Foreword

How to read the manual

The manual can be roughly divided into two parts: a tutorial part that will introduce you to the VR interface and what the available options are, and a pitfalls part that will explain (current) known shortcomings of the VR port and pitfalls of VR in general.

The rest of this page will explain some terminology.

Terminology

A brief explanation of terms and abbreviation

  • VR: Virtual Reality

  • VR Stage: Your physical play area

  • Mirror texture: The motion picture shown on your pancake monitor when you are playing in VR

  • OpenXR: An Open Source interface for accessing AR/VR devices.

    This is the VR equivalent of Vulkan, developed by the same group as Vulkan: Khronos. OpenXR, like Vulkan, is purely an interface and not an implementation.

  • OpenXR Runtime: An implementation of the OpenXR standard.

  • VR Runtime: The software interfacing with your VR device. An OpenXR Runtime is a subset of a VR runtime.

  • Native Runtimes: The VR Runtime provided by your device drivers.

  • SteamVR: Valve’s VR Runtime, shipped as a part of Steam. SteamVR, native to the Index, acts also as a non-native runtime to other headsets