(Since this post was written the Quest now natively supports this without using the Virtual Desktop app, but having the correct network setup is still required for a good experience.)
With the right network configuration, it’s possible to play VR games from Steam on your Quest 2, without any wires and at a perfect 90FPS quality! And you don’t even need any adapters!
A couple of years ago when VR first became mainstream, I bought myself a HTC Vive, along with the wireless adapter. It worked great, but the setup was crazy! I had to mount the base stations to the walls, the wireless adapter sat on top of the Vive, it was heavy, and it still actually had a wire, although just to a battery pack which you could put in your pocket.
Fast forward a couple years, and now we have the Oculus Quest 2. Not only can it run games on it’s own with no PC at all, but there’s no adapters needed or base stations to mount. You can literally just take it out of the box and put it on your head! And what’s more, Oculus has officially allowed the Virtual Desktop app onto the Quest app store. This app allows you to stream your PC’s desktop to your Quest. But it has a hidden feature – it can stream VR games as well! So you can now play any SteamVR or Oculus Rift game on your Quest, while still keeping it entirely wireless.
Network configuration
Now, in order to achieve this near-perfect wireless PCVR experience on your Quest 2, it needs to have an extremely low-latency and high bandwidth connection to your PC, or else you might experience small bits of lag, or the quality of the image could become noticeable during scenes with lots of movement.
The best possible setup, is to use a router with WiFi 6 support, and have your PC plugged into it with a gigabit LAN connection. In my case, I use the TP-Link Deco X20. The TP-Link Deco is a Wi-Fi mesh system, where you can add any number of devices to your network and they don’t even need to be plugged into each other! If they are though, it simply boosts the speed between each one by using all available channels, like WiFi and LAN. You can also mix and match these Deco devices.
The Deco X20 has two Gigabit LAN ports, as well as WiFi 6 support. My computer and VR room is very far away from the main router providing the internet, so I use a single Deco X20 in my VR room, and have my PC plugged directly into it via Gigabit LAN. And that’s all that’s needed! The X20 automatically integrates into the Deco mesh WiFi network, so the Quest automatically uses it for the connection simply because it’s the closest WiFi access point.
That’s all
And that’s it! To summarize, this is what is needed:
- A WiFi access point with Gigabit LAN and WiFi 6 … I use a TP-Link Deco X20 because of how easy it is to extend your network.
- A Gigabit LAN cable … be careful with this one, sometimes the cable itself doesn’t support Gigabit LAN.
- A PC with a Gigabit LAN port, connected to the access point.
- The WiFi access point should be in the same room as your Quest 2 for the best results.
- And finally, the Virtual Desktop Streamer app running on your PC.