Help and Support Forums => All things VR => Topic started by: edge12674 on December 21, 2023, 12:29:51 PM
Title: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: edge12674 on December 21, 2023, 12:29:51 PM
Been announced today that Microsoft is discontinuing WMR. Not only abandoned, but it will be incompatible in a future release of Windows 10/11. Hopefully Hitech can switch AH to OpenXR.
I don't think AH uses it, it uses the native device drivers (e.g. oculus software/steam portal)
I might be wrong, but I thought if you are not using an Oculus then AH VR used either SteamVR (which uses WMR) or WMR directly via Windows. Perhaps Steam will pickup and continue to support WMR. OpenXR has pretty much replaced WMR and most sims/games have switched to it. This will certainly effect G2 users.
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: hazmatt on December 21, 2023, 02:42:23 PM
I might be wrong, but I thought if you are not using an Oculus then AH VR used either SteamVR (which uses WMR) or WMR directly via Windows. Perhaps Steam will pickup and continue to support WMR. OpenXR has pretty much replaced WMR and most sims/games have switched to it. This will certainly effect G2 users.
Why would it affect g2 users and not rift-s users? I thought they were pretty much the same? How will it affect them and what options are there?? I have G2 and Rift-S so I'm kinda curious.
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: streakeagle on December 21, 2023, 05:54:00 PM
Rifts S is native Oculus. Most games support native Oculus/Steam/OpenVR. But WMR headsets have to connect first to WMR, then they can be ported over to Steam via a WMR plugin. So, a Rift S doesn't care whether WMR is available since it runs via dedicated Oculus drivers/software. But a WMR headset that has to use WMR as an intermediate driver will no longer work, which very much applies to the Reverb G2. I guess it was a good call to get a Quest 3 rather than keep using the G2.
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: hazmatt on December 21, 2023, 06:25:53 PM
So my quest 2 will not work?
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: The Fugitive on December 21, 2023, 08:47:49 PM
quest 2 is the same as quest and quest 3, they dont use WMR
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: edge12674 on February 10, 2024, 06:53:44 PM
Not looking good.
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: Eagler on February 11, 2024, 06:50:44 AM
This is what's wrong with computer technology today....
They can jack with it at anytime requiring new hardware and or software or you are out of luck as eventually it's not compatible in one way or another and you have a giant paperweight ...
Glad my original vive pro from 2018 is still going strong...so far
Eagler
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: Drano on February 11, 2024, 08:33:29 AM
What's annoying is while I got my G2 on sale it still wasn't cheap at $400. I'm just a few years into it and it's a great headset for flight dimming. Some say it's the best bang for the buck. Looking for a PC headset with similar specs now will set you back a lot more than I paid. Hopefully someone will find a solution. WMR isn't the best to work with but it's the only thing that runs the headset! Looks like I'll be sticking with Win10 for a while!
Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: streakeagle on February 15, 2024, 05:21:42 PM
I have the G2 and used it for flight sims until I got the Quest 3. The Quest 3 is generally superior to the G2 and does not depend on WMR. However, my current sim rig is still running Win 10, so I can and do still use the G2 sometimes. My Quest 3 has a problem with the USB port melting, so it is being replaced under warranty. I will be flying the G2 after I ship the Quest 3 off and have to wait for the replacement. Still waiting the box/shipping label Meta is supposed to send me.
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: BigR on February 15, 2024, 07:00:32 PM
I have the G2 and used it for flight sims until I got the Quest 3. The Quest 3 is generally superior to the G2 and does not depend on WMR. However, my current sim rig is still running Win 10, so I can and do still use the G2 sometimes. My Quest 3 has a problem with the USB port melting, so it is being replaced under warranty. I will be flying the G2 after I ship the Quest 3 off and have to wait for the replacement. Still waiting the box/shipping label Meta is supposed to send me.
compared to the G2, how is the image quality in the game? How about tracking ?
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: streakeagle on February 15, 2024, 08:01:37 PM
I have an AMD 7900 XTX gpu which doesn't play well with Meta Quest drivers. But I discovered that if I used Virtual Desktop, I get amazing image quality with little or know compression artifacts using a wifi 6 wireless connection. So, I hook up a USB cable to the headset battery while the battery feeds the headset, giving me almost unlimited run time.
The G2 has amazing sweet spot where you can read HUDs, instruments, and labels on the consoles in DCS World. But if you look outside that sweet spot, it gets ugly. The Quest 3 has better sharpness/detail/resolution. It looks as good or better than the G2's sweet spot almost edge to edge. The display is also brighter with better color. It makes the G2 look washed out.
The key to using Virtual Desktop with the Quest 3 is getting a rock solid high-bitrate connection. This is what permits much better image quality than the Oculus Link and AirLink. I am playing DCS World averaging 90 fps on the older maps and about 75 fps on the newer maps.
Here is the bad news: the Quest 3/Virtual Desktop/Steam VR doesn't play well on my gpu. I don't know if the same is true with nVidia gpus. So, if I want to play Aces High, I have to use the inferior image quality of the lower bandwidth Oculus Link. I can tweak the Debug Tool setting to permit higher bandwidth over the Link cable, which almost looks as good as the Virtual Desktop image, but my USB port melted enough that the Link cable isn't working at all. I can only charge the battery. I don't know if SteamVR, Virtual Desktop, AMD gpu driver, or Aces High is the problem. But the G2 uses SteamVR without issues, so I am leaning toward Virtual Desktop.
I haven't used the controllers for stand-alone games for a while, so I can't say how well they work at the current patch level. The headset tracks very well. The controllers track much better than the G2, but not as well as The Quest 2. But I think either the games or the Quest 3 were going to be patched to improve the controller tracking to be comparable or superior to the excellent Quest 2 controller tracking.
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: BigR on February 15, 2024, 11:41:36 PM
thanks for the info. I am very happy with my G2 so i will probably just hold on to it until Microsoft pulls support of WMR in Win10. Then see whats available at that time.
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: Vulcan on February 16, 2024, 03:13:36 PM
Here is the bad news: the Quest 3/Virtual Desktop/Steam VR doesn't play well on my gpu. I don't know if the same is true with nVidia gpus.
I believe some of the image quality relates to codec used to encode the video stream, and the best code needs RTX series nvidia GPUs - and older nvidia GPUs are stuck with the lower quality codecs. Same might apply to your GPU.
Title: Re: Microsoft discontinuing WMR
Post by: streakeagle on February 20, 2024, 06:25:15 PM
If you read one of the other threads near the top of the VR posts, this also happens to high end headsets like the aero, independent of the gpu. I don't know if the isssue is SteamVR or the headset driver, but I didn't have this problem in the past using Oculus Rift, Rift S, or the Reverb G2, only the Quest 3.