You can now wirelessly stream Half-Life: Alyx, Boneworks, H3VR and other PC VR games to Oculus Quest and Quest 2 in Virtual Desktop without sideloading.
Developer Guy Godin won the Oculus Quest store’s full approval for the beloved Virtual Desktop wireless feature for streaming PC-based SteamVR and Rift games. The addition comes more than 20 months after the feature was removed at the request of Facebook, and a few weeks after the feature was submitted to Facebook’s new App Lab distribution method without a store. In a development sure to surprise some Facebook skeptics, the company approved the feature for the main store instead of App Lab and you can start downloading it now.
The change 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 release. Godin decided to roll back the feature, but he also released a patch on SideQuest that would allow people to still activate it if they first bought the app through the store.
Godin is a veteran VR developer who brought Virtual Desktop to Oculus Quest as a launch title in early 2019. The software allows users to control their PC in VR and access content wirelessly from anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection. Shortly after launch, and without fanfare, Godin released an experimental update that allowed app owners to wirelessly stream PC VR games to the Quest. PC VR games running on powerful Windows PCs can use the extra processing power for more complex physics and more detailed environments and dynamic lighting compared to the smartphone-class chips in a standalone VR headset such as Quest. The feature essentially combines the best of both worlds – wireless freedom with PC power – although there are some important caveats.
The feature depends on your existing Wi-Fi network, and that can cause performance issues – or inconvenience – if other devices are using the connection or if you’re far from the router. We recommend that you be in the same room as your router, and ideally buy one that supports WiFi 6.
The vast majority of virtual desktop buyers use the feature, according to Godin, and to this day activating it required a tedious, multi-step process to pose as a developer to get the unapproved patch on Oculus Quest. to sideload. The change should have the effect of opening PC VR streaming to more people who don’t want to go through the sideloading process to activate it.
“The ability to wirelessly stream PCVR games has been a much-loved feature of Virtual Desktop since its launch on Quest in 2019. It only makes sense to allow it on the official store when more than 90% of users take complicated steps had to go through to unlock the feature, “Godin wrote exclusively to UploadVR.” The Quest is being marketed as a wireless headset. Users want the wireless freedom, whether playing native Quest games or streaming their favorite PCVR games. “
Facebook is working on its own wireless PC VR streaming technology that probably won’t rely on your existing Wi-Fi network to function, but details are still unknown.
Virtual Desktop was only under development by Godin for years, and he has improved the PC VR streaming feature significantly since its initial release. In recent months, Godin has expanded the team to about four people in total, but he is the only one working full-time on the software. He then plans additional functions for Virtual Desktop to add value to the app, but he hasn’t been more specific about what those features could be.
Virtual Desktop is $ 19.99 on the Oculus Quest store as of this writing. Here are Godin’s release notes for version 1.20:
No patch is required to stream PCVR games
Added support for multiple accounts in the Streamer app
Screenshots taken on your Quest will now be automatically transferred to your desktop
Added voiceover for notifications
Wi-Fi speed information, runtime used by game and GPU name added to the performance overlay
Segmented encoding and microphone pass-through are now enabled by default
Visit us on YouTube for a live interview with Godin, broadcast from our virtual studio at 10:00 am Pacific today: