Nowadays, virtual reality (VR) has started to enter other areas of our daily lives, beyond gaming. And soon we will see it in the working environment offered by Linux, although until now this was considered something very difficult to achieve. While many VR peripherals and displays (HMDs) support Linux, some games have problems with this operating system. However, VR gaming on Linux is improving. The same is now true for the Linux desktop, with the new xrdesktop.
Xrdesktop is an open source project. It is designed to allow you to work with traditional desktops, such as GNOME and KDE, in VR. To achieve this, it makes window managers aware of VR and then uses the VR runtime to render the desktop in 3D. After that, you will be able to work on the desktop, using VR controllers in place of a mouse and keyboard.
The project is backed by Valve, a gaming company that has long supported Linux with its Steam. Valve is particularly interested in VR and OpenVR, an open VR application programming interface (API).
Xrdesktop is not the only project aiming to bridge the gap between virtual reality and the desktop. For example, Safespaces is a 3D/VR workspace environment for the Arcan display server. However, as the Safespaces developers admitted, it can tire the user's eyes and cause dizziness.
Naturally, xrdesktop is still in development. To be able to work flawlessly with the existing X11/Wayland compositor/window manager you need a specific graphics program and some configuration with GNOME and KDE.
Nevertheless’ all this, it remains a step towards the creation and combination of VR with the traditional Linux desktop. According to Lubosz Sarnecki, a developer of xrdesktop, “This integration of xrdesktop into window managers allows copying existing windows into XR [extended reality] and composing the desktop via XR actions.”
If you want to try it out, you can find installation instructions on the xrdesktop Wiki. The program is available in packages for Arch Linux and Ubuntu Linux. You can also install it on other distributions, but you will need to install xrdesktop from source.
