Oculus Link has been out of beta for a while now, so I thought it’s time for some tips
& tricks.
Things that could make your Oculus Link experience better, like I’ll show you how to check
your fps because that’s important if you want to tweak the graphics settings for your
system, but I also have some fun tips.
Of course, Oculus Link is only possible with a VR ready PC or laptop.
So in this video, I’m using the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 powered by the 10th Gen Intel
Core i7.
This processor, combined with the RTX 2070 Super Max Q and an innovative cooling solution,
makes it an awesome laptop for VR gaming.
This is made possible by Intel & ASUS as they’ve sent me this laptop to test with PC VR.
They could not have come at a better time as my previous laptop broke down, so a big
thanks to them for supporting the channel with this laptop.
Now, I’ll talk a little bit more about this laptop later, but first.
Hey everyone!
Cas here, and I welcome you to another VR Tech Tips video.
If you like to see more videos like this one, consider subscribing as that’s a big support
and now, join me beyond reality.
Before we get started, a few notes, in this video, I won’t go through how to set up
Oculus Link because I’ve explained that in my previous video.
Today, I’ll assume you already got the Oculus PC software installed and that Oculus Link
already works for you.
Now, let’s get started.
Tip #1 Oculus Link Graphical Settings – The Easy To Access Ones
So you can make your VR games prettier by adjusting and tweaking the graphical settings.
I recommend doing it because it can make such a difference.
Before, we had to do it manually using different tools.
But since Oculus Link has moved out of beta, Oculus added some graphical settings in the
Home PC software, making it way easier to adjust.
So to get there, connect your Quest to your PC.
Open your Oculus Home software.
Click on Devices, then on your connected Quest.
Scroll down here until you reach Graphics Preferences.
Here you can now change the Refresh Rate and Rendering Resolution.
So the refresh rates 80 and 90Hz are only available if you use USB 3.0, so make sure
you got a suitable cable.
Sometimes, depending on your system and game, using a lower refresh rate with a steady fps
could be a lot better than a choppy running game.
Trust me; your stomach will thank you.
As for Rendering Resolution, try picking one yourself.
You can disable Automatic here, and then you can adjust the slider.
You can then test for yourself what looks nice.
Be aware, though; you may have to readjust these settings per game depending on performance.
A little later in this video, I have an excellent performance monitor you can use to checks
what settings works best, but first, let’s go to…
Tip #2 Oculus Debug Tool For Encode Bitrate
So, there is still one setting missing that could improve Link’s visual quality tremendously,
which is the Encode Bitrate.
You can still find that in the Oculus Debug Tool, which you can find in your Oculus software
folder:
By default that’s in: C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-diagnostics
Double-click on Oculus Debug Tool here, then over at Oculus Link, you can set the Encode
Bitrate.
The maximum you can set is 500 Mbps here, but Oculus recommends not going beyond 250
as that could give diminishing returns if you go over that.
You can try some numbers yourself to see what works best for your system and game.
Before Oculus moved out of beta, we also recommended to set Encode Resolution Width, but that’s
not necessary anymore with the new Link settings.
So keep this at zero, which is the default setting.
Now on to something very handy if you like tweaking these settings.
Tip #3 Oculus Quest FPS Counter Never has it been more important to have good
framerates when gaming than with VR because, well, low framerates in VR can get you motion
sick.
Thankfully, Oculus has a really nice performance monitor that includes an FPS counter.
This is especially useful if you play around a lot with the graphical settings mentioned
in tip 1 and 2.
But for this to work, you do need to have developer mode enabled on your Quest.
I’m not going to explain that here, but you can watch my SideQuest how-to video on
it.
If you’ve done that, we need the Oculus Developer Hub.
You can download it via developer.oculus.com (link is below).
Once installed, connect your Quest to your PC.
It should show up at the top here.
Then go to My Device, then over here, OVR Metrics is what we need.
But you need to install it first.
So click on Install, twice.
Wait for it to install.
Once it’s done, it’ll automatically restart the headset.
And then if you go back to My Device with your Quest still
connected to your PC.
You can now turn on OVR Metrics here.
And if you put on your headset now, you can see the overlay now.
There’s a lot of info here, but no worries, you can adjust what metric you see here and
rearrange its position.
Do that by going back to the Oculus Developer Hub, then at the Unknown Sources section,
find ovrmonitormetricsservice.
Click Launch here.
A settings menu will appear inside the headset, where you can move the overlay and turn whatever
you need on and off.
You can also do this inside the headset by going to Unknown Sources and launching it
from there.
Now, let me show you some gameplay with this laptop as an example.
With the overlay you can see how this laptop runs VR games.
This is Half Life Alyx and as you can see I’m able to get a pretty steady framerate
at 90Hz.
There may be some stuttering here and there, but it’s not bad in the headset.
I also tried out Medal of Honor, as you may know, it’s a really resource-heavy game.
So our 2070 GPU may need to do some hard work here, but the Intel Core i7-10875H may be
able to handle it.
So what I found that running it on 80Hz, it is completely playable!
You may not be able to select the highest graphics, still, it doesn’t look bad.
-And- keep in mind that these two games are two of the most high end VR games out there.
So if these are playable, any other VR game should run fine as well.
I think it helps that this laptop has an interesting cooling system beneath the elevated display.
Because of this, the fans can pull in cool air from the top without any obstacles.
It then blows it out at the sides and rear.
It seems to be very effective.
It does make a lot of fan noise, but that’s with any gaming laptop, really.
So I’ve tested more Oculus Link games on this laptop and I’m genuinely impressed
with how it runs so far.
And by the way, if you want to know what every performance metric means on this overlay,
you can check out Oculus’ documentation.
I’ll put a link below.
So when you don’t need the overlay anymore, you can turn it off again in the Oculus Developer
Hub, or I find it easier to just do it inside the headset in the settings menu.
Heh.
That was a lot for one tip, but I think it’s a necessary one, so let me know if it helped
you down below.
Now let’s move on to tip number…
Tip #4 Useful Oculus App Settings
First, a couple of settings in your headset.
Make sure you’re in the Oculus Link environment, go to Settings, then Experiments.
Here are two settings I find useful, like the Passthrough shortcut, which is a native
Oculus Quest feature, which will make this handy feature work in Oculus Link too.
Very nice if you have to glance at the real-world real quick.
Now, if you scroll down a bit further in the settings, there’s the Wrist Watch setting.
It gives you a watch with the time on your wrist.
Handy because I’m not sure about you, but I always get so lost in time when I’m in
VR.
Then on your PC, the Oculus Home also has some useful settings.
Like over at General, you may want to disable Automatically Launching Oculus Home when you
put on your headset as it can make loading Oculus Link faster.
And over at the Beta tab, there’s a Demo Mode; this is very nice if you’re showcasing
VR to friends or family and you want to make things less complicated for them.
Tip #5 Pinning individual Windows
This is a feature I really love as it allows me to multitask with multiple screens, like
I can replicate what I have here with this laptop’s companion screen, except in VR.
So, for example, I can watch Netflix while drawing in Tilt Brush.
To do this, put on your headset, and in Oculus Link, you can scroll a bit to the right while
holding the trigger button until you find ‘Add desktop panel.’
Click on it, and here you can select whatever Window you have open, like Netflix.
It’ll then be dragged out as an individual Window that you can pin inside your game.
But first, you can use the joystick to set its size and distance.
Like if I want to replicate this ASUS laptop screen, I’ll put it down here.
Then don’t forget to pin it, which can be done by clicking this icon here.
Now close your Oculus Home menu, and the Window will stay locked on that spot.
Tip #6 Check Out Which Games Support Cross-Buy!
Some Oculus games support cross-buy; this means that if you buy that game on the Oculus
PC store, you can get it for free on the Quest natively too.
Some games even allow you to continue playing on different systems.
For example, OrbusVR is saved in the cloud, so whatever you do on your PC, you can continue
doing it in your Quest later on.
To check which games have cross-buy, Oculus has a nice list here.
Reddit also has a nice list, which even shows whether you can play multiplayer games on
a single account.
Both are linked below.
Tip #7 Unlock Oculus Home Decorations With Game Achievements!
So!
When you’re playing with Oculus Link, you also get your very own Oculus Home that you
can decorate.
If you haven’t done that yet, I highly recommend it.
You can find it in the Oculus Home menu.
But what I like the most is that games now also reward special Oculus Home items that
you can show off in your Oculus Home as you can invite friends to check it out.
To check what you can get, go to the Oculus Home app on your PC.
You can then click on a game, like Vader Immortal Episode I.
Here you can see the rewards you can get; for example, you can get this Stormtrooper
if you complete round 10 of the Lightsaber Dojo.
So not every game has this, but the games that do have this, I think these are fun little
incentives to dive back into a game.
Tip #8 Starting SteamVR games within Oculus Home
If you’re using Oculus Link, you are most likely also playing SteamVR games.
But did you know you can start SteamVR and its games from within the Oculus Home app
even without starting SteamVR.
If you go to Library then Apps and don’t see your SteamVR games here if you’ve launched
it at least once.
But if you don’tc, then make sure to click on the Filter at the top right, and then check
the box for Unknown Sources.
SteamVR and your installed games will then show up.
If the games still don’t show up you can also manually add them by clicking on this
Plus sign.
Here you may also find other SteamVR apps that haven’t been added yet.
Click Select all to add everything.
If you’re still missing something, you can add it manually by clicking ‘Add it here’
and then navigating to the game’s folder and adding the game’s .exe file.
Now you can start your SteamVR games from within your headset as well, even if you don’t
have Steam launched yet.
This saves you a step or two, which is always nice, right?
😉
And that’s it!
Let me know if you found these tips useful in the comments below and if you got more
tips yourself, drop them there too so everyone can get some more advice.
And if you’re looking for a laptop over the holidays.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 packs a punch.
It’s a laptop with a premium price, but it packs some impressive hardware for gaming
while still keeping a beautiful streamlined design in my opinion.
The RTX 2070 Super Max Q and 10th Gen Intel i7 Processor combined with the effective cooling
solution make it a great gaming laptop and, as you could see in the video, suitable for
VR gaming like with Oculus Link too.
If you want to know more about this laptop, check out the link in the description.
Definitely let me know what you think about this laptop’s design, too, in the comments
below.
A special thanks go to all our Champions, especially these Patrons down below.
And one last thank you goes to Intel & Asus for supporting the channel by providing the
laptop.
And as always, VR on!