Oculus finally has a way to play PC VR games without the use of a cable with Oculus Air Link. Announced today, Air Link is a new wireless method that will allow the Oculus Quest 1 and 2 to play PC virtual reality games. Oculus Air Link will ship in Experimental mode on Quest 2 and will be made available via an upcoming update, v28.
As this will not require a cable to work with PCs, this will need a robust WiFi network to take full advantage of the offering.
While Air Link is an Experimental feature, not every network and PC setup will be ideal. We’re continuing to improve Air Link’s performance and compatibility for different configurations, but in the meantime, check out our guide for best practices, known issues, and to see if your setup should work well with Air Link. We recommend following the guidelines we’ve provided to ensure the best experience, including: Only use Air Link on a secure WiFi network that you trust; use a 5Ghz network on an AC or AX router, connected via ethernet cable to your PC; and make sure your PC meets the Oculus Link requirements.
We’ll work to improve Air Link over time, including performance, visual quality, and the ability to run in less than ideal wireless scenarios. We look forward to hearing the community’s feedback while Air Link is in Experimental mode.
This is completely untethered, no more wires, and will effectively push the Quest 2 further away from the Rift S. However, as exciting as this sounds, I am concerned about if Air Link will support PC VR games outside of the Oculus store. Will Steam VR games work with it? In theory, you could launch the games/apps from the virtual desktop, but would that introduce some issues in doing so? If you know, definitely leave a comment for me.
That’s not all, either. Along with Oculus Air Link comes 120Hz refresh rate support for the Quest 2. This will be made available via an upcoming software update for the device.
Now, we’re giving gamers and developers even more choice to push smooth gameplay to the next level with the option to enable a 120 Hz display refresh rate on Quest 2. Developers can soon begin to ship apps on the Oculus Store that run at 120 Hz natively, while Quest 2 users will be able to opt into the 120 Hz option via a toggle in the Experimental panel to experience these applications at higher frame rates.
Our goal is to continue unlocking new capabilities of the Quest 2 hardware. We expect 120 Hz and 90 Hz support to provide the most benefit for games that rely on fast-twitch, rapid-style movement while for many other apps, 72 Hz mode will continue to be a great option for a smooth and comfortable experience.
There isn’t any ETA as to when update v28 will be released as of yet, but it will be sometime this month. With the Oculus gaming showcase happening next week, we could see it being released then.
However, once it does, you can get sure that Oculus VR’s future is going to change. For those holding on to the Rift S but had been thinking about making the jump to the Quest 2, like me, we finally have a compelling reason to do so. Now I’m really wondering when we’ll hear about Oculus Quest 3.
Source: Oculus
