Oculus Quest 2 Better Quality connected to PC direct ?

[jasonsony735]

Oculus Quest 2 Better Quality connected to PC direct ?

Can someone confirm to me if its better to Buy the games on STEAM for example and then play them direct from PC ? Its not made very clear and its also a lot cheaper buying the games on the Steam VR planform currently .

I don't plan to use the headset remotely so don't need to games installed on the headset....

I plan to Play Flight simulator 2020 and Half Life , Have a decent PC for VR - 3080- 32GB - i7 8700k

 

[ShiWarrior]

im not 100% sure so do not go by what im about to say


If your buying a PCVR title, the platform you use shouldn't make any difference to the "quality"

as far as im aware, all PCVR games can be played via cable or not


HL Alyx for example, i think is only available via steam, if Oculus were also selling it, it shouldn't make any difference what platform you buy it on

 

[Ravenger]

It's only worth buying games from the Oculus Store if

1. You want to play native games that you can't get anywhere else, or if the portability of those games is important (I.e. being able to game without your PC or in huge playspaces)
2. The game is an Oculus PC exclusive like Lone Echo that you can't get on Steam.

Bear in mind that to get the best image quality out of your Quest 2 on PC you'll need either a decent, long, optical USB3 cable and a decent USB3 port on your PC, or a decent 5GHz or Wifi 6 router in line of sight where you're going to play, if going wireless.

 

[DK83]

It's only worth buying games from the Oculus Store if

1. You want to play native games that you can't get anywhere else, or if the portability of those games is important (I.e. being able to game without your PC or in huge playspaces)
2. The game is an Oculus PC exclusive like Lone Echo that you can't get on Steam.

Bear in mind that to get the best image quality out of your Quest 2 on PC you'll need either a decent, long, optical USB3 cable and a decent USB3 port on your PC, or a decent 5GHz or Wifi 6 router in line of sight where you're going to play, if going wireless.

Agreed, I buy Oculus exclusives and generally everything else cheaper for Steam, worth keeping an eye on the Oculus store too though as sometimes has decent prices when sales on etc.

 

[jasonsony735]

So no matter where you buy the games or how you play them they will all look the same quality ?
Don't the games take in to account you have 3080 so bump up the Quality for you if connected direct to PC ?

 

[ShiWarrior]

So no matter where you buy the games or how you play them they will all look the same quality ?

well, i think if you have a super PC that can up the quality to the max, then cable route is the better option

 

[jasonsony735]

From looking online it only seems to mention the HZ going higher so would I be right in saying playing direct from Pc with a good card you would get a higher refresh rate ? but the graphics will always remain the same.

What I want to know is say I buy the steam version can I adjust the Graphics settings ?

 

[Ravenger]

So no matter where you buy the games or how you play them they will all look the same quality ?
Don't the games take in to account you have 3080 so bump up the Quality for you if connected direct to PC ?

PC VR games that run using the Oculus SDK instead of the Steam VR SDK (Mostly those on the Oculus store) may run better or smoother and may support Oculus controls better, but this is not the case with all games.
Some Steam VR games actually support both Oculus and Steam VR SDKs, so you can choose which version to use.

 

[Ravenger]

From looking online it only seems to mention the HZ going higher so would I be right in saying playing direct from Pc with a good card you would get a higher refresh rate ? but the graphics will always remain the same.

Refresh rate has a direct effect on how good the games look on Quest as it has a maximum bitrate over USB, besides most games can't run smoothly at 120hz.
Even on my 3090FE I have to keep the refesh rate at 90hz or below to get a consistent framerate.
One advantage that Oculus has anyway, and this applies to Steam games too, is that it has amazing motion smoothing, so games can drop to 60 or 45fps and still feel smooth.

 

[Unseul]

PC VR games that run using the Oculus SDK instead of the Steam VR SDK (Mostly those on the Oculus store) may run better or smoother and may support Oculus controls better, but this is not the case with all games.
Some Steam VR games actually support both Oculus and Steam VR SDKs, so you can choose which version to use.

The steam sdk does seem to run much poorer on oculus devices at the moment. I suspect steam will work to improve that as more of their vr market will be oculus devices.

 

[KeanuIsLife]

Only other thing I think about not already mentioned is if the title is available as a Cross buy title. I know you said you would only use it as a pcvr device but you may want to take it with you to a friends place or something and having titles available natively as well as on pc is a nice bonus on the oculus store

 

[varkanoid]

So no matter where you buy the games or how you play them they will all look the same quality ?

With regards to PC > Quest 2 it all depends on the connection. If you are using a USB C 3.1 cable and connecting via Oculus link this will often give you the best visual experience.
Read this for more info https://uploadvr.com/oculus-link-resolution-increase-odt/

If you are going to use Airlink, the wireless version of Oculus Link this will not give you the best visual quality as it depends on things like your WIFI connection but again the settings can be changed with the Oculus Debug Tool in the above link. Have a look at this link also > https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/quest-2-which-wifi6-router.18900781/

Virtual Desktop is the third popular choice and this is available via the Oculus store for about £9 (the two above are free) and is arguably the best solution for Quest2 Wireless play via a PC. The quality can be better than Airlink and the quality is nearly as good as using an USB cable, dependant on WIFI connection being excellent too.

Don't the games take in to account you have 3080 so bump up the Quality for you if connected direct to PC ?

No. Whichever method you use above you need to adjust the settings yourself.

From looking online it only seems to mention the HZ going higher so would I be right in saying playing direct from Pc with a good card you would get a higher refresh rate ? but the graphics will always remain the same.

This is not as straightforward. The Quest 2 can now support 120hz, SteamVR on mine reports 120hz but it can be dependant on the game. Virtual Desktop does 90hz and some games support 120hz.

What I want to know is say I buy the steam version can I adjust the Graphics settings ?

Yes you can but what you have to remember is there are the graphics settings for the game, and there are also quality settings for the "stream" to the Quest 2.

With PC > Quest2 what it basically does is use the Quest2 as "monitors" to display a stream from the PC (like Geforce Now does) so it all depends on the quality of the stream being sent to the Quest 2 and this can be adjusted manually.

On another note native Quest 2 games will always give you the best visual quality but remember native games run on the native Quest 2 hardware so its basically liked a suped up mobile phone with bells on so the visual quality of the graphics/textures etc will never be as good as a PC > Quest 2 version. After the Fall and Resident Evil native come very close on the Quest 2.

 

[zero71]

Only other thing I think about not already mentioned is if the title is available as a Cross buy title. I know you said you would only use it as a pcvr device but you may want to take it with you to a friends place or something and having titles available natively as well as on pc is a nice bonus on the oculus store

This. I started out intending to play PCVR with little interest in stand alone, but I ended up playing native quest games almost exclusively. Taking advantage of cross buy is something I wish I'd done early on - ended up buying on Steam then again on Oculus. It's so much more convenient for a quick pick up and play session. Absolutely though, PCVR looks way better.

 

[Jay85]

Onwards is one of those titles where it looks way better on pcvr than native quest store. The textures are night and day.

 

[jasonsony735]

With regards to PC > Quest 2 it all depends on the connection. If you are using a USB C 3.1 cable and connecting via Oculus link this will often give you the best visual experience.
Read this for more info https://uploadvr.com/oculus-link-resolution-increase-odt/

If you are going to use Airlink, the wireless version of Oculus Link this will not give you the best visual quality as it depends on things like your WIFI connection but again the settings can be changed with the Oculus Debug Tool in the above link. Have a look at this link also > https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/quest-2-which-wifi6-router.18900781/

Virtual Desktop is the third popular choice and this is available via the Oculus store for about £9 (the two above are free) and is arguably the best solution for Quest2 Wireless play via a PC. The quality can be better than Airlink and the quality is nearly as good as using an USB cable, dependant on WIFI connection being excellent too.



No. Whichever method you use above you need to adjust the settings yourself.



This is not as straightforward. The Quest 2 can now support 120hz, SteamVR on mine reports 120hz but it can be dependant on the game. Virtual Desktop does 90hz and some games support 120hz.



Yes you can but what you have to remember is there are the graphics settings for the game, and there are also quality settings for the "stream" to the Quest 2.

With PC > Quest2 what it basically does is use the Quest2 as "monitors" to display a stream from the PC (like Geforce Now does) so it all depends on the quality of the stream being sent to the Quest 2 and this can be adjusted manually.

On another note native Quest 2 games will always give you the best visual quality but remember native games run on the native Quest 2 hardware so its basically liked a suped up mobile phone with bells on so the visual quality of the graphics/textures etc will never be as good as a PC > Quest 2 version. After the Fall and Resident Evil native come very close on the Quest 2.

Thank you I have 3080 and use Cable to PC so what should I put my Oc Tool Debug settings at ?

 

[varkanoid]

Thank you I have 3080 and use Cable to PC so what should I put my Oc Tool Debug settings at ?

Leave them at default first to see how good the connection is. Then try the bitrate at 350.

 

[KeanuIsLife]

This. I started out intending to play PCVR with little interest in stand alone, but I ended up playing native quest games almost exclusively. Taking advantage of cross buy is something I wish I'd done early on - ended up buying on Steam then again on Oculus. It's so much more convenient for a quick pick up and play session. Absolutely though, PCVR looks way better.

Yeah similar to me, obviously depending on the game makes sense to play on PC but the convenience and speed of just booting it up on the headset is so good!

 

[something daft already!!]

For me, Quest games are like mobile games. Shorter and look not quite as nice. PC VR is a lot better in image quality and they are more often proper games rather than "Experiences". You can use Wireless but the image quality will suffer due to bandwidth. Better off being cabled.

I have a few Quest games and I never play them. I have many PC VR games and I play 1 or 2 now. You must play Alyx.