Windows 7 compatibility

[jkeye]

Hi
I'm thinking of buying the vive but have a few concerns.
Will FSX and P3d run with flyinside on Windows 7 64 bit Home premium? I'm not really keen on Windows 10 as my set up works fine at present.
Kind regards
Jay

[Robert]

I would bet someone is running 7-64 with the Vive and FlyInside but I know my Vive works great on 10-64. You probably are good to go but maybe someone has direct knowledge and will reply.

I'd bet Dan (admin) knows though. If nobody replies for too long, message him direct.

Welcome to VR! It's a hell of a thing! So much really cool stuff happening.

[littleDave]

Vive+Win7 64bit here - works without any problem. Every vive app except Virtual Desktop and BigScreen should work. The last two I just mentioned uses a new API to capture the Windows Desktop with high performance which was introduced in Win10 (or was it Win8, don't know exactly). But this is not a problem for any other app

[jkeye]

Hi David
Thanks for the reply.That's very reassuring.
Can you not use the desktop with the vive on its own?
Jay

[littleDave]

You can only use the desktop with a Vive using specialized software. Windows does not support VR-devices natively. The technique behind these apps are quite simple: they render the desktop into a texture on the graphic card and displays this texture inside a 3d environment. The problem is: you want to render the desktop as quick as possible and this is only possible with a new api which was introduced in Windows 8/10. But this is only a problem if you really want to use your desktop inside the headset. I own a vive for more than 3 month and I never wanted to use my desktop with it.

If you really want to, you can access the desktop within the steam overlay without any problem (even with Win7)

[jkeye]

Hi David
That's very helpful.
Thanks for that input.
Jay