One of the most popular virtual reality (VR) headsets available on the market is the Oculus Quest. And gaming enthusiasts and fans from all over the world use it for a variety of activities, including playing video games.
Players can access and purchase video games for PC on Steam, one of the biggest game digital distribution services online. The platform now even has a handheld console counterpart known as SteamDeck, though the VR games from the platform are mostly accessed through the PC app SteamVR.
With that, players may want to know how to run SteamVR through their Oculus Quest headsets. And luckily for them, there are several ways to do so..
Using the Oculus Link (Wired)
The first way to run SteamVR is by connecting your Oculus Quest to your PC through a USB Type-C cable. But you need to make sure you have the SteamVR app installed on your PC. Once you have it, log in with your Steam account, followed by logging in to your Oculus Quest account in your headset.
Connect your headset to your PC by using the cable by plugging both sides into their respective ports. The Oculus app on your PC should then recognize the cable once it is plugged in. Select Continue on your headset and follow by choosing Enable Oculus Link once it shows up on your headset’s screen. Once done, go to your apps and launch SteamVR.
Using the Oculus Link (Wireless)
If you want a more comfortable way of playing SteamVR with your Oculus Quest without a physical wire, you can also do it through Oculus Air Link. Just repeat the things you need first above (except for the USB Type-C cable) and follow all those steps. But once you are opening your Oculus app, go to the Beta tab and turn on the Air Link toggle.
Once the Air Link toggle is turned on, press the Oculus Home button on the right controller to launch the Universal Home menu. Click Settings, and choose the Oculus Air Link button you can see there. A list of available computers will appear. Select your PC from those and click the Launch option to link your PC and headset.
Finally, click the Oculus home button to open the Oculus home bar. From there, choose Library, and look for SteamVR.
Using the Virtual Desktop app
One more option you can use to play SteamVR on Oculus Quest is through the Virtual Desktop app. This is a separate application that you need to buy first, but once you have it, it’ll run SteamVR smoothly on your headset.
You can purchase Virtual Desktop right from the Oculus Quest store on your headset. Follow this link to get the latest version of the app, which is compatible with SteamVR. Once you have it, install the Virtual Desktop app, though you should connect your headset and PC to the same internet connection.
Now go to your PC. Make sure you have SteamVR and sign in with your Oculus account afterward. Then open your Virtual Desktop streaming app and fill in the details it asks for, like your Oculus username. Click Save and proceed with putting your headset on.
Once you have your headset on, open the Virtual Desktop app by going to your Library and selecting the Oculus bar at the bottom part of your screen. Take note that you should choose your desktop once you open SteamVR for the first time in your headset.
Select the menu button by pressing your left Oculus touch controller and once you find the Virtual Desktop app there, open it. Finally, press the menu button again on the same controller to open the dashboard. Now, enjoy streaming your SteamVR games you want to play through the Virtual Desktop app.
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The Oculus Quest is a fully stand-alone headset. It’s free of the wires of PC-only headsets. However, if you want to use it on a PC to play Steam VR games, you’ll need special software to do so wirelessly.
A Wireless Replacement for Oculus Link
Oculus Link is the official way of using the Quest as a Steam VR headset, and it requires a USB cable. It’s great, although it’s a bit laggier than a dedicated device, like a Rift S or Valve Index. Still, it’s good enough to make the Quest feel like a PC headset when it’s plugged in. However, you still need a wire with Link, so if you want to go fully wireless, you’ll need special software.
ALVR is a free app that can connect your Quest and PC. You run the app on your PC, which installs a custom driver for Steam VR and runs a server to which the Quest connects. You launch the app on your Quest, which connects to the server and streams the video. Controller input and movements are sent back to the server, which shows up as a regular headset in Steam VR. The result is a fully wireless experience—your PC can be in your bedroom, while you play in your more spacious living room.
The experience itself is certainly a mixed bag. Playing full PC games through Steam VR without a wire is a fantastic experience as opposed to being tied down. When it works, it works well, and it’s certainly worth trying out, even if just for the novelty. However, it’s quite buggy on occasion.
When it doesn’t work, you’re stuck with freezes and compression artifacts in VR, which aren’t pleasing to the eye. The latency isn’t a huge issue for casual games. If you want to play something fast-paced, like Beat Saber, though, you might want to stick with wired or just run the game on the Quest.
It doesn’t really work at all on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. You’ll need to use the speedier 5 GHz, and a wired connection from your PC to your router. If you can play closer to your router, that helps out, as well.
ALVR is the most popular free option out there. However, if you want to try something else, Virtual Desktop is a $20 official app that does the same thing and streams from your actual desktop. You’ll still need to install the sideloaded version to use SteamVR, though, and the experience will be mostly the same.
Setting Up ALVR
To get started, you have to download ALVR. Head over to its GitHub page and download the latest release. Download the ALVR.zip file, which is the server that will run on your PC. You’ll also need to download the ALVRClient, which is the app you need to sideload onto your Quest.
Turn on Developer Mode on your Quest. From the Oculus App on your iPhone or Android, find your Quest under the settings menu, and then select More Settings > Developer Mode, and turn it on.
This will bring you to Oculus’s website, where you have to sign up as a developer and create an “Organization.” This is totally free, but a bit of an annoyance.
Once it’s turned on, restart your Quest, plug it in with a cable, and you should see the screen below asking you to trust this computer. Select “Always Allow,” and then click “OK.”
For sideloading, the easiest method is to use SideQuest, a third-party store for sideloaded apps. You aren’t limited to apps on SideQuest—you can install any app for which you have an APK file.
Open it, and you should see your headset connected in the top-left corner.
Drag the ALVRClient.apk file into SideQuest, which will install it right away. You won’t find ALVR on your home screen though—it’s tucked away in the “Library” under “Unknown Sources.”
Unplug your headset from the PC, and load up the ALVR app on the Quest. You’ll be greeted with a quite unpleasant and jarringly aliased home screen, telling you to connect to the device from the server.
Unzip the ALVR.zip file, and then move the folder to a location where you won’t accidentally delete it. Run ALVR.exe to start the server.
Once it loads, you can tweak some of the settings, but the defaults should work fine. Click “Connect” on your PC. Once connected, click “Auto Connect Next Time,” to enable your headset to automatically reconnect if the connection times out.
From here, you can load up a Steam VR game. ALVR will present the device as a regular headset, and, if the connection is solid, it should act like one.
Fixing Some Common Bugs
If your picture freezes or you see visual artifacts, make sure your headset is connected to 5 GHz Wi-Fi. If you can, set the channel width to 40 MHz also.
Some routers use the same SSID (the name of the network) for the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, which can be an issue. Our Quest defaulted to the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and the only way to fix it was to split up the network names.
However, our Fios router didn’t allow this, by default. We had to turn off the very buried setting for “Self-Organizing Network Enabled” under Wireless Settings > Advanced Security Settings > Other Advanced Wireless Options. Then, we were able to split up the network.
After connecting the Quest to 5 GHz Wi-Fi and forgetting the other network, we had a much smoother experience.
If that doesn’t fix it, you might need to restart ALVR or turn down the bit rate or resolution in the video settings. Conversely, if you’re having a smooth experience with slightly blurrier video, you can turn up the bit rate.
The other issue we had was with desktop audio. We used VB Cable and Voicemeeter for advanced audio routing and had an issue with the sound not working at first. We had to manually switch the output device to the proper one. We then restarted everything: ALVR, Steam VR, and the game.
After you fix these issues, the occasional hitch, stutter, or general lag isn’t really avoidable without dedicated gear, like the Vive Wireless Adapter. There are definitely compromises to be made with this setup.
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