Installs, updates and starts Echo VR on PC (Windows, Linux), and plays it on the community's servers (EchoVRCE): PLAY on the Play page, with what's going on and your friends to join on the right; the live servers, your match and invites on the Servers page; mods on the Mods page. Echo VR on Quest is coming soon.
Download it from the releases.
On Windows, -windows-setup.exe installs it for you (no administrator rights: into
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\EchoVR_Launcher, with Start menu and desktop shortcuts and an
uninstaller in Windows' Apps); -windows.zip is the same launcher to unpack anywhere.
On Linux, -x86_64.AppImage is the launcher in one file: make it executable and start it
(it updates itself, in place); -linux.zip and -linux.tar.gz are the same launcher to
unpack anywhere.
Help and news are on the Echo VR Lounge Discord.
 Play: PLAY, the news, who's online, invites and friends to join |
 Install: the live build and the event builds, your library |
 Mods: nEVR, the mods you have and more to get |
 A mod's settings, drawn from its own description |
 Servers: the live matches, your match, party and friends |
 EchoVRCE: echovrce.com inside the launcher, signed in |
 Friends: requests, finding players, who you played with |
 Plugins: apps inside the launcher, each with its own tab |
 Event lobbies (a plugin): public matches, join by id, request a server |
 Settings: how you play, launch options, storage, the launcher |
Players, matches and numbers in the pictures are made up; the mods and plugins are the real ones. The EchoVRCE page is the real site, with the account blurred.
All ten in one picture, one below the other: docs/screenshots/00-all.jpg.
The launcher joins matches from spark:// and https://echo.taxi/spark://… links: paste one
into Join on the Play page or Join from link on the Servers page. On Windows and Linux
it also opens links clicked in Discord or the browser, if no other app (Spark) handles them
yet. Open spark:// links in Settings takes them over from Spark, or turns this off.
macOS can't pass links to the launcher, so paste them there.
INSTALL looks for a copy first (the Meta app's libraries, C:\EchoVR, the launcher's own
library folder, and Wine prefixes on Linux) and offers Use the copy on this PC, or
Choose echovr.exe for one somewhere else. That copy is checked against the build's
checksums and added instead of downloading it again.
PLAY isn't the only way in. Whenever a setting that a start needs changes, the launcher writes it into each installed build's folder while its window or its tray runs: the mods, the server (EchoVRCE, an EchoRelay server, the classic lobbies) and EchoXR. So Echo VR plays the same however it's started:
| Start | How |
|---|---|
| Steam | Settings → Echo VR in Steam's library (on Linux PLAY adds it): the entry, in SteamVR's library too, starts through the launcher as PLAY does. |
| WiVRn (Linux) | Settings → Echo VR in WiVRn's app list: pick Echo VR in WiVRn's headset app and it starts on WiVRn. |
| Desktop shortcut (Windows) | A version's Desktop shortcut starts that version through the launcher. |
| echovr.exe, EchoXR.exe | Play with what's in the folder: the mods, the server and EchoXR. What only a start does is missing: the launch options, Revive, starting SteamVR or WiVRn, renewing the game's EchoVRCE sign-in, and on Linux Proton and the silent microphone. |
The entries run EchoVR_Launcher --play. That's Echo VR without the launcher's window,
started the way PLAY starts it. --runtime wivrn is for WiVRn's list, and
--version <id> is for a version's shortcut. The window opens only when a start needs it,
for example when Revive or EchoXR has to be set up, or an event build needs its account.
The event builds (Halloween 2017, Christmas 2017, Halloween 2018, Christmas 2018, Summer
2019) can be installed on Windows and Linux and play on the community's classic lobbies server:
on SteamVR through EchoXR or Revive, on Meta Link, or on Linux in VR through EchoXR. To hide
them, close the launcher and set "event_builds": false in its launcher.json
(%LOCALAPPDATA%\EchoVR_Launcher on Windows, ~/.local/share/EchoVR_Launcher on Linux).
Plugins are apps inside the launcher, each with its own tab in the rail. The Plugins tab
(the puzzle piece) is their library: every plugin as a card, to get, open, update or remove. Pin the
ones you use to the rail, or right-click a tab to move or unpin it; many tabs scroll. A plugin is a description of its page (plugin.json) that the launcher draws itself:
docs/plugins/pages.md. The first one, Event lobbies, lists the
public matches of the event builds and joins a friend's match by its id.
The SteamVR choice runs Echo VR through Revive (installed by the launcher) or, with EchoXR installed on the Mods page, through EchoXR's OpenXR layer in the game's folder: no injection and no administrator rights (the Meta library's copy excepted). See docs/launcher/echoxr.md.
With Virtual Desktop chosen, Settings picks how its streamer runs Echo VR (Through):
- Oculus mode: Virtual Desktop's streamer starts Echo VR itself and gives it the
headset, as its Games list (and its tray's Inject Game) does:
VirtualDesktop.Streamer.exe <echovr.exe> <launch options>. Echo VR started on its own would land on Meta's runtime, which has no headset under Virtual Desktop. - SteamVR (EchoXR): through EchoXR on SteamVR, which Virtual Desktop's SteamVR driver streams (SteamVR installed).
- VD's OpenXR (EchoXR): through EchoXR on Virtual Desktop's own OpenXR runtime
(
EchoXR.exe --runtime active): neither SteamVR nor Meta's runtime.
PLAY sets EchoXR up the first time it's needed. When a start in Oculus mode stops without VR ("Failed to create OVR D3D swap chain", or no headset), the launcher closes the game and offers the EchoXR routes instead.
The live build loads nEVR (bin\win10\BugSplat64.dll) at its start, and Windows only says
"unable to start correctly" (0xc0000135, 0xc0000022, 0xc0000043) when antivirus removed or
blocked it. The launcher checks the file before PLAY and right after an update puts it in
place, and reads those codes when a start ends. It then says so and offers Allow and
repair, which adds the game's folder to Windows Security's exclusions (with administrator
rights; only a folder of a version the launcher has) and puts the file back, or Open
Windows Security.
EchoXR Hands (Mods page, More mods) puts your own fingers on Echo VR's hands
(EchoXR Hands by heisthecat31 and
marshmallow-mia). It needs EchoXR (getting it turns EchoXR on): its OpenXR layer reads your
fingers from the runtime's hand tracking in Echo VR's own session, so it plays on SteamVR and
on WiVRn. The launcher puts its nEVR plugin into the game's plugins folder and enables the
layer for each start: on Windows through XR_API_LAYER_PATH and XR_ENABLE_API_LAYERS, on
Linux as an implicit layer in the Wine prefix's registry (since 0.12.1; the variables would
reach the Linux OpenXR loader behind wineopenxr too, which refused VR with them). Finger sharing starts
off: on, it sends your display name and your match's player names to its relay, so others
running it see your fingers.
The PC version plays on Linux through Steam. The first PLAY (and the first after an
update of them) downloads a private GE-Proton and EchoXR's OpenXR layer (it
answers Echo's Oculus calls over OpenXR, so SteamVR, Monado or WiVRn drive the headset),
reads Meta's Platform SDK loader and P2P library out of Meta's own runtime package, and
adds Echo VR to Steam as a non-Steam game (it asks first: Steam restarts for that, once),
then starts it through Steam.
How you play (Settings, or the Install card) is SteamVR or WiVRn, whichever is
installed, or Flat. In VR, EchoXR is required (the Mods page lists it as required), and PLAY
points it at that runtime: it starts SteamVR when it isn't running, and WiVRn's server
(connect your headset in WiVRn's app). XR_RUNTIME_JSON, when set, still wins. No OpenVR
runtime is needed. The live build and the event builds run this way.
Under Proton the game can't rate the graphics card on its first start and used to pick Low:
the GPU Rating plugin (NvrGpuRating, a
required mod, also in the event builds) gives it the card's numbers, and a Low preset saved
before is rated again once (your other game settings stay).
SteamVR 2.17.9 and 2.17.10 lose the graphics card on NVIDIA under Linux (Valve's bug): the
launcher says so when it happens, and SteamVR's "previous" branch (Properties, Betas) plays.
Flatpak Steam (com.valvesoftware.Steam) works too. The game runs outside Steam's
sandbox, so its Echo VR entry hands the start to the launcher on your PC
(flatpak-spawn --host). Before adding the entry, the launcher asks to give Steam the
permission for that (org.freedesktop.Flatpak); its uninstall takes the permission back.
Flat and WiVRn play this way. SteamVR from the Flatpak Steam can't reach a game outside its
sandbox, so use WiVRn there, or Steam from your distribution's packages.
The Mods page shows the selected PC version's mod loader
(nEVR runtime, the game's BugSplat64.dll,
which also brings Discord sign-in, friends and parties into the game) and what it loaded
at the last start, lets you turn plugins and asset patches on or off, set a plugin's
arguments, start without mods, and install mods from the catalogue on release.echovr.de or a
DLL of your own. Installed mods lists only what is installed; More mods offers the
rest (the catalogue's optional plugins, EchoXR Hands and, on Windows, EchoXR) with Get. The launcher keeps its choices in its own files and writes nEVR's
_local/config.yaml from them before every start, so updates and Verify never undo them.
A config.yaml of your own (a game server's, written by hand) is left as it is, and so is
the sign-in beside it: the launcher only writes over its own.
Signed in with EchoVRCE, the launcher also signs the game in, so it doesn't ask in the
browser. See
docs/launcher/mods.md.
Only verified plugins load: the community update's and the catalogue's. A DLL of your own
(or one put into the plugins folder by hand) loads once local plugins are on in that
version's loader config (x-local-plugins: true in _local/config.yaml); writing a plugin
and loading it is in docs/plugins/local-plugins.md.
Content packs are mods that bring game data as well as plugins (EchoCombat: new gear and scripts). One install, one switch; nothing in the game's own files changes, and they need nEVR's early load pass (nEVR 4.1.0 or newer). A pack that changes gameplay plays on servers of its own: Settings → Launch options → EchoCombat server sets one, and while the pack is on the game signs in and finds matches there. See docs/launcher/mods.md.
Dev codes let mod and plugin makers test their work before it's published: with a code in Settings → Advanced settings → Dev mods and plugins, the launcher also lists their dev folder's mods and plugins (with a Dev tag). How a folder is filled, packs included: docs/launcher/dev-folders.md.
The launcher looks for updates when it starts and every 15 minutes: a newer launcher (its GitHub releases), an update of each installed Echo VR that gets updates (its update manifest changed since the launcher last brought it up to date), and a new version of a plugin installed from the catalogue. The mods and plugins catalogues (a dev folder's too) it reads every 30 seconds while it is open, and Refresh on the Mods and Plugins pages reads them right away. Nothing installs by itself: a dot on the rail (Play, Mods, Settings) and the status bar say what is out, PLAY's side button becomes Update ready, and the Mods page has Update on the plugin; the launcher's own update is Update now in Settings (Windows and Linux: it downloads the release, checks it, replaces its files, or the AppImage, and restarts; macOS opens the release page). EchoXR and EchoXR Hands come with the launcher, so a launcher update brings theirs.
Settings → Advanced settings picks the launcher's channel: main (the tested
releases), beta (fixes to try before they reach main) or alpha (the newest
builds). Betas are tagged vX.Y.Z-beta.N and alphas vX.Y.Z-alpha.N, published as
GitHub prereleases; beta gets main's releases too, alpha all three. Off main, the status
bar says so (BETA CHANNEL). Back on main, main's newest launcher is offered as
Switch now.
Each update is also announced once as a desktop notification (Linux: the desktop's
notifications; Windows: a toast). While the launcher is closed, its icon in the tray
(EchoVR_Launcher --tray, started by the launcher) keeps looking and opens it; it can
start at login. Settings → Launcher turns each of these off. No tray on macOS.
The launcher is written in Rust (GUI: egui). With a stable Rust toolchain:
cargo run # debug build
cargo build --release # target/release/EchoVR_Launcher(.exe)
cargo test # unit tests (add `-- --ignored` for the network tests)The bundled adb lives in assets/platform-tools/; scripts/fetch-platform-tools.sh <version>
refreshes it from Google's platform-tools release. Logs are written to the per-user data
directory (%LOCALAPPDATA%\EchoVR_Launcher\logs on Windows,
~/Library/Application Support/EchoVR_Launcher/logs on macOS,
~/.local/share/EchoVR_Launcher/logs on Linux). A folder from the launcher's days as the
Echo VR Installer (EchoVR_Installer) is moved over at the first start.
ECHOVR_SNAPSHOTS=<dir> cargo run renders every screen to PNGs in <dir> and exits, which is
handy for checking UI changes. Add ECHOVR_SNAPSHOTS_DEMO=1 to render the launcher with
two made-up versions (nothing is saved).
Copyright (C) 2024-2026 the Echo VR Launcher contributors
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.