ToastconcernandClaude Opus 4.8
d22cc04cb3
On the Steam Frame a layer inside SteamVR's compositor draws the home where it would draw Aurora, so the home is the environment itself: at boot, during game loads, behind the Steam menu, with the controllers and passthrough, and it steps aside for a game the instant it opens. On a PC this was faked with SteamVR's home-app slot and a flat 360 photo in the gaps, which launched and handed off like an app and showed a picture, not the live home. This does it properly on any PC that runs SteamVR, the Frame's way: - Windows: the compositor is Direct3D 11, so the layer is a proxy d3d11.dll beside the compositor (layer/ frame_home_layer_d3d11.cpp, built from the .def that forwards every other export to the real d3d11.dll, kept as fh_d3d11real.dll). It wraps the compositor's device, finds Aurora's draws by their shader bytecode and draws the home over the sky, leaving the floor and stars off; everything else passes straight through. Pure pass-through in any process that isn't vrcompositor. - The home's frames cross from Frame Home (Vulkan) to the compositor (D3D11): the layer owns kSlots shared textures and hands Frame Home their NT handles over a named pipe; Frame Home imports them (VK_KHR_external_memory_win32) and renders into them. No cross-API lock — a slot is published only once the GPU has finished it and the four rotate, as on Linux. The shared State stays Frame Home's. - The Environments panel runs frame-home --system and keeps it alive (one at a time, a pid file across panel restarts), the same systemEnv path as the Frame. The installer places/removes the proxy and marks the layer with a root/layer folder, in place of the old home-app registration and background pictures. - Safe like the Vulkan layer: no home, or one stale over half a second, and the compositor draws Aurora as usual; the layer turns itself off after two unhealthy compositor starts, and root/layer/off turns it off by hand. Linux keeps its Vulkan layer (unchanged). Verified without a headset on the null driver: the proxy loads and wraps the compositor without crashing, recognises Aurora's shaders, and the frame hand-over completes (Frame Home connects, imports the textures, renders). The compositor only draws the environment while presenting to a headset, so the final on-headset image is the one step the null driver can't exercise. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Frame Studio and Frame Home
Frame Home makes your homes the Steam Frame's environment. Meta Quest homes (HSL, Clay .opa, glTF) and models
become Frame-native .fenv environments, drawn in SteamVR's compositor in place of its own environment: at boot,
behind the Steam menu and while games load. Frame Studio is the desktop editor for them, on Windows, Linux and
macOS. It opens Meta homes, .fenv environments and models (glTF, FBX, OBJ), shows them with the same renderer the
headset runs, and lets you edit, save and send them to the headset.
Quick start
- Download Frame Studio for your computer from the Releases page (Latest build, or a version release) and unpack it. See Getting started.
- Prepare the headset once: developer mode, SSH and a key. See Preparing the Steam Frame.
- Install Frame Home: in Studio, Headset > Install on Steam Frame..., then Install Frame Home. See Installing Frame Home.
- Open a home: File > Open... and pick a Meta home
.apk, a.fenvor a model. - Send it: Headset > Send to Frame. Put the headset on: you are standing in it.
Downloads
Every push builds everything. The newest build of main is always on the Releases page as Latest build; tagged
versions (v1.0, ...) get their own release. Builds of other branches are under Actions (open a run, then
Artifacts).
| Computer | Frame Studio |
|---|---|
| Windows, 64-bit PCs | FrameStudio-windows-x64.zip |
| Windows, 32-bit | FrameStudio-windows-x86.zip |
| Windows on ARM (Snapdragon, Surface Pro X...) | FrameStudio-windows-arm64.zip |
| Linux, 64-bit PCs | FrameStudio-linux-x64.tar.gz |
| Linux, 32-bit | FrameStudio-linux-x86.tar.gz |
| Linux on ARM (Raspberry Pi 5, ARM laptops, the Steam Frame's desktop) | FrameStudio-linux-arm64.tar.gz |
| Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 and later) | FrameStudio-macos-arm64.zip |
| Mac with Intel | FrameStudio-macos-x64.zip |
| Frame Home only, installed from any computer | FrameHome-installer.zip |
| Frame Home for SteamVR on a Windows PC, without Studio | FrameHome-PC-windows-x64.zip (Studio's Windows x64 and Linux x64 downloads include it) |
Studio needs a GPU with Vulkan 1.2: any recent NVIDIA, AMD or Intel driver on Windows and Linux. On a Mac, Vulkan runs on Metal through MoltenVK, which comes inside the app. The 32-bit builds have at most 4 GB to work in, so the very largest homes may not fit.
Highlights
Frame Home (on the headset)
- Takes SteamVR's environment slot natively: no app, no library entry, controllers and passthrough still work.
- An Environments panel in the Steam menu: switch homes live, delete them, change settings, debug views.
- Walk, teleport, snap or smooth turn, sit in seats, gravity zones, comfort vignette.
- Built for 120 fps: baked environments, eye-tracked foveation, auto resolution, per-world tuned settings, and a thermal governor that keeps the headset cool.
- Safe: a compositor layer that steps aside if Frame Home stops, and a one-file off switch.
On a PC with SteamVR
- The same Frame Home as SteamVR's environment on Windows and Linux, switched from the Steam menu, showing what you save in Studio (guide).
Frame Studio (on your computer)
- Opens Meta homes (HSL, Clay, glTF),
.fenvenvironments and Blender or Unity models; pairs rooms with vistas. - Move, rotate, scale, hide and delete objects, with undo and auto-saved versions.
- Shape the walkable area: auto-generated surfaces, drawn floors, spawns, seats, hotspots, wall spots, gravity zones.
- Add a background sound and a picture; set and calculate per-world settings.
- Saves baked
.fenvfiles and leaves out what can't be seen; sends them to the headset in one click. - Packs several environments into one
.fbundleto share or install together (bundles). - Debug views (wireframe, meshes, GPU cost, overdraw), a home report, and the headset's settings and debug page from your desk.
Guides
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Getting started | Requirements, downloads, first launch, a 5-minute walkthrough |
| Preparing the Steam Frame | Developer mode, SSH, keys, the frame address |
| Installing Frame Home | Three ways to install, updating, uninstalling, the off switch |
| Using Frame Home | The Environments panel, moving around, every setting |
| Environments and .fenv | The format, fenv-tool, per-world settings and tuning |
| Performance | Reaching 120 fps, checking it, fixing stutter |
| Frame Studio guide | The Studio window, tools and panels |
| Bundles | Several environments in one .fbundle |
| Frame Home on a PC | Your homes as SteamVR's environment on a Windows or Linux PC |
| Building from source | Building on each system, CI, the headset side |
| Troubleshooting | Symptoms and fixes, logs, the self-test |
Building from source
Everything Studio needs is in third_party/; you need CMake 3.16+ and Ninja. In short:
| On | Command |
|---|---|
| Windows (Visual Studio 2022 with C++) | studio\build_windows.bat x64 (or x86, arm64) |
| Linux, macOS | scripts/build-studio.sh <target>... or scripts/build-studio.sh all |
The headset side is built on the Steam Frame; a ready-built copy is in frame/payload/. Full details, prerequisites
and the CI: docs/building.md.
Repository layout
| Path | What it holds |
|---|---|
studio/ |
Frame Studio: studio.cpp (the editor), platform*.{h,cpp} (Windows, Linux, macOS), frame_pacer.h |
src/ |
Shared engine: renderer (hsl_renderer), scene loading and baking, .fenv, walkable area, Frame Home (main.cpp), the Environments panel (switcher.cpp), fenv-tool |
layer/ |
The Vulkan layer inside SteamVR's compositor that shows Frame Home in place of its environment |
frame/ |
The headset payload and the stand-alone installers |
scripts/, cmake/ |
Build script and the llvm-mingw toolchain file |
tools/, tests_loco/ |
Test and measuring tools, movement tests |
third_party/ |
Vendored libraries (each with its own license) |
docs/ |
The guides |
License
Frame Studio and Frame Home are licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0: see LICENSE. You may use, study, change and share them; if you share a changed version, or run one for others over a network, its source must be available under the same license.
Vendored libraries in third_party/ keep their own licenses (in each folder); Studio's interface font, Inter, is under
the SIL Open Font License (third_party/inter/LICENSE.txt). The home loaders in third_party/qhe
started from Quest Home Editor and keep its MIT license for the original code; see
third_party/qhe/LICENSE.md.
Neither license covers Meta's homes or other assets: Frame Studio only works with files you already have, and no Meta content is included in this repository or its downloads.