Oculus Link software to use Quest headset with PC is available in beta

Oculus Link is available in beta. The software allows the Quest, a standalone VR headset, to be connected to a PC. It is then possible to run VR games and apps that were made for the Oculus Rift on the Quest.

During the beta, Oculus Link does not yet work with AMD GPUs. It does work with all video cards from the GeForce RTX 20 and GTX 16 series. Nvidia’s GTX 1070 and 1080 are also supported, but the 1060 and 970 are not. Oculus plans to add support for more video cards at a later date.

According to Oculus, connecting the Quest to PCs will work with most high-quality USB-C cables. The company has tested itself with a 90cm cable from Anker and recommends it on its support page.

Oculus is going to release a custom Link cable later this year. That will be a five meter long optical cable, which should offer more freedom of movement than ‘any other cable on the market’. That cable will be released in limited edition this year in ‘selected regions’. The cable should be more available next year. It is not yet known what the cable will cost.

To activate Oclulus Link, Quest users must update their glasses to the 11.0 software and connect to a PC. Then games for the Rift can be played via the Oculus desktop app. The Quest came out earlier this year for 449 euros. The glasses with Snapdragon 835-soc were put on the market as a standalone VR headset. The Quest has a resolution of 1600×1440 pixels per eye. That’s higher than the Rift S, which has a resolution of 1280×1440 pixels per eye.

Oculus Quest