While this software (an openXR and openVR runtime, along with many utilities) is kind of essential for many PCVR games, and started out as moderately good, it has become a bug-ridden performance hog of resources, so much that some games warn you to not use it and use something else instead. For example, Alien: Rogue Incursion promptly recommends you to change from SteamVR to OculusVR if you're using a meta quest.

From my name you can see that I only play games on Linux, so that makes it even worse because we're short of alternatives (there's no OculusVR or Virtual Desktop for example) and on Valve there is only one person dealing part-time with the SteamVR for Linux, so fixes are very rare and most of the updates in the last year broke something that was working.

I've played it with a lighthouse-based VR (the Valve Index) and Streaming-based ones (Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3), the latter via an intermediary streaming software called ALVR. ALVR fixes many SteamVR bugs by its side (so the streaming experience is superior to the native lighthouse-based), but even their developer team got fed up with SteamVR and announced they'll abandon it by the next major version (we're at version 20, version 21 will not support SteamVR on Linux anymore). It is THAT bad. Valve really dropped the ball with this software.

SteamVR is also closed-source, so the community cannot see and modify the code by themselves. However, a new open-source software appeared called WiVRn that acts as an openXR and openVR runtime and doesn't require SteamVR to be run. It's still in its infancy, but it is robust and has a performance that can go from twice to ten times better than SteamVR, and with less bugs even. At this time it still doesn't run all the games, so far I'd say about 50% to 60%, but I am using it in every game I can since it's so much better than SteamVR.

Still think I'm exaggerating the situation of SteamVR? Read this comment on the bug report, https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/655#issuecomment-2532437544

If you use VR on Linux, unfortunately for some things SteamVR is still the only options. But not all.

If you still don't believe what I'm saying here, I can get a number of references as horror stories and bug reports to convince you the software is that bad. Please comment on this review and I'll update it with that. The bugs are moronic, like the one that makes the Valve Index knuckles stop registering the triggers if the game is in a prefix different from /home. Or the one that creates an unkillable black window. Or the one that logs to disk EVERY input event on the Index as an error, making every game stutter. These bugs linger for years and are never resolved.

Additionally, at this point in time, SteamVR for Linux STILL does not support Steam Link, taking screenshots with the controllers and the Valve Index passthrough cameras; and its hardware support is pathetic, like it supports the Valve Index and a couple of Vive models, there are some rough third-party open-source hardware drivers for the HTC Vive Pro 2 and Pimax (maybe) but Valve doesn't support neither makes them official.

While this software (an openXR and openVR runtime, along with many utilities) is kind of essential for many PCVR games, and started out as moderately good, it has become a bug-ridden performance hog of resources, so much that some games warn you to not use it and use something else instead. For example, Alien: Rogue Incursion promptly recommends you to change from SteamVR to OculusVR if you're using a meta quest. From my name you can see that I only play games on Linux, so that makes it even worse because we're short of alternatives (there's no OculusVR or Virtual Desktop for example) and on Valve there is only one person dealing part-time with the SteamVR for Linux, so fixes are very rare and most of the updates in the last year broke something that was working. I've played it with a lighthouse-based VR (the Valve Index) and Streaming-based ones (Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3), the latter via an intermediary streaming software called ALVR. ALVR fixes many SteamVR bugs by its side (so the streaming experience is superior to the native lighthouse-based), but even their developer team got fed up with SteamVR and announced they'll abandon it by the next major version (we're at version 20, version 21 will not support SteamVR on Linux anymore). It is THAT bad. Valve really dropped the ball with this software. SteamVR is also closed-source, so the community cannot see and modify the code by themselves. However, a new open-source software appeared called WiVRn that acts as an openXR and openVR runtime and doesn't require SteamVR to be run. It's still in its infancy, but it is robust and has a performance that can go from twice to ten times better than SteamVR, and with less bugs even. At this time it still doesn't run all the games, so far I'd say about 50% to 60%, but I am using it in every game I can since it's so much better than SteamVR. Still think I'm exaggerating the situation of SteamVR? Read this comment on the bug report, https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues/655#issuecomment-2532437544 If you use VR on Linux, unfortunately for some things SteamVR is still the only options. But not all. If you still don't believe what I'm saying here, I can get a number of references as horror stories and bug reports to convince you the software is that bad. Please comment on this review and I'll update it with that. The bugs are moronic, like the one that makes the Valve Index knuckles stop registering the triggers if the game is in a prefix different from /home. Or the one that creates an unkillable black window. Or the one that logs to disk EVERY input event on the Index as an error, making every game stutter. These bugs linger for years and are never resolved. Additionally, at this point in time, SteamVR for Linux STILL does not support Steam Link, taking screenshots with the controllers and the Valve Index passthrough cameras; and its hardware support is pathetic, like it supports the Valve Index and a couple of Vive models, there are some rough third-party open-source hardware drivers for the HTC Vive Pro 2 and Pimax (maybe) but Valve doesn't support neither makes them official.