If you want to play PC VR games from
the SteamVR platform, like Half-Life: Alyx and Star Wars Squadrons, on your Quest 2
headset, then you've come to the right place. The easiest, and cheapest, way to do this is to
connect your headset over a USB cable to your PC. So here I'm going to take you through
the three easy steps to do exactly that so that you will be playing your first PC VR
game on your Quest 2 headset in no time at all! Welcome to my Tech Gear… Let's get into it! Setting up your Quest 2 headset
to play PC VR games is actually pretty easy and just involves three main steps. Get a VR capable PC. Get a USB cable. And install some software. That's it! So, first up is the PC. Now, when running PC VR games, the games are
running on the PC rather than on the headset. So you're going to need a PC capable of running
VR games. Now both Steam and Meta have released what they regard as the minimum spec for this.
Without diving into it in too much detail… You will need a PC with at least an
Intel i5 or a Ryzen 5 CPU. 8GB of RAM, although I would recommend 16GB. And at least an
x60 Nvidia graphics card. Be that a 1060, a 2060, or a 3060, or it's AMD equivalent. You can run PC
VR games on lower specs but you will hit hardware limitations pretty quickly, and some AAA titles
like Half-Life: Alyx just won't be playable. For reference, in my PC, I've got a Ryzen
5600X CPU paired up with 32GB of RAM and a Nvidia 3060 Ti graphics card, which generally
performs pretty well. I do get some low memory graphic warnings in games like Half-Life:
Alyx as it only has 8GB of VRAM. However, despite those warnings, I've never
had any actual issues in the games. So as long as your PC meets those minimum specs
then you're good to go on to the next step. Next up you need a link cable. Now the cable is
one of the most important components here. If you get the wrong cable then the chances are that
you will get stuttering video, disconnections, and sometimes it just might not work at all.
Fortunately good cables are actually pretty cheap. When choosing your cable you need to
consider three things. Connection type, cable length, and data speeds. As the Quest 2 comes with a USB-C port you will
need a data cable that is either USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to USB-A depending upon which
USB port type is available on your PC. Now if you do have a USB-C port on your PC
then I do recommend that you use it as it will give you the fastest data transfer speeds
and can deliver enough power to your headset to keep it charged whilst you're playing.
This does typically make these the most expensive cables around though. The official
cable from Meta for instance costs $79 USD! A far cheaper option, and
far more common on most PC’s, is a USB-C to USB-A cable. Do make sure
that the cable and the USB-A port on the PC is at least USB 3 compatible. An easy way to
tell what spec your USB port on your PC is is to look inside it. If it's painted blue,
green, or red, then you're good to go. Link cables typically come in two lengths. 3
meters or 5 meters. Or, 10 or 16 feet. If you're only going to play sedentary sit down games then
the three meter cable is going to be good enough for you. For everyone else though, to ensure that
you've got enough room to move around, you will need that five meter length. Now your cable also
needs to be fast enough to transfer all that data from your PC to your Quest 2. So you should aim
for a USB 3 cable capable of data speeds of 5 gigabits per second. Now you can run PCVR on lower
spec cables but you could hit performance issues and it's just not worth it as good cables are just
so cheap now. I have already reviewed a number of five meter link cables that have all performed
well and yet still only cost around $20 to $25 USD. I'll place a link to my review of those
cables in the description down below for you. With the PC and the cable covered
it's now time to install the software… To play Meta and Steam PCVR games on your Quest 2 you just need to install three pieces of
software. The official Meta Oculus PC app, and the Steam app so that you can install SteamVR.
Fortunately, installing all that is dead easy. First we need to install the Oculus app
onto your PC. So go to the Quest setup page, and under the Quest 2 ‘Airlink / Link cable’
section click the ‘download software’ button. This will download the installer to your
browser's default download location. For most people, once it's downloaded, it will
appear at the bottom of your browser window. Simply left click on the file to run it and
follow the simple instructions to install the app. Now the first time you run it it will take you
through a first time setup process where you will need to log in with your Meta / Oculus account,
or create one if you don't have one already. Next, in order to install SteamVR on your
PC you do need to install the main Steam app first. To install it go to the Steam home page
in your browser and click the ‘Install Steam’ button at the top of the page. Then click
on ‘Install Steam’ on the following page as well. This will download a steamsetup.exe
file to your default download location. Again, for most browsers it will pop up as a downloaded
file at the bottom of your browser screen. Click on that file and follow the simple
instructions to install it. If you don't already have a Steam account then you will
need to set one up as you install the app. Now if you're not sure whether your PC is VR ready
there is a great app in the Steam store called ‘SteamVR Performance Test’ which will test your PC
for you. If you want to run it, in the Steam app, go to the store and in the search box type in
‘SteamVR’. In the search results that pop up click on the ‘SteamVR Performance Test’ app.
Then under the ‘use SteamVR performance test’ section click the green ‘free’ box to install it.
Once it has finished installing then click on the ‘launch’ button on that page to run it. This will
run a sequence of tests on the PC to test your PC's hardware. Once finished it will show you
a summary screen showing you how good your PC is. If it's all green then you're good to
go. If anything pops up as red or yellow then it's probably a good idea to look at
upgrading your PC before you go any further. Now I'll install the SteamVR app from Steam.
In the Steam app, go to the store, and in the search box type in ‘SteamVR’. Now click on the
‘SteamVR’ app in the search results pop-up list. Then on the following SteamVR page click on the
‘play now’ or ‘install’ button to install it. Also, and this is important, make sure you tick
the ‘create desktop shortcut’ box as you're going to need that to launch SteamVR from your headset
in a bit. Then click on next to install it. Once that's finished then SteamVR is all set up. So now with the software all sorted you
now need to go and get your first PC VR game. You've actually got two options here.
You can actually go into the Rift store which is in the Oculus app you installed first,
or you can go into the store in the Steam app as well and browse games under
the ‘VR titles’ category in there. The ‘top sellers’ section in both apps
is a great place to start as it lists all the most popular games on each platform.
There's plenty to choose from such as ‘Lone Echo’ on the Meta Oculus platform and ‘Elder
Scrolls V: Skyrim’ on the Steam platform. My personal favorite has to
be Half-Life: Alyx. It really is a great game and sets the bar of the best
of what you can get out of a PC VR game. Once you've got your games it's time to play! With everything set up, when your game is bought, playing your first PC VR game
is a few simple steps away. First ensure that both your Quest
headset and your PC are fully turned on. Now run the Oculus app on your PC. Now attach the USB cable from your PC
to your headset and put your headset on. You will see a pop-up asking you to
‘allow access’ to data. Select ‘Deny’. A few seconds later you will
see another pop-up asking you to ‘enable Oculus link’. Select ‘Enable’. You will be redirected to the Oculus Rift
PC VR home screen where you will be able to play any Oculus Rift game that you
might have bought from the Oculus store. The first time you connect your headset it will
automatically register your headset as a device with the Oculus app on your PC. You can manually
test the cable by clicking on your headset in the devices list and scrolling down to the USB test.
Running this will show you your connection speed and your USB type. You want a USB 3 connection and
a fast data speed of typically 2Gbps or higher. If you don't see a green tick after your test then
try a different USB cable, or a different USB port on your PC, and run the test again. It's a
great quick way to easily be able to test cables. Now assuming you want to keep going
and play SteamVR games though… From the Rift home screen, select ‘desktop’
icon from the menu bar at the bottom right. This will show you your PC screen. You should
then find SteamVR as a desktop shortcut on your desktop screen which was created when
SteamVR was installed. While pointing at the SteamVR icon with your controller, hold
down the trigger button for a second and then release the trigger. In the pop-up menu that is
displayed select ‘open’. It will now run SteamVR! You may get a message pop up in your
Quest headset you can't run apps from ‘unknown sources’. This is because
Meta regards the SteamVR app as an ‘unknown source’. Fortunately
it's really easy to fix. In the Oculus app on your PC, go into your ‘settings’ and go to the ‘general’
tab. There's an ‘unknown sources’ toggle. Just make sure you enable that. You will now
be able to run SteamVR without any issues! Once SteamVR loads, which can take a while, you will be in a different home screen which is
the Steam home screen and will display any games that you have purchased on the Steam store. Just
select the one you want to play and away you go. Now that you have run SteamVR once it
will now appear in your apps drawer so it will be easier to launch going
forward as you won't have to use the desktop link again as you can go direct
to SteamVR from the Rift home screen. If you don't see SteamVR in your app drawer do make sure that ‘unknown sources’ is enabled
in the filter in the top right hand side. You should now be all set up for playing PC
VR games using your Quest headset on either the Meta or Steam platforms. I have placed
links for all videos, software, reviews etc, mentioned in this video in the
description down below for you. Do let me know in the comments down below how
you got on. What was the first game you tried, and do you think it was worth it? If you're after a good link cable for
connecting your headset to your PC then be sure to check out my review
of several data cables via the link up here that will provide you with the
best recommendation on which one to buy. If you have enjoyed this video please
don't forget to like and share it. Consider subscribing if you're not. And as always… I'll see you in the next one!
