Home windows Blended Actuality headsets had been left in a non-functional state final 12 months, after Microsoft instantly discontinued the platform with its 24H2 replace to Home windows 11. Now, an Xbox engineer at Microsoft is bringing these headsets again to life, due to a brand new driver that allows SteamVR help.
Matthieu Bucchianeri, a software program engineer that labored on Microsoft’s Home windows Blended Actuality headsets, has launched a free “Oasis Driver for Home windows Blended Actuality” on Steam. It’s named Oasis as that’s the codename Microsoft used for its Home windows Blended Actuality efforts. The driving force, noticed by UploadVR, requires an Nvidia GPU, just because it depends on options “lacking within the AMD and Intel graphics driver,” in line with Bucchianeri.
This Oasis driver doesn’t require the Blended Actuality Portal software, and it could run OpenVR and OpenXR purposes via SteamVR. “The driving force affords full headset and movement controller monitoring in addition to a local SteamVR rendering pipeline,” says Bucchianeri.
Whereas Microsoft ought to have delivered the sort of driver to make sure Home windows Blended Actuality headsets weren’t ineffective with the most recent Home windows 11 updates, Bucchianeri — who’s now an Xbox engineer at Microsoft — has created this independently by reverse-engineering Nvidia and SteamVR code. He’s not releasing the supply code consequently, and the Oasis driver will stay free to make use of.