The Oculus Quest 2 gets ready to cut the cable.
Scott Stein / CNET
Being wired to your PC while playing a VR game can limit and spoil the immersive experience. The latest software update for the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset aims to fix this with a new feature called the Oculus Air Link.
The new streaming technology, announced on Tuesday, allows gamers to ditch the traditional cable connecting their headset and PC and rely on your home WiFi instead – as long as you have a strong connection. The feature will be introduced in experimental mode with the v28 update, but Oculus warns that not every network and PC setup is ideal for the intended experience and recommends using a secure 5GHz WiFi network over an ethernet cable is connected to your computer.
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Since Air Link requires both the headset and PC v28 to be running, the company said it will unlock the feature when both the Quest and PC v28 versions roll out gradually.
Oculus is also adding more features to Infinite Office, the VR workspace environment introduced last year. The physical surface integration, launched as an experimental feature on the Quest platform, allows you to place a virtual desk on real furniture so that you can use it in your Oculus Home environment.
Another experimental feature of Infinite Office is physical keyboard tracking, which is a 3D representation of your hands and keyboard in VR as you type at your physical desk. At least initially, this feature requires the Quest 2 to be paired with a Logitech K830 keyboard, although additional keyboards are to be supported in the future.
The software update will also improve the Quest 2’s screen refresh rate with the aim of creating a smoother gaming experience. Quest 2 is currently running at 90 Hz by default, but players will soon have the option to enable a screen refresh rate of 120 Hz on Quest 2.
“While there aren’t any apps that support 120 Hz yet, people who enable this setting will see 120 Hz performance in apps that support them in the future,” Oculus said in a statement.
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