Comparison
A VR Treadmill Alternative That Runs in Software
VR treadmills solve a real problem. They also cost four figures, take up a corner of the room and take a few minutes to strap into. This comparison shows what a software alternative can replace, and what it cannot.
What a VR treadmill is trying to solve
The problem is simple. Your room is a few metres across. The game world is not. A thumbstick covers the gap, but after an hour of holding it forward your legs have done nothing at all.
A VR treadmill solves that with hardware. Most consumer designs use a low-friction dish or powered belt, a waist ring or harness to keep you upright and centred, special shoes or overshoes, and sensors that track your feet. You walk, the surface absorbs the travel and the vendor software feeds that movement to the game.
The idea works. The bill is the problem. So is the permanent square of floor, and so is the gearing up before every session.
A software approach to the same problem
VR StrideS takes a software approach. It reads your movement without needing a surface you can walk on.
You stand where you already stand and move like you would on a trail. The app runs on your PC alongside the game, samples your headset and controllers 90 times a second, and works out how hard you are moving and which way you are stepping. What leaves the app is ordinary thumbstick input. There is a longer version of that in the guide on how to walk in place in VR.
No treadmill, no foot trackers, no mod per game. The headset and controllers you already own do the reading.
VR treadmill vs VR StrideS
Treadmills differ by model. Treat the left column as a guide to what most consumer designs require, not a spec sheet for any one of them.
| Physical VR treadmill | VR StrideS | |
|---|---|---|
| How you move | Walk or run on a slick dish or a powered belt. | Walk or jog in place on the floor you already have. |
| Additional locomotion hardware | The platform itself, plus the shoes or overshoes it needs. | None. Your headset and controllers are the sensors. |
| Foot trackers | Commonly part of the system. | Not used. |
| Harness or support frame | Usually required, to keep you upright and centred. | None. You stand as you would in any standing VR game. |
| Dedicated floor footprint | A permanent spot, most designs measuring well over a metre across. | The space you already stand and turn in. |
| Movement surface | The platform is the surface. | Whatever floor is under you. |
| Game input | Delivered by the vendor software, and it varies by model. | Ordinary thumbstick input, through the runtime the game already uses. |
| Per-game mods | Depends on the vendor and the title. | None. Nothing is installed into any game. |
| Effort adjustment | Bounded by the physics of the platform. | One Effort setting decides how much movement full speed costs. |
| PC VR | Yes, on supported models. | Yes, on Windows and Linux, through SteamVR, native OpenXR or the Meta runtime. |
| Physical treadmill sensation | Yes. Your feet slide and your stride extends. | No. You stay on the spot and the world moves past you. |
Why choose software
- Nothing to buy but the app. No platform, no shoes, no trackers.
- No corner of the room signed over to it. If you can stand and turn safely, you have enough space.
- Seconds to start. Launch it, put the headset on, walk.
- It travels with the PC. A VR-capable laptop and headset give you the same setup at someone else's place.
- It runs at the runtime level, so the game does not need to know it exists and a game update does not break the setup.
- The thumbstick never goes away. Switch VR StrideS off mid-game and conventional controls are still there.
What you give up
Software cannot give you a moving floor, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.
- The sensation. On a dish your feet actually slide and your stride actually extends. Walking in place feels like walking in place. If that physical feeling is the thing you want to buy, buy the hardware.
- The support ring. Some people like having something to lean into, especially at a sprint.
- Teleport-only games. There is no stick movement to stand in for, so there is nothing to drive.
- Fine positioning. Lining up a jump or edging along a ledge is still quicker on a stick.
Space and hardware
The list is short: a PC that already runs PC VR, a headset with its controllers, and enough floor space to stand and turn. You stay in one spot, so the footprint is roughly what any standing VR game asks for.
Check your guardian before a long session anyway. People drift when they are concentrating, and a jog makes that worse rather than better.
Games and compatibility
If a game uses the left stick for movement, it is a candidate. That covers most PC VR games. Teleport-only titles are the exception. Current status for headsets, runtimes and individual games stays on the compatibility section of the home page, so there is only one list to keep honest.
Which approach is for you
Buy the treadmill if
- The physical sensation of travelling is the thing you are paying for.
- You have a permanent space you can hand over to it.
- Budget is not the deciding factor.
- You are building for an arcade, a venue or an installation.
Try software first if
- Your play space is also a living room.
- You would rather not buy hardware you may rarely use.
- You want movement to take effort without gearing up.
- You play a wide spread of games and do not want per-title setup.
VR treadmill questions
It depends on what you want from it. If you want your feet to actually travel, nothing in software reproduces that, and a treadmill delivers it. If you want to walk to move around a game, software can do that for the price of an app and none of the floor space.
On PC, yes. VR StrideS is tuned around Quest 3 used with a PC, over Link, Virtual Desktop, Steam Link or ALVR, and it drives PC VR games. Standalone games running on the headset itself are outside what it does.
Consumer models sit in the four figures before shipping, and some need their own shoes on top. Prices move, so check the vendor. VR StrideS is software and needs no locomotion hardware.
No. VR StrideS reads the headset and controllers you already own. Nothing is strapped to your feet, waist or chest, and it needs no trackers beyond those your headset already uses.
It feels like walking in place. The effort is real and the pace is yours, but your feet stay where they are, so the sense of travelling comes from the game rather than from the floor.
The ones that move you with the left thumbstick, which is most of PC VR. Teleport-only games have nothing for it to drive.
Try it before you buy a platform
The playtest is the cheapest way to find out how walking in place actually feels for you.
Steam Playtest 20–30 August · Full release planned for November 2026