These are the kinds of programs that change the way people look at technology. In this case, it’s a program that, for some people, might actually make virtual reality a enjoyable, even practical, replacement for their monitor.
It’s called Virtual Desktop, and it’s available from March 28.
The idea is simple. It’s an application for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift — sorry to the few people with access to StarVR — that lets you use your computer desktop as if you were in a virtual environment.
It’s got multi-monitor support. Support for 360 degree photos and videos. Music visualisation tools. An environment editor so you can spice up the background of your virtual “screen”. You can watch streaming services like Netflix in VR without waiting for them to create a separate app.
And, most importantly, video games. Anything on Steam is playable. Things through third-party launchers (like Blizzard’s Battle.net) are playable too. I’m willing to bet you could probably get DOSBox going without much fuss as well.
This is the kind of tool that changes VR from a gimmick to something that might be more usable on a day-to-day basis. I’m willing to bet that many have been thinking about VR only in terms of what games and specific applications they could use with it — but not the potential for VR to be used as a monitor replacement.
And for those wondering how hard it’d be to read regular text, the creator, Guy Godin, posted on Reddit that “text is easily readable on a 2560×1440 screen” and the higher pixel fill rate and optics of the consumer-version headsets make a world of difference.
2D games also don’t require a great deal of horsepower to run while in Virtual Desktop. “My app is built on top of DirectX and it is very lightweight,” Godin added in another thread. “It’s very optimized. The impact on the GPU is very low. I’m able to play HOTS with a 770 in VR fluidly to give you an example.”
Virtual Desktop launches on March 28 and will cost US$15, according to Godin. A demo of the program for both the Rift’s development kits is available now via Virtual Desktop’s Steam page.
Note that you’ll want Windows 10 to get the best experience though, as Windows 7 reportedly “doesn’t have low latency APIs to capture the desktop at high frame rates to make a decent enough experience”.
Comments
8 responses to “One Program Lets You Use Your Entire PC In VR Without Any Fuss”
See, this is what VR is all about. More shit like this please – that being anything that allows me to watch Netflix and play videogames while I’m at work without needing to hover over the Alt+Tab/F4 combination.
Hell, this might see a resurgence of text based adventures. “Gee, Jenkins is typing furiously on that report that’s due tomorrow. I won’t disturb him.”
Jenkins 1, Narcissistic Micromanager 0
So you can’t get away with playing video games at work, but you can get away with wearing a giant VR headset all day?
I can if it’s productivity related – and VR will be one day. Probably a bit of a stretch trying to convince folks that PlayStation VR has any practical work application though.
Once they add a multiple virtual desktops I’ll be happy as it’ll save me buying another monitor.
you think they havnt? if your pc handles it, the vr software can
On the Steam forums they said that it is something they’re working/looking so I assume they don’t have support.
Its now listed under steam page http://store.steampowered.com/app/382110/
This is very cool, but Hololens is the headset for this use case. I’m all but certain this is exactly what Microsoft want to bring to people, except with the added advantage of a see-through display.
I disagree. Sure it can render your desktop but the Hololens is far more capable of other real world things and doing them better than vr.