Oculus/Meta Quest 2 - Advanced User Guide - Part 2 (Gaming PC)
This is part 2 of the guide and you need a VR ready gaming laptop or desktop pc to take advantage of these tips.
For general tips/tricks and if you only have the Quest 2 and ideally a low spec pc, please check out part 1 here.
Product and affiliated links are used to help you find the products quickly and support my work.
Check out the links and sources at the end of the article to find and follow the content creators directly.
Table Of Contents
— — — Hardware — — —
- Alternatives To The Quest 2
- Better Audio (Nice To Have)
- Wireless Bluetooth Stations - USB And Link Cable (Nice To Have)
- Even More Accessories
- Haptic West
- Vive Knuckel Controllers
- Haptic Gloves DIY
- Body Tracking
- Motion Simulator
- Joystick
- Face Tracking
- Brain Machine Interfaces - VR Ready Gaming PC
— — — Software — — —
- Wireless PC Gaming (Must Have)
- Air Link
- Virtual Desktop
- ALVR-Air Light VR
- Which WiFi Router? - Apps And Games On PC
- VR Game Deals
- Cross-Buy - Mods For PC
- GTA 5 VR
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- SkyrimVR Mods - 2D To 3D VR Conversion Software
- HelixVision
- Vorpx - Sources And Links
— — — Hardware — — —
Alternatives To The Quest 2
If you are looking for a VR headset in 2021 that can be used with and without a PC the Quest 1 and 2 are your best options. Quest 1 is loosing support by developers but has a great AMOLED display (but with lower resolution and lower Hz refresh rate) and is often much cheaper on second hand platforms.
When you are only interested in VR headset for you PC, you should also have a look at the Reverb G2 (higher resolution, better colors, worse controllers, higher price), the Vive Index (lower resolution, wider field of view, better controllers, higher price) and the Varjo Aero (highest resolution, best lenses, highest price).
The Quest 2 can be used wireless (Virtual Desktop or ALVR) and via Link-cable while the PC-only VR headsets are cable bound except the Vive Pro 2 which offers an wireless receiver add-on and battery and the expensive HTC Vive Focus 3 which comes closest to the Quest 2.
Oculus/Meta Quest 2–128GB | Amazon (Paid Link)
Better Audio (Nice To Have)
Wireless Bluetooth Stations
When playing on PC you can connect your headphone Bluetooth station to the PC running the game and use your wireless headphones ideally with your wireless Quest 2. It is also a Bluetooth connection between your PC and the headphones but latency is not a problem in this case since the gaming Bluetooth headsets are designed for low latency audio streaming.
USB And Link Cable (Nice to Have)
The USB-C cable coming inside the Quest 2 Box is only USB 2.0 this means data transfer rates are rather slow. You get better transfer rates using a USB 3.0 cable. Often your smartphone comes with a USB 3.0 cable. Also the USB-C cable in the box has a USB-C connector on booth sides so you might need a standard USB-C cable to connect to your PC.
A longer Link cable allows you to connect your Quest with the PC. The official link cable is very thin and flexible but very expensive and good alternatives exist.
But keep in mind that the Quest 2 offers streaming the image from the pc to the headset over WiFi 6. So you can use it without a cable, which is obviously better especially since the quality is the same as using a cable. A cheap WiFi 6 router, I use is the honor 3. The software tu use it wireless with a pc is AirLink and Virtual Desktop.
Since some games/apps e.g. GTA 5 with mod need a cable connection to the pc and don’t work wireless you need a cable in some special cases.
Even More Accessories
Gun Stocks
As a pc user you can take advantage of having a connection to your pc and get a gun stock with recoil, which isn’t cheap of course.
Haptic West
Body Gloves DIY
Vive Knuckel Controllers
Expensive solution if you have to buy everything new but if you have a Valve Index already and you want to replace it with a wireless Quest 2 this might be a good idea. The advantages will be better controller tracking via base stations, finger tracking by the controllers and the detection of squeezing the controller.
Body Tracking
There are different levels of body tracking, from hips only to full body tracking versions. Also the technology enabling the tracking is different either using a camera or acceleration/gyro sensors attached to your body.
Vice tracker are one of the most accurate consumer trackers available but are very expensive and need base stations to work.
SlimeVR full body tracker are open source and also work with your old phones.
Motion Simulators
Joystick
Face Tracking
HTC released a face tracker which can also be used with Quest 2 and a PC.
Vive Facial Tracker | Vive Website
Brain Machine Interfaces
The gaming demo they show for this brain interfaces works by putting a specific flashing pattern on a button for example and the device can read a change in your brain activity if you see the pattern and push the button for you. This also means this technology is slower than plain old eye tracking which would recognize much quicker if you looked at the button or not. So don’t get to excited about the technology just yet.
But as soon as these devices are directly planted in your head you should get excited about it.
VR Ready Gaming PC
VR isn’t that demanding as you might think and you don’t need to spend too much to get a good experience.
If you want excellent performance and visual quality at high frame rates however make sure you invest in a good Nvidia GPU with high vram. 8GB vram is not enough for some demanding VR titles played with high resolution enabled accortding to Youtuber GizmotSlipTech.
In the Linus Tech Tips video, he mentioned that wireless via VD is nauseating but VD got many updates since this video was released and is now considered as good as Link or even better.
Gaming Laptops
If you buy a gaming pc in 2022 for VR you should look at the RTX30 series. Ideally you get a 3080 with 16gb vram and a processor like the i7-12700H.
Of course that's expensive so maybe look for a RTx3070 and i7-11700H for around 1000€ on the used market. Laptops with a 3060 should offer the best bang for the buck.
Make sure you choose a Laptop with a high GPU max watt rating. For example 140W for the 3070 and 165w for the 3080 Nvidia laptop Gpus. Laptop manufacturers always have to take temperature in mind and limit the maximal Power delivered to the GPu using software, which you dont want. There is a way to flash a new vbios on the Laptop GPU to increase the max power delivery to the laptop, but that only works if the laptop has a good cooling system and the powersupply can deliver the watts needed.
Oculuus Killer
This tool turns of unnecessary Oculus/Meta software running in the background giving your pc more resources for the actual gameplay. This becomes even more importent if you are using a laptop where every watt counts.
For users of the Virtual Desktop tool usingOculuskiller is not necessary.
Upscaling Software
This software allows for upscaling especiallly if you want to go from high quality to ultra high quality like from 1444p to 4k. The trade of are some artefacts which are less pronaunced if the input is already at high quality.
DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling)
DLSS 2.0 is only possible with NVIDIA RTX graphic cards. DLSS will bring massive improvements to the gaming world especially VR. Therfore you should keep that in mind when choosing the right hardware for your VR gaming PC. Many VR games don’t support DLSS yet but this will likely change in the future.
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution Technology or Nvidia Image Scaling
This is AMD’s response to NVIDIA’s DLSS technology. It can improve your frame rate significantly by setting the game to a lower resolution and upscale it with some clever tricks.
It works without using fancy machine learning algorithms and therefore doesn’t require a graphics card like the GTX and RTX NVIDIA cards which are required for DLSS to work.
In the latest Virtual Desktop update some parts of this method are used to improve the image quality. So by using virtual desktop you get some of the advantages of this method out of the box.
— — — End of Hardware — — —
— — — Software — — —
Wireless PC Gaming (Must Have)
Before you go and buy an expensive Link cable you should seriously consider if wireless streaming isn’t a better option for you.
Air Link
Virtual Desktop
The Discord server is moderated by the creator of VD himself, so its the best resource if you have questions.
When you have Virtual Desktop running, the next video explains how you reduce latency and improve quality.
Best Settings
The steps from the video are the following: H264; automatically adjust bitrate off; VR graphics set to medium, VR frame rates 80fps; VR bitrate 55mps; sliced encoding on.
Virtual Desktop over Browser
Virtual Desktop can also run and stream over a browser which allows you to connect to a different PC far away over the internet. The feature is called “Allow remote connections” read more about it on the VD website.
ALVR-Air Light VR
ALVR offers some features Virtual Desktop doesn’t have like Linux support, different settings to optimize your experience, USB cable support as an alternative to Oculus Link, it is free and it is open source.
The #FAQ channel on Discord should get you started.
Like Virtual Desktop you need a PC client and an .apk file that you have to sideload onto your Quest 2.
You can download the software from the github page:
It also works in combination with cloud gaming, but the setup is more complicated than Virtual Desktop.
Which WiFi Router?
Your WiFi should be 5ghz WiFi 5 or even better WiFi 6. You have the following options to get a low latency connection to your Quest 2.
#1 A modern high speed 5Ghz WiFi 6 router.
WiFi 6 routers offer low latency and high data transfer rates, so you can use it to reduce lag and stream in high quality. The Quest 1 doesn’t support WiFi 6 but the Quest 2 does and profits from higher data transfer rates and lower lag. **TODO Add source**
Fortunately the price for WiFi 6 routers has fallen dramatically and if you are looking for a new router especially for your Quest 2 WiFi 6 is the way to go.
The community discovered the Honor 3 one of the cheapest WiFi 6 routers to be a great option for Virtual Desktop. You can spend hundreds of dollars more for routers which perform slightly better, but the consensus is that the Honor 3 is great even at the low price. But be aware you still need a normal modem in combination with this specific router!!
#2 Connecting an Ethernet cable directly to Quest 2 (doesn’t work on Quest 1)
Completely destroys the idea of beautiful wireless PC gaming on Quest 2 but I want to mention the option. I also should mention that not all of them work with your Quest 2. I bought a cheap random one for testing and couldn’t get it to work.
#3 Internal PCI express WiFi 6 card
↑↑↑ This video is gold since it compares all the options available. ↑↑↑
Apps and Games on PC
VR Game Deals
On CDKey Website you often find VR titles with huge discounts.
There are many providers. I used the following and had no problems:
Cross-Buy
Cross Buy apps run on Quest 2 and the PC/Rift. I heard sometimes the same Quest app is cheaper in the Rift Store. So you buy a game in the Rift store for a lower price, and you can also use it on the Quest 2 where the same game would cost you more. I haven’t seen such a deal myself but it was mentioned online.
PC games are almost always better than the Quest version of the same game and often the PC versions are cheaper too. A comparison between the games which are made for Quest 1, Quest 2 and PC:
Mods for PC
GTA 5 VR
Important to know, this mod doesn’t works well with Virtual Desktop but with Facebooks AirLink or with the link cable connection. Since cloud PC’s only work with Virtual Desktop playing GTA5 on Shadow is not a pleasant experience (Game shakes a lot and can not be fixed. Online there are tips to downgrade VD to version 1.8 but in my tests that did not work.)
Red Dead Redemption 2
Resident Evil
Horizon Zero Dawn
SkyrimVR Mods
Further mods listed here. (German link)
Oculus/Meta Quest 2 — Advanced User Guide — Part 1 (Standalone)
Last Updated 12.04.2022
The Oculus Quest 2 is one of the best and cheapest VR devices currently available, but to get the maximum out of it you need to get off the beaten track.
This article wants to collect all relevant tips, tricks and hacks scattered around the web, so you can see them at one glance. It will be updated regularly.
This is Part 1 and you don’t need a VR capable gaming PC to use these tricks. But you need a regular pc to take advantage of some of the tips here.
In Part 2 (check it out here) you find all the information relevant to you if you have a VR ready gaming laptop or desktop py.
PProduct and affiliated links are used to help you find the products quickly and support my work.
Check out the links and sources at the end of the article to find and follow the content creators directly.
Table Of Contents
— — — Hardware — — —
- Alternatives To The Quest 2
- Optics And Lenses
- IPD Adjustment
- Glasses Spacers
- Lens Cleaning/Care (Must Have)
- Lens Protective Film
- Remove Scratches - Head Straps (Must Have)
- Halo Strap
- Elite Strap / Elite Battery Strap
- Deluxe Audio Strap - Hand Straps (Must Have)
- AMVR
- Mamut Grips
- VRCover Grips - Chargeable Batteries (Must Have)
- VR Facial Interface (Nice To Have)
- VRCover
- Increase FOV - Battery Packs (Nice To Have)
- Elite Battery Strap
- DIY
- Commercial - Better Audio (Nice To Have)
- Noise Canceling Headphones
- Clip On Headphones
- Shorter Audio Cable - USB And Link Cable (Nice To Have)
- Even More Accessories
- Carpet in the Center (Must Have)
- Anti-Slip Grip Socks (Nice To Have)
- Controller Protectors (Nice To Have)
- USB Drive as Cheap Storage
- Gun Stocks
- Haptic West [PC Only]
- Vive Knuckel Controllers [PC Only]
- Haptic Gloves DIY [PC Only]
- Body Tracking [PC Only]
- Motion Simulator [PC Only]
- Joystick [PC Only]
- Face Tracking [PC Only]
- Brain Machine Interfaces [PC Only] - Repair and Dissasembly
- VR Ready Gaming PC
— — — Software — — —
- Sidequest And ADB (Must Have)
- Enhance Texture Resolution (Must Have)
- OVR Metric Tool
- Install SideQuest On Your Phone/Quest
- Improve Black Levels (Must Have)
- Sideload Android Apps
- Downgade Apps
- Sideload GearVR/Oculus Go Apps - VPN
- On Your Phone (Must Have)
- On Your PC
- On Your Quest
- On Your Router - Apps And Games On Quest
- Sidequest
- App Lab (Must Have)
- BMBF And Beat Saber Mods (Must Have
- Location Based Games - Wireless PC Gaming (Must Have) [PC Only]
- Air Link
- Virtual Desktop
- ALVR-Air Light VR
- Which WiFi Router? - Cloud Gaming
- Shadow PC
- Plutosphere VR
- Microsoft Azure Cloud
- Google Cloud (3-months free) - Apps And Games On PC
- VR Game Deals
- Cross-Buy - Mods For PC
- GTA 5 VR
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- SkyrimVR Mods - Stream Movies Via DLNS Server
- 2D To 3D VR Conversion Software [PC Only]
- HelixVision
- Vorpx - Disable Facebook Tracking / Login
- Alternative User Guides
- Sources And Links
— — — Hardware — — —
Alternatives To The Quest 2
If you are looking for a VR headset in 2022 that can be used with and without a PC the Quest 1 and 2 are your best options. Quest 1 is loosing support by developers but has a great AMOLED display (but with lower resolution and lower Hz refresh rate). The Quest 1 is cheaper on second hand platforms but in my opinion not worth it even with at a much lower price.
Alternatives to the Quest 2 as a Standalone VR headset don’t really exist. The much more expensive HTC Vive Focus 3, the Chinese Pico Neo 3 and the Kickstarter backed Lynx One are standalone VR headsets but offer almost no software/games and are more for developers and businesses.
Optics And Lenses
IPD Adjustment
Use a smartphone app to measure your IPD. This Android app works great:
For iOS users: The app ‘Eye Measures’ was mentioned by the community to work well.
You can also move the lenses in between the 3 fixed positions to fit your IPD better. The software detects that you are in between settings and the image is adjusted accordingly.
Glasses Spacers
There is a plastic insert in the box they also move you further away from the lenses reducing the field of view.
Click on subscription lenses offered by multiple vendors are the better solution, but they are also expensive.
Lens Cleaning/Care (Must Have)
Use a microfiber cloth at all times. You can use the cloth as a screen protector as well. Using other fabrixed might scratch the delicate plastic lenses.
Your lenses can act like a magnifying glass and direct sunlight can burn the display so avoid direct sunlight. The outside cameras, on the other hand, are not at risk of being damaged by sunlight, so playing outside in the garden is fine but to much sunlight effects tracking so it only works in a shady place or at dawn.
Lens Protective Film
Like screen protectors on phone screens for the extra peace of mind.
Remove Scratches
If you messed up your lenses ‘Polywatch Scratch Remover’ can almost completely remove scratches according to multiple sources. ifixit.com/Guide/Fix+Oculus+Quest+2+Scratched+Lenses/140781
Head Straps (Must Have)
A good head strap makes the headset more stable, prevents it from shifting around to much and makes keeping the sharp sweet-spot much easier. It also massively improves comfort.
Halo Strap
I personally use the halo head-strap since it is highly adjustable, very comfortable, cheap and reduces pressure from your face.
There are two different manufacturers GOMRVR (find it on Aliexpress.com) and Panda VR. The Panda VR manufacturer seems to be slightly better but is also more expensive.
BOBOVR-M2-Pro | Amazon (Paid Link)
Elite Strap / Elite Battery Strap
Oculus offers two solutions which are also recommended by many in the VR community.
The Oculus Elite Strap and the Oculus Elite Battery Strap. The battery on the battery strap version, however, is not very big and the strap is over priced for what it offers.
Elite Battery Strap| Amazon (Paid Link)
A great extensive list of all/most of the headsets can be found here:
Hand Straps (Must Have)
Good hand straps reduce fatigue when holding the controllers and feel better than the hard plastic.
AMVR, Mamut and VRCover grips are the main providers. VRCover grips have the best reviews online and should be considered first
VRCover Straps | VRCover website (Paid Link)
VRCover Straps | Amazon (Paid Link)
Chargeable Batteries (Must Have)
Reputable brand and high mAh rating/storage capacity of up to 2800 mAh will let your Quest 2 controllers last weeks. The batteries that come with the Quest 2 are non-rechargeable and have a rating of 2500 mAh. If you have the option, go with Li-Ion they hold a high charge till the end so tracking also stays accurate till they are empty.
EBL AA 2800mAh Battery | Amzon (Paid Link)
VR Facial Interface (Nice To Have)
The stock interface is good enough for the beginning, comfortable and blocks most light. However, if you want a face cover that has a better feel to it and is easier to clean PU leather might be for you.
VRCover
No other brand offers the same quality and so many options. Forget the cheap chinese knockoffs. The newest updated fitness version comes with an improved venting system to prevent fogging and a thinner face pad for maximal field of few. Also the plastic part holding the face pad was improved being softer now adjusting better to your face shape. Taking on and off the nose piece also got slightly easier.
VRCover Face Interface (Fitness Version)| VRCover website (Paid Link)
VRCover Face Interface (Fitness Version)| Amazon (Paid Link)
Increase FOV
Getting the headset closer to your eyes helps to increase the field of view (FOV) a bit in the horizontal direction and massively in the vertical direction.
The best way to bring your face closer to the headset seems to be the VRCover slim pads which come in the “Fitness Facial Interface and Foam Set”. However they are very thin and might be less comfortable than the thicker ones.
Some people also print their one plastic inserts but in my testing they did not bring me any closer to the lenses, but the idea to make the plastic part thinner so you can get closer to the lenses while using a thicker more comfortable foam is very interesting and I would love to see the manufacturers experiment a bit in this direction.
You can see for yourself what the maximum possible FOV could be by taking of the foam interface and holding the Quest directly to your face so that your eye lashes almost touch the lenses.
Battery Packs (Nice To Have)
The “Elite Battery Strap” and the “Bobo VR M2 Pro” seem booth to be good options.
DIY
To find the right battery pack you should first measure the weight distribution of your headset. It should be similar to my setup. Your Quest 2 roughly weighs 660g and has a front heaviness of 230g.
Now test your headset with different amounts of added weight until it feels most comfortable to you. If you found the right weight choose a battery pack with roughly that weight. Attach it with Velcro strap or use some of the different methods Reddit users discovered and 3D printed (reddit.com/what_battery_pack_?).
If you don’t like the weight on your head you can also put the power bank in a waist bag or your pockets but than you have an extra cable to deal with.
Better Audio (Nice To Have)
The build in audio is OK, and you might be happy with it. Be aware of the fact that directly connecting to the Quest 2 via Bluetooth is currently not supported so don’t buy Bluetooth headphones for your Quest 2 they wont work very well and have huge lag.
Noise Canceling Headphones
Noise cancellation helps with immersion in noisy environments and is a great additional feature if you can afford it. The head bands should leave enough room to wear over ear headphones with them. The best money can buy are
- Sony WH-1000XM3 / WH-1000XM4 (noise canceling makes the sound a bit muffeld and less clear at least during my tests of the M3 compared to other high end headphones)
Sony WH-1000XM4 | Amazon (Paid Link)
- Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700
Clip On Headphones
There are multiple clip-on earphones available. Usually, they are made from cheap of the shelf headphones and 3D printed brackets. There are only a few high end solutions available like the following:
- modicap Soundkit (German seller) excellent quality headphones but no noise cancellation
Shorter Audio Cable
Short Audio Cable | Amazon (Paid Link)
I personally use my favorite high end over the ear headphones and shortened the cable with this trick.
USB And Link Cable (Nice to Have)
The USB-C cable coming inside the Quest 2 Box is only USB 2.0 this means data transfer rates are rather slow. You get better transfer rates using a USB 3.0 cable. Often your smartphone comes with a USB 3.0 cable. Also the USB-C cable in the box has a USB-C connector on booth sides so you might need a standard USB-C cable to connect to your PC.
Even More Accessories
The amount of accessories is huge, but not all of them are useful. Here I will present some which offer a real benefit.
Carpet In Play Center (Must Have)
A carped in the center of the play area as a safe zone is a must have. As long as you stand with booth feet on the carpet, you can’t hit a wall.
The carpet trick allows you to set the guardian settings to low activation speed and close distance, thereby avoiding the guardian system from always turning on when being immersed. However you should not turn off the guardian system completely the carpet is not a full replacement for the guardian system.
Anti-Slip Grip Socks (Nice To Have)
In movement heavy games like Pistol Whip or Blaston they really help, especially if your floor is slippery.
Controller Protectors (Nice To Have)
Many controller protectors partly cover the infrared LEDs. The VRCover protectors are an exception and seem not to affect tracking.
VRCover Protectors | VRCover website (Paid Link)
However the Quest 2 is very robust out of the box so a protector might not be needed and you can save the money.
USB Drive As Cheap Storage
To access the thump drive with your Quest you need to do some extra steps.
Gun Stocks
You can also make your own if you have 3D printing experience.
I printed a gun stock myself and found that aiming correctly is much harder because the gun hits against the Quest. A gun stock which is positioned below the controllers should allow for better aiming but I haven’t tested that. Another issue I had with the gun stock is that changing weapons is cumbersome and single hand weapons can not be used properly. In short, gun stocks have many disadvantages and I personally don’t use mine much but for some limited use cases they can increase immersion.
Repair and Disassembly
To open the Quest 2 you need special tools. I can highly recommend the “iFixit Mako precision bit set” it includes TORX T2 bits which are needed to open parts of the headset. A guide explaining how to open it can be found here:
www.ifixit.com/Guide/Oculus+Quest+2+Disassembly/139759
— — — End of Hardware — — —
— — — Software — — —
Sidequest and ADB (Must Have)
Sidequest is very helpful software to make installing unofficial apps easier. The other way to install apps to the Quest is normally only used by developers and is called Android Debug Bridge (ADB). Sidequest makes use of ADB but ADB is a separate more powerful underlying software.
As always the Discord server is a great place to ask more specific questions.
Enhance Texture Resolution (Must Have)
In sidequest under “device settings and tools” you can change the texture resolution. The standard resolution seems to be around 1536. By increasing it the visuals become noticeably better. Setting it to 2048 should make not much of a performance difference but a noticeably difference in clarity on all games. Depending on the app used, setting it to 2560 can noticeably effect performance (occasional frame drops). Setting CPU and GPU level to 4, Fixed Foveate Rendering level “Top High” and Refresh Rate to 72Hz or even 60fps helps keep the performance up despite high texture resolution.
In shooter games the higher clarity might give you an advantage when aiming and shooting enemies far away.
OVR Metric Tool
When running into performance issues (happens when you increase texture resolution to much in demanding apps/games) you can use the OVR Metric tool from Oculus to get detailed stats of frame rate and performance of the device.
With the help of this developer tool, you could find out the optimal resolution and settings for each of your games. For example beat saber is very well optimized, and a higher resolution is possible without the Quest 2 dropping frames.
Run ADB Commands
You can type in more specific commands by hand using ADB (Android Debugging Bridge). But remember these settings are not permanently and reset after restarting the device. The easiest way to type in the adb commands is via Sidequest.
adb shell settings put system screen_off_timeout 7200000
- No Screen Saver for Media Player (Netflix, …)
am broadcast -a com.oculus.vrpowermanager.prox_close
- Disable Quest Proximity sensor
am broadcast -a com.oculus.vrpowermanager.automation_disable
- Enable Quest Proximity Sensor
adb shell setprop debug.oculus.refreshRate 60
- Lower framereate to 60fps so you can crank up resolution or when recording gameplay for youtube which only supports 60fps video
adb shell setprop debug.oculus.refreshRate 72
- Lower frame rate to 72Hz which is lower than the standard 90Hz so that you can set the quality settings to high ( texture resolution 2560 )
shell am broadcast -a com.oculus.vrpowermanager.prox_close
- turns off the proximity sensor
shell am broadcast -a com.oculus.vrpowermanager.automation_disable
- turn the proximity sensor back on
Install SideQuest On Your Phone/Quest
Not my prefered method I like using Sidequest on my pc better but it works.
You can also install it on the quest itself but again you need to repeat that step every time you restart the headset so I don’t think this is ideal.
Improve Black Levels (Must Have)
The black on LCDs isn’t great but by reducing brightness of the back light of the LCD display helps. The back-light illuminates all the pixels and therefore doesn’t allow for true blacks as can be found in OLED displays as found on the Quest 1. Reducing screen brightness improves blacks but also reduces the brightness of all the other colors. Since the Quest 2 is a bit to bright anyways this is a good thing and should also improve battery life slightly which is a nice addition.
Changing the brightness with the slider sets it to 16% for the lowest setting. You can also use this abd command to set it even lower, but I did not see a difference.
adb shell settings put system screen_brightness 0
I would recommend using the slider in the normal settings since this will set the brightness level permanently compared to using adb which might resets after resart.
All adb commands will reset to normal when restarting the headset.
Sideload Android Apps
With Sidequest you can directly install Android apps on the quest which runs on android itself. You just need to get the .apk file and use Sidequest for installation. Not many Android apps work directly since Oculus is not supporting this feature. Buttons in Android apps installed this way are often set off and it’s hard to use the apps properly. But some Apps work and are useful, for example FileManager, Spotify to play your favorite music in the background.
File Manager can also be used t directly install apk files on your quest.
You can also play games using a Bluetooth controller as shown in this 2D-Minecraft installation guide.
By using an Android Emulator on the Quest you can also get the Android apps to work that do not work properly by installing them directly on the headset.
Downgrade Apps
Sometimes you want to use an older version of an app for example if you Update BeatSaber to the latest version but the BMBF mods and custom songs mods are not yet available for this latest version. Since Sidequest doesn’t allows you to sideload apps from the store it is a bit more complicated as seen in the video:
The Downgrade App can also be used to install Quest 2 exclusive games on the Quest 1.
Sidload GearVR/Oculus Go Apps
This only works well for very few apps. Minecraft is an exception where it works a bit. Most other GearVR and Go apps however don’t work correctly and the buttons on your Quest-controller are not mapped correctly to the GearVR/Go-controller which makes the apps unplayable on the Quest 2.
If you wanna try to install the GearVR/Go apps you bought anyway and you don’t care if you risk a ban by Facebook since this includes installing modified apk files follow THIS reddit guide it will walk you through the steps to make it happen for most GearVR/Go apps available.
AR Apps and Games
Developers can create AR apps using the see-through camera mode. These Apps are not in the store so you need to install them manually.
VPN
On your phone (Must Have)
A VPN allows you to trick the Oculus store in thinking you live in a different country. This affects software prices since foreign currencies have different conversion rates.
The free Android app Tunnel Bear is easy to use and has a free monthly limit which is more than enough to quickly log in and buy apps in a foreign currency. On average this saves between 3$ to 7$ per game.
On Your PC
Some PC Key online portals ban VPN IP addresses but you can simply circumvent the ban by trying different VPN IP addresses hoping that not all ip addresses are known to the blocker software. I had good experiences using the completely free windscripe VPN ( windscribe.com ) to buy games with Canada dollars on one of these sites that restrict VPN users. I used this Chrome plugin which was the easiest way for me.
Steam games can also be bought using a VPN but it is more complicated compared to buying games via VPN on the Oculus store.
On your Quest
Unfortunately sharing the VPN running on your phone with the Quest via creating a mobile hotspot isn’t possible since Android permits sharing the VPN connection this way. If you have a rooted phone however, this might work.
Since rooting your phone has many disadvantages running a VPN on your Quest seems the better option.
- Might solve privacy concerns for you
- Allows you to watch Bigscreen’s free movies (when living outside the US)
- Allows you to use voice control on Quest (when living outside the US)
- Affecting which movies you can watch in the Netfilix app
On your Router
Having a VPN running on your router will make all devices connected to it use this VPN as well.
Apps and Games on Quest
Games on Oculus Quest store are sometimes downgrades from PC versions of the same title. The PC titles are often cheaper than the Quest titles which means you pay more for lower quality when you buy some Quest games. Only Cross-buy titles can be used on Quest and PC so think twice before you buy a game in the Oculus Quest store.
Sidequest
You find many free and paid games on Sidequest. Most of them are more experimental compared to the ones on the Oculus Quest store.
App Lab (Must Have)
Is part of the Oculus Quest Store and contains more experimental apps many directly coming from Sidequest. Apps can only be found with direct links which can be found on sidequest or the following websites:
App Lab is growing quickly and should be your first stop when looking for free and experimental apps.
App Launcher
BMBF and Beat Saber Mods (Must Have)
BMBF allows you to add hundreds or even thousands of new songs all made by the community to your Beat Saber app.
You should read the official website since with each Beat Saber update things change and older How To’s get invalid. Also the official website contains lots of important information on best practices so you do not loose the songs you already picked and installed.
Updates to beat saber can break the mods you installed. It’s a good idea to not accept the prompt to update Beat Saber when a new official version is released until you are 100% sure you want to update and you made a backup of your songs.
Downgrade BeatSaber
If you have a new version which doesn’t support bmbf yet you can simply downgrade the beat saber app to use custom songs which work well on older versions.
Additionally there are many other mods available like Score Saber allowing you to compare your stats to others and mods that change the appearance of the sabers, blocks and surroundings.
Auto-Generate Songs
Modding Blade & Sorcery
Location Based Games
I want to mention this game even if it is not really a hack necessary to play it but it is unique in beeing the only location based app available and the video gives some important setup tips.
2D to 3D VR Conversion Software
Software that lets you play some 2D triple AAA games in VR without the need of mods simply by rendering a different view of the scene for booth eyes.
HelixVision
Only works on NVIDIA. But NVIDIA 3000 series cards are not supported currently.
**TODO — Find out more information about this software**
Vorpx
But not all games currently are supported by VORPX for example Assassins Creed Valhalla doesn’t work yet.
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Sources and Links
YouTubers (most cover gaming, hardware and technology topics)
VoodooDE_PCGaming (German)
News sites
mixed.de/ (German)
Discords
**TODO — Add links here**
