OpenVR
More info
- Creator
- Valve
- Released
- Type
- VR API / SDK
- License
- BSD
- Source
- github.com
Valve's API for VR apps, with SteamVR as the runtime, meant to let a game talk to any headset instead of one vendor at a time.
Released in 2015 alongside the HTC Vive. The idea was honest enough: a game calls OpenVR, and the SteamVR runtime translates to whatever headset happens to be on the user's head — Vive, Index, later even Oculus through a compatibility bridge. Despite the "Open" in the name, the runtime layer stayed Valve's own and proprietary for years; only the interface was free (BSD) on Steam.
The Khronos Group's VR standard OpenXR, finalised in 2019, did what OpenVR had promised but across the whole industry, and is now what new games build against. OpenVR lives on mainly for backward compatibility and on Steam Deck-adjacent hardware.