Microsoft kinda gave up on their first VR go when they ditched support for WMR on Windows 11 last year. But hey, not all hope is lost. There’s this unofficial SteamVR driver, ‘Oasis,’ popping up soon-ish to try and save the day, or at least the month. So, someone named Matthieu Bucchianeri’s behind it, and he thinks it’ll hit the scene August 29th. Assuming Valve gives it a thumbs-up on Steam. Fingers crossed.
Oasis is supposed to let those leftover Windows Mixed Reality headsets do their thing on SteamVR—normally, you’d need Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Portal for that. Bucchianeri chit-chats on GitHub about how it’ll support full 6DoF tracking and those nifty motion controllers. But—and there’s always a but—it’s got a little hiccup with GPU support. Only Nvidia folks get to play. The struggle with AMD seems pretty futile right now. It’s like talking to a wall, apparently.
On Reddit, he drops some techy lingo about AMD either missing the boat on 3rd party usage flags or not offering a workable EDID override. Yeah, kinda confusing. But hey, dude’s trying.
Flashback to last October when Microsoft kinda axed the WMR platform with this shiny new Windows 11 update. Boom, support vanished for a bunch of VR headsets from companies like Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Samsung. Bummer, right?
Interestingly, Bucchianeri used to dive deep into Microsoft’s mixed reality world as a software engineer. Now he’s all about firmware for Xbox Gaming Devices Ecosystem. Oasis? Just his little side project, not stepping on any NDA toes or borrowing any Microsoft pizzazz.
So, there’s your messy mix of code, VR headsets, and the chaotic world of unofficial software saviors.
