UPDATE Jan 8: The Link Cable is now ships to all 22 countries Facebook ships Oculus Quest to, including Europe.
Oculus Link is the feature (currently in beta) which lets the Oculus Quest act as a PC VR headset via any high quality USB 3.0 cable. This gives Quest owners who own a gaming PC access to the Oculus Rift library and SteamVR.
However, as far as we’re aware there are no compatible third party cables longer than 3 meters- unless you use extenders of course.
The official cable was announced alongside the feature itself at Oculus Connect 6, with Facebook stating that it would arrive later this year. Until now, Quest owners using Link have been using third party cables, such as the officially recommended Anker product.
So why would you want this cable over regular USB cables with extenders? USB 3.0 extension cables tend to be relatively thick and heavy. Fiber is around half the weight of copper, and more flexible too. This makes it more suitable for a VR cable- especially for room scale gaming.
You also don’t need to worry about finding the right combination of cables and extenders, as some USB 3.0 products on Amazon simply don’t work.
Will you be purchasing the official Link Cable, or will you be using a third party solution? Let us know in the comments below!
This article was originally published December 23 2019.
The 3dRudder foot controller supports just about every virtual reality (VR) headset on the market, allowing players to remain seated and comfortable whilst having the benefit of moving in a virtual world using their feet. As Oculus Quest is the hot headset of the moment, 3dRudder has just announced compatibility thanks to Oculus Link.
The company has enabled this feature by updating its 3dRudder Dashboard, letting Oculus Quest users connect to a 3dRudder hooked up to a PC. Through the dashboard’s VR Unleashed option, Oculus Quest users can now play PC VR titles as well as adjust a range of settings for their 3dRudder (seen in the image below), hopefully ensuring a nausea-free experience.
As for more native support, 3dRudder will soon allow developers to integrate the controller into their videogames and apps via a beta section in its software development kit (SDK). Interested developers will need to register for this section here.
Additionally, 3dRudder has mentioned that a new app called The Whale will be released in the next few days (no exact date) showcasing the combination of 3dRudder and Oculus Quest hand tracking. The feature has been one of the big VR stories of the last few months, ever since its first unveiling at Oculus Connect 6 (OC6). Hand tracking for Oculus Quest began its rollout last week, allowing users to experience Quest Home as well as first-party apps like Oculus Browser and Oculus TV. Now that the hand tracking SDK has been released to developers more compatible content should start appearing.
3dRudder was designed to help players enjoy free-roaming VR experiences who either felt nauseous using stick-based control schemes or for those who didn’t have enough space for roomscale titles. Supporting a wide variety of videogames for both PC VR headsets and PlayStation VR, 3dRudder currently retails at €99 EUR for PC VR and €119 for the PlayStation VR version.
As developers continue to support Oculus Quest and as more titles add 3dRudder compatibility, VRFocus will let you know.
You can now manually increase the image resolution of Oculus Link, which can deliver a sharper, clearer image.
DISCLAIMER: this functionality is intended for advanced users. However, there should be no risk to your Quest or performance as you can simply set any changes back to default if something goes wrong.
Oculus Link is a new feature for Facebook’s Oculus Quest standalone headset which allows it to act as a PC VR headset via any high quality USB 3.0 cable. It’s currently in beta.
The default output resolution of Oculus Link is lower than when using a Rift S, which gives the image a less sharp, softer appearance. But the latest Rift software Public Test Channel (Facebook’s name for the Beta testing channel) build allows for advanced users to change the resolution, and Facebook Graphics Coder Volga Aksoy posted a guide as to how to do this.
To make sure you’re opted in to the Rift Public Test Channel, go to the Settings of the app and click on the Beta tab.
Oculus Debug Tool
To change the resolution of Oculus Link, you use the Oculus Debug Tool (ODT). This can be found in the oculus-diagnostics subfolder of the Support folder of your Oculus Rift software directory.
By default, this will be C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-diagnostics.
The program is called OculusDebugTool.exe.
Pixel Density, Encode Resolution, Curvature
The three settings in the ODT which relate to Oculus Link are:
Pixels Per Display Pixel Override: This is a decimal which sets the actual render resolution of the VR app. 1.0 is the default. It is a per-axis value, so a value of 1.2 actually means 44% more pixels are rendered than default.
Distortion Curvature: While no description is given for this setting, it likely sets the curve at which resolution is reduced in the periphery. Counterintuitively, ‘Low’ gives better quality than ‘High’.
Encode Resolution Width: Oculus Link works by sending a compressed video stream across the USB connection. This setting decides the resolution of this video stream.
Pixels Per Display will always be set back to 1.0 when you restart your PC, however, Distortion Curve and Encode Width will persist.
The render width when Pixels Per Display is at default (1.0) is 1800. The default Encode Width is seemingly 2016. However, you can also revert them back to default by setting them to 0.
According to Aksoy, increasing the Encode Width without increasing the Pixels Per Display multiplier is generally pointless.
Oculus Recommendations
Aksoy gave three quality level recommendations based on which generation of graphics card you have:
NVIDIA GTX 970+ or Comparable
Pixels Per Display Pixel Override: 1.0
Distortion Curvature: Default
Encode Resolution Width: 2016
NVIDIA GTX 1070+ or Comparable
Pixels Per Display Pixel Override: 1.1
Distortion Curvature: High
Encode Resolution Width: 2352
NVIDIA RTX 2070+ or Comparable
Pixels Per Display Pixel Override: 1.2
Distortion Curvature: Low
Encode Resolution Width: 2912
Oculus Warnings
Aksoy provided the following warnings for tweaking the settings too high:
• Higher “Pixel Density” can cause dropped VR app frames and will vary based on the performance characteristics of the VR app.
• Higher “Encoder Resolution” can lead to dropped compositor frames as well as visible tearing.
• Higher resolutions in general can also lead to higher latency.
• Unnecessarily high resolutions (especially “Encode Resolution”) can lead to aliasing artifacts (i.e. pixel crawling) on high frequency details.
Launched last month in beta, Oculus Link lets you connect your Oculus Quest standalone headset to a VR-ready computer, letting you play PC VR games simply by hooking up a high-quality USB 3 cable. Users with AMD graphics cards however were a bit dismayed to find out that exactly zero were supported at the beta’s launch last month, although thankfully that’s changed now.
First spotted by UploadVR, Oculus has now included a number of AMD cards to its list of Oculus Link-capable PC specs, which includes its 400, 500, 5000 and Vega series GPUs.
Unfortunately 200 and 300 series cards aren’t officially supported at this time, although Oculus says its working directly with AMD “to support as many of their cards as possible by the time the beta period ends.”
Considering Oculus Link also supports AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater CPUs, it seems all-AMD rigs have a much better chance at turning the standalone Quest into what feels like bona fide PC VR headset.
Looking for a USB cable for Link? Oculus hasn’t released its official cable yet, although the company suggests the following Anker cable in the meantime, which has been tested and approved. Links: North America | Canada | UK | Japan | Australia | Germany
Oculus Quest system software v12 is now rolling out, adding Voice Commands, AMD support for Link, and experimental controller-free hand tracking.
Voice Commands will let you navigate the menu, launch apps, and search. Facebook says this feature is rolling out gradually, so even if you get v12 you may not get Voice Commands immediately.
quest app
If you’re demoing your Quest to family and friends this holiday season, v12 will make the experience easier. You can now do things like launch the First Contact tutorial or recenter the headset view from the Oculus phone app.
Quest was released back in May, but already Facebook has added significant new features and improvements via software updates. These will likely continue into 2020 as Quest continues to have Facebook’s focus over the Rift S and Go.
Oculus Link Improvements
Oculus Link is the feature which allows Quest to act as a PC VR headset via a high quality USB 3.0 cable. It launched last month, but didn’t support AMD graphics cards– until now. Facebook lists the following card families as now supported:
AMD 400 Series
AMD 500 Series
AMD 5000 Series
AMD Vega Series
The 200 and 300 series are unsupported, but Facebook is “working directly with AMD to support as many of their cards as possible by the time the beta period ends.“
For all Link users, Windows audio will now be separated from VR audio, so you won’t hear your YouTube tabs or Spotify through the Quest anymore.
Finally, as we were expecting during beta, this update also brings “performance improvements and stability fixes” to Link. We’ve noticed Link beta sometimes requires restarting the Quest, so hopefully this resolves issues like that.
Yesterday, VRFocus reported on HTC Vive rolling out a new wireless service called Viveport Streaming, allowing Vive Focus Plus users to play Viveport Infinity videogames from their PC. Today, the platform is expanding its support to Oculus Quest thanks to Oculus Link.
With the launch of Oculus Link in November, owners of the standalone headset could play Oculus Rift titles via a cable, just so long as the cable was compatible and their PC met the required specifications.
Now Oculus Quest owners can access the unlimited streaming service Viveport Infinity in the same manner, accessing hundreds of PC VR titles for $12.99 USD/month or $8.99 with an annual plan. This opens the flood gates, even more, when it comes to accessing the latest VR content on Oculus Quest, as you’re no longer restricted to one store.
To setup Viveport Infinity for Oculus Quest do the following:
Setup Oculus Link Beta
Open the Oculus desktop app. *Make sure your Quest’s firmware is updated to version 11.0 or greater
Go to Settings > General > Unknown Sources to enable 3rd party sources
Navigate to Beta and join the public test channel
Go to Devices on the menu bar and add “Quest” as your headset
Connect your Quest to your PC via USB-C cable
Click “Enable” during the Oculus Link prompt in headset
Congrats! You are all set
Download Viveport
Log into a Viveport account (or create a new account if you’re joining us for the first time).
Install SteamVR (this occurs automatically, but you may be asked to sign into your Steam account).
Launch Viveport from the desktop shortcut
Sign-up and start your free 14-day trial to Infinity giving you to access hundreds of Oculus compatible desktop titles.
*Skip these steps if you already have an account*
Discover
On the Viveport homepage, select “Featured for Oculus Rift” to filter for Oculus compatible content.
HTC Vive has always maintained Viveport as an agnostic service designed to promote VR whilst supporting a range of headsets. With the addition of Oculus Quest, Viveport now supports HTC Vive, Valve Index, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Viveport, reporting back with the latest updates.
It’s been three years since the major consumer VR headsets came onto the scene, with Oculus Rift leading the charge back in March 2016. Now that Rift S is here, and Oculus Link is ushering more users to hook up their Quests to a VR-ready PC and finally check out made-for-Rift games (in all their glory), it’s high time we take a look at the best games for Rift that came out this year.
We’re included links below for both Steam and the Oculus Store if the game just so happens to be available on both. And now, in no particular order, our list of best Rift games released in 2019:
The 10 Best Rift Games of 2019
Stormland
Insomniac Games recently released Stormland, a Rift exclusive and open-world adventure that is devilishly fun thanks to excellent shooting mechanics, fun flying and cloud-gliding locomotion schemes, and its two-player co-op mode that lets you take on the game’s evil robots with either ninja-like finesse, or head on, guns a’blazing.
This open-world adventure doesn’t just offer your garden variety campaign though, as once you’ve completed the story mode you’re treated to an ongoing mode that remixes the world each week, and luring you back in with the promise of fresh objectives. Check out why we gave Stormlanda [9/10] in our review.
Asgard’s Wrath
Sanzaru Games has hit upon some interesting territory with its recent Rift exclusive Asgard’s Wrath, the big budget Norse-inspired adventure that sets you in a mythical world of Valhalla, Odin, Thor… the lot.
It’s without a doubt among one of the best VR games to date, as this melee combat adventure lets you dig into a nice slice of story, mostly serviceable melee-based combat, and easily 20 hours of dungeon crawling and looting. Double that if you’re a steadfast completionist, or some sort of masochist playing on the highest difficulty. Read our review of Asgard’s Wrath to find out why we gave it an [8.8/10].
Vader Immortal: A Star Wars Series
ILMxLABs recently released the last installment of its three-part Star Wars experience, Vader Immortal. Ok, so it’s not exactly a game per se—more like a VR experience that’s somewhere between a theme park ride and an interactive film—but it’s an awesome trip into the Star Wars universe which features three 40-minute episodes.
Each episode also includes a ‘Lightsaber Dojo’ where you get to train each of your newly acquired Jedi skills. If you’re not into wave-based combat (no matter how slick and lightsaber-y), you’ll probably still find the story portion worth your time.
Trover Saves the Universe
Justin Roiland, the co-creator of Rick and Morty, poured whatever fever dreams lurks in his head into this charming, silly, and deliciously off-putting 3D platformer. Trover Saves the Universe is one of the few VR games released this year that primarily uses gamepad (or gamepad emulation via motion controllers), but being the chair-bound ‘Chairopian’ that you are, it not only makes sense, but is entirely self-aware of how weird it is to control a little purple monster with a joystick and buttons.
We didn’t get a chance to officially review Trover Saves the Universe, although it’s currently sitting at a very respectable [4.76/5] on the Oculus Store. Having played it personally, it’s totally a justified score.
Pistol Whip
Cloudhead Games previously made its name in VR with its linear, story-driven VR adventure series The Gallery, but taking a few notes from Beat Saber, the studio released Pistol Whip, a VR rhythm shooter that engages your body in a very unique and compelling way.
You’re constantly moving forward through a levels where enemies appear and shoot at you, and it’s your job to not only return fire, but dodge incoming bullets too. It’s an awsome way to get into ‘flow state’, although we’re still waiting on more music to fill out its 10-song library.
No Man’s Sky
Hello Games really deserves some serious credit here. In the face of one of the worst launches in video game history, the studio not only persevered to make No Man’s Sky (2016) a more interesting and full experience (closer to original promises), but also included VR support when it released its free ‘Beyond’ update this year, making it an entirely new experience for VR players to enjoy. The game was already a blast on flatscreen in the months leading up to Beyond, but there’s really nothing like stepping into your own starship and heading out into The Black for some shooty, looty, and … exploration-y.
It didn’t get the highest marks from us when it first released; it’s something Road to VR contributor Gabriel Moss called “a wonderful, deeply flawed space odyssey,” giving it a still respectable [7.5/10]. It’s since benefited from some quality of life updates that have lured us back in, proving that Hello Games is working hard to make it right in a way Bethesda simply didn’t with Skyrim VR and Fallout 4 VR.
Vacation Simulator
Owlchemy Labs’s followup to Job Simulator (2016) includes more story, a more open environment to traverse (albeit node teleportation) and a ton of vacation-style activities to explore and play.
For some, this makes it arguably better than the first, as it not only retains the ‘smash crap until it breaks’ spirit of the first, but also shows off more of a raison d’être with clearer objectives and fun, more leisure-based activities. Find out why we gave it a resounding [8.8] in our full review.
Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted
It’s the iconic jump-scare-machine from PC and mobile fame, but expertly recreated for VR headsets, including both classic levels and original mini-games set in the Five Nights universe. As you’d imagine, VR really pushes this horror game to a new level, as you can hear the footsteps clattering behind you and can only close your eyes (or rip off the headset) when you’re eventually caught by the animatronic cast of the game’s version of Chuck E. Cheese on PCP.
I had a chance to jump into Freddy’s for fun back on Halloween, but unfortunately we missed a proper review when it released back in May. It’s got a justified near [5/5] on the Oculus Store and an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ rating on Steam.
Espire 1: VR Operative
There’s been some debate about whether Tripwire Interactive’s stealth combat adventure Espire 1: VR Operative truly deserves to be compared to Konami’s iconic Metal Gear series, but it’s hard to deny that they certain have a lot in common. Slinking around corridors, crawling through ventilation shafts, silently killing a massive amount of guards on your quest to uncover a sinister plot from a deep state terrorist splinter group: it provides plenty of great moments despite some niggling UX stuff.
We gave it a healthy [7/10] in our review, which puts it on the low side in terms of scores here on this list, but don’t sleep on this one; its redeeming qualities outweigh the eventual frustrations.
AUDICA
Released in Early Access by Guitar Hero series creator Harmonix, Audica is a rhythm shooter of another stripe, as it essentially takes the Beat Saber formula and crossbreeds it with Space Pirate Simulator, putting its focus on timing, accuracy, and shot combos.
Even though it got off to a rocky start during Early Access, Harmonix has managed to refine it for its full release, garnering it on the Oculus Store a [4.5/5] and ‘Very Positive’ rating on Steam.
We’re cooking up more round-ups of our favorite games for all major platforms, so check back soon for more of our favorite VR games of 2019.
HTC today announced that it’s released support for 5Ghz WiFi streaming for Vive Focus Plus, as well as all 6DOF standalone headsets supporting the Vive Wave platform. Much like Oculus Quest’s Link functionality, Vive Focus Plus can now play PC VR titles through Viveport, albeit without the need of a cable.
Now released in beta, WiFi streaming is only being made available to subscribers of Viveport Infinity, the company’s Netflix-style subscription service for its digital distribution platform, which allows unlimited downloading of select content.
Outside of needing a Viveport Infinity subscription and Vive Focus Plus (or any other full-6DOF Vive Wave headset, which excludes the original Vive Focus) users will additionally need a VR-ready PC and a ‘standard’ 5Ghz WiFi router.
Vive Focus Plus, which is sold starting at $800, is couched as an enterprise-focused device in the US and Europe, however in China it was launched as a bona fide consumer device, which may explain why the only promotional information we’ve found so far is in Chinese, courtesy of VR publication Skarred Ghost.
As Skarred Ghost’s Antony Vitillo notes, there are currently 300 games and experiences on Viveport M, the mobile version of Viveport; with the inclusion of official WiFi streaming, this effectively opens that number up to over 2,000 titles.
HTC Vive China President Alvin Wang Graylin announced the news via Twitter, making sure to mention there’s also “no need for special wires or cables,” an apparent swipe at Oculus Quest requiring a USB-C cable to play Oculus Rift platform games.
Before today’s release, Vive Focus Plus users typically streamed PC VR games via two popular unofficial software choices: Rift Cat’s VRidge software and AMD ReLive.
We haven’t had a chance to compare those methods with the new Viveport streaming implementation, although we’ll be looking out for user reports in the meantime. Whatever the case, HTC’s native implementation will need to hit an acceptable latency and video quality to be considered a true competitor to Oculus Link for Quest, which thus far has worked pretty flawlessly. That’s outside the fact that Vive Focus Plus simply isn’t competing with the $400 Quest, as it’s been deliberately sold as an enterprise device in the West, and at double its price.
This means that if you just want to plug your Quest into your PC to play Rift-only games, you’ll have to dig around the Internet for potentially compatible alternatives (that often won’t work) or just deal with a shorter cable only suitable for seated gameplay — a dramatic drop in quality of experience from the wireless freedom you’ll be used to with Quest.
A Short Sighted Decision
But it didn’t have to be like this. The cable included with the Oculus Quest, carefully called the “charging cable”, does not support Oculus Link. That’s because it is actually a USB 2.0 cable, not 3.0 or above.
Given that even a small startup can launch an essentially identical cable but USB 3.0 speed, with an included adapter, for $20, it seems astonishing that Facebook only includes a 2.0 cable with Quest. If we assume that the PartyLink cable is making a healthy margin, it’s likely Facebook only saved about $5 per Quest, or less, by not going with USB 3.0.
You could of course make the argument that Oculus Link was a last minute project and Facebook didn’t expect it to work out. Or perhaps that the project was only greenlighted due to some change in leadership or strategy.
But given that Facebook clearly intends Quest to have a console-like lifespan, did the company really not plan for future product developments that would require USB 3.0 speeds? And even if they didn’t, why didn’t they start packing in a USB 3.0 cable with every newly produced Quest once Link was finalized, or even when it was announced at OC6?
Why when a user orders a Quest today are they still given a relatively long cable with a convenient right angled USB Type-C connector, yet not sufficient speed for Oculus Link?
Faster Development Is Possible
Another use case which would be improved with 3.0 speeds is development. In Unity and Unreal when you want to test changes you’ve just made on Quest, the engine will compile the app, then transfer it over to the Quest where it is installed/updated.
This takes much longer on 2.0 than 3.0 and this increases development time while slowing down the iteration rate. It could even be argued that for developers alone the cable should have been USB 3.0.
Wireless Oculus Link?
Creating a wireless version of Oculus Link seems to be an ongoing project at Facebook. The idea was explained at Oculus Connect 6 by Carmack, with the bottleneck to streaming VR over WiFi being the variability in routers and network congestion. This is why a dedicated Facebook-made dongle, which connects the PC directly to Quest, would be the solution. I should note that Carmack also revealed Quest’s displays are capable of running at 90Hz, and that it could have been FCC certified at this rate — and still could be.
Altogether, we’re seeing a lot of evidence that Oculus Quest could do a lot more with PC VR if the company puts more effort and planning into the system. Facebook’s VR content executive Jason Rubin claimed earlier this year that the company “now has a plan” for VR. Presentations at recent Oculus Connects seem more certain of the schedule for the future as well. Hopefully this rhetoric is true, and we’ll see Facebook embrace Quest more as a PC VR headset alongside its standalone mode.
Until the official Oculus Link Cable launches next month, the longest compatible cable you can use to turn your Oculus Quest into a PC VR headset is 3 meters. However, you can “make” a longer one by using an extension cable.
The Oculus Rift S cable is 5 meters, as is the upcoming official Oculus Link Cable. Using extension cables can give you this same length.
The problem with this idea is USB 3.0 extension cables can be hit or miss. Some will work properly and carry the 3.0 signal, allowing Oculus Link to work. However others will fall back to 2.0 or periodically drop out.
To make matters worse, some will work with some USB ports but not others. This is due to the fact that motherboards have multiple USB controllers.
Thankfully, we’ve tested some extenders to find which work, so you don’t have to. So here’s how to use extenders to “build” a 5 meter Oculus Link cable:
With USB Type-C
Recommended
USB Type-C ports on motherboards tend to be more reliable than Type-A because on most motherboards these ports tend to be USB 3.1 Gen 2 and/or connected to a better USB controller.
We tested this cable-extender combination and found it to reliably work for Oculus Link on both an ASUS PRIME-Z390-A motherboard’s port and the USB-C port of an NVIDIA RTX 2070 GPU.
With USB Type-A
Not Guaranteed, But May Work
In our testing, the PartyLink cable did not consistently work with the USB-A adapter and USB-A extension cables.
However, we did find that the officially recommended Anker cable worked with the 2 meter AmazonBasics USB 3.0 extender.
Just update sw to latest. 
(VR+PC UI below) 
