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(Pocket-lint) – If you own an Oculus Quest viewer, you may have heard of Quest Link. If you also have a gaming PC, then a real treat awaits you, as with a bit of free software and the right USB-C cable you can play PC-quality VR games on your affordable VR device.
That’s right, Quest Link gives you the ability to play Oculus Rift S games on a headset that doesn’t normally need a PC to run. The main disadvantage is that you will have to give up your wireless freedom in order to play, but you will have many more games to choose from. That includes solid favorites like Half-Life: Alyx , The Invisible Hours, Skyrim VR, and more.
How to use Oculus Link
The first step in getting started with Oculus Link is to make sure you have the right hardware. Yes, you need the Oculus Quest headphones, but you also need a compatible PC or laptop and the suitable high quality USB-C cable (either USB-C to USB-C or USB-A to USB-C).
You can find out if your computer is compatible by checking here , but at the time of writing this article, the minimum specifications are as follows:
- Processor: Intel i5 – 4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or higher
- Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 and above
- Memory: 8GB + RAM
- Operating system: Windows 10
- USB Ports – 1 x USB port
If you check all those boxes, you should be able to use Oculus Link with just a few more steps. The first one is to download the Oculus app for PC . This is free software that is usually used for Oculus Rift or Rift S, but when you connect your Quest, the app will recognize it as well.
Download the software and log in to your account as usual. Then, look for a suitable USB-C cable. The official Oculus Link cable is a logical choice, is 5 m long and is fully compatible with the speeds needed to work with the headphones. However, there are other alternatives available.
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We found that it is better to connect the headphones directly to the GPU of your PC. If you do, with the USB-C cable connected to your headphones and PC at the same time, the Oculus software should recognize your device.
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From here, you will see a green circle indicating that the headset has been recognized and is connected. Activate Quest and you should also see a pop-up asking you to enable Oculus Link inside the headphones.
If you don’t see that request, you can find the options in the headset settings. Navigate to settings, devices and scroll down and you should see an option to enable Oculus Link.
Troubleshooting Oculus Link not working
If you’ve done everything right, but your Oculus Link doesn’t work, there are a few things you can try to fix it. First of all, try the obvious: turn it off and turn it back on, both the PC and the headphones.
Then try these things:
- Make sure you have the latest Oculus app & gt; navigate to library and updates
- Force restart Oculus: click settings, beta and “restart Oculus” to restart all software within Windows
- Join (or leave) the public test channel: some versions of the beta may not work well with Oculus Link. Navigate to the beta version and click to enable the Public Test Channel option if it is not already checked or disable it if it is. Switching between these options can help
- Check that your USB-C cable is plugged in correctly, if possible, connect it directly to your machine’s graphics card
- Update your graphics card drivers to make sure you have the latest
Turn on your game!
When it’s working, Oculus Link is great. It’s a fantastic addition to Oculus Quest as it gives you the power to play full-fledged virtual reality games without the need for external trackers and hassle-free and without a massive additional cost (assuming you already have a PC).
You can purchase games from the Oculus Store and launch them from the app. You can also install and run Steam VR and access the games that way. If they work with Oculus Rift, they should also work perfectly with Oculus Quest.
Oculus Link wirelessly
Since the launch of Oculus Link, the company has taken steps to improve it. With the release of the software’s v28, Oculus announced that it was making it possible to use Oculus Link wirelessly.
Oculus Air Link, as it’s called, allows Oculus Quest 2 owners to play Oculus Rift compatible games wirelessly, without needing to be connected directly to a gaming PC.
This is done wirelessly and obviously can have some disadvantages as well as some basic requirements to work. Oculus says, for example, that you will need a “strong and secure Wi-Fi network” for the best experience and ideally to be within 20 feet of your router.
To access the Oculus Air Link, you will need to download and install the Oculus app on your PC . Then go to the settings in the app, click Beta Settings, and click to toggle Air Link. Inside the headphones, go to the settings, navigate to the experimental settings and then activate Air Link there as well.
Written by Adrian Willings.
