STEAM LINK meta quest — Image courtesy Valve

Valve Launches ‘Steam Link’ on Quest for a Direct Connection to SteamVR

By

-

Nov 30, 2023

Valve today released its first-ever application on one of Meta’s VR platforms. Steam Link allows users to quickly and easily connect their Quest headset wirelessly to SteamVR to play PC VR or flatscreen PC content.

Oculus Link / Air Link has for years allowed any Quest headset to connect to a PC to play PC VR content, but it requires users to install and use the long-outdated Oculus PC software. In many cases, that ends up just being a bothersome extra step to finally ending up at SteamVR which has a much more active library of VR apps and users.

To streamline this process, Valve today released the Steam Link app on the main Quest store (which means it has been given Meta’s official blessing). Using Steam Link, the app makes it dead simple to connect Quest directly to SteamVR without the Oculus PC software as a middle layer.

All you need to do is have a capable PC running Steam on the same network as your headset. Then launch the Steam Link app in your Quest and you’ll be greeted with a pairing code. Enter the code on your PC and… voila, you’re looking at your SteamVR library.

And it isn’t just PC VR games—you can also play any game from your Steam library on a big screen in front of you. Again, this has all been possible before, but Steam Link makes the process easier than ever.

'Metro Awakening' Gameplay Shows Off Patently Tense Combat, Immersive VR Take on Familiar Mechanics

To use Steam Link, Valve says the minimum requirements are:

Wi-Fi: 5 GHz minimum, wired connection to PC
GPUs: NVIDIA (GTX970 or better)
OS: Windows 10 or newer
Headset: Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro

There’s indications that Steam Link on Quest may also support eye-tracking and face-tracking for those using Oculus Pro, but we haven’t had a chance to test it just yet.

Anonymous

Hmph. Didn’t see that coming.
This feels like Meta’s solution to stop maintaining Oculus app and its failed PCVR store themselves, by just handing it to Valve. If this is correct I wonder if the old but still amazing Oculus exclusives will alll be transferred and sold on Steam.
- Dave
  
  To be frank, I’m not sure I appreciate your anti-Meta comments. This seems like a completely independant decision on Valve’s part.
  - NL_VR
    
    Lol
  - kakek
    
    As the article mentions “Valve today released the Steam Link app on the main Quest store (which means it has been given Meta’s official blessing). ”
    
    So no, this isn’t a completely independant decision on Valve’s part.
  - Anonymous
    
    What? I have been one of the most pro-Meta person on this site. However looking at how poorly maintained the PC Oculus store has been, I will not turn a blind eye claiming it is successful.
    
    Also as many others said, this is Valve adding a launcher directly in Quest Store, so some sort of agreement must have been done.
  - MarcDwonn
    
    Stop lurking, Mark, it’s creepy.
    - shadow9d9
      
      lazy cliche.
      - MarcDwonn
        
        I knew you were gonna say this. Lazy, lazy… :D
  - Dave
    
    I think a lot of you have miss-understood my comment. I don’t disagree with Meta approving Valve software, that’s a given for the store. What I don’t agree with and it’s my opinion is that Valve is somehow part of a tactical plan to move the old Oculus apps to Steam. Yes the Oculus UI is old and not very well maintained but it is updated, I updated it last month. I can only assume there will be plans for this further down the line (and that could be the store gets dropped entirely), whatever it is, I’m pretty sure it’s not going to involve Steam, that decision was there own.
- VR5
  
  The biggest benefit Meta gets out of this app is selling remaining Meta Quest Pros (and also its follow up model). It’s expensive but eye tracking and comfort make the Pro the best Meta HMD for PC.
  
  Meta will probably slim down its PC client and remove the PC UI, instead listing Rift apps as Quest apps when connected to the same Wifi as a PC with the Meta app running. Then you can directly start Asgard’s Wrath or Lone Echo from the Quest menu.
  - ViRGiN
    
    How is that a benefit when everyone who didn’t get Quest Pro already, didn’t do so cause they absolutely believe something a terminally online vrchat user fed them for few years – deckard is coming soon.
    Meta is better off giving it away to trusted developers so they can start working on integrating eye tracking in their games, so there is enough content when quest 4 launches.
    - kakek
      
      My dude, people who didn’t buy a quest pro didn’t do it because if was a slightly improved quest 2 sold for 3 times the price with features ( face tracking and eye tracking ) that very few people cared about.
      
      I can guarantee that valve could come out and say they will never ever release another headset and it would not sell a single additional quest pro.
      - ViRGiN
        
        and everyone who wanted one already got one. so how exactly steamvr integration is supposed to offload these pros?
        meta does not need to sell them. if it’s a failed product, they might end up burying them as well, like apple did with Lisa.
        i didnt make the claim that meta benefits from this app to sell remaining pros.
- g-man
  
  I don’t know if it’s even that. VD already does this so SL isn’t adding any capability that wasn’t already available. This is just further proof that Meta doesn’t care about PCVR and I would imagine that perspective is based on usage data.
Dave

Good news for sure, but this has taken long enough. If I was running Valve, I would have had a SteamVR portal app on every headset with a compatible controller. Clearly I think the SteamVR 2.0 update has opened the door for this and it’s very welcome, thank you Valve.
- JakeDunnegan
  
  I’m not Steam fanboi, but seems like evidence points this to be Meta being the one slow to adopt a more open platform – not Valve.
  
  Valve used to keep the Meta compatible headsets compatible with Steam releases on their own dime – which expanded the amount of apps and games that were available on the Quest headsets.
  
  It’s always been a no-brainer win/win for all concerned, but it’s was Zucks company that had all the hesitancy.
  - MeowMix
    
    actually ……
    Meta, WMR, HTC, and PICO all adopted OpenXR APIs years ago, dropping their proprietary APIs for the industry open standard.
    
    It was VALVE who has forced the use of SteamVR (initially OpenVR SDK, then incorporating OpenXR support via SteamVR). It was long argued that if STEAM is a storefront (they are right?), then they should drop the mandatory SteamVR requirement and just use the OpenXR API calls in the openvr_api.dll plugins (included with most SteamVR games). Let the game hook directly into the headset (Meta, WMR, PICO, HTC, etc).
    
    We know now why they haven’t dropped SteamVR, as it’s their proprietary wrapper to interface with the SteamLink app. I expect the SteamLink app to launch on more VR platforms – it’ll act as the gateway app to SteamVR.
    - Alex de Vienne
      
      Also steam vr will have a lot benefits in the future like steam deck os. It will be the operating system of the new deckard headset.
  - Trevor
    
    There’s actually little to no reason why Meta would allow this. Nobody makes money on hardware. The money Meta would be getting would be from the “nearly almost always full price” games/apps on the Quest store. Just how hardware/software has always worked. If you can get a $20 game for 50cents on Steam, why would you ever buy anything on the Quest store?
    
    I’m really happy they’ve done this because I have a huge VR library from HTC Vive but I’ve used my Quest 2 and Quest 3 TONS more than I ever used the Vive. Having access to my old VR games, especially things that never got ported to Quest, is really great. Yeah, I’ve done it through Virtual desktop and that works really well (and I own VD on both Steam and Quest store) but removing the middle layer of the Quest/Rift software is nice. And I like VD but if Steam Link works easier, I’m all for it.
    - ViRGiN
      
      So you will replay the games you have already played long ago?
      - Trevor
        
        Yeah. There are games that have replay value. Games I never finished on the Vive. Games that don’t exist on Quest. And, of course, when Steam has constant sales, there are tons of games I’ve never even started.
      - Christian Schildwaechter
        
        There are currently 2064 games in my Steam library I haven’t started even once. Combined with years of gathered free games from Epic, a couple of mega bundles on itch plus a few hundred from Oculus and others, I seriously doubt that my remaining life expectancy would be enough to play them all.
        
        Maybe with some medical breakthrough. But to have a chance, I’d first have to stop hoarding even more games, and no longer launch a couple of games I already spent hundreds of hours in. So it is never going to happen.
    - Christian Schildwaechter
      
      There is a reason why Meta would want and allow. Your remarks about Meta needing Quest store sales to make money are true, but with MRL spending USD 10bn/year, making it is not their priority. Much bigger problems are the slow platform growth and low retention. And users streaming PCVR at least still use their Quest and might buy apps, compared to those that drop out completely.
      
      Resolution Games, a cross platform VR game developer with 10+ titles, showed internal numbers regarding VR player activity and retention in 2021-11, based on which I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations regarding retention among Quest users. I don’t remember the exact result, but retention among those (also) streaming was way higher. Not really surprising, with access to both the Quest and Steam library, they are less likely to run out of interesting games, and those owning a VR capable PC are often VR enthusiasts.
      
      Most people still have never tried VR, so every active Quest user helps Meta to make others (more) aware of it, and is therefore important. And if there is a group of Quest users with much higher retention (and probably much higher usage), reducing the friction for them to keep them happy/engaged may be worth a lot more to Meta than the money they could make, if they tried to stop them from streaming PCVR.
      - Trevor
        
        Yeah, there’s definitely a “long game” to consider. All the money Meta is losing in the short term, they’re banking on in the long term. So yeah, there’s that aspect of getting more people to buy the headsets.. in the very long term. To try to ensure that VR/MR becomes more widely adopted. Ultimately, I’m sure it’ll be the third party data and ad revenue that they make their money back on, not app/game sales.
      - Christian Schildwaechter
        
        Meta/Facebook/Instagram generate almost USD 100bn in gross profit every year. If their metaverse bet pays off, and they become a dominant platform owner and no longer have to pay 30% of their mobile fees to Apple or Google, nobody will care that they burned through USD 100bn+ to establish XR in the consumer market. It is indeed a very long term game, and what seems like a lot of money now will be peanuts in the context of decades of micro-transactions and ad views from billions of users.
      - g-man
        
        I agree Meta probably sees it the way you describe but I find it funny they don’t think people will jump ship the millisecond there’s a better alternative that isn’t made by them. Being first doesn’t always mean winning.
      - JakeDunnegan
        
        Exactly. When you consider on Steam who is exactly using PCVR (Meta units of one form or another make up 52% of the VR hardware on steam) – there’s an obvious benefit to making it easier on them.
        
        And, there’s an obvious path for at the very least, more value to be delivered to Meta users by having easy access to the Steam store and libraries.
      - g-man
        
        Agreed. Although just a quibble, given the cost of the Q3 I wonder if the days of Quest being a loss leader are over. They may very well be making a profit on those.
    - Alex de Vienne
      
      I think Meta is in a situation where they accept people buying and using their headsets also for steam vr just to extend their amount of users. They know they will also buy something in the Meta store too.
      - Trevor
        
        Yeah, as I mentioned on another reply. There’s always the long game. Meta’s losing tons of money and selling a handful more Quest store apps/games won’t really make a difference. Long term adoption of VR/MR and the ad revenue and third party data sales will be were they make the money back.
  - Alex de Vienne
    
    Valve is anyway more open than Meta will every be ;)
Lordbeavis

i think this is what meta is moving towards. they have been encouraging devs to not make rift versions of their games. it would be awesome if they put their first party pcvr games on steam
- MeowMix
  
  no they haven’t …..
  The devs that removed support from the Rift store have said they don’t want to maintain support for 2 different PC builds, when 90% of their PCVR sales are on STEAM anyways.
Blackspots

Hmm… What if you have a Vive face tracker attached to your Quest 2 (connected via USB hub, which plugs into the Quest 2)? Will that work with this?
- Lordbeavis
  
  oooh nice, maybe even be able to use vive trackers and index controllers?
  - Blackspots
    
    Yeah, you can do that. You need to buy a special USB dongle to do so. (five of them if you use the Index controllers, and three Vive trackers)
    - XRC
      
      The dongles (Valve, Tundra, HTC, Manus) run proprietary version of Nordic Enhanced Shockburst on the 2.4 GHz frequency. You can sometimes pick them up cheap if you hunt about.
      - Christian Schildwaechter
        
        AFAIR you can flash the dongle that comes with the Steam controller with new firmware to use with e.g. the HTC controllers or trackers, and still use the Steam controller via standard bluetooth. Valve sold these dongles as replacement parts for USD 10, unfortunately they stopped.
        
        Buying Steam controllers on ebay and reselling them without the dongle can work, but the resale value of the controller drops significantly without the dongle, and all the Steam controller receivers offered by lots of Chinese vendors for a few bucks are just regular USB bluetooth adapters.
Foreign Devil

Can I connect directly to steam with a cable to my PC? I am not setup for a good wireless connection to PC. Sure hope they have a cable link option.
another juan

Next: Half-life Alyx Quest port?
- Andrew Jakobs
  
  I think Meta would very much like that.
  - Christian Schildwaechter
    
    Valve has been open to ports of their games to other platforms like consoles in the past, they just aren’t interested in doing those themselves. So if Sony approached them about HL:A for PSVR2, they’d probably agree, but it would be up to Sony to find someone willing and capable of porting both Source 2 and HL:A to the PS5. Which would be possible, but very expensive.
    
    Valve might also agree to a port to Quest, but Meta would need very flexible definitions of “possible” and “not too expensive” to even consider that, and be willing to accept some serious simplifications.
- ViRGiN
  
  god please no, we have had enough of shovelware on quest.
Cl

Can I stream my steam deck to a vr headset?
- Christian Schildwaechter
  
  I hadn’t though of that! I’ve spent hours looking into ALVR or ways to run VD under SteamOS and basically gave up. Then Steam releases exactly what I’ve been looking for, and I don’t even realize it, because I had accepted that I will forever be limited to streaming from Windows. And I had seriously thought about getting something like the Xreal Air just to play flat games on my Steam Deck.
  
  I can’t answer your question, and won’t be able to try for a couple of days, but I hope that the answer is yes. And I’m very grateful you asked, as otherwise I might have completely missed that option.
  
  So thanks a lot for your question.
  - JakeDunnegan
    
    I know when Valve was working on the SteamDeck – there were definitely comments by the engineers/developers about conceptually, the SteamDeck leading to perhaps, even a belt-held VR set, that way.
    
    So, I wouldn’t be surprised at all, if it worked quite well. Course, if you do go mobile with it, I can’t imagine what the extra batteries would be like lugging around. ;)
  - stormtrooper282
    
    working with a VR streamer (xorosegold), she determined that if you sideloaded the android version of the steam link app to the quest (via sidequest and sourced the apk from apkmirror website) you could connect to the steam deck and control the desktop. SteamVR in desktop mode on the steam deck didnt recognize the quest with this method, so testing VR games didn’t go well in that case, but there was no issues with streaming the display and basic controls.
- g-man
  
  I suppose you already could if you installed Windows on it and used VD, but presumably this will allow you to do it with the default OS.
  
  Just for 2D games of course, this won’t magically make Deck a strong enough machine to render VR reasonably.
  - Christian Schildwaechter
    
    People tested Windows plus VD for VR on Steam Deck. Results depend on the definition of “render VR reasonably“. Simpler titles like Job Simulator or Beat Saber ran just fine. Highly optimized HL:A ran early parts with VD SSW in potato mode without horiffic framedrops, but far from fine.
    
    The Deck’s graphics performance is ~65% of an PCVR entry level GTX 1060, Quest 2 ~17%, so Quest 3 should now be ~44%. In theory the same VR app could run better on Steam Deck than Quest 3, but Quest developers optimize for limited hardware, while PCVR games expect way more power. Valve could release a HMD using the Deck APU, technically more powerful than Quest 3, but it would barely run existing PCVR games. Only ports from Quest would be usable, making it pointless.
    
    Valve will wait for AMD’s APUs to double in speed, so most PCVR games run out of the box. Deckard should also connect frictionless to a PC via Steam Link, to allow switching to a streaming experience with much improved resolution/graphics/performance. And for Quest owners already using Steam Link, their new Valve HMD would join their streaming setup automatically, making Steam Link for Quest a sneaky Trojan horse.
- Ishi Carter
  
  No, it doesn’t work on the Steam Deck according to what I’ve read. Right now it only works on devices with nVidia GPUs. Hopefully, they will add AMD and Intel compatibility in the near future.
Captain StarCat

This is literally what Virtual Desktop does, minus the $15 price tag. Been using it for three years now.
- Blackspots
  
  Yeah, but you require three steps, (start VD, Start Steam VR, Start your VR game). This will require one or two steps, since starting this client would probably automatically start SteamVR on your computer, so all you have to do is start your VR game.
  - MarcDwonn
    
    Quest 3 + VD: Two steps
    1) start VD (icon on the Quest dash)
    2) start the game
    
    Quest 3 + Link/AirLink: Four steps
    1) go into Quest 3 settings
    2) start Link/AirLink
    3) activate Desktop
    4) start game
    
    Quest 3 + Steam Link: ??? steps
    (will be updated when info available)
    - Cl
      
      You need the VD app open on your pc first. Also if you say switch to quick setting view is a step, then so is the button to show all apps. Also when I open VD it goes to desktop view automatically, which means I need to hit another button to show my games since I don’t put game icons on my desktop.
      - ViRGiN
        
        VD is much lighter app on auto start than steam. Plus it doesn’t have to update 3 times a day with zero changes ever.
      - g-man
        
        Please show me on this doll where Valve touched you.
      - ViRGiN
        
        Please show me on this platform how much money you have wasted on steam platform in your lifetime.
      - MarcDwonn
        
        VD app runs all the time and starts with Win10. It doesn’t take any resources, so there’s no reason to not auto start it. BTW, Oculus runs in the background all the time, so is Steam, if you want to be able to use it. Everything else you said boils down to personal preference – there’s no one-fits-all solution, as long as the apps don’t include *everything* as a setting you can customize.
    - CaryMGVR
      
      In [b]Quest 3 + Link/AirLink: Four steps[/b], it isn’t fair to list #1 as a step.
      In [b]Quest 3 + VD: Two steps[/b], you just say: “Start VD”.
      Well what if you’re on another screen …?
      Then you’d hafta switch to the dash as you have listed as a step for your second method.
      - MarcDwonn
        
        Could you rephrase that? DIdn’t understand what you tried to express.
    - NotMikeD
      
      You forgot the step with VD where half the time you launch it it tells you to take off your headset and update the streamer on your PC first..
      - MarcDwonn
        
        Hehe, you’re right, but this happened only two times to me yet.
      - NotMikeD
        
        Hehe then it sounds like you’ve used VD maybe 4-5 times then!
      - MarcDwonn
        
        I’m using it on a daily basis since Quest 3 hit sales. :shrug:
      - NL_VR
        
        It doesnt say you need to take off the headset its just updating and when done you are in
- Alex de Vienne
  
  And minus stutters and plus faster connection ;-D Steam Link
- CaryMGVR
  
  That’s the idea.
- LP
  
  I’m sure VD has more technology under the hood like an upscaler and ASW on the headset itself.
  - MarcDwonn
    
    What i worry about is that Steam Link will probably not use the Oculus reprojection, which is superior to the SteamVR one.
    
    And doesn’t in-headset-reprojection (that i think VD uses) have advantages?
    - g-man
      
      Yes, lower latency. It would be crazy not to have local repro. Curious to see how this runs.
  - ViRGiN
    
    Cause VD actually cares about VR.
    - ymo1965
      
      I tried steam link and was left underwhelmed. Ive used VD long enough to know its far better in ever way. Has way more options to tweak and visuals look better and cleaner. SL might be ok for someone just starting out, but VD is where it’s at.
- ViRGiN
  
  Not the first time valve just copies others stuff.
dextrovix

What a shock that a particular poster who hasn’t lost their virginity isn’t all over this article… I cannot even conceive as to why that might be… ;)
- JakeDunnegan
  
  I have no idea if he is or not. I finally blocked him a few months back. This place has been as sane as it’s ever been!
  - g-man
    
    Good plan, I’m doing that now. Their cheerleading is tiresome.
- VrSLuT
  
  She’s probably the same person at Meta that made the deal for this to happen so she can stop complaining now haha!
Firestorm185

Going to have to test how well this version of wireless streaming works compared to Virtual Desktop, which already lets you stream SteamVR.
- CaryMGVR
  
  … and don’t forget airLINK ….
Sannier

J’ai essayé de l’installer sur mon Quest premier du nom et il n’est pas compatible. J’ai eu le message d’avertissement sur la compatibilité de l’app et le bouton de téléchargement ne s’affiche pas dans le store. C’est triste
I tried to install Steam Link app on my Quest 1 but it’s not compatible with it. That makes me sad
Sven Viking

Interesting that Meta allowed the app straight onto the main store. Not even relegated to App Lab.

Early reports are that this still needs some work (crashes, low FPS compared to Virtual Desktop, too dark, etc.) I just hope Valve maintains it better than e.g. their Steam Link for Android app.
Paul Bellino

Shhh I have a little secret. With all the changes that have come to Steam in the last month it could only mean one thing. The time for the Steam Deckard is close at hand.
- Sven Viking
  
  Although that’d still be the Valve Time version of close.
- ViRGiN
  
  Steam deckard is officially an app for Quest.
GunnyNinja

I suppose I would feel more excited by this if:
a. I didn’t return my Quest 3
b. Didn’t have Rift games that require the Oculus app
c. Wasn’t using a G2 which still needs it’s own app to run
MarcDwonn

Can Steam Link be used with an USB cable, for faster network speeds and/or people with bad WiFi connections?
- Ben Lang
  
  Doesn’t seem like it
  - g-man
    
    Pity. It would sure be nice to dispense with the terrible Oculus software for wired streaming.
    - ViRGiN
      
      Ignorant wired elitists alert!!
Peter

Half-Life 3 confirmed.
ViRGiN

So again, valve shills failed to predict that and constantly saw valve deckard as work in progress?
They could have called it displayport over WiFi or something, then all the pcvr elitists would legitimize WiFi streaming.
Raphael

Tried it last night. Very quick and easy setup. Instant wireless connection.
ViRGiN

Also, where are the SJW now?
How come noone said yet that VALVE STEAM, with GAYBEN himself, RIPPED OFF GUY GODIN, A VIRTUAL DESKTOP DEVELOPER?
Oh, I know why. Cause it’s always good when Steam does it, and it’s always bad when Meta does it.
- ZarathustraDK
  
  Steam Link existed before Virtual Desktop. Making it compatible with VR HMD’s is not a revolution, it’s expected. The functionality should honestly have been implemented years ago. “Ripping off” though? I reserve that moniker for blatant copying of unique works of fiction, not the hammer-guy going after another guy for using a stone to punch a nail in with.
  - ViRGiN
    
    Steam Link released in 2015. Moonlight came out in 2009 and it definietly wasn’t the first to provide streaming.
    So yeah, Valve ripped off functionality after Virtual Desktop/ALVR.
    
    And as I’ve been saying for years, as long as it’s under Valve name, it’s always loved. Reddit is pissing their pants how awesome this is, and that they made it available for free.
    - ZarathustraDK
      
      Shush, now go enjoy some Steam-games on your Quest 3 that doesn’t look like 90Hz PS1-models.
      
      Praise Gaben.
      - ViRGiN
        
        Gaybe off!
        Now continue being the one of 10’000 people stuck with PCVR cause thats where they were buying their games and are unable to afford to move onto platforms that aren’t on life support. Looking forward to massive loses presented in steam hardware survey! Last month was the worst in years for PCVR! Buehehehehehehehhehehe!
      - g-man
        
        Since you seem to be unaware I’ll inform you that suggesting someone is gay as a joke is bigotry.
- kakek
  
  As far as I remember, Meta was criticised for making it harder to get virtual desktop by not allowing it of the official store. Not just for offering a free alternative.
  Valve is not doing anything of the sort against virtual desktop.
  - ViRGiN
    
    The broader picture is that guy godin sneaked his streaming code into app approved as desktop mirror.
    He broke the rules and trust, and got punished for it. He isn’t a saint. But I do remember the public response when Meta announced Air Link. Big corpo bullying the small guy (who has already made tens of millions, and only became relevant after “ripping off” Meta sliced encoding approach).
    
    Remember the fitness tracking for Quest? There was some third party app that used some hacks to track some data, that were later patched, and Meta made their own Fit, and common response was once again that Meta is just copying others ideas as their own.
    
    I already see tons of excitment for Steam Link all over the place. Just watch, they will be remebered as inventors of “plug and play” wireless VR. And suddenly WIFI compression isnt an issue anymore cause it’s made by Valve.
Pab

Men! ViRgiN will finally get to play Alyx! (can you imagine his face when he fnally sees what he has been missing? Oh, and the lies he´ll say to us pretending he knew!)
- ViRGiN
  
  Still not interested.
  Especially when global monopoly rips off the small dev Guy Godin. Lets unite against unlawful rip offs!
  - Alex de Vienne
    
    Its not monopoly it’s called innovation ;)
    - ViRGiN
      
      It’s called existing for so long that hatred turns into unconditional love.
  - Pab
    
    All companies want to be monopolies. They are not our friends.
    - ViRGiN
      
      That is so true. Too bad internet memes brainwashed huge chunk of people who comment online to believe that valve is their friend and isn’t a monopoly. Like, valve literally does nothing for gamers, they don’t really develop anything or pay others to have stuff developed. It’s really fascinating.
      - Pab
        
        It´s very simple, really. The social duty of any company is to maximize its profit. Not to please consumers.
Firestorm185

Find it very strange that they released an app that offers a direct link into SteamVR on Quest, but no xbox controller emulation support. You HAVE to use a bluetooth xbox controller on your quest to play any flatscreen games, Steam Link doesn’t emulate your touch controls into an xbox controller like VD does.
ViRGiN

So there isn’t Half-Life 3 or Portal 3 or Left4Dead 3 or Team Fortress 3, but here are 3 things:
1. SteamVR 2.0 – nobody was capable to predict that
2. Steam Deck OLED – nobody was capable to predict that
3. Steam Link for Quest – nobody was capable to predict that

But yeah sure, Valve is working hard on Deckard, cause some dude with waifu figurines has been looking at every line of code for the past few years.
xyzs

Good news for so many !
Not great news for Guy Godin, but the guy is already multimillionaire now so he can’t blame life is too hard on him neither (and I paid two licenses of his app so not ditching him here).

Everybody wins in the end.
- ViRGiN
  
  It’s not a replacement for VD, steam link doesn’t even have fraction of it’s features. It’s air link for Meta haters.
Yeshaya

Is there a performance hit if I add Oculus PC apps to Steam with “Add a non-Steam game to my Library” option and launch them directly through Steam VR? My PCVR games are about 50/50 but it would be really awesome if I could just use one as my “home base” PCVR app.
TonyVT SkarredGhost

This confirms once more than Meta has abandoned PCVR… back in the days it wouldn’t have ever allowed this
- ViRGiN
  
  What this confirms even more is that valve isn’t working on vr headset, and they were busy all that time building for quest. Deckard was an app.
  - kakek
    
    Valve never tried to block any headset from using steam, even when they released the index. They welcomed and supported widows mixed reality for the time it existed.
    So this doesn’t mean much on their part.
    - ViRGiN
      
      Releasing their own app inside “walled garden” is different than just adding support on already open PC platform.
      
      They have shown time and time again they have no interest in VR. The Deck was at least 100x more successful than entirety of SteamVR combined. Just look up Google trends. What would be the point of making a new headset? Standalone PCVR doesn’t exist, and Valve doesn’t make their own chips. Even giant and heavy Deck is underpowered, basically 720p 30fps device. How are they supposed to quadruple the performance when headsets are only getting smaller?
    - ViRGiN
      
      Also, can you explain how Meta tried to prohibit other headsets after Rift S was released?
      - kakek
        
        Meta never allowed any other headset to use their store. The only reason they made their own headset compatible with steamVR is because, at the time, before PCVR didn’t work as expected and mobile VR surprised everyone by being the biggest seller, they did not feel they could compete with Valve if they didn’t allow their user to go on their store.
        So if you bought a Rift, you could have both steam and rift game ( because steam didn’t prevent any constructor from making their hardware steam compatible, and provided all the element needed ). But if you bought anything else you only had steamVR ( cause they did not reciprocate. )
        Same for WMR though.
      - ViRGiN
        
        That’s just bullshit.
        Only very early on Meta PC store games were DRM-locked to Rift headsets, but that was reversed VERY quickly, like less than 2 weeks, way before Rift S was even a thing.
        Meta is under no obligation to support third party vendors. You can’t use Playstation, or Xbox ecosystem without their hardware. Steam added support themselves, because for them it’s a low hanging fruit in comparison to developing their own headset, building a supply line, customer service etc. We see fruition of this – everything mixed with everything, and that’s not a good thing. Vive controllers support varies from game to game, and with WMR things are even worse. Yeah, it technically connects and displays an image, but Meta wanted to avoid poisoning the well with “shitty but open” approach.
        
        Steam still have not released documentation on how to fabricate lighthouse trackers – they have essentially monopoly on it, despite claiming to be open and allowing any vendors to use them. Basically nobody ever did.
        
        Valve doesn’t care about VR at all, unless you count the effort of adding a VR section to a store. A streaming app has been done for free years ago, so it’s hard calling the recent Steam Link an effort as well. They still don’t invest in hardware, or software. They just changed GUI to match more with the Deck and that’s it. PCVR experience is very nostalgic, essentially no different than in 2016.
      - kakek
        
        You would be more credible if you didn’t try to defend Meta and attack Valve on every single front. Even those that are obviously not to Meta’s credit.
        You still can’t play any Oculus game without a Meta headset.
        While there is not a single game that is locked behind another vendor’s hardware requirement.
        I never said Meta was under any obligation to support other hardware. Just that Valve did, and they didn’t. Saying that Microsoft and Sony do the same as meta is not the defense you seem to think it is. Quite the contrary.
        Valve might not have made everything 100% open, but they did much more than Meta.
        
        It’s funny because on the same post you manage to defend Meta for not allowing any other headset on it’s store, while simultaneously criticising Valve, which had already done much more to make it easy for other headset to get on steam, for not providing steam link earlier. Make up your mind, are the store not in any obligation to accept other hardware, or should they have published their own link app 3 years ago ?
      - ViRGiN
        
        I presented facts and reality. I’m not tied to Meta, but understand nobody else cares about this hobby.
- Dragon Marble
  
  Meta is busy releasing headsets for PCVR.
  Indie devs and modders are busy brining games to PCVR.
  Valve is busy saving PCVR by just being Valve.
Arthur Slaughter

Hope this opens up linux support
Dragon Marble

So, the rumored standalone headset Valve was readying Steam VR for turned out to be Quest 3?
JakeDunnegan

You have no idea. ;) This place is like the Library of Alexandria for its erudite conversation since a certain Vestal is not hanging around.

Not in my universe, anyway. ;)
Nevets

Anybody know if this works with a PC that connects to the network via WiFi rather than ethernet?
Clownworld14

Very good, always happy to see ease of functionality, and convergence of tech.
steve18624

PSA- as of right now, SteamLink does not support gamepads. If you want to play 2D games with gamepads you’ll need to stick with Virtual Desktop- which is a great app and worth buying.