Oculus Quest 2 getting official wireless 'Air Link' mode and 120hz PC support

Ravenger said:
https://uploadvr.com/oculus-quest-air-link-120/

Facebook adding an official wireless 'Air Link' mode and 120hz support for PC on Quest 2

I guess we know why they let Virtual Desktop's wireless mode on the Oculus store now.
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Wow :eek: I always wondered why Oculus never brought out official wireless PC support given how well it works with virtual desktop.

Be interesting to see how it compares.
 
godinman said:
Well that's £15 wasted :rolleyes::p
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Not necessarily. With vd some games may run better. For me star trek doesn't recognise my microphone over the cable but does with vd. They may use different methods, in fact they almost certainly will.

They didn't want to release it before because they didn't want people to not get a good experience. I guess vd popularity has helped carnacks case to get it released.
 
You're right actually, I was thinking about it after I posted and somethings are better on the cable and some better on VD.

Do you know if the 120hz is supported by the LCD or is it just the software FPS limit?
 
godinman said:
You're right actually, I was thinking about it after I posted and somethings are better on the cable and some better on VD.

Do you know if the 120hz is supported by the LCD or is it just the software FPS limit?
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The screen itself i believe. Ages ago they said that the screen has the potential to do 120hz but i don't think anyone really expected them to unlock it. Wonder what games will be able to take advantage.
 
That's pretty awesome, I guess things like Beat Sabre will benefit when connected to the PC, otherwise I don't suppose it could handle it standalone.
 
godinman said:
That's pretty awesome, I guess things like Beat Sabre will benefit when connected to the PC, otherwise I don't suppose it could handle it standalone.
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I guess they might be able to do a stripped down standalone version (without the flashy lights in the background etc) to go faster? Whether or not they'd bother I don't know.
 
Virtual Desktop may turn out better than Air Link in at least some respects. It's a more mature program and the developer is super responsive and passionate about fixing bugs, enhancing peformance and adding new features. He can be a lot more agile than the Facebook developer teams in rolling out new versions.

It took a long while for Link to become usable, and they still tend to break it every other update.

Still it's always good to have options, and to have this as an official feature.
 
Ravenger said:
Virtual Desktop may turn out better than Air Link in at least some respects. It's a more mature program and the developer is super responsive and passionate about fixing bugs, enhancing peformance and adding new features. He can be a lot more agile than the Facebook developer teams in rolling out new versions.

It took a long while for Link to become usable, and they still tend to break it every other update.

Still it's always good to have options, and to have this as an official feature.
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He's responded pretty aggressively.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/mqfdvz/godins_virtual_desktops_developer_full_comment/

“In 2017, Facebook copied the base functionality of Virtual Desktop on Rift and incorporated it in their platform, essentially making my app obsolete. I’m not surprised to see them do this again on Quest. They copied the fitness tracking app YUR last year and released Oculus Move; essentially killing the company. They also released App Lab as they saw how popular SideQuest was. That’s what they do. If you have a popular app on Quest today, expect Facebook to copy you and leave you in the dust. As for the fate of Virtual Desktop on Quest, we will have to see how Facebook’s solution competes. Judging by the number of issues plaguing Oculus Link today, I’m confident Virtual Desktop will remain a valuable solution for a while. I’ve also got a lot of cool features in the works that I can’t wait to share with the community.”

"
ggodin

Virtual Desktop Developer
8 hours ago

It’s mostly the fact that they blocked my feature from being in the store for almost 2 years, blocking potential competition before they even announced Link. I’ve put a ton of work into it, optimized it and made it easy to use over the last 2 years. Oculus just swooped in, learned what worked and what didn’t from my work, saw how popular it was and copied the functionality. They released their own version without even mentioning my app or ALVR in their post. It’s infuriating..
"

Planning on increasing the bitrate I believe too.
 
godinman said:
Well that's £15 wasted :rolleyes::p
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godinman said:
You're right actually, I was thinking about it after I posted and somethings are better on the cable and some better on VD.
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I thought the same thing about Virtual Desktop being unnecessary now but, like you say, I suspect some stuff will still be better on VD. For example I wouldn't be surprised if Oculus deliberately make SteamVR/etc support a bit rubbish as they'll want to push customers towards their own store.

In fact I find Virtual Desktop works better and more reliably than Oculus Link using a USB cable most of the time. So I wouldn't assume it's a sure fire thing that Oculus Air Link will be superior to Virtual Desktop! I guess more options are a good thing for customers ultimately and it's nice to have PCVR WiFI support as standard.

Unseul said:
He's responded pretty aggressively.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/mqfdvz/godins_virtual_desktops_developer_full_comment/
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They sound pretty salty about it but can't say I blame them given the circumstances. I think it was inevitable Oculus were going to release some kind of PC wireless connectivity for the Quest eventually. Though I thought they might have gone for somekind of bespoke hardware dongle personally rather than just over WiFi.
 
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As the developer says, the issue is that that they blocked his app from officially supporting wireless VR for two years, then after allowing it on the store they then announce their own version shortly afterwards. Mind you, VD was pretty ropey at first, so it's understandable that they didn't want it official at that time, but at least for the last year it's been in a very usable state, and they could have approved it.

I too thought though that they would have released a hardware dongle rather than relying on people's wi-fi routers, but I suppose that a dongle would be less flexible than standard wi-fi as you have lots of options for extending the coverage away from the PC, either by mesh network or physical cables.
 
The 120hz seems like it will be a bit of a waste of time. Has to be supported by the apps and considering how long it took to get apps up to 90hz, won't hold my breath waiting for them to support 120hz.
 
melmac said:
The 120hz seems like it will be a bit of a waste of time. Has to be supported by the apps and considering how long it took to get apps up to 90hz, won't hold my breath waiting for them to support 120hz.
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PCVR will go at 120hz if you have the machine to drive it I suppose?
 
I’ve been running locked 72fps lately as using PTC beta runtime. For Skyrim that’s perfectly smooth and GPU usage at 150% SS is fine. For sim racing it will need 90 probably to be non vomit inducing.
Just like the PS5 and XBox X switching to 120Hz will have to lower graphics detail. It’s hard enough to run at silly high resolutions at 72fps, let alone 120
 
Unseul said:
PCVR will go at 120hz if you have the machine to drive it I suppose?
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That piqued my interest, but as you say most games would need to run in potato mode to hit 120 at a decent resolution.
I remember playing Nascar Racing on my 486 and having to turn most of the options off to hit a silky 15fps.
 
Unseul said:
He's responded pretty aggressively.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/mqfdvz/godins_virtual_desktops_developer_full_comment/

“In 2017, Facebook copied the base functionality of Virtual Desktop on Rift and incorporated it in their platform, essentially making my app obsolete. I’m not surprised to see them do this again on Quest. They copied the fitness tracking app YUR last year and released Oculus Move; essentially killing the company. They also released App Lab as they saw how popular SideQuest was. That’s what they do. If you have a popular app on Quest today, expect Facebook to copy you and leave you in the dust. As for the fate of Virtual Desktop on Quest, we will have to see how Facebook’s solution competes. Judging by the number of issues plaguing Oculus Link today, I’m confident Virtual Desktop will remain a valuable solution for a while. I’ve also got a lot of cool features in the works that I can’t wait to share with the community.”

"
ggodin

Virtual Desktop Developer
8 hours ago

It’s mostly the fact that they blocked my feature from being in the store for almost 2 years, blocking potential competition before they even announced Link. I’ve put a ton of work into it, optimized it and made it easy to use over the last 2 years. Oculus just swooped in, learned what worked and what didn’t from my work, saw how popular it was and copied the functionality. They released their own version without even mentioning my app or ALVR in their post. It’s infuriating..
"

Planning on increasing the bitrate I believe too.
Click to expand...

Stealing his work! Sounds just like what Oculus Facebook would do.
 
newuser said:
In PCVR stuff I find it hard to tell any difference between 72/80/90. Maybe I'm broken.
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Play Eleven table tennis, and watch the ball. The difference in smoothness between 72hz and 90hz is very noticable. The ball moves so fast it looks stuttery on lower refresh rates.
 
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