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Been angry at Steam for giving me issues but really should be angry at Oculus

WebMetalReese
Protege
It's a small rant. 
I've been complaining nonstop at steam for making me launch their steamvr while my oculus starts up and am forced to run both programs. But last night I got to thinking - wait a minute, why does Oculus force me to use their software just because I purchased their headset? I strongly feel that if you buy a game in Oculus you run their software and if you buy a game from steam you run their software. Why does Oculus force me to open their player? 

This morning I was browsing new vr TITLES. I checked both stores - looked at two new titles - Audica and Shadow Legend. At the steam store one is around $10 and the other around $15. Come to Oculus and they are literally double the price. 

It's maddening. 

I don't know. Good day. 
9 REPLIES 9

Evileyes
Rising Star
Don't worry, I see the problem!  You need a Vive! >:)
i9 10900k @ 5200Mhz, 32GB ram, EVGA 3090 FTW3 Ultra
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SkScotchegg
Expert Trustee
I think there is a technical reason that someone else can explain better then me why you have to use Oculus software for the headset, maybe for the boundaries? I'm not sure.

I normally try to only buy games on Oculus store personally as I like all my VR games in one place, plus I heard someone on these forums once say that we get worse performance when running VR games through Steam as you have Steam and Oculus software open at the same time.

But as for the game prices, I have been wondering that recently myself, quite often games are on sale or cheaper on Steam then on Oculus store and I don't get why?

I know Steam used to take 30% cut of all games sold but they lowered that to 20% and after doing a quick google search it says Oculus charge devs 30% cut for each game sold so maybe the devs have to charge Rift users more to make up the difference, I'm really not sure.
UK: England - Leeds - - RTX 2080 - Rift CV1 & Rift S - Make love, not war - See you in the Oasis!

WebMetalReese
Protege
Honestly the Vive controllers shut that down for me. I really like the Oculus - especially the controllers. I also agree that many gamers would like to have just a small handful of programs to keep their games in order - having been on Steam close to ten years now and coming close to 1000 titles, I'd just like the ability to run the game from where ever I want to run it from. 
Developers are getting into it now as lately I've been having the option to launch it in Steam or Rift - Fantastic!
For the games being different prices - I'm also OK with that too and understand that depending on where you live/region prices are going to differ - but when it's $10 on Steam and $40 on rift and while buying it through the rift will net me a tiny little box to put on my bookshelf, its hardly worth it to purchase really anything through the rift store that isn't Oculus only as we all know the prices will indeed come down through Steam sooner or later. 

OmegaM4N
Expert Trustee
A lot of the games now come with the option to launch either the Oculus SDK or SteamVR, on steam these days, but if you are not using SteamVR home then you should disable it in the game setting as it is just a resource hog of the worse kind.
CV1/Vive-knuckles)/Dell Vr Visor/Go/Quest II/ PSVR.

ShineHunter
Protege
Isn't that bad, get a WMR headset. 

Digikid1
Consultant


Isn't that bad, get a WMR headset. 


That’s hilarious. Good joke. 

WMR is considered a joke by the VR community. 

edmg
Trustee
You're right. Why does Nvidia force me to run an Nvidia driver to use an Nvidia graphics card? Why can't I use the AMD driver I already have installed? It's just maddening.

The funny part is that your complaint is precisely the reason Oculus don't support non-Oculus headsets: in order to work with those headsets they'd have to run SteamVR or whatever junk Microsoft use as well as the Oculus SDK and the experience would be just as bad as using SteamVR on a Rift.

Anyway, don't worry. Long-term, OpenXR will replace SteamVR and the Oculus SDK and any software will be able to run natively on any headset that supports it.

WebMetalReese
Protege
My Vega 56 is by a company called PowerColor and I run AMD software on it and it uses AMD drivers. I see your point, but we are crossing into a very fuzzy zone these days. Very simple to have a Playstation title and not be able to run it on an Xbox - I get that, but every time I play PC game using a PS4 controller it doesn't start up my Ps4. Actually Steam acknowledges that it's a PS4 controller and lets me use it no issue. Why can't Oculus do the same? If purchased on Steam open Steam VR  - if purchased on Oculus open Oculus - I fail to see why it isn't like this, but maybe I'm missing something. 

kzintzi
Trustee
there was a bunch of technical discussion around why the oculus services/app needs to run ages ago (at least a year), but things like Home, Store, et al close when you run other applications so it's just the Oculus services (and the app front end) that run.

I believe the TLDR version is that this is how the headset manages to be both a video output device but not a monitor (and then have a virtual monitor off on the side for the oculus desktop stuff to work).
Though you are more than slightly incoherent, I agree with you Madam,
a plum is a terrible thing to do to a nostril.