In the world of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), you’ll often come across the terms OpenXR and SteamVR. Sometimes people will say that “OpenXR is better than SteamVR”, but what do these terms mean and how do they relate in terms of features, compatibility, performance, and developer-friendliness?
SteamVR
SteamVR is a software platform developed by Valve for VR applications. It provides a set of tools and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to enable developers to create and distribute VR content for various VR headsets. SteamVR supports a wide range of devices and offers features like tracking, rendering, and input management.
What runtime does SteamVR use?
To be more specific, when people compare SteamVR vs OpenXR, they are actually comparing the runtimes OpenVR and OpenXR. SteamVR has become almost synonymous with OpenVR as OpenVR is developed by Valve which many VR games use.
SteamVR supports both the OpenVR and OpenXR runtime, but defaults to OpenVR unless the game only supports OpenXR.
So….
When people say “OpenXR is better than SteamVR”, they actually mean it is better than OpenVR
The mistake is understandable, because if you use SteamVR, OpenVR is the default runtime. If you want OpenXR, usually people install OpenComposite to change the runtime, and install OpenXR Toolkit (and Pimax XR if you use a Pimax headset), and launch the application without SteamVR.
Let’s take you through it.
OpenXR & OpenVR
Without going into the technicalities of these two runtimes, OpenXR is an open standard developed by the Khronos Group while OpenVR is developed by Valve for SteamVR. The default runtime of SteamVR is OpenVR, although you can also translate SteamVR applications to OpenXR. But as said above, most commonly, OpenXR is opened through OpenComposite, by-passing SteamVR.
Whether OpenXR or OpenVR is better for you depends on many situations, including your preferences as for many games the differences are negligible. In either case, the Pimax Crystal supports both SteamVR and OpenXR.
That said:
OpenVR is easier because it is set by default and has access to the tools and customization options that SteamVR and the store offers. And unlike OpenXR, it natively supports HTC VIVE trackers. Most OpenVR games will also support DFR (Dynamic Foveated Rendering) directly from the Pimax client, while if you want to use OpenXR, you will need to use the OpenXR toolkit (as long as you use PimaxXR as your OpenXR runtime).
But, OpenXR in many cases will provide better game performance and more customization options.
Here’s a list of games we’d recommend using OpenXR for:
- - American Truck Simulator 2
- - Assetto Corsa
- - Assetto Corsa Competizione
- - Automobilista 2
- - DCS World
- - Dirt Rally 2
- - Elite Dangerous
- - Euro Truck Simulator 2
- - IL-2 Sturmovik
- - Microsoft Flight Sim 2020
- - Pavlov VR
- - Project Cars 2
- - Project Cars 3
- - rFactor 2
- - Subnautica
- - X-Plane 11
- - X-Plane 12
Where does OpenComposite come into play?
You can open OpenVR applications through Open Composite. This helps you bypass SteamVR and reduces the overhead, therefore theoretically improving performance.
Image from https://mbucchia.github.io/OpenXR-Toolkit/opencomposite.html
DCS World in OpenVR vs OpenXR FPS comparison
Here is an example of slightly different FPS performance when running MSFS on SteamVR and OpenXR with Crystal:
There are a few reasons why OpenXR might offer better performance than SteamVR in DCS. First, OpenXR is a newer standard designed to be more efficient. Second, OpenXR can take advantage of specific hardware features and more customizations, which can help to improve performance.
