty finicky on Windows several years ago.

My Valve Index works fine for me (both native and Proton), as long as I keep SteamVR on the linux_v1.14 branch. It does have some issues keeping up sometimes, but that's probably mostly my ancient GPU (AMD RX480).

The RX 480 is far from ancient and is probably one of the best cards that I've used. When I RMA'd my RX 5700XT (which still crashes after RMA), this thing was a champ. This card is still king for 1080p gaming and can handle 1440p too.

It is almost 5 years old and several generations back. Perhaps not "ancient" but it's aging.

From the 480 there was the 580, Vega 56/64/VII, RX 5700 and now the 6800.

From a few random benchmark site checks online the 6800 is over three times faster than a 480.

Admittedly, to actually buy a 6800 series it is probably at least three times the price of a new 480.

Maybe the Valve Index works through SteamVR ?

For oculus it won't work because it requires the oculus windows app.

(Even when you use SteamVR with an Oculus, actually it's using Oculus app behind)

There are also some projects to reverse-engineer / implement open tracking for VR headsets : https://monado.freedesktop.org/#supported-hardware

I can speak for Oculus Quest 2, plugged with a cable in the computer: it doesn't work at all. SteamVR works by itself in native linux mode, but for the Quest 2 to be recognized, you need to run an Oculus windows only application that makes it look like it is a Rift headset... So... after years on Xubuntu only, I ended up reinstalling Windows to satisfy my new VR gaming "needs"...

There is still no functional VR media player for linux, none of the Windows ones work with Proton and the official SteamVR Media Player has no linux release.

Not sure what you mean, but there is the open source vr-video-player [0] that works with YouTube, can put flat games on a virtual big screen, etc. Works great.

[0] https://git.dec05eba.com/vr-video-player/about/

Uh! Never found this one despite extensive googling. I'll install it and report back.

I found it in a round about way too, could use some better publicity maybe. You can also use this to enable side-by-side 3D in VR, so like the old Nvidia 3D shutter glasses that made games pop out of a flat screen, you can see that in your virtual screen in VR. Take a look at SteamTinkerLaunch [0] to set that up (currently helping organize that giant readme, but the info is all there to play around with [1]).

[0] https://github.com/frostworx/steamtinkerlaunch

[1] https://github.com/frostworx/steamtinkerlaunch#Side-by-Side-...

Edit: I should say side-by-side mode works for games with it builtin (like Trine) but can also use shader injection to emulate this which can work pretty well too.

I've been using Skybox on steam vr on linux, and it seems to work consistently for viewing local video files, whether flat or side-by-side.

Doesn't work for me on Ubuntu 20. I've bought pretty much all those available on steam.

I use Whirligig, which works with a minor fix documented on ProtonDB.

Whirligig does not work for me with the recommended fix.

Just to make sure we're talking about the same fix, do you mean running the LAV installer first (edit: followed by selecting DirectShow in the options)? That worked for me with Proton 5.13-6.

Welp I got curious whether I'd missed a step so I gave it a once over, took me 7 hours to get it working. Turns out Proton does not like to run from an NTFS partition so I reinstalled steam on ext4. Now it runs but I couldn't get Direct Show to work, only the VLC video-path. I assume the LAV installer failed somehow. I also had to mount bind my external drive in my home folder otherwise it wouldn't see it. And I also had to reset whirligig's settings manually in the prefix folder (steamapps/compatdata/451650/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Application Data/Whirligig/production) because it randomly stops accepting inputs. Just writing it all out in case somehow comes across it.

Oh yeah, that's a fair point, I have encountered the input lock issue before. Hopefully it will be fixed in future.

VLC also works for me from the start, but seems to lag at higher resolutions, hence fiddling to get DirectShow working.