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Virtual Desktop 1.0 - Now available on Steam

guygodin
Protege
Virtual Desktop is a little utility that improves your VR experience on the desktop. By efficiently replicating your desktop into the Rift, the application allows you to see your desktop on a giant virtual screen. You can browse the web, watch movies or even play non-VR games. It also allows you to launch VR games and resume from them without having to take your headset off.




After you launch Virtual Desktop, a tray icon will appear in your taskbar. From there you can manage your list of games, change your settings.




You can also drag & drop executables or shortcuts to add more games to your list.

Requirements
- Windows 8 or 10
- Oculus 1.3 Runtime

Latest Changes
- Added ability to browse 360 photos
- Added mirror to monitor feature

Follow the link below to access the store page
Official website
Virtual Desktop Developer
1,844 REPLIES 1,844

guygodin
Protege
"shimaaji" wrote:
tl:dr: Does it run significantly faster in Win 8 or is the desktop duplication the only real difference compared to running it in Win 7?

There's no difference in performance between Windows 7 and Windows 8 as far as Virtual Desktop is concerned. You'll only be missing the desktop duplication feature but the rest (open on oculus rift, the games list, etc. will still work)
Virtual Desktop Developer

guygodin
Protege
I've added the ability to duplicate the rift onto the desktop when playing VR games, this allows you to see what the player sees without having to switch to duplicate mode in windows or use an HDMI splitter.

Note that this is still experimental and not super user friendly. The problem is that Unity doesn't allow the game window to be captured by default so we need to run the game in windowed/borderless mode. To do this, you'll first need to check the option "Duplicate Rift on Desktop in Game". Next you need to launch the game with -popupwindow manually outside of Virtual Desktop, in the Unity Configuration dialog, make sure to check "Windowed". After you hit play, use Shift+Win+Left/Right Arrow to move the game onto the rift. At this point, what appears in the rift should also appear on your monitor.

This will not work at 75Hz with the DK2 since the game will pick up the refresh rate of the monitor it was launched on. Unity doesn't support both the -popupwindow and -adapter arguments at the same time. I'll report the issue and hopefully this will get fixed in the future.

Let me know what you think!
Virtual Desktop Developer

Sharpfish
Heroic Explorer
great, will try this out on DK2 when I get it, and you've had chance to recompile it or whatever. And am on windows 8.1 which I recommend to the windows 7 folk. I was one for ages too and swore I wouldn't upgrade but 8.1 is better than 8.
EX DK2/VIVE/PSVR/CV1/Q2/PSVR2 | Currently Quest Pro (PCVR) | VR developer
RTX 3080 FE / 12900k / Windows 11 Pro

Anonymous
Not applicable
Thank you for this awesome app!!! This is a huge step in the right direction.

So while I don't think it is practical for using it as a normal desktop yet, I was curious and loaded up Wildstar. Well this worked out very well with Wildstar. The way I have customized my UI in the game, I was able to have any important info centered on the bottom of the screen with my FOV mainly just having my character and immediate environments ( depending on my zoom level). I actually played for a good solid 30 minutes. the FPS loss was minimal as far as I could tell. One thing for sure, I am now officially in frenzy mode for my DK2.

Oh and I also loaded up Skyrim with all my ENB and graphics mods in windowed mode... to me, this is a lot better than any 3rd party driver injection method. This is more like playing Skyrim on a giant IMAX screen than being immersed in the world but still really cool!

spideysense
Honored Guest
So I'm trying to install this and I keep running into this error:

http://i.imgur.com/7EPCfAv.png

I'm running Windows 8 64-bit. I've tried fiddling with permissions to no avail. I also found this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12894279/msi-error-1001-installutillib-dllcorbindtoruntimehost but it doesn't seem to be something I can do on my own. So I'm a bit low on ideas and need some help.

guygodin
Protege
"spideysense" wrote:
So I'm trying to install this and I keep running into this error:

http://i.imgur.com/7EPCfAv.png

Thanks for reporting the issue spideysense. Are you logged-in as an administrator user on the machine? If you right-click on setup.exe and click Run As Administrator, that should solve your issue from what I could find. The installer needs to make changes to the registry (for the Open on Oculus Rift feature) and that's probably why you are getting this error.
Virtual Desktop Developer

Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks for the update! Curved screen is working much better now!

Anonymous
Not applicable
@guygodin

Maybe working in symbiosis with this software can push virtual desktop further? http://www.actualtools.com/virtualdesktops/

Im using their other software, actual multiple monitors, and it is quite competent and nifty.

guygodin
Protege
"AxelBernadotte" wrote:
Maybe working in symbiosis with this software can push virtual desktop further? http://www.actualtools.com/virtualdesktops/


If it generated multiple monitors in Windows (kinda like how EyeFinity from AMD combines them into 1) it would work out of the box. But from I can gather it's using it's own proprietary way of handling multiple desktops.
Virtual Desktop Developer

Zephyx
Honored Guest
So, having run into this, it is very much along the same lines as something I was thinking about attempting once I receive my kit. That being said, since you've already got your hands rather deep into this, I was curious about something.

My job at the moment is IT Administration, doing everything from server setup and maintenance to remote desktop sessions for individual clients needing assistance with a wide range of problems. For a program like this, is it feasible to create multiple desktops? For instance, at several points during my day I have 4+ remote sessions going, would it be possible to create 4 windows that I could simply look around to view and work on them simultaneously? Obviously there would need to be at least a way to detect the active window and what not, but at this point I have no real understanding if such a functionality is even possible. Though it would be immensely useful if it were.