Do I need USB C for quest 2?

sgoaty · 6 May 2021 at 12:27

I've read lots of conflicting information online so wanted to ask here.

I'm considering swapping out my CV1 for a quest 2. My VR system doesn't have USB C
(X570 aorus elite)

Do I need that to connect it to a PC or can it connect through a normal USB 3 port?

Just wondering If I need to buy a USB C PCI- E card or not.
Thanks
Scott

melmac · 6 May 2021 at 12:35

Only one end of the Cable needs to be USB C if you want to connect it to your PC.

RevBillyG · 6 May 2021 at 13:23

I'm in the same boat.
From reading up, if you buy a 3rd party link cable, you can choose which USB connector you need.

Ravenger · 6 May 2021 at 13:48

Also Air Link works just as well as the official link cable for me (at least for most games) so if you have a good 5ghz router you may not need a cable at all.

sgoaty · 6 May 2021 at 13:50

RevBillyG said:
I'm in the same boat.
From reading up, if you buy a 3rd party link cable, you can choose which USB connector you need.

But other information says that the third party cables can cause problems?

sgoaty · 6 May 2021 at 13:51

Ravenger said:
Also Air Link works just as well as the official link cable for me (at least for most games) so if you have a good 5ghz router you may not need a cable at all.

So air link is officially supported without lots of messing around now?
Thanks

Ravenger · 6 May 2021 at 13:59

sgoaty said:
So air link is officially supported without lots of messing around now?
Thanks

Yep. Just need the latest Quest 2 firmware and the latest Oculus desktop client.
Turn on one setting in the desktop client, boot your quest and click on a pop-up in the head-set to connect and enable. Less faff than plugging in the cable to be honest.

I used to use my Index for all my PC VR games, now I mostly use Quest 2 with Airlink, except for those games which benefit from an uncompressed video connection, such as Skyrim VR. On some games with very 'busy' scenes the compression can make things look blurry. It's fine for 90% of the games I've tried though, and will probably get better.

RevBillyG · 6 May 2021 at 14:24

sgoaty said:
But other information says that the third party cables can cause problems?

I saw that too. There's a few recommended ones tho. Kiwi cables seem to be ok.

melmac · 6 May 2021 at 14:32

sgoaty said:
But other information says that the third party cables can cause problems?

Only if you buy a bad quality cable. There are recommended third party cables from Anker and Kiwi Design. There are some other makes too that are perfectly fine.

sgoaty · 6 May 2021 at 21:50

Great info thanks guys, any real benefit to getting the 256gb if mostly playing from PC?

Ravenger · 7 May 2021 at 10:49

sgoaty said:
Great info thanks guys, any real benefit to getting the 256gb if mostly playing from PC?

Not at the moment, though if you do get into sideloading, or native apps then 64gb could get a little tight in the future, especially as only 54gb is free, and with multi-accounts even less is usable.

Oculus claim bigger games are on the way, (RE4 for example), and games like Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners use 12gb.

So it's fine now. In the future, maybe not - and you can't expand the memory by using USB drives or SD cards. I can see Oculus retiring the 64gb version and producing a 128gb.

sgoaty · 7 May 2021 at 11:14

Looks like the money I'm saving on a fancy cable will be getting spent on the 256gb version :cry:

Ravenger said:
Not at the moment, though if you do get into sideloading, or native apps then 64gb could get a little tight in the future, especially as only 54gb is free, and with multi-accounts even less is usable.

Oculus claim bigger games are on the way, (RE4 for example), and games like Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners use 12gb.

So it's fine now. In the future, maybe not - and you can't expand the memory by using USB drives or SD cards. I can see Oculus retiring the 64gb version and producing a 128gb.

chaparral · 8 May 2021 at 16:40

sgoaty said:
I'm considering swapping out my CV1 for a quest 2. My VR system doesn't have USB C
(X570 aorus elite)

Do I need that to connect it to a PC or can it connect through a normal USB 3 port?

Just wondering If I need to buy a USB C PCI- E card or not.
Thanks
Scott

Says here that motherboard has Front USB 3.2 Type C
X570 AORUS ELITE (rev. 1.0) Key Features | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Ravenger · 8 May 2021 at 17:42

Yep I've used that exact motherboard for a front USB C connection for Oculus Link. Works really well, but seems redundant now I've got Airlink working.

melmac · 8 May 2021 at 18:25

Ravenger said:
Yep I've used that exact motherboard for a front USB C connection for Oculus Link. Works really well, but seems redundant now I've got Airlink working.

Quick Question, do you use dynamic or fixed bitrate for Airlink? And, either way, what bitrate do you use?

Ravenger · 8 May 2021 at 18:27

melmac said:
Quick Question, do you use dynamic or fixed bitrate for Airlink? And, either way, what bitrate do you use?

Dynamic, 200mb/s

Oh and I tried my powerline adaptors connected to a wifi access point today, but could only get 28mb/s.

So it was super smooth, but quite blurry and had noticable compression noise.

I'm gonna have to run that cable!

melmac · 8 May 2021 at 18:48

Ravenger said:
Dynamic, 200mb/s

Oh and I tried my powerline adaptors connected to a wifi access point today, but could only get 28mb/s.

So it was super smooth, but quite blurry and had noticable compression noise.

I'm gonna have to run that cable!

Thanks!! That's why I am going to use.

And yeah, in your situation, the power line adapters were probably not going too work too well.

sgoaty · 9 May 2021 at 08:56

I just played robo recall over WiFi ( pc and quest) on a BT smarthub. It was very playable. Not quite a cable experience but not far off. I'm very impressed. I'm glad I didn't buy a rift S now.

Anyone else using airlink without having their PC connected to the router?