ALVR v18.0.0

In this release we reached two important milestones! We have software video encoding on Windows and a fix for the jitter on Linux.

Changelog

• Add software encoding on Windows (by @ev1lbl0w)
  • Used as fallback when the GPU does not support video encoding.
  • Useful only if the CPU is powerful and recent enough.
• Fix video jitter on Linux (by @zarik5 with help from @ColdIce1605 and @ev1lbl0w)
  • On Nvidia GPUs this fix works out of the box.
  • On AMD GPUs you need to downgrade Mesa to 21.0. If you can’t downgrade Mesa and want to keep the previous behavior (jitter) you have to enable async reprojection in Settings->Video->Advanced options. Failing to do so will result in SteamVR crashing with error 307.
• Remove hand tracking pinch gestures (by @zarik5)
  • Not very ergonomic and often activated by mistake.
• Fix chaperone rotating 180deg (by @zarik5)
  • The chaperone shape will now always be rectangular and the center of the play space will be the center of the rectangle.
  • The Tracking space setting is gone and local/stage tracking can be chosen by just setting a standing only/room scale guardian on the Quest.
  • To choose the forward direction with the room scale guardian, redo the guardian setup and select “Confirm” when facing the preferred forward direction.
• Add JACK audio backend on Linux (by @zarik5)
  • Select the backend under advanced settings.
  • You may need to use Catia to configure JACK.
• Fix display timing for better head and controllers tracking (by @zarik5)
• Update scripts for Linux build (by @Trae32566)
• Remove dashboard warning banner (by @zarik5)
• Offer some features conditionally (by @zarik5)
• Many internal changes for future OpenXR support (by @zarik5)
  • Official OpenXR support is getting closer, but in the meantime you can use this fork which is based on ALVR v17.

LICENSING NOTICE: From this release and forward, Windows binaries are distributed under the GPL license. If you want to build ALVR as MIT licensed do not use the —gpl flag, which will disable software encoding support. FFmpeg binaries are fetched from https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds

ALVR v17.0.2

Changelog

• Revert "Emulate grip touch on controllers"

ALVR v17.0.1

Changelog

• Fix battery reading on statistics (by @sctanf)
• Adjust Index Controller grip (by @sctanf)

ALVR v17.0.0

Changelog

• Fixed issue where ALVR would not compile on Linux using vulkan >= 1.2.185 (by @cooperra)
• Added reproducible build support to xtask (by @ckiee)
• Improved controller haptics & tracking (by @sctanf)
• Improved the dashboard statistics (by @sctanf)
• Stopped MS edge pinning itself to the Windows taskbar (by @sctanf)
• Fixed regression in logger (by @ckiee)
• Replaced sliced FFR with axis-aligned FFR (by @sctanf)
• Added new linux build script for various distributions (by @Trae32566)
• Improved HMD pose prediction (by @sctanf)
• Added adaptive bitrate support (by @sctanf)
• Improved network latency in TCP mode (by @ckiee)
• Added NvEnc encoding support on Linux (by @Toxblh)
• Improved encoder performance on Linux (by @ckiee)
• Fixed index controller emulation's grip (by @sctanf)
• Added a smooth transition to the FFR shader (by @sctanf)
• Added proximity sensor support (by @sctanf)
• Exposed the active encoder to the user on Linux (by @ckiee)

Packaging Notes

• ffmpeg now needs to be compiled with NvEnc support, flags here.
• Probably a bunch of other things I forgot. Use a good build system and you won't need me to tell you what changed!

ALVR v16.0.0

Changes since 16.0.0-rc2:

• Add Linux firewall configuration support (by @Trae32566, #753)

Changes since 15.2.1: (last stable release)

• Add frametime for adaptive bitrate (by @sctanf, #734)
• Some work on a new dashboard (by @zarik5)
• A fix for #748
• A fix for this error message that was in some of the nightly releases
• v16 protocol updates (by @ckiee, #745)
• Add Fedora Linux packaging (by @Trae32566, #738)
• Add CSS/JS formatting CI (by @ckiee, #737)
• Change dashboard scrollbar style (by @sctanf, #733)
• Various statistics improvements (by @sctanf)
• Adaptive bitrate (by @sctanf, #714)
• Re-add color space and set to Rift S (by @sctanf, #698)
• Fix index controller render models paths (by @korejan, #697)
• Use correct origin for linux pose tracking (by @xytovl, #692)
• Remove experimental dashboard (by @zarik5, #679)
• Cleanup path logic (by @xytovl, #668)
• Add new features for Mixed VR setups (ALVR clients as FBT kits e.g.) (by @korejan, #650)
• Improved Linux support (various changes by @xytovl and @ckiee)

ALVR v16.0.0-rc2

This release is meant for testing. If no problems are reported, it will become v16.0.0.

• Add frametime for adaptive bitrate (by @sctanf, #734)
• Some work on a new dashboard (by @zarik5)
• A fix for #748
• A fix for this error message that was in some of the nightly releases

ALVR v16.0.0-rc1

This release is meant for testing. If no problems are reported, it will become v16.0.0.

• v16 protocol updates (by @ckiee, #745)
• Add Fedora Linux packaging (by @Trae32566, #738)
• Add CSS/JS formatting CI (by @ckiee, #737)
• Change dashboard scrollbar style (by @sctanf, #733)
• Various statistics improvements (by @sctanf)
• Adaptive bitrate (by @sctanf, #714)
• Re-add color space and set to Rift S (by @sctanf, #698)
• Fix index controller render models paths (by @korejan, #697)
• Use correct origin for linux pose tracking (by @xytovl, #692)
• Remove experimental dashboard (by @zarik5, #679)
• Cleanup path logic (by @xytovl, #668)
• Add new features for Mixed VR setups (ALVR clients as FBT kits e.g.) (by @korejan, #650)
• Improved Linux support (various changes by @xytovl and @ckiee)

ALVR v15.2.1

• Enable high frequency hand tracking (by @nachog2003)
• Add Qualcomm low latency flag for the decoder (by @Armarr)

ALVR v15.2.0

• Add 120Hz support
  • 120Hz is only supported for at most 75% resolution, after that you get white artifacts and stuttering.
  • The limits for the refresh rate have been removed for the advanced setting, but the server and client will always run with one of the supported values.
• Frame timing optimization on client
  • This should reduce white artifacts.
• Make 10 bit encoder option a basic setting
• Make encoder error more descriptive

Known bug: the firmware v28 for Oculus Quest 1 and 2 introduces a bug that breaks microphone recording when using wireless headphones.

ALVR v15.1.2

• Fix dashboard window appearing out of the screen bounds
• Fix autodetection of VoiceMeeter audio devices