PortalVR Motion

PortalVR Motion — Your PC, now in Motion.

PortalVR Motion brings Wii-style motion controls to thousands of SteamVR games and creative apps — a brand-new way to control the SteamVR content you already own. The easiest setup is the phone already in your pocket: it tracks itself in full 6 DoF and becomes the controller, on Android or iOS. Joy-Cons and VR controllers work too.

No headset, base stations, or extra trackers required. SteamVR simply sees a pair of normal tracked controllers, so Beat Saber, Half-Life: Alyx, VRChat, Gravity Sketch, and the long tail of indie experiments all respond to natural motion — on the screen you already have.

• Your phone is now a motion controller — fully 6 DoF tracked, on Android and iOS.

• Joy-Cons ready — an iPhone's FaceID camera tracks Joy-Con 1 or 2, with finger tracking.

• Works with VR controllers — already have a Quest, PICO, or Valve Index? Use their native controllers.

• No controllers? No problem. A novel mouse + keyboard scheme drives virtual controllers from your desk.

• True 3D output — XREAL & VITURE AR glasses, the Samsung Odyssey 3D, or any side-by-side (SBS) display.

• Works with every SteamVR title — registers as a standard SteamVR runtime.

Three ways to play. Pick yours.

Motion runs on hardware you probably already own. Easiest of all: just your phone — now a fully tracked 6 DoF controller. Prefer Joy-Cons or VR controllers? Those work too.

Bring your whole self to VRChat

Motion tracks your head, face, and hands with your camera and drives your avatar live in VRChat — no headset required. Look around, grin, and wave, and you show up with every expression intact.

• Full head tracking. Your avatar looks where you look, and the view gains true 3D parallax — lean in and the world shifts with you.

• Face tracking. Smile, smirk, or drop your jaw and your expressions land on your avatar's face in real time.

• Full hand tracking. Raise your hands and every finger comes through — and you can move between controllers and hand tracking seamlessly, mid-session.

How It Works

However you set up, Motion registers as a SteamVR runtime and hands the game a standard tracked controller. Grip your phone and plug in over USB, let an iPhone's camera track your Joy-Cons, or bring your own VR controllers — then launch any SteamVR title.

Built for the new wave of 3D.

Motion renders genuine stereoscopic depth, so the latest glasses-free 3D monitors and AR glasses show every SteamVR title in real 3D. Wear XREAL or VITURE AR glasses (we read their built-in IMU for head tracking), sit at a Samsung Odyssey 3D, or use any display that supports side-by-side (SBS) 3D.

Every SteamVR title now in Motion

Motion registers as a SteamVR runtime, so any title that runs in SteamVR sees standard tracked controllers and launches normally — from Beat Saber and Half-Life: Alyx to VRChat, Gravity Sketch, and the long tail of indie experiments.

• No per-game patching

• Standard tracked controllers

• Same launchers, same saves

Introducing Camera Drag

Press and hold the shoulder button on your controller and the in-game camera locks to its motion. Your hand now spins a virtual 3D trackball that lets you reach and frame any SteamVR content seamlessly.

• Turn. Yaw and pitch your controller to turn the camera.

• Flick. Once you have the hang of it, flick the view around like a trackball.

• Reach. Move forward to reach faraway objects. Drag the camera with one hand, pick things up with the other.

6,000+ apps and games now in Motion

From action and rhythm to creative tools and sketchpads — Motion plugs into SteamVR, so anything that runs there runs here. 6,000+ titles in the SteamVR catalog respond to natural motion on your desk.

We're still mapping which titles work best — join our Discord to help us find the gems.

Questions, answered.

What is PortalVR Motion?

A SteamVR add-on that brings natural, Wii-style motion controls to thousands of SteamVR games and apps. The easiest way to play is with the phone in your pocket — it tracks itself in full 6 DoF and becomes the controller, on Android or iOS. You can also use Joy-Cons (tracked by an iPhone's camera) or a VR headset's controllers. SteamVR just sees standard tracked controllers, on the screen you already have.

How does the smartphone controller work?

Plug your phone into your PC over USB, hold it in a grip, and press and hold Volume-Down to calibrate. From there your phone tracks itself in full 6 DoF and appears in SteamVR as a tracked motion controller, with an on-screen trigger, grip, and face buttons. It works on both Android and iOS — no Joy-Cons, no stand, and no headset.

What hardware do I need?

A Windows PC that can already run SteamVR, plus a phone. The simplest setup is just your phone — it tracks itself in full 6 DoF and becomes the controller, on Android or iOS. Prefer Joy-Cons? Use an iPhone on a stand facing you plus a pair of Joy-Con controllers. Want the highest precision? Use a VR headset's native controllers — a Quest or PICO over USB, or Valve Index controllers over Lighthouse. And if you have no controllers at all, a novel mouse + keyboard scheme drives virtual controllers from your desk. On Android, the phone controller uses ARCore for self-tracking, so your phone must be an ARCore-supported device (see — most phones from the last several years qualify; iPhones have no such requirement. For true stereoscopic 3D, wear XREAL or VITURE AR glasses, sit at a glasses-free 3D monitor like the Samsung Odyssey 3D, or use any display that supports side-by-side (SBS) 3D.

Is Android supported?

Yes. Your Android phone works as a fully 6 DoF-tracked controller, exactly like an iPhone — plug it in over USB and play. (The camera method, where a phone's depth camera tracks Joy-Cons, requires an iPhone with a FaceID depth camera.)

Which AR glasses and 3D displays are supported?

For true stereoscopic 3D, Motion supports XREAL and VITURE AR glasses — a big virtual screen with full depth on glasses you wear, connected over USB-C; we read the glasses' built-in IMU for head tracking. Glasses-free 3D monitors like the Samsung Odyssey 3D are fully supported too, and any display that supports side-by-side (SBS) 3D can be used by activating SBS mode.

Should I use Joy-Con 1 or Joy-Con 2?

Joy-Con 2 is recommended. Its built-in magnetometer measures direction relative to Earth's magnetic field, giving noticeably steadier rotational tracking. Joy-Con 1 still works great — its forward heading can drift a bit during rapid motion.

One of my Joy-Con 1 controllers is laggy.

Some PC Bluetooth radios queue packets in a way that adds noticeable lag with Joy-Con 1. Joy-Con 2 doesn't trigger this. To fix it, either switch to Joy-Con 2, or add a small USB Bluetooth dongle to bypass the built-in radio.

How do I get the best Joy-Con tracking?

Place your iPhone directly in front of you, not off to one side — the depth camera tracks best when it's facing you head-on. Make sure your hands are well lit. For wider, full-body titles like Beat Saber, use the rear LiDAR camera on iPhone Pro models for noticeably better depth at distance. Use Joy-Con 2 if you can — its magnetometer keeps rotation steadier.

Which VR controllers work best?

Lighthouse-tracked controllers work best of all — Valve Index controllers and HTC Vive wands. Because base stations track them instead of cameras on a headset, they stay locked in across your whole room: no camera to stay in front of, and no dropouts when you reach wide, behind you, or overhead. Among headset-tracked controllers (mobile VR headsets like Quest and PICO, whose cameras track the controllers optically), Quest 2 controllers work best — their tracking rings give the cameras a big, unambiguous target, holding high-quality tracking even at arm's length and toward the edges of view. Newer ringless controllers are more prone to losing tracking when held out of the headset's sightline.

Can I really play any SteamVR game?

Motion registers as a SteamVR runtime, so any SteamVR title sees standard tracked controllers and launches normally. The catch: titles that demand extremely precise fast motion or sharp full-body movement (spinning to face an enemy behind you) can be awkward to translate onto a flat screen. That said — we've cleared Hard levels in Beat Saber through Motion, so it's not too bad.

Does this support hand tracking?

When you play with Joy-Cons (tracked by the iPhone camera) or Index controllers, your fingers are tracked in addition to the controller — full finger articulation comes through, which is great for expression, gestures, and natural object interaction. Additional hand-tracking support for other setups is coming soon.

Does this support face tracking?

Yes — your webcam tracks your head in real time, adding 3D parallax when you lean side-to-side or forward, plus the ability to dodge obstacles and duck under enemy fire during gameplay.

How does Camera Drag work?

Hold the shoulder button — or one of the SL/SR side buttons — and the in-game camera locks onto your controller's motion. Your hand spins a virtual 3D trackball, dragging the view in 6 DoF; reach forward and the camera reaches with you, which makes picking up far-away objects feel natural. Release to anchor the view.

Do I need a powerful PC?

If your PC can already run a given SteamVR title, it can run it through Motion. Tracking happens on your phone (or the iPhone camera) — your PC just sees tracked controllers.

What about latency?

Tracking data streams over USB from your phone to the PC (no Wi-Fi hop), the phone is configured for maximum tracking speed and precision, and IMU readings are fused with the tracking data in real time — so you get near-instant responsiveness from your wrists.

Can I use it for streaming and content?

Yes. Motion brings motion controls to SteamVR content on a flat screen, which makes it a great fit for streaming, live demos, marketing shoots, trade-show kiosks, and capture setups where a head-mounted display is awkward. Camera Drag also makes framing shots far easier than steering by stick.

What's the difference between PortalVR Motion and PortalVR Cast?

Motion is a SteamVR add-on that runs any SteamVR content with motion controls on a flat screen. Cast takes a different angle — it streams VR content directly into the browser from a Quest, PICO, or Galaxy XR headset, and is limited to sideloaded or pushed APKs.