PSVR2 Passthrough Layer

An OpenXR implicit API layer that injects real-time stereo passthrough from the PSVR2's built-in bottom cameras into any OpenXR application running under SteamVR on PC.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyVbhiK8BAc for a demo.

Intended targets: DCS World, and other D3D11 OpenXR titles.

Alpha software — geometry alignment requires manual calibration per headset. See Configuration below.

What it does

• Camera ingestion — reads stereo grayscale frames directly from the PSVR2 driver's shared-memory interface. No helper process required; the layer talks to the driver directly.
• Lens undistortion — applies the per-eye calibration coefficients provided by the driver.
• Stereo geometry correction — corrects for the cameras' physical mounting angle (toe-out, tilt-down, roll) via a baked rectification mesh. Adjustable per-eye in the config GUI; paired (symmetric) adjustment is the default.
• Button-gated compositing — intercepts xrEndFrame and injects an XrCompositionLayerProjection per eye. Visibility is controlled by a user-configured binding (keyboard key, XInput gamepad button, or DirectInput HOTAS/joystick button) in either hold-to-show or toggle mode. Passthrough can also be forced always-on for calibration.
• Quad-views compatible — tested and primarily iterated in DCS World.
• OBS recording / mirror layer compatible
• OpenKneeboard compatible

Known Limitations

• The camera feeds are passed over USB and are a compressed feed at a lower framerate versus the in headset native view, with a resultant drop in quality and potentially higher "VR legs/nausea" effect. Fine for reaching for panels, not for "mixed reality" use.
• There are mathematical aspects to the undistortion model that may not be exposed to the PC in shared memory that are translated directly in the pipeline from camera > in headset passthrough view. Research continues.
• A configuration gui has been provided to tweak some values as a result of minor differences between headsets, such as camera rotation.
• Refinement on theses default values is not completed. Expected iteration of this rapidly in coming weeks.
• ~30-60 Hz camera feed vs 90/120 Hz game rendering — passthrough will lag fast head motion slightly.
• D3D11 host-app graphics only.

Features

• Button-gated passthrough: keyboard keys, XInput gamepad buttons, DirectInput HOTAS/joystick buttons
• Hold-to-show or toggle mode
• Brightness, opacity, zoom, and stereo geometry calibration sliders.
• Standalone configuration GUI (PSVR2PassthroughConfig.exe)

What this is NOT

• It does not require any helper process beyond SteamVR itself.
• It does not support the top two PSVR2 cameras — Sony does not expose them to PC.
• It does not modify game files or inject into game processes.

Build (skip this if downloading a release package)

Requirements:

• Windows 10/11, Visual Studio 2022 (MSVC v143)
• CMake ≥ 3.24
• vcpkg (bootstrapped, with VCPKG_ROOT env var set)
• SteamVR with the PSVR2 PC adapter

git clone --recursive <this-repo>
cd psvr2_passthrough_layer
cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE="$env:VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake"
cmake --build build --config Release

Output:

• build/src/layer/Release/PSVR2PassthroughLayer.dll — the API layer
• build/src/gui/Release/PSVR2PassthroughConfig.exe — the configuration GUI

Install

Install OpenXR layer using powershell, and run

install_layer.ps1   # run as admin

Registers the layer under HKLM\Software\Khronos\OpenXR\1\ApiLayers\Implicit so it loads automatically for every OpenXR application.

To uninstall:

uninstall_layer.ps1

Configuration

YOU MUST Run PSVR2PassthroughConfig.exe to configure the binding to show the layer. The GUI provides:

• Master on/off switch and force-passthrough debug toggle
• Opacity control
• Button binding capture (keyboard, XInput gamepad, DirectInput HOTAS/joystick) with hold-to-show or toggle-on/off mode
• Lens undistortion toggle and zoom control
• Per-eye stereo geometry sliders (toe-out, tilt-down, roll) in degrees, with paired or independent adjustment
• Headset intrinsics display (fx, fy, cx, cy read from the PSVR2 driver)

Settings are saved to %LOCALAPPDATA%\PSVR2PassthroughLayer\config.json and take effect on the next sim launch.

Runtime requirements

• PSVR2 PC adapter (official Sony) — for connecting the headset
• SteamVR — provides the OpenXR runtime; also activates the camera feed

Start SteamVR with the headset connected, then launch your sim normally. The layer activates automatically.

Log file

%LOCALAPPDATA%\PSVR2PassthroughLayer\layer.log — truncated on each launch.

Attributions

• PSVR2Camera by realSupremium — shared memory layout, IPC object naming, and calibration data offsets for the PSVR2 driver interface. This project would not exist without that reverse-engineering work.
• OpenKneeboard by Fred Emmott — reference for DirectInput device enumeration and background (non-exclusive) binding in an OpenXR layer context.
• Dear ImGui by Omar Cornut — immediate-mode GUI library used for the configuration app.
• spdlog / fmt — logging and string formatting.
• Khronos OpenXR SDK — OpenXR loader and headers.

Licence

MIT.