Is OpenXR a replacement for SteamVR?

Development Pipeline & Plugins
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1

Is OpenXR a replacement for SteamVR or do I still need to deal with SteamVR and its controller bindings? In other words, if I’m developing a VR game and I own a Valve Index (SteamVR) do I need to have both plugins enabled?

2

You do not need to have both plugins enabled, but if you do, the editor will pick one based on priority:

Engine/Config/BaseEngine.ini


[HMDPluginPriority]
; Since SteamVR also works with the Oculus Rift, give priority to the native Oculus plugin before trying SteamVR.
; OpenXR is production ready and, if enabled, should be the priority plugin. For 4.27, we still need to prioritize
; the native plugins due to runtime features that are not yet supported in OpenXR.
OculusHMD=40
SteamVR=30
OpenXRHMD=20
WindowsMixedRealityHMD=10

The SteamVR plugin will be deprecated in the future, and so we suggest you use OpenXR moving forward.

3

With my HTC Vive Pro 2 I get way better performance using the SteamVR plugin over the OpenXR