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Installation guide

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GitHub Action edited this page Feb 19, 2023 · 20 revisions

Basic installation

PC side:

  • Install SteamVR, launch it once then close it. This is to make sure it sets the environment correctly for ALVR.
  • Go to the latest release download page. In the "Assets" section at the bottom download the ALVR Installer.
  • Run the installer. If prompted, allow the execution in the SmartScreen popup. You need to give administrator permissions to install ALVR. For best compatibility do not change the installation folder.
  • Once the installation finished, launch ALVR. You are greeted with a setup wizard. Follow the setup to set the firewall rules and presets.

If you have problems launching ALVR, follow the guide below to use the portable version

Headset side:

  • Install SideQuest on your PC and enable developer mode on the headset. You can follow this guide.
  • Connect your headset to Sidequest. If you have an Oculus Quest 1/2 download the ALVR app here, if you have an Oculus Go download it here

Usage

  • Launch ALVR on your headset. While the headset screen is on, click Trust next to the client entry (on the PC) to start streaming.
  • You can change settings on the PC in the Settings tab. Most of the settings require to restart SteamVR to be applied. Use the apposite button on the bottom right corner.

For any problem visit the Troubleshooting page.

Advanced installation

Portable version

There is also a portable version for the PC that requires more manual steps to make it work.

  • Install SteamVR and launch it once.
  • Download alvr_server_windows.zip from the latest release download page.
  • Unzip into a path that contains only ASCII characters and has edit permissions without administrator rights.

Nightly

If you want to get new features early or you want to help with testing you can install a nightly version.

Download the latest nightly server here. Download the latest nightly client from Sidequest (Quest version, Go version).

Since nightly releases can be unstable, for maximum compatibility always use matching versions for PC and headset. They are updated once a day.

Microphone streaming

To use the microphone you need to install the VB-CABLE driver. Set "CABLE Output" as the default microphone. Then you can enable the microphone in the ALVR setting, leave "Virtual microphone input" to Default.

Connect headset and PC on separate networks

Check out the guide here.

Use ALVR together with third-party drivers

By default ALVR disables other SteamVR drivers before starting. Among these drivers there is Driver4VR for full body tracking. ALVR disables these drivers to maximize compatibility with every PC setup. You can disable this behavior by manually registering the ALVR driver. Go to the installation tab and click on Register ALVR driver. The next time you launch ALVR you will be able to use the other drivers concurrently.

Launch ALVR together with SteamVR

You can skip the ALVR Launcher and open ALVR automatically together with SteamVR. Open ALVR, go to the installation tab and click on Register ALVR driver.

Use a browser different than Chrome

ALVR requires a Chromium based browser to correctly display the dashboard. Chrome and Edge work out of the box, but Edge has a few bugs that make ALVR behave weirdly. If you want to use other Chromium based browsers like Brave or Vivaldi you have to add an environment variable ALCRO_BROWSER_PATH pointing to the path of the browser executable (for example C:\Program Files\Vivaldi\Application\vivaldi.exe). Unfortunately Firefox is not supported.

Connect headset and PC via a USB Cable

Check out the guide here.

Linux

Unless you are using a nightly version, make sure all audio streaming options are disabled.

Arch Linux

Other

  • Install FFmpeg with VAAPI/NVENC + DRM + Vulkan + x264/x265 support. You can use this ppa:savoury1/ffmpeg5 under Ubuntu, or download alvr_server_portable.tar.gz which has ffmpeg bundled.
  • Install SteamVR, launch it once then close it.
  • Download alvr_server_linux(_portable).tar.gz from the release download page.
  • Run bin/alvr_launcher

If you do not install the correct version of FFmpeg systemwide, a common problem is the server crashing or failing to show images on the headset because SteamVR loads the wrong version of FFmpeg.

Audio Setup

  • If you are on PipeWire, install pipewire-alsa and pipewire-pulse
  • pavucontrol and pactl (PulseAudio tools used as an example)

Game Audio

  • Must be on v19+

  • Enable Game Audio in ALVR dashboard.

  • Select pipewire or pulse as the device.

  • Connect with headset and wait until streaming starts.

  • In pavucontrol set the device ALVR is recording from to "Monitor of <your audio output>". You might have to set "Show:" to "All Streams" for it to show up.

  • Any audio should now be played on the headset. To automatically mute your PC speakers when the headset is streaming, you can use the following script:

    #!/bin/sh
case $ACTION in
        connect)
                pactl set-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ 1;;
        disconnect)
                pactl set-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ 0;;
esac

    Save this text to a file, make it executable (chmod +x ...) then put the file name in "on connect script" and "on disconnect script" settings (Connection tab with advanced options shown).

Microphone

  • Run: pactl load-module module-null-sink sink_name=VirtMain or, for a permanent setup, add the following to the context.modules array in your ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf:

    {   name = libpipewire-module-loopback
    args = {
        node.name = "VirtMain" node.description = "VirtMain" media.name = "VirtMain"
        audio.position = [ FL FR ]
        capture.props = {
            media.class = Audio/Sink
            node.name = VirtMain.capture
        }
    }
}

  • Enable microphone streaming in ALVR dashboard.

  • Connect with headset and wait until streaming starts.

  • In pavucontrol set ALVR Playback to "VirtMain"

  • Set "Monitor of VirtMain" as your microphone.

Start here

Configuration

Troubleshooting

Development

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