Virtual Desktop developer Guy Godin is now being squeezed on both sides by free competitors with platform-level hardware access to deliver their version of a feature he helped pioneer for hundreds of thousands of PC VR gamers.
Virtual Desktop has been one of VR's go-to utilities for many years. It was developed principally by a single developer, Guy Godin, who programmed the app in native code instead of using high-level engines like Unity and Unreal that most developers turn to.
A launch title for the original Quest in May 2019, Virtual Desktop was forced to route around Meta's rules in order to deliver wireless PC VR streaming for games like Half-Life: Alyx. That was until February 2021, just two months before Meta launched its own version of the feature for free, when he was finally allowed to officially support the functionality in the Meta-approved release.
David Heaney
Today's release of an official Steam Link app from Valve on the Quest Store means that Godin's Virtual Desktop faces another competitor offering the marquee feature in his app for free. While Virtual Desktop also does a lot of other things and is constantly updated by Godin with new features and better performance, Virtual Desktop is currently priced $20 against free.
So what are Godin's plans for the future? And how is he feeling right now?
"Happy to have shown Meta and Valve how it can be done," Godin told UploadVR:
"Virtual Desktop remains a great solution with more options, better image quality with Snapdragon Game Super Resolution, Synchronous Spacewarp, VR Passthrough and plenty of other unique features like the ability to play Rift store games, not just SteamVR ones.
Virtual Desktop also works over the internet to access your Windows or Mac computers from anywhere around the world and streams 180/360 videos - and both of those without requiring a VR Ready PC."
