An intriguing accessory attached to Oculus Quest promises to stretch Oculus Link to a multi-room or even multi-home wired PC VR headset.
A tweet from Ilja Zegars, who works as an XR Specialist at Varjo, shows the accessory attached successfully to Oculus Quest for Oculus Link Beta by converting a USB 3 signal from your PC to a fiber optic connection that can supposedly extend up to 250 meters in length.
So I did a thing with #OCULUSLINK, I connected it through 30m optical fiber and it works. Theoretically it can go up to 250 meters on single cable. Freedom! pic.twitter.com/V0oCzIyU3r
— Ilja Z (@GamerToTheEnd) November 24, 2019
The USB 3.0 to fiber optical extender set lists “request price” but we’re told it usually sells for around $150 not including the additional cost of fiber cable to connect it, which we see priced on Amazon to around $160 for 200 meters. That’s pretty pricey considering Quest itself starts around $400 and you can get VR PCs for cheaper than ever. Still, the fact that it works at all is notable.
The site selling the accessory includes the chart below which explains how it plugs directly into a USB 3 port on your compatible PC’s motherboard and then coverts it to a fiber optic connection that can extend up to 250 meters to a box that converts it back into a USB 3.0 connection for the Quest to use with the Oculus Link Beta. The box on the end nearest the Quest requires power, so you’ll need an electrical outlet nearby that box. We’re told this also charges Quest while playing. The fiber optic cable itself wouldn’t add noticeable latency but it is possible the signal conversion would, but we haven’t tested this ourselves.
There are some home or VR play space configurations people might have that could make such an accessory worthwhile. Imagine running your PC in a garage or a shed dedicated to VR play, for instance, and then running fiber optic cable through your walls to the living room. You could use Quest in wireless mode, of course, or plug it in to the extension box to access PC VR games like No Man’s Sky, Skyrim VR, Asgard’s Wrath or Stormland, and there’d be no mess, sound, or heat from having a compatible VR Ready PC in the house.
