You can now wirelessly stream Half-Life: Alyx, Boneworks, H3VR and other PC VR-only games for Oculus Quest and Quest 2 on the Virtual Desktop without sideloading.
Developer Guy Godin has won full approval from Oculus Quest for the much-loved Virtual Desktop wireless feature for streaming SteamVR and Rift games to the PC. The addition occurs more than 20 months after the feature was removed at Facebook’s request, and a few weeks after submitting the feature to Facebook’s new App Lab non-store distribution method. In a development that is sure to surprise some Facebook skeptics, the company has approved the feature for the flagship store instead of the App Lab and you can buy it now.
The move effectively brings a convenient wireless streaming feature for Steam and Rift games to the Oculus Quest store for the first time since June 2019, when Facebook forced Godin to remove it from the store launch. Godin decided to roll back the feature, but he also released a patch on SideQuest allowing people to still activate it if they bought the app first in the store.
Godin is a longtime VR developer who brought Virtual Desktop to Oculus Quest as a launch title in early 2019. The software allows users to operate their PCs in VR and access content wirelessly from anywhere with a connection Wi-Fi. Shortly after launch, and without fanfare, Godin released an experimental update allowing application owners to stream VR PC games to Quest wirelessly. VR PC games running on powerful Windows-based PCs can use the extra processing power for more complex physics, as well as more detailed environments and dynamic lighting, compared to smartphone-class chips in a standalone VR headset like the Quest. The feature basically combines the best of both worlds – wireless freedom with PC power – although there are some significant caveats.
The feature depends on your existing Wi-Fi network and this can cause some performance problems – or discomfort – if other devices are using the connection or if you are far from the router. We recommend that you are in the same room as your router and, preferably, get a WiFi 6 compatible.
The vast majority of virtual desktop buyers use the feature, according to Godin, and even today activating it required an arduous, multi-step process of posing as a developer to sideload the patch not approved in Oculus Quest. The change should have the effect of opening VR streaming from the PC to more people who do not want to go through the sideloading process to activate it.
“The ability to stream PCVR games wirelessly has been a beloved feature of Virtual Desktop since its launch at Quest in 2019. It only makes sense to allow this in the official store when more than 90% of users had to go through complicated steps to unlock the feature ”, Wrote Godin exclusively to UploadVR. “Quest is marketed as a wireless headset. Users want wireless freedom, whether they play Quest native games or stream their favorite PCVR games. “
Facebook is working on its own wireless VR streaming technology for PC, which probably won’t depend on the existing Wi-Fi network to operate, but the details are still unknown.
Virtual Desktop was developed by Godin for years on his own, and he has considerably improved the PC’s VR streaming feature since the initial launch. In the past few months, Godin has increased the team to about four people in total, but he is the only one working full-time on the software. Next, he is planning additional features for the virtual desktop to add value to the application, but he was no longer specific about what those features might be.
The virtual desktop cost $ 19.99 at the time this book was written at the Oculus Quest store. Here are the Godin release notes for version 1.20:
Removed the need for a patch to stream PCVR games
Added support for multiple accounts in the Streamer app
Screenshots taken on your mission are now automatically transferred to your desktop
Added Voice Over for notifications
Added Wi-Fi speed, runtime used by the game and GPU name for performance overlay
Sliced encoding and microphone passing are now enabled by default
Join us on YouTube for a live interview with Godin, broadcast from our virtual studio at 10 am in the Pacific today: