Oculus Quest 2 owners will soon be able to say goodbye to the clunky Oculus Link cable and play virtual reality games on PC, as Oculus announced that standalone VR headsets will receive official wireless PC support through its new Oculus Air Link technology. This new feature will be introduced as part of the upcoming v28 software update and will be available first in experimental mode before full release later this year.
Based on the work of Oculus Link, you can play virtual reality games for PC, such as Half-Life: Connect Alyx on Quest via USB, Oculus Air Link will use your home Wi-Fi network to stream the game to the headset. People who bought the expensive Virtual Desktop application in Quest 2 can already technically choose this method of playing virtual reality games for PC, but now Quest 2 owners can use it for free without the need for third-party software. You should still be aware that a solid Wi-Fi network can use the Oculus Air Link.
For the best experience, Oculus recommends that you use a 5 GHz network connection on an AC or AX router connected to your PC via Ethernet, which can be a bit tricky depending on your home setup. For example, my home router is in the hall and my gaming PC is upstairs behind the house. If I want to connect directly to the router, I may have to use some power line adapters or Home Plug, which obviously adds to the cost of all the work.
As long as you have a strong Wi-Fi network and your gaming space is “ideally” 20 feet from the router, Air Link is still a good choice for you. Of course, the current version of Oculus Link won’t be available everywhere, so you can still play virtual reality games for PC by connecting Quest 2 with a USB cable. In fact, Oculus stated that if you want to charge your headphones while gaming or experience the highest quality visuals, then using the Oculus Link with a USB-C cable is the “only way” (although I must point out that Link is suitable for everyone. you can use USB cable type, not just USB-C to C cable).
To test Oculus Air Link yourself, you need to update the Oculus PC app to v28, which will be released “soon”. Then you need to enable “Over-the-air link” in the “Beta” menu of the “Settings” tab. Finally, you need to activate it in Quest 2, which can be done in the “Experiments” section of the “Settings” menu. If it doesn’t work, just disable it on the headphones and you can use Link again via the USB cable.
Oculus also confirmed that the Quest 2’s previously hinted 120Hz refresh rate support will also be available as an experimental feature in the same v28 update. “Developers can quickly start publishing applications to the Oculus Store that run locally at 120Hz, and Quest 2 users will be able to choose to include the 120Hz option via the toggle button in the” Experiments “panel to experience these applications in the Higher frame rate. Although there are currently no applications that support 120Hz, those who enable this setting will experience 120Hz performance in applications that choose to support this feature in the future. At the same time, the Quest 2 system software will maintain 90Hz. Oculus Link support for 120Hz will be released in a future release. “
