I need an alternate way to access my Viveport library

[StudioMagicFox]

I have a years subscription to Viveport Infinity. I have a library of 25 or so apps and games, mostly Infinity titles but some were purchased. I run SteamVR but I can't run the Viveport software. Well I could but it presents problems. I won't list them all, sufice it to say, the Viveport software causes my Vive hardware to run very poorly. Constant loss of tracking, etc. etc., with Viveport installed the hardware is unusable. When I remove Viveport and just have SteamVR running, the hardware performs perfectly. There are additional issues with the Viveport software. It stays resident in memory even when I am not using VR. Even when not using VR, the Viveport software uses the cpu and other subsystems causing an unacceptable performance problem. I am not inclined to manually kill its processes (driver included, whats that thing supposed to do anyway?) I almost ran the diagnostic you guys provide when trying to figure this out, but then I read your terms of service and privacy policy. I don't know why this would be the case, given HTC is the creator of the Vive, but the Viveport software is a deal breaker, in that as I mentioned it makes the hardware unuseable and causes performance problems on my otherwise really powerful workstation. If the HTC viveport techs read this; please don't take offense as I think the Vive is fantastic and you did a great job engineering it. Its just that I have to pass on the software. Which brings me to my question, I would like to download and access the apps and games available on the HTC store (also called Viveport, nice). I should be able to browse the store using a web browser and download and install the titles that way, thereby avoiding the software (see the above mentioned reasons). But it seems you guys are really intent on making users install that software to get access to their libraries. Nah, why would you care about that, its just a launcher so not important like the titles I paid to access with my subscription. So I must have missed something. Please tell me how I can access the Viveport store and my library of apps and games yet not install the Viveport software (the Viveport desktop I guess, is what I'm tallking about when I refer to the software). Anyhow. I appreciate you guys for making such awesome hardware. Might want to rethink the software side of things though. I know its possible to provide an non-intrusive launcher which does not cause all sorts of thorny performance and agency problems. Until that is ready, I'll be ok  with accessing your interesting selection of VR software (which I should have access to, .... without having to install something unecessary which causes all sorts of bad things to be the case). I hope a solution exists and would appreicate it very much. Sorry I had to get a little real with you guys but hey, facts be facts, just being honest and direct. Like I said, I'm a big fan of the Vive .... hardware. cheers Kenneth (Technical Director - Studio Magic Fox).

[HackPerception]

@StudioMagicFox, Viveport is required to access Viveport content - it is a hard requirement and there is no workaround as it (like Steam) is a client-based platform/service.

It's a fairly young client/backend which is still seeing active development. While the client isn't perfect, we've seen in the backend that alot of situations where people blame their pref issues on Viveport have underlying or parallel issues. Viveport had some technical issues at launch and alot of people reference those early builds rather than the current client.

There are a number of reasons that so called "game launchers" exist... It's better to think of them as PC clients because they're actually doing a ton of things.

• "Game launchers" automate and tie together alot of manual processes into automated processes.
• Clients enable a more seemless update process when a developer publishes an updated build. It alerts the user of a new update and then handles the downloading and installation of that updated build usually with a single click. Without clients - updates would be a nightmare on the end-user side. Imagine monitoring dozens of games for updates manually via a browser?
• Clients handle things like DRM, and other platform SDK-depdendent functionalities (DLC). DLC would be a nightmare without clients for example.
• Browsers do not support the downloading of large files. Until 2019, most had 2-4gb download limits. This is starting to change but their support for large files is still very wonky and most don't have very strong pause/resume functionality.
• Clients monitor the integrity of the installation files and can repair corrupt files without needing to re-download the entire package.
• Clients create a single installation flow rather than each individual application needing to integrate an installation wizard and having to deal with things like Windows UAC, regitry edits, security certificates, ect... VR and PC gaming overall would be kicked back into the 1990's user-flows if every app needed to construct it's own installation wizard. Installers are a specific type of expertise.
• Browsers can only support limited download speeds. When you download from Viveport - you may be receiving data from numerous servers in different regions all at the same time. I've gotten 100+mbps speeds from Viveport. This is impossible with current browsers.

There are a whole host of secondary reasons why clients exist and why you can't do everything via a browser but this conveys the gist...

In terms of the processes - you can prevent the client from staying in the background/tray within the Viveport settings. That said, one of the Vive processes in the background is an event monitor which listens for the button on the headset to be pressed which when pressed launches SteamVR. If you kill/remove that process, that button losses that functionality.