AetherVR

AetherVR allows you to play VR applications on PC without a VR headset. Only a camera is required to track head and hand movements, which are then translated into virtual headset and controller inputs. These inputs are passed to a VR application via the AetherVR OpenXR runtime.

Note

The OpenXR runtime is incomplete and non-conformant and might crash with some applications

Usage

System-Wide Installation

If you want to use AetherVR with standalone apps (e.g. from Steam), you can install it globally on your system by modifying a registry key. Note that this will replace your previous OpenXR driver (if you had one) and all OpenXR apps will use AetherVR from now on. You can set the registry key to the previous value in order to use your previous driver.

1. Open the Windows Registry Editor
2. Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Khronos\OpenXR\1
3. Set the value ActiveRuntime to the path to openxr_runtime.json
4. Run aethervr_tracker.exe
5. Run your VR application

Unity Engine

If you don't want to change your OpenXR runtime globally, you can select AetherVR in Unity for use as the play mode OpenXR runtime.

1. Make sure your graphics API is either Vulkan or D3D11
2. Go to Edit > Project Settings > XR Plug-in Management > OpenXR
3. Click Play Mode OpenXR Runtime and select Other
4. Enter the path to openxr_runtime.json
5. Run aethervr_tracker.exe
6. Enter play mode

OpenComposite

AetherVR can be used to play SteamVR games by using OpenComposite as a translation layer from OpenVR calls to OpenXR calls. You should be able to install AetherVR and OpenComposite on your system and it should Just Work.

Architecture

OpenXR Runtime

The OpenXR runtime is a shared library (aethervr.dll) written in the Banjo programming language. It currently supports Windows and applications that use Vulkan or D3D11 as their graphics API.

The runtime currently implements these extensions:

Extension	Version
XR_KHR_D3D11_enable	9
XR_KHR_vulkan_enable	8
XR_KHR_vulkan_enable2	2
XR_KHR_win32_convert_performance_counter_time	1

Tracker

The AetherVR tracker (aethervr_tracker.exe) is an application written in Python that uses OpenCV and MediaPipe. It tracks landmarks of the user's head and hands using MediaPipe and sends them to the OpenXR runtime over TCP. The tracking application can be closed by pressing the Escape key.