Guy Godin, developer of Virtual Desktop, submitted his VR streaming patch for wireless PCs to Facebook’s App Lab last week.
The patch to enable the feature is currently being “checked” by Facebook, according to developers, with the hope that the wireless PC VR streaming feature will provide users with an easier way to install it.
According to Godin, more than 40,000 people use the Virtual Desktop feature every day. All of these users had to jump through a few hoops – like signing up as an Oculus developer – to play high-fidelity PC VR games like Half-Life: Alyx wirelessly on Oculus Quest and Quest 2 via its paid Oculus Quest app . Distributing the feature through App Lab would greatly simplify the process for users and likely reduce the time it would take Godin to troubleshoot issues with determining the page load.
He described the verification status of the feature in two tweets:
The function is used by more than 40,000 people every day and offers the Quest platform a high level of added value. Hope it gets approved as it makes it easier for new users to install. No developer account, no USB cable, no ADB drivers to install. (2/2)
– Guy Godin (@VRDesktop) February 10, 2021
Facebook forced the feature to be removed in 2019, shortly after the Oculus Quest was released, citing efforts to “provide customers with a consistent and comfortable experience.” Godin then moved a patch for the application to SideQuest that made it possible to enable the feature if the app was first purchased from Facebook.
While the virtual desktop feature is hugely popular with many, it may provide inconsistent performance depending on a number of factors in a person’s home. Streaming a PC VR game from a Steam or Rift library to the Oculus Quest, for example, depends on your Wi-Fi network, and if your Wi-Fi router is not of the highest quality or if there are too many users use it at the same time or there is not a good line of sight to the router itself – some users may have problems streaming PC VR games this way.
As shown by Godin’s more than 40,000 daily users, the function still use the function on a daily basis despite possible restrictions. Facebook warns all App Lab users that applications available through the system “may contain unknown issues related to comfort, performance, or other factors.” This warning appears to cover convenience concerns associated with Virtual Desktop PC VR streaming.
Facebook is also working on its own PC VR wireless streaming solution, but details of the project are not yet known.
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