Kestrel VR
1.0.0-dev1 ยท streamer and headset client
Kestrel VR streams SteamVR from a Linux PC to a standalone headset, over Wi-Fi or a cable. A kestrel hovers with its head held still while the air moves around it.
What it is
The streamer is a display driver for SteamVR. SteamVR hands it each frame directly, with no capture layer in between, so pacing, reprojection, encoding and sending all happen in one place and each frame carries the pose it was drawn for.
Each frame is encoded on the graphics card through Vulkan Video, foveated so the centre of view keeps its detail while the edges cost fewer bits, and sent over an encrypted QUIC connection.
On the headset, a client written from scratch decodes the frame, corrects its colour and hands it to the headset's own compositor, which holds the world still while your head moves.
Status
Technical specs
Measured over Wi-Fi on the development machine: Quest 3, AMD GPU, 72 Hz. The USB figure is the cable.
Latency and frame rate
Video
Connection
Pipeline latency runs from the moment the headset sends a pose to the time the runtime says that frame is shown. It is not motion to photon: head rotation is corrected on the headset at display time, so turning your head feels faster than this figure, while a new image takes it in full.
Runs: latency, decode and frame rate from a 30 s run on 2026-09-17 at 22:10; encode from the client test run of 2026-09-17 at 09:36; bitrate from the runs of that evening; USB link from 2026-09-04.
Portfolio
Ten problems from building Kestrel VR, each with the instrument built to measure it and the number that settled it.
Kestrel VR never asks for a superuser password. Any password prompt you see comes from SteamVR itself and is Valve's.