There’s a third-party alternative to Air Link as well and, so far, we’ve had much better luck with it than the experimental Air Link solution. However, it depends on having ideal network conditions and won’t match the image quality and exact latency of using the cable. Playing with Air Link (which you need to enable under the experimental features in your Quest 2 settings) is much more freeing and immersive than being tethered by a cable. From here, you can launch all your SteamVR games. This will shift you over into the SteamVR home environment.
Instead of starting the game directly, you can open your desktop in the Oculus software described above and launch SteamVR as its own application. Method 2: Launch the Game From SteamVR Home If this is the first time you’re running either SteamVR or the game, there may be some additional setup to perform, but you should launch directly into the game once that’s done. Open Steam, then open the SteamVR game of your choice. Your motion controller will act as a mouse, but you can also use your regular mouse. This will bring your desktop into the virtual space. If you’re starting from the Oculus Home environment, look down at the semi-circular dashboard and press the icon that looks like a computer monitor. Method 1: Launch the Game From Oculus Home
With both the Oculus Software, SteamVR, and at least one SteamVR game installed, let’s see how to play it. Simply search your Steam library for “SteamVR.” You can find it in the store just like any other Steam application if it isn’t there. If you’ve already installed a SteamVR game, then the SteamVR software should have been installed automatically. However, SteamVR isn’t installed with Steam by default.
We assume you know that you’ll have to install Steam if you want to play SteamVR games, regardless of which headset you have. Assuming everything goes as it should here, the next step is to cover the SteamVR part of the puzzle. Once you’ve installed it, you just need to plug it into your computer while the software is running and follow the instructions. You’ve probably already set up your Quest 2 with your computer and have even played a few games, but in case you haven’t yet, you’ll have to download the Oculus software from their website and install it. For this to work, the following has to be in place: SteamVR games will think your Oculus is a SteamVR headset, and, in theory, you’ll be none the wiser. The good news is that both Valve and Oculus have made efforts to help the Oculus Quest 2 (and other Oculus headsets) play nice with SteamVR.Įssentially what happens is that if you launch a SteamVR game with your Oculus plugged in, it will detect the headset, and the two APIs will translate between themselves. So it doesn’t understand SteamVR games at all. This is great if you’re using a SteamVR-native headset like the Valve Index, but the Quest 2 uses a proprietary Oculus API and SDK. You get a SteamVR virtual room where you can launch games and otherwise tweak your VR settings as you please. SteamVR also runs as its own environment. SteamVR is the standard used by the Steam client and VR games that run in it. There are several Virtual Reality APIs (application programmer interface) and SDKs (software development kits) for VR on PCs.