Facebook says it doesn’t believe its wireless technology has “matured” enough to bring it to Oculus Link just yet.
Speaking to UploadVR, Prabhu Parthasarathy, Product Manager for Quest 2, said that the company was continuing to work on a wireless solution that would let Quest owners access PC VR content from their nearby machine.
Wireless Oculus Link Still Far Off
“[We need to] figure out, can we land a great experience?” Parthasarathy said. “To be very honest with you, we still don’t see the technology having matured to be the same as a wired experience. But we are cracking at it. When we can crack that when we can make the wireless be no different than wired, we will get there.”
Currently, Oculus Link requires you to be tethered to your PC with a USB cable to play Oculus Rift and SteamVR games and apps. Last week at Facebook Connect the company announced it was moving the feature out of beta, and will soon introduce 90Hz support for people using Link on Quest 2. The company told us that tackling the compression seen in the screen would be a big part of its near-term efforts. Link is an increasingly important part of Quest 2 now that Facebook is killing its PC-exclusive Oculus Rift line.
But, later on in the event, John Carmack noted that he was still campaigning for a wireless option he labeled “Air Link”. Perhaps we could see such a feature a little nearer in the future than Parthasarathy’s answer suggested, then.
Quest 2 packs Qualcomm’s XR2 chipset, which supports Wi-Fi 6. That could enable more reliable connections from headset to PC, though Facebook itself is yet to officially comment on the feature. It might mean, however, that whenever a wireless Oculus Link option does come along, it’s best experienced on Quest 2.
For more on the wireless Oculus Link and other Quest 2 features, stick with UploadVR and visit our YouTube page.
