Source: Nick Sutrich / Android Central
Best answer: Yes. Oculus Quest 2 supports wired Oculus Link or wireless Oculus Air Link. It’s worth noting that there are a lot of wired alternatives to Oculus Link and that Oculus Air Link is still in beta.
Oculus Quest 2: Two ways to play
Like the original Oculus Quest, Oculus Quest 2 supports wired Oculus Link. While you could pick up the official $80 Oculus Link cable, the best Oculus Link cable alternatives will cost significantly less. PCs without a USB Type-C port should consider one of those alternatives since the official cable is only USB Type-C. Wired Oculus Link on Quest 2 will provide users with the most consistent and likely the highest-quality audio and video since it’s plugged directly into your PC via a USB cable. That means it’s a dedicated connection that’s purpose-built, even if the cable will occasionally get in the way.
While the original Oculus Quest only supported wired Oculus Link, Oculus Quest 2 offers an additional wireless method known as Oculus Air Link, which enables you to play PC VR games by streaming them over your home’s Wi-Fi network. Like wired Oculus Link, Oculus Air Link will enable you to play Oculus Rift and SteamVR on Oculus Quest, all without the annoying wires. Older Wi-Fi 5 routers will work well enough for this purpose, but the best Wi-Fi 6 routers will offer lower latency and higher-quality audio and video streaming.
Since the Oculus Quest 2 is a wireless headset by nature, choosing Oculus Air Link for your PC VR streaming needs feels like it makes the most sense. Oculus Air Link launched in beta in April 2021 and is regularly being improved with features and stability enhancements to deliver a better experience for players. Alternatively, Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2 players can check out Virtual Desktop, which offers more options and features than Oculus Air Link. Unlike Oculus Air Link, Virtual Desktop isn’t free, although it is just a $20 purchase.
Replacing Oculus PC headsets
While Oculus Link on the original Oculus Quest offered an alternative way for Quest players to experience VR games on a PC, Facebook’s strategy has completely changed for the Oculus Quest 2. Instead of selling multiple headsets, Oculus now only sells the Oculus Quest 2, making it Facebook’s all-in-one solution for both standalone and PC VR.
Now that the Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S have been officially retired, Facebook has been building lots of new features into the Quest 2 that make it feel like a more full-fledged headset than the Rift line ever did. From launch, the Oculus Quest 2 featured hand tracking — a feature that launched on the original Oculus Quest and never came to the Oculus Rift platform — as well as the ability to play games without needing to hook up to a PC.
While PC VR games offer higher visual fidelity and could offer grander experiences, games built for Oculus Quest 2 offer 50% higher resolution than the original Oculus Quest. Playing PC VR games on an Oculus Quest 2 will offer an even higher-resolution experience than what was achievable on either Oculus Rift headset since the display on the Oculus Quest 2 is almost 4K resolution.
Additionally, games are beginning to be built with only the Oculus Quest 2 in mind. Resident Evil 4 VR is the first game announced that’s only playable on the Oculus Quest 2 and will not be available on the original Oculus Quest at launch. Games like this will feature better graphics and more complex environments than if they were still developed with the original Oculus Quest in mind. That’s because the Oculus Quest 2’s hardware is significantly more powerful than the original Oculus Quest, much in the same way that a new console generation is much more powerful than the previous one.
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Play PC VR games on the Oculus Quest 2 without the $80 official cable
The Oculus Link cable is undoubtedly the best way to play SteamVR and Oculus Rift games on the Oculus Quest 2, but it costs nearly 80 bucks. There are alternative cables that cost far less while hitting the same benchmarks, but some that you’ll find on Amazon can’t be trusted. Here are the ones you should try first.
Ditch that cloth strap and check out the best Quest 2 straps instead
The strap that ships with the Oculus Quest 2 isn’t the best and, surprisingly, the official Elite Strap replacement isn’t the best either, so what’s a Quest 2 owner to do? We’ve got several other better options to choose from, so don’t fret, come see what you can get!
