Revive Your Windows MR Headset With Free ‘Oasis’ SteamVR Driver
▼ Summary
– A Microsoft employee developed an unofficial free driver called Oasis, enabling Windows MR headsets to work with SteamVR on Windows 11 after official support was removed.
– The Oasis driver provides full native SteamVR support for headset and controller tracking, haptics, and most features, though it lacks Bluetooth support requiring users to use their PC’s Bluetooth.
– Developer Matthieu Bucchianeri has extensive experience in VR and aerospace, having worked on PlayStation VR at Sony, Falcon 9 at SpaceX, and HoloLens at Microsoft.
– Oasis currently only supports Nvidia graphics cards due to technical limitations with AMD and Intel, with the developer stating AMD would need to make changes to enable compatibility.
– The driver is available for free on Steam and has been tested successfully, restoring functionality to Windows MR headsets that became unusable after Windows 11 updates.
A free SteamVR driver called Oasis has brought new life to Windows Mixed Reality headsets, allowing them to function again on Windows 11 after official support was discontinued. Developed independently by a Microsoft engineer, this solution restores full PC VR capabilities to devices from manufacturers like HP, Samsung, and Lenovo that were left unusable by recent system updates.
The release comes nearly a year after Microsoft rolled out Windows 11 24H2, which completely removed built-in support for the Windows MR platform. That update rendered a range of popular PC VR headsets from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung incompatible with SteamVR, since those devices relied on a proprietary Windows runtime to interface with Steam.
Matthieu Bucchianeri, the developer behind Oasis, offers the driver at no cost. It serves as a native SteamVR driver for Windows MR headsets, eliminating the need for any intermediate software. Users only need SteamVR installed to get their headsets running again.
Bucchianeri brings considerable experience to the project, having worked on the PS4 and original PlayStation VR at Sony, contributed to Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft software at SpaceX, and developed for HoloLens and Windows MR during his time at Microsoft, where he currently works on Xbox. He also played a role in the development of OpenXR and created the OpenXR Toolkit and VDXR for Virtual Desktop in his spare time. He has been openly critical of Meta’s earlier approach to OpenXR implementation.
The name Oasis references the internal codename used for Windows MR at Microsoft. Bucchianeri describes the driver as the product of “deep reverse-engineering” combined with “luck and perseverance.” Although he believes his work does not violate intellectual property laws, he has chosen not to release the source code to avoid potential conflicts with NDAs or other legal agreements.
Oasis supports a wide range of headset features, including full positional and controller tracking, haptic feedback, all buttons and analog inputs, battery status reporting, and basic monoscopic passthrough video. It also correctly reads IPD settings from Reverb and Odyssey models, and even supports eye tracking on the HP Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition.
The only feature not supported through the driver is Bluetooth connectivity for controllers. Users must rely on their PC’s built-in Bluetooth or a compatible USB or PCI-E adapter instead.
Independent testing by UploadVR has confirmed that Oasis works seamlessly with the HP Reverb G2, effectively turning what was a useless device back into a fully functional VR headset.
The Oasis Driver is available for free on Steam, though users should carefully follow the installation and setup guide available on GitHub. The process includes paring controllers via Bluetooth and performing an “unlock” procedure for both the headset and motion controllers before first use.
One significant limitation is that Oasis currently only supports Nvidia graphics cards. AMD and Intel GPUs are not compatible.
According to Bucchianeri, this is because AMD does not permit EDID overrides, and its LiquidVR “Direct-to-Display” technology has been obsolete for more than seven years. He states that he has provided AMD with all necessary technical details to enable support, but the final decision rests with the company. Similarly, Intel would need to grant access to its “Direct Mode” for compatibility to be possible.
(Source: UploadVR)
