Oku3D Media Player for Linux
Real-time 2D-to-3D and native 3D playback on any current desktop - with a Flatpak for the Steam Deck and a platform preview that already runs on the Steam Frame.
Download
One build in three shapes, plus a platform preview for ARM64 that already runs on the Steam Frame. Which one to take depends on your system, not on what you want from the player.
The first three are for 64-bit x86; see where the ARM64 archive runs. What is new in this release.
What you need
| Item | Needs |
|---|---|
| Processor | 64-bit x86 - what ordinary PCs and laptops run, also written x86-64 or amd64. For ARM64 (also written aarch64) there is the archive, a platform preview. It runs on Valve's Steam Frame, so far drawing the picture on the processor rather than the graphics chip - help bring it up to full speed. On an NVIDIA DGX Spark it plays 2D and 3D video smoothly, 4K included, and converts 2D to 3D on the graphics chip. A Raspberry Pi 5 starts it, but is too slow to watch. Another ARM computer? The testing page says what to check. |
| Distribution | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or newer, or any distribution released from 2024 onward. Older ones are missing system libraries the build needs. |
| Graphics | A working Vulkan driver. AMD and Intel have one out of the box on any current distribution; NVIDIA needs its proprietary driver. |
| Session | Wayland or X11. Wayland is what the build is developed on. |
| Graphics card and memory | The same as on Windows - see the system requirements. |
Which download
All three carry the same program and register the same file associations. They differ only in how they get onto your system. On ARM64 only the archive exists.
| Format | Take it if |
|---|---|
| Archive | You are on an ordinary desktop. Unpack it anywhere and run the included install script, which you can read first. The plainest option and the one with the fewest moving parts. |
| AppImage | You want one file and nothing installed. Mark it executable and double-click. Nothing touches your system until you ask it to. |
| Flatpak | Your system will not let you install anything else - the Steam Deck and the Steam Machine boot a read-only system where Flatpak is the supported way. It works anywhere, but on a desktop that can simply unpack the archive it buys nothing and costs three things. |
Installing
Archive
Unpack it wherever you like and run ./install.sh from the unpacked folder. That puts the desktop entry and the file associations in place for your user - no root, nothing outside your home directory. ./uninstall.sh takes them out again. You can also just run ./oku3d without installing anything.
AppImage
Mark it executable (chmod +x, or the Permissions tab in your file manager) and run it. An AppImage deliberately installs nothing, so your desktop has no icon on record for it: your file manager may show the file with a generic icon, and on GNOME the dock does the same while Oku3D runs. For the Oku3D icon in the dock, a menu entry and the file associations, use the archive instead. To keep the single file, let Gear Lever add it to your app menu, which brings the icon back to the dock.
Flatpak
Install the downloaded file with flatpak install ./oku3d-*.flatpak, then start it from your menu or with flatpak run com.oku3d.Oku3D.
Three things the Flatpak costs
VR output needs one command. A sandboxed application cannot reach a VR runtime on its own, and there is no standard way to grant it. What it needs is access to the runtime's own files, which the sandbox deliberately keeps applications from reading. For WiVRn installed for your user:
flatpak override --user com.oku3d.Oku3D \
--filesystem=~/.local/share/flatpak/app/io.github.wivrn.wivrn:ro \
--filesystem=xdg-run/wivrn:roAnother runtime needs its own two paths. A runtime installed as a system package rather than as a Flatpak cannot be reached this way at all. The archive and the AppImage have no such limit.
It brings its own graphics driver. A Flatpak ships with the graphics stack of its runtime instead of using the one the rest of your desktop uses, so the picture can differ from the archive's on the very same machine. The diagnostics report (Ctrl+P) names the driver and its version, which is the first thing to compare if something looks off.
Copied text lasts only while Oku3D runs. On a Wayland desktop the sandbox leaves no way to keep copied text available once Oku3D closes, so a report or a link copied from the Flatpak is gone when it quits, unless your desktop keeps a copy of its own. Paste it before closing Oku3D. The archive and the AppImage keep it until something else is copied.
Where Linux and Windows differ
The player behaves the same way on either one. These are the places where the system underneath shows through.
Only on Windows
| Feature | Why not here |
|---|---|
| Glasses-free 3D | The display runtime for Linux exists - it switches the lens into 3D and runs the eye tracking - but it is not published anywhere for end users to install, and its license terms are unknown. Every route to these displays needs it, so glasses-free output stays on Windows until the vendor makes it available. |
| HDR output | An HDR film or photo is sized against how bright your screen can go, and on Linux the graphics layer Oku3D draws through does not report that. Without it there is nothing to measure against, so HDR plays at ordinary brightness here. |
| 3D Vision glasses | The output hands the picture to NV3D-Glass, which drives the shutter glasses through NVIDIA's 3D Vision driver. Both run on Windows only, so on Linux there is nothing to hand the picture to. |
| Pointer size from the system settings | On Windows the player's own pointer follows the size set in the accessibility settings. Linux has no single place a program can read that size from - each desktop keeps it somewhere else - so the pointer stays at its standard size here. Holding L and turning the mouse wheel enlarges it on both. |
| Game overlay | It needs two things, and no Linux desktop offers both. Putting a window above everything else needs a protocol GNOME does not implement. The key combination that switches it has to work while another application has focus, which GNOME and KDE allow and the other desktops do not. |
| Clicks from VR | It rests on injecting a real click into another application, which an application may not do on its own here. Screen capture itself works; only clicking back into what it shows does not. |
| Bitstream audio | The player already produces the right data. The problem is that nothing on the Linux audio side can be asked whether an output will carry it: opening the device always succeeds, analog outputs included, and if the marking does not reach the hardware the data is played as sound - loud noise at whatever volume was set. Windows refuses instead, which is what makes it safe there. One tester with a receiver would unblock this. |
Same feature, different in practice
Listed because they can be felt, not because anything is missing.
| Feature | On Linux |
|---|---|
| Screen capture | Your desktop shows its own picker and asks permission every time - that is the only way any application may capture at all here, not something the player adds. It does not remember your answer on purpose: quietly regaining the ability to record your screen should not be a side effect of having recorded once. |
| Frame Packing | The 3D resolution (1920x2205 for films, 1280x1470 for everything else) has to be in the display's mode list on any graphics card; the automatic setup on NVIDIA cards exists only on Windows. In an X11 session Oku3D then switches the display into it when you go fullscreen. On Wayland no application may change the display mode, so set that resolution in your desktop's display settings before you start. |
| Video export | Writes through the graphics hardware's encoder, which takes an NVIDIA card or a working VA-API driver. Its progress shows in the control bar; there is no taskbar progress as on Windows. |
| Audio device changes | A device that appears or disappears is picked up within a second or two rather than instantly. |
| Remembering a setting per file | Settings offers Hidden file attribute where Windows offers a hidden NTFS stream. Same idea and the same limit: the value rides along with the file only as far as the copying tool carries it. The portable .xmp sidecar avoids that on either system. A photo edit too large for the attribute - past about 4 KB on the usual ext4 file system - goes to a .xmp file beside the photo instead. |
| Photo editor tools in their own window | On X11 the window reopens where you left it; on Wayland the desktop decides where it opens, so only its size is kept. Clicking it takes the keyboard, and every shortcut works from it. |
Feedback
Something not working as it should? Tell me, with the diagnostics report (Ctrl+P) that copies everything a report needs, and the fix ships with the next release. Running a desktop, graphics card or ARM computer the player has not met yet? The testing page lists the quick checks that matter most.