Revive

Revive is a compatibility layer that lets you play games made exclusively for Oculus headsets on an HTC Vive or Valve Index instead. Oculus and SteamVR (which powers the Vive and Index) use different software interfaces for virtual reality applications. Games built for Oculus call into Oculus's own SDK, which normally only works with Oculus hardware. Revive sits in between, catching those calls and translating them into OpenVR or OpenXR, the formats that SteamVR understands.

The practical result is that if you own a Vive or Index and want to play a game sold only on the Oculus store, you can do that without owning an Oculus headset. The project maintains a community-compiled compatibility list on its wiki so you can check whether a specific game is known to work before buying it.

Installation requires a few steps: you install the Oculus Rift desktop software first (but skip the headset setup step since you are not using an Oculus headset), then install Revive itself. After that, with SteamVR running, a new Revive tab appears inside the VR dashboard when you put on the headset. From there you can launch the Oculus-exclusive games you have purchased.

The two most common issues documented in the README are an entitlement error on the first launch of a newly installed game (solvable by following the troubleshooting steps on the wiki or rebooting) and the Revive tab not appearing in the dashboard (fixed by starting the Revive Dashboard manually from the start menu). The wiki covers additional troubleshooting beyond what the README mentions.