Virtual Desktop has been the defacto standard for being able to play PC VR games wirelessly
on your Oculus Quest for years.
The process for this has been somewhat convoluted though, with the need to become an oculus
developer, sideload patches and a number of other steps needed to get it up and running.
Now however, with the latest release of Virtual Desktop, that has all changes.
It is now super simple to get up and running in no time at all.
So, in this video, I’ll be covering what’s changed, what are now the super simple steps
that you need to get virtual desktop setup on your Quest and your PC, and take you through
how to play your first game.
Welcome to My Tech Gear... Let’s get into it!
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Virtual Desktop is an awesome app that allows you to play wireless PC VR games on your Quest
headset.
However, since it’s launch, Oculus has required this feature to be disabled in the Virtual
Desktop app that is available in the main Oculus Quest store.
So, in order to get around that, Guy Godin, the developer of Virtual Desktop, released
a patch for it on SideQuest that you could install that re-enabled that feature.
This meant that the steps required to get this set up were pretty laborious because
you had to: Enable developer mode in your Oculus Account,
Set up Side Quest and, Install additional drivers on your PC
in order for this to work.
With the latest release of Virtual Desktop though, this feature has been added back into
the main app that is available on the Oculus Quest store,
so you no longer need to do any of that!
This now makes being able to play PC VR games wirelessly super simple.
Having just made a step by step video guide on how to set this up a couple of weeks ago
though, that’s, well, a little bit annoying, as those steps are now all wrong!!
So, here’s THIS video, that takes you through the new, even simpler steps needed to get
set up.
So let's just get straight into the steps that you need to do to get your Quest set up
The first thing you need to go and do is buy Virtual Desktop on the Oculus Quest itself.
So go into the app store of the Oculus Quest and just buy Virtual Desktop.
It's $19.99 USD at the moment.
So now that we've got the client set up on the oculus quest headset itself, we now need
to set up the server or the streaming app on the PC, and that's really easy to do.
All you need to do is go to vrdesktop.net, which is what's running behind me, and download
the streamer app from that main page that you see behind me.
Once you've done that, install it, and then run it.
What you'll be presented with is a single page app and that really is all there is to
it.
The only thing you need to do on that main page is insert your oculus username on the
top left hand side.
Now if you don't know what your oculus username is it's actually really easy to find.
In the oculus app that's on your phone, if you click on the picture of your account which
is normally on the top left, and then on the next page it will show you what your username
is underneath that same picture.
So with that username, just copy to the top left, and that's the server side of it all done.
So now you're all set up and ready to play your first PC VR game wirelessly on the oculus
quest headset.
Now before we do that it is assumed that you've got some PC VR games already installed on
your pc from either the oculus rift or the steam vr stores.
If you haven't got either of those set up yet then be sure to check out my video of
the easy step-by-step guide of how to get both of those set up.
So go over there.
Follow those steps.
Install some games, and then you'll be ready to go to the next step and come back here.
Now that you've got all your games set up and ready to go we're ready to play our first
game.
First up you need to make sure both the quest and your pc are on and they are connected
to the same network within your house.
Now you need to go and run the vr streamer app on your PC.
Then on the oculus quest headset, select virtual desktop from your app library.
This will start the virtual desktop app and will automatically find the streamer app that
is running on the same network on your PC, and it will automatically connect to it.
Once that's completed you should be looking at the screen of your PC within your oculus
quest headset.
Now, if you click on the menu button on your left controller, this will bring up the virtual
desktop menu and you'll see 'settings', and a few other things.
If you select 'games' it will show you the list of PC VR games you've got installed on
your PC.
So either the rift games, or the steam vr games.
Just select the game you want to play, and voila it loads! we are done!
You are now ready to play your first PC VR game wirelessly from your oculus quest headset.
Do let me know in the comments down below how you got on.
What was the first game you tried?
What games are next on your list?
By the way, i can thoroughly recommend Half-Life:Alyx if you haven't tried that game already.
And there you have it!
Super Simple, and up and running in no time at all.
It’s great that Facebook have allowed this feature back into the main Virtual Desktop
app as I’m sure that this will see far more people giving wireless PC VR gaming a shot.
With SideQuest no longer being required to get Virtual Desktop set up, it is going to
be interesting to see what the impact this has on it’s usage in the long term, as it’s
often the main reason that people get SideQuest in the first place.
I’d certainly still encourage people to use SideQuest though as it’s still the best
single source available to get apps and games for the Quest outside of the Official App
Store.
It’s also the best place to be able to get games from App Lab, which is Oculus’s new
early adopter app store.
It’s just not easy to find those games on the main Quest store at present, and it’s
way easier to find them on SideQuest.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video, and I hope it was helpful to you.
If you did enjoy it please don’t forget to like and share it.
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And as always…..
See you in the next one!