Xbox engineer brings Windows Mixed Reality headsets back to life

Windows Mixed Reality headsets were left in a non-functional state last year, after Microsoft suddenly discontinued the platform with its 24H2 update to Windows 11. Now, an Xbox engineer at Microsoft is bringing these headsets back to life, thanks to a new driver that enables SteamVR support.

Matthieu Bucchianeri, a software engineer that worked on Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality headsets, has released a free “Oasis Driver for Windows Mixed Reality” on Steam. It’s named Oasis as that’s the codename Microsoft used for its Windows Mixed Reality efforts. The driver, spotted by UploadVR, requires an Nvidia GPU, simply because it relies on features “missing in the AMD and Intel graphics driver,” according to Bucchianeri.

This Oasis driver doesn’t require the Mixed Reality Portal application, and it can run OpenVR and OpenXR applications through SteamVR. “The driver offers full headset and motion controller tracking as well as a native SteamVR rendering pipeline,” says Bucchianeri.

While Microsoft should have delivered this type of driver to ensure Windows Mixed Reality headsets weren’t useless with the latest Windows 11 updates, Bucchianeri — who is now an Xbox engineer at Microsoft — has created this independently by reverse-engineering Nvidia and SteamVR code. He’s not releasing the source code as a result, and the Oasis driver will remain free to use.

If you’re interested in trying out the Oasis driver, you can download it from Steam. Make sure you also follow the quick start steps in the documentation for the driver, too.