Oculus Quest – VR done right

Games

While you can do non-gaming stuff like watch video (netflix etc) and even browse the web, the main attraction at least for me is games. With a not-even-latest mobile chip how good can games actually be on the Oculus Quest? The answer is sursprisingly well. Games are of course tailormade for the Quest but I would say that the experience, even if the graphics might be a tad paired down, is simply stunning.

One cool feature is that you can record your gameplay while you are gaming. In this video I splcied together a bunch of gameplay from games like Beat Saber, Ghost Giant, Box VR, Racket Fury and Pistol Whip. While the game library still is far from as comprehensive as for example the games for the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift I would say that there now is a wide selection of games that are high quality and extremely fun to play.  The absolutely best feature of the oculus Quest however is not only that it has great games, but that it offers you to play them completely un-thethered. I cannot overstate how much that impoves VR-gaming. Being able to take your headset and just play wherever you feel without having to tether the headset to a PC is awesome.

Oculus Link and Virtual Desktop

As expecteed everyone wanted to play the new Half Life Alyx-game. Would the Oculus Quest be left out? Actually not. While the game has not been released on the Quest natively there are a bunch of ways to play this game as well as other Steam VR and Oculus Rift games.

Virtual Desktop

The first option is to buy the program Virtual Desktop and then download a special version that can be sideloaded onto the Quest. This allows you to wirelessy connect the Oculus Quest to your main computer via WIFI and then play SteamVR games by streaming them to the Oculus Quest. This of course requiers a great local WIFI but reports have been very positive, especially since the program is being continously improved. This option also still allows you to play un-thethered.

Oculus Link

Oculus have released a beta of Oculus Link – a feature that allows you to hook up your Oculus QUest to a PC with a USB-C-cable. This must be a high-speed high quality cable and in rredit and other VR-forums there are a lot of suggestions on cables that work. Oculus sells a special 5 meter optical USB-C link-cable that offers a lot of bandwith and is very sturdy. It is however also quite expensive.

I plan on to do a follow-up article on these two options so stay tuned.