Provided you have a capable system, the performance is solid and I encountered very few technical problems, frame drops or glitches at all in my playthrough. The good news is that Half-Life: Alyx plays exactly as you would expect on Oculus Quest via Link. In terms of performance, here’s a more detailed breakdown of how Oculus Link and Virtual Desktop stacked up: Oculus Link You can read more about Oculus Link compability over at Oculus Support.įor Virtual Desktop, you’ll need to buy a copy of the app from the Oculus Store on your Quest and then sideload an alternate version of the Virtual Desktop app that is available on SideQuest, enabling SteamVR and other VR games to be played through the app. If you’re planning to use Oculus Link, you’ll need the official Oculus Link cable or another compatible cord to tether your Quest to your PC. The most important is a VR-ready PC that meets the specifications required for Half-Life: Alyx. Personally, I found it still delivered a subpar experience that I wouldn’t recommend to Quest users looking to play Alyx for the first time, but our reviewer, Jamie, also tried his hand at the streaming and had far less issues than me.įor those new to playing PC VR games on the Oculus Quest, there are a few things you’ll need. Virtual Desktop, meanwhile, remains impressive from a technical standpoint, but your experience will be down to the quality of your connection.

It’s almost as good as playing on any other PC VR headset.

You can rely on Oculus Link to give you a solid experience with no latency right the way through. In terms of which is better, the answer depends very much on the connection to your router.

I played my entire first playthrough of Half-Life: Alyx exclusively on Oculus Link, and then went back and tried a couple of select sections using Virtual Desktop after that. However, one important subset of users is those who will play the game on Oculus Quest, either tethered via Oculus Link or wirelessly with the sideloaded version of Virtual Desktop.įor these users, the biggest question is how the game runs on either service and which is better. Whether you’re playing on a Valve Index, Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive or even Windows VR headset, Valve has you covered. Half-Life: Alyx from Valve is supported across the overwhelming majority of PC VR headsets.

Life 360 for desktop