VR Deck

Install and first start

VR Deck comes as one package from the Elgato Marketplace: the Stream Deck plugin and its companion app together. There is nothing else to download, and the companion starts itself.

1. Before you start
2. Install the plugin
3. The five pages
4. Keys of your own
5. Where VR Deck keeps its files
6. After an update

Before you start

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
• The Stream Deck app, version 7.1 or newer.
• SteamVR with a compatible headset, and a controller with a trigger for the calibration.
• Microsoft .NET 10 Desktop Runtime (x64). The Setup key checks for it and tells you if it is missing.
• For the Mover keys only: FlyPT Mover and loopMIDI, two free, separate programs.

Install the plugin

1. Get VR Deck from the Elgato Marketplace. In the Stream Deck app, open the Marketplace and search for VR Deck, or install it from the Marketplace website. The Stream Deck app installs it, and VR Deck appears in the actions list on the right of the app.

   Coming to the Elgato Marketplace VR Deck is not listed yet.

2. That is the whole install. The companion app ships inside the package. The plugin starts it by itself, hidden, and stops it when the Stream Deck app quits. The companion then waits for SteamVR; it never starts SteamVR for you.

3. Drag Setup onto a key and open its property inspector by clicking the key in the app.

   Screenshot to addassets/img/vr-deck/shots/install-01-actions-list.png

4. Pick an edition. The inspector shows two buttons:

   • Keyboard edition: Mover keys as Alt/Ctrl shortcuts. No extra software; they do not reach Mover inside a game that holds the keyboard.
   • MIDI edition: Mover keys as MIDI notes through a loopMIDI port; they work inside a stage; one-time binding in Mover's Options page.

   Click one; the Stream Deck app offers to install that profile the first time. Both editions can be installed side by side, and if you have no motion rig either one is fine: the Mover keys are only four keys on one page. See FlyPT Mover for the difference in detail.

   Screenshot to addassets/img/vr-deck/shots/install-02-setup-inspector.png

5. Untick the checks you do not need. The Setup inspector checks Pimax Play, FlyPT Mover, game telemetry and loopMIDI on this PC (the companion and SteamVR are always checked) and lists the one step left for each, if any. A streamer with no rig unticks Mover, loopMIDI and Game telemetry, and with a non-Pimax headset Pimax Play too. The key turns green (Setup OK) when nothing is left and amber with a count otherwise; pressing it re-checks. Every check only reads; nothing is written to another program.

6. Start SteamVR with a controller switched on. The VR Calibrate key on the Home page turns blue and reads Calibrate. Tap it and follow the calibration guide: three touches on the deck's corners and the grid is on the deck.

   Screenshot to addassets/img/vr-deck/shots/install-03-home-page.png

The five pages

Both editions have the same five pages. Slots count 1 to 15, left to right, top to bottom; every page but Home has a Home key at slot 15.

The Nudge page (page 2) holds the fourteen single-adjustment VR Nudge keys and Home. The free slots are yours.

Keys of your own

You do not have to use the profiles. Drag any VR Deck action onto a key and fill in its inspector. A few things worth knowing:

• Shortcuts nothing else uses. F13 to F24 exist on no keyboard, so nothing else can fire them. To record such a shortcut in an app whose recorder is not typed (Pimax Play), focus its field and press the deck key. Pimax Play also insists on a modifier, which is why the shipped passthrough key sends ctrl+f22 rather than f22.
• Hold-to-confirm (0 to 3 s) is optional on Hotkey, Multi Hotkey, MIDI and each Toggle state. Start-style keys should always be a hold.
• Toggle flips its state only after the shortcut was sent. Keyboard shortcuts reach Mover from its menus and the desktop only; inside a game use the MIDI edition's Mover page.
• The page keys (Nudge, Mover, DiRT, Look, Home) need the 15-key deck the profiles are made for. On any other deck such a key shows an MK.2 badge and alerts when pressed; use single-adjustment VR Nudge keys there.
• Custom pictures for a key: PNG or JPEG. The companion cannot draw SVG.

Where VR Deck keeps its files

Nothing is written anywhere else. VR Deck never writes another program's files. It reads a few of them read-only: the Stream Deck app's profile store (to mirror the other keys of your page), Pimax Play's shortcut and runtime files, SteamVR's runtime path, DiRT Rally 2.0's two settings files, and the Windows process list.

After an update

When a new version changes the shipped profiles, the copy already installed in the Stream Deck app stays as it was. Remove that profile in the app and install it again from the Setup key. Your own keys and your calibration are not touched by an update.