Hi all,
Since I’ve been asked many times now to explain how to get applications like Navigraph, vPilot or whole Desktops to show up in your VR environment, I’ll try to explain it here in a little tutorial–and since I own a WMR headset (Reverb G1), I can only give support there. Suggestions and constructive criticism are always highly welcome btw.
First of all, you need to run your OpenXR runtime via SteamVR. Here’s how to achieve that:
- Get the “Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR” from the Steam app
- Make sure to enable the Beta branch as shown here (without this I’m getting terrible, terrible performance):
- Next, get the SteamVR application from Steam and activte the Beta branch as well:
- Last but not least, purchase (it’s roughly 10 bucks) the OVR Toolkit app from Steam:
And this is what I do before starting a flight in MSFS:
I usually launch the SteamVR app via Steam’s “LAUNCH” button as shown in Step 3. Then I put on the HMD for a couple of seconds and let it calibrate. NB: Starting SteamVR also launches the WMR app.
Next thing is to launch MSFS and create a flight. After it finished loading, I turn on the controllers and then launch OVR Toolkit via the Steam app. Then I hit CTRL+TAB, put on the HMD and grab the controllers–the Toolkit menu should be tied to your left hand. Please take a look at the video on this site to see how it works.
Some more comments from my side: In P3D, I usually had a couple of windows around me in my VR cockpit: The vPilot client, Navigraph, a PDF viewer for the checklist and the flight plan, and I was able to manipulate them by moving the mouse from my P3D desktop to another desktop where the respective app was shown. In MSFS, however, this doesn’t seem to work easily because the mouse pointer is obviously caught in the sim desktop. To be able to escape, I assigned ALT+TAB to a mouse button so that I can interact with the other applications. Currently, I’m just showing one whole desktop via OVR Toolkit because MSFS also likes to minimize other apps when in focus (it’s really annoying but I haven’t found a way around it, yet).
Also, don’t miss out the Toolkit option to hide windows when not looking at them, it’s really fancy.
Hope this helps some of you. Happy to answer your questions!
Cheers
EDIT: I reposition and resize the windows with the controllers only at the beginning of the flight, then I switch both controllers off as they’re not needed anymore.
EDIT2: I completely forgot to mention one important step: SteamVR must be set as OpenXR runtime in the settings, otherwise switching to VR in MSFS will just close the SteamVR client (sorry @Migganimon for not mentioning this in my OP initially):