I love how this removes the friction with PC VR, that was the big thing. PC VR cable/air link, step 1: turn on computer, step 2: turn on quest, step 3: link the quest, launch rift, step 4: run Steam VR. Steam link removes a step and a half (literally) for free. That’s the big problem people have with VR especially PC VR friction, as usual I have nothing but praise for Valve as a compony, keep up the great work.
Thanks for all the information on both of these programs. I just got my Quest 3 and to start out with, I am using a link cable and testing my SIM racing games. So far, it has been very good. Maybe later on I will try Steam Link and Virtual Desktop. Still learning the Quest 3. Need to watch your other videos on Steam Link and Virtual Desktop. Thanks for the video and take care.
I hear ya dude. Ive been switching back and forth between the two and they are both great. I actually use Virtual Desktop for just light web browsing and watching UA-cam videos and that's another great use case with all the cool environments.
From someone with 700-ish hours with VD and tried Steam link yesterday. Played Payday 2 VR on Steam link the number 1 issue I noticed was just how blurry it gets with fast movement/trying to keep up with data. Along with the occasional stutter, but I'll give it ease of access to users.^^ As for VD it looks so clean with no studder or blurry situations, n' gives you plenty of options to adjust it to your pc specs. c: For me I'll stick with VD n' suggest SL for new pcvr players to test how they're internet/rig will do
The colors are washed out because it's encoding with limited black levels to assist with compression. It'll get updated. It's just a small change to the encoder configuration. Right now it's prioritizing latency.
Colours arent washed out, they are accurate. VD applies extra contrast to make colours "pop" at the expense of accuracy. Its like setting your TV to vivid mode, some people like it but its not accurate.
If you can not log on using steam link its because openxr needs to be turned on in steam. You may have it set to oculus and this will not work. Good vid . Virtual desktop was around in the oculus DK2 days. I was using it when it was in beta. Still a very good program.
Good video! I like the comparison, small comment on the video production. When comparing 2 things side by side, find something to compare directly. If you show a picture or video of gameplay in VRD, try and get the exact same place in Steam Link, especially when talking about something as subjective as color. I really the liked the fighter game, but you had 2 totally different scenarios between the 2 services, which hurts how well I can compare them greatly.
in virtualdesktop you can change to h264+ codec and 500mbit bitrate. you don't even need a wifi 6e router for it, an older 5ghz router can run it, if it is any good.
Thing to know: For those who have a non-VR-ready GPU, for example Intel Arc GPUs, Virtual Desktop allows you to play without the Oculus software which does not recognize the headset because of the GPU. Virtual Desktop allows you to open SteamVR without a compatible GPU (I have an Oculus Quest 2 and an Intel A770 GPU and I have to use Virtual Desktop to be able to play in PCVR)
I may be new to this but I just brought a quest 3 and vrd with the last of us cranked max at 1440p and it was surreal. I used steamlink and it was just to laggy. I thought maybe because my gpu couldn't handle it (I have a 6800xt and a 5600x btw). When I used vrd and everything was just incredible and ran flawlessly. You can honestly use this if your bedroom tv or living room tv is occupied by your spouse or a family member. Do not walk, run to buy vrd, it might be the best 20$ I have spent for the quest this far. Your VR exclusive games that you play via pc you can now honestly play them via vrd and might even get a higher resolution and texture output then natively buying and running them through sidequest or the metastore. Steamlink is in no comparison imo.
Tried it out yesterday and for steaming virtual desktop still gave me better results. Also if you use the quest 2 mic for streaming like I do , the volume levels on stream link was terrible .
So far i have tried air link, virtual desktop, and steam link on my quest 3, and unfortunately. none of them really work good for me. Tried using all of them to play beat saber since thats the only vr game I have on my pc at the moment. For both air and steam link, they gave me the issue where clarity wasnt the best. as well as the most annoying issue, where it looked like someone was moving the screen close and away from EXTREMELY fast. making it borderline nauseating. And it would only happen when the game was running, sitting in the steam vr room ran perfectly fine. They also had the issue of when the game was running the whole thing lagged and the actual movements of the controllers was incredibly delayed The Virtual Desktop didnt have the issues with the shaking, which was a good sign at the start. but it did still suffer from the delay in the controller movements, and so far nothing I mess around with really fixes it
@@iDeker Not useless. I spent $20 to look into my bathroom mirror and see my VRChat avatar. Money well spent. It's not for everyone, but like, that's the point of the video??
@@mmxoxo With VD I can use the program Reality Mixer on my Quest 3 to create boxes of passthrough mixed reality in my VR space. It's great for eating or drinking, seeing your IRL floor in VR to avoid tripping, or for showing your doorway at the click of a button like you're in a Star Trek holosuite! Or, I can walk around my apartment while using VD's chroma key passthrough and using a blue screen or green screen world in VRC. I can do chores in my apartment while wearing an avatar and having multiple desktop windows track my head with OVR Toolkit, so I can watch UA-cam and chat on Discord while wearing my VRC avatar in my home. Lately I even started using wireless full body tracking to complete the experience! Inviting my VR friends over to my apartment is a surreal experience for me, even if they're mostly just seeing a green screen on their end. I don't always use VD, but it's the best way to get passthrough on Quest. With other games I just use SteamLink or a wired connection. I try to avoid using the desktop Oculus app these days, especially with Airlink since the other wireless options are better.
Who saw that one coming? :) Thanks for the vid. Personally, I missed some form of concluding chart with pros, cons and some numbers. But I'll just watch the viedo again. Strangely, my experience with Steam Link is, that I get short lags or dropouts, not too often, I'd say once in 30 seconds (who's got a working sense of time in VR). And there I'm exactly with you: if Steam Link could grow some fobs to twiddle it's innards, it'd be a load easier to look for and fix glitches in one's setup. Congrats on the 2k. Keep it going🤟
I still like Virtual Desktop, but there is one thing I don't like - I have to disable my VPN to use it. Also, Steam Link is still in beta officially - Valve does not play, they will iterate and iterate as long as they see a profit endgame in it.
Using SSW is an essential feature for me, since on my RTX 3070Laptop some games like No Man's Sky simply won't run properly on 72Hz with decent graphics quality. Even on my RTX 4070 i have to use SSW for No Man's Sky. STEAM Link is missing any frame reprojection, neither on PC nor on the headset. The problem with most tests i see on UA-cam is, that those are done on high end GPUs like the RTX 4090 and that may work for comparing the maximum quality possible, but it does not represent the majority of players. In addition to this performance comparisons are pointless on a RTX 4090. For those tests you need to consider mainstream midrange GPUs from RTX 2070 to RTX 4070 and also CPUs to a certain degree using different games and some that need a lot of GPU/CPU load.
So basically am I fckd if I think My gaming laptop with only a 3050 Ti (laptop) ryzen 7cpy and 32 gigs of ram can handle it? lol I just got myself my first ever VR a quest 3 and wanna play steam games and I don't need the craziest settings I just want games to work.
Hello, I would like to get some advice from you guys. Currently, I'm building a PC with RTX 3090 ti, i9 12900k, 32gb Ram DDR5, how would it perform in PCVR with most of the recent released titles on Quest 3? After I am done with building my pc, I've thought about buying the Quest 3, this would be the first time I'm jumping into VR. What I'm looking to buy is the Quest 3 128 GB as I would like to use the Quest 3 mainly to play games that I am buying through Steam. I've done some research and tried to find out if it worth it buying a link cable and play games with a wired connection, or wirelessly through virtual desktop. I do not own any Wifi 6 routers and my PC is not wired to the router, as I am always using it through Wi-Fi. Would I be able to play games wirelessly without any issues with those internet speeds on wifi? Download 126.2 Mb/s, Upload 97.1 Mb/s, Ping 13ms, Jitter 0.8ms Also, I would like to mention that I am looking to play games where I have to move a lot like Arizona Sunshine 2, Blade & Sorcery and so on. Would you guys recommend me using a link cable or virtual desktop? Any advice helps, thank you!
Aye man your wifi is decent but if you aren’t using ethernet or a wifi 6 router you need one man. It will make gameplay 20x smoother and everything will be more powerful. I highly suggest getting one
Virtual desktop doesnt work for me, i have an rtx 3090. Pc connected to ethernet. Super sampling everything on 1. Modest settings. Still get tears and lags. Blurry as hell Great video by the way
I livestream to twitch in VR and using the Quest 3 Headset. I bought Virtual Desktop and Steam Link. In half Life Alyx for example I get a strange behaviour when docking a window for example the twitch chat in my game while using virtual desktop. The game is starting to run really worse even with top notch hardware. I play with a RX 7900 XTX 24 GB VRAM and a Ryzen 9 7950x3d with a wifi 6e Hotspot. When moving the headset the image gets really jittery and laggy. On Steam Link I don't geht this weird issue even when I use the docked twitch chat.
what is that plane game at the end of vid ? , will totally browse your vids , i'm just landing there after typing "steam link vs virtual desktop" , you have the youtube algo with you 🥂
I think VD may be in trouble when valve gets enough time to actually work on steam link properly, squash bugs, improve settings, add settings ect. It would make sense valves own software would run steam games best lol
Steam link could benefit from connected people for simulator. Virtual Desktop don't want to touch that segment with reason imo. Airlink is a abortion Linked Quest is absolute shite & Outdated and full of bugs
@@DCS.1-1 I don't know much about this connected people thing. I've had some decent experiences with air link believe it or not. When I tried virtual desktop I couldn't start my modded Skyrim VR from its custom exe launcher VD would only launch through the normal vanilla launcher so I couldn't use it to play my mods. Not to mention there was too many settings to tune I didn't know much about either. Steam Link was the best so far for me with my only real complaint being some games like one I tried called Divago (something like that) it kept putting my in some theatre screen view. Like I wasn't actually IN the game fully I was just in my steam virtual room looking at the game on a 2D big screen when the game is a native VR game. On games like Half Life Alyx it properly launches me in full VR but on some games like davigo it didn't and I don't know why or how to make it treat it like a full VR game and not put it on some 2D movies screen in virtual steam room
I bought Virtual Desktop after the release of SteamLink. VD has a passthrough mode that looks great on the Quest 3, and the chroma key options are easy to use. Yesterday I booted up VRChat, went to a blue screen world, put on my green skinned avatar, and looked at my VR self in my real-world bathroom mirror. It was surreal, and absolutely worth the $20! I can't wait to try this out once I have full body tracking too, I'll be able to hang out with other people IRL and look down to see myself as a dragon or a robot or something!
Need help! I have a Quest 3 and a 4070 i7 laptop and have Virtual Desktop. I get a lot of frame freezes and stuttering like every 5 seconds. My laptop is more then ready. On the laptop screen there's no stutter. Just in the headset. Internet speed is 400 on 5 hz. Everything is optimal yet in the headset it's a mess! Any help is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks
Wait..why are you comparing VD to AIR link @3:55 ? Also whats your wxact setup in terms of wifi...are you wireless or ethernet cable connected from pc to router?
I stepped away from PCVR, after buying a gaming PC, because it sucked. There was lag and jumping around between Oculus PC App and Steam was a bit of a pain in da azz. I downloaded Steam on my OQ2, going to try out "Half Life Alex" and VR Chat too.
Virtual desktop was the only thing that worked for me and allowed me to pkay half life alex and so much more on my pc and my pc is not VR ready ...get Virtual desktop viewer for pc and buy the quest app
Virtual Desktop has much better vibrant colors in the screen resolution, Steam Link has a a more realistic screen resolution where the colors don't pop out as much as what is in Virtual Desktop, it's still better than Airlink by far, I like both Virtual Desktop and Steam Link, I use both at certain times, I don't think I'll ever go back to using Airlink, Meta refuses to update the Oculus software to a more updated Meta software app for pcvr it seems, Airlink has been so boring for the last couple of years with no improvement to the home environment
I cant play DCS in multi threading with steam link. That means I cant use my CPU to its potential AND I cant use NVDIA DLSS. Going through the desktop, I can.
Any steam link setting recommendations for an Asus ROG Zephyrus G16? Specs are i7-13620h, gpu is a 4060 8 gb, ram is... 16 gb 3200 mhz. Noticed when in vrc last night my cpu hit around 93/94 c.
steam link, for me has a few bugs. the audio issues, and some games just not having sound, and the steam menu being mapped to the same button my game menus are kind of breaks it for me. I cant even play crossfire because you have to hit the menu button in game. you cant hit the menu button because Steams menu comes up instead lol.
VD started messing up with quest 3 for me. The controller tracking going crazy. Steam doesn't have that prob for me. (And I loved and used VD since it came out basically)
Virtual desktop just work VDXR was the nail in the coffin of the oculus software for me. I uninstalled the thing and never looked back. Link cable always had something off needed odt setting then ott settings then open xr settings then the VXX update fuck everything ..... Then the oculus executable would not lunch in high priority then the framerate suffers ...
I don't like Steam Link now because when I open it, Oculus app on pc also opens. Maybe it's just my setup but I don't know. I prefer great visuals on my VR games so I like VD better. Its worth the 20$. Also SSW is an essential to PCVR. I know Steam link will improve but for now I still go for VD.
If you like Steam link's bitrate so much, why don't you just switch to H264+ in Virtual Desktop? You can even go beyond 350Mbps...it's not like your wifi is limiting you to 200Mbps, you're doing 2Gbps...plenty of headroom lol
Hey man, I'm in the market to get into full fledge VR sim racing, going for a maxed out pc , but have no clue which headset to buy, I will only play sim racing games in VR, what would be your recommendation?
Look at youtube videos but I can give it simple 1 Link cable is best w a pc or laptop that could ovv run it steam and the virtual is simply if you want money for a better experience (cheaper) but steams free
I have tried both several times. For me personally there is no comparison between the two. VD is much better just because of one simple reason: with steam link even if you bring the foveated rendering all the way to the minimum, the picture at the edges is still aweful.
@@Eliteplungercameraman125 Check my recent video and I have a screenshot of it highlighted. Link right here: ua-cam.com/video/XavnlLziixE/v-deo.htmlsi=hsS2cZuLMrPdDSOw&t=219
Am I the only one that gets hand stuttering no matter which streaming platform I use? Always happens if I select 90hz, my hands will just occasionally move like powerpoint slideshows for a second, while the head tracking is perfect.
do you use Quest 3? If so, that's why.... there's an ongoing issue with the Q3 Wi-Fi firmware or hardware. Search the Quest forums and you'll see it's a serious issue. Wi-Fi 6e can somewhat reduce it but it's not smooth as it should be vs Q2.
i hope virtual desktop stays working with the quest1 for a good long while. steam link doesn't, and im prolly not the only broke ass who can't upgrade any time soon
Don't feel too bad about that. I'm also wondering how ppl are throwing down money like it's nothing for 4090s and Apple vision Pros with joe Bidens failing economy lol
cable has higher and steady bandwith, leading to less compression, leading to less artifacts and better latency. wireless encoding puts extra stress on the gpu, even more so on AMD over Nvidia ( better since RDNA2, but still ) both are way inferior in clarity to native displayport support. If you prefer PCVR over standalone, get a Pico 3 NeoLink as the cheapest entry.
Can you help me with something? I'm playing Lucky's Tale. The CPu is at 10%, GPU is at 30%, the bitrate is 172, the network bitrate is 780, the latency is around 45 ms, BUT I'm having trouble getting over 68 fps and the game feels like garbage compared to using the link cable. (i'm using a virtual desktop on a ryzen 3600, gtx 1080, quest 3)
Great video. I just got Virtual Desktop from this video. But Steam Link is pretty great too...a bit fuzzy; but I think that's my wi-fi. Time to upgrade my router.
Didn't know steam link was a thing. I have virtual desktop and use it for VR streams, but noticed those occasional frame drops, May try steam link later to see if it'd work better for streaming
I just did some initial tests and results are that the periodic stutter I was experiencing in Virtual Desktop are not present in Steam Link. I did a test in LOFI Katana, Superhot VR, and VRC for a few minutes each. Normally I experience some level of stuttering with OVR toolkit and LIV running, however I did not detect any over steam link. So it seems steam link will be my go-to for my VR streams from now on since stuttering can give me motion sickness. Virtual desktop I think I'll reserve for when I want to kick back and watch some anime and movies. Unfortunately I can't really use it for productivity since I run a 2-PC setup and thus could only use 1 PC with VD
Virtual desktops VDXR mode is better than using the link cable, no serously. I play i very bery teachnical VR drim games the requires the controller tracking to be 100% dead on or its unplayable. KILLING steam KILLING meta entirely through task manager or else stram will still run the game. Launch game from withing the VD headset or right click wondows ican and launch any game. Plays the game without stram or meta running. Performance boost is insane. And the graphics are better.
I had to pay for virtual desktop so I’m just going to assume it’s still going to be a bit better than the free steam link. Probably more settings to customize too so I really don’t have a reason to download steam link as a virtual desktop user. Edit: just finished playing a game I can’t disclose rn but I must say I’m very impressed with steam link! I wasn’t able to get a quality experience with VD no matter what setting I tweaked so I said what do I have to loose and went ahead and gave steam link a try. I must say now after my experience you do not always get what you pay for and the ability to customize settings and be flashy doesn’t always translate to good performance! Steam you get a W from me 💪🙌
I use virtual desktop due it giving me longer battery life somehow over oculus link and the graphics are nearly the same. steam link i just cant use it due to not being able to interact with popups for some reason but with virtual desktop + steamvr i can. VD is 100% worth $20 in my honest opinion.
I love how this removes the friction with PC VR, that was the big thing. PC VR cable/air link, step 1: turn on computer, step 2: turn on quest, step 3: link the quest, launch rift, step 4: run Steam VR. Steam link removes a step and a half (literally) for free. That’s the big problem people have with VR especially PC VR friction, as usual I have nothing but praise for Valve as a compony, keep up the great work.
What do you mean by pcvr friction
He literally recollections it@@Upgrayedddd
Thanks for all the information on both of these programs. I just got my Quest 3 and to start out with, I am using a link cable and testing my SIM racing games. So far, it has been very good. Maybe later on I will try Steam Link and Virtual Desktop. Still learning the Quest 3.
Need to watch your other videos on Steam Link and Virtual Desktop.
Thanks for the video and take care.
Results ??
I hear ya dude. Ive been switching back and forth between the two and they are both great. I actually use Virtual Desktop for just light web browsing and watching UA-cam videos and that's another great use case with all the cool environments.
From someone with 700-ish hours with VD and tried Steam link yesterday.
Played Payday 2 VR on Steam link the number 1 issue I noticed was just how blurry it gets with fast movement/trying to keep up with data. Along with the occasional stutter, but I'll give it ease of access to users.^^
As for VD it looks so clean with no studder or blurry situations, n' gives you plenty of options to adjust it to your pc specs. c:
For me I'll stick with VD n' suggest SL for new pcvr players to test how they're internet/rig will do
Just got my pc that's capable to run pcvr last night absolutely 💯 love it I use qwest 3 with a laptop rtx4060 steam vr 👌 working to 😊
The colors are washed out because it's encoding with limited black levels to assist with compression. It'll get updated. It's just a small change to the encoder configuration. Right now it's prioritizing latency.
Colours arent washed out, they are accurate. VD applies extra contrast to make colours "pop" at the expense of accuracy. Its like setting your TV to vivid mode, some people like it but its not accurate.
I hope if they "improve" colors it won't be at the expense of latency. I highly value latency over looks
If you can not log on using steam link its because openxr needs to be turned on in steam. You may have it set to oculus and this will not work. Good vid . Virtual desktop was around in the oculus DK2 days. I was using it when it was in beta. Still a very good program.
VERY GOOD VIDEO KEEP GOING YOU CAN BE ON THE TOP ONE DAY
Just discovered your channel. Really helpful video. I'm getting a Quest 3 for Xmas.......Subbed
Thanks for staying around! More content coming soon!
Good video! I like the comparison, small comment on the video production.
When comparing 2 things side by side, find something to compare directly. If you show a picture or video of gameplay in VRD, try and get the exact same place in Steam Link, especially when talking about something as subjective as color.
I really the liked the fighter game, but you had 2 totally different scenarios between the 2 services, which hurts how well I can compare them greatly.
Thanks for the tip! I'll keep it in mind for future comparisons. Always trying to improve
in virtualdesktop you can change to h264+ codec and 500mbit bitrate. you don't even need a wifi 6e router for it, an older 5ghz router can run it, if it is any good.
How do you do that because all I see is the basic settings that's capped at 200 mbit
@@micknameryou have to use h264+ encoding. AV1 is still limited to 200mbs.
Thing to know: For those who have a non-VR-ready GPU, for example Intel Arc GPUs, Virtual Desktop allows you to play without the Oculus software which does not recognize the headset because of the GPU. Virtual Desktop allows you to open SteamVR without a compatible GPU (I have an Oculus Quest 2 and an Intel A770 GPU and I have to use Virtual Desktop to be able to play in PCVR)
I love its ability to make a Non-VR game still have 3D I play RIDE 5 with it and it's like looking through a giant Window into the game world.
I may be new to this but I just brought a quest 3 and vrd with the last of us cranked max at 1440p and it was surreal. I used steamlink and it was just to laggy. I thought maybe because my gpu couldn't handle it (I have a 6800xt and a 5600x btw). When I used vrd and everything was just incredible and ran flawlessly. You can honestly use this if your bedroom tv or living room tv is occupied by your spouse or a family member. Do not walk, run to buy vrd, it might be the best 20$ I have spent for the quest this far. Your VR exclusive games that you play via pc you can now honestly play them via vrd and might even get a higher resolution and texture output then natively buying and running them through sidequest or the metastore. Steamlink is in no comparison imo.
Tried it out yesterday and for steaming virtual desktop still gave me better results. Also if you use the quest 2 mic for streaming like I do , the volume levels on stream link was terrible .
Oof!
@@MartydudeVRlike your stuff mate keep it up ima gonna subscribe
@@benitezkebab Thanks man!
you can fix this by going in Settings, System > Sound > [Select] Steam Streaming Microphone > Drag Volume to 100%. I had that same issue.
Steam sets it's mic to 50% by default in windows. Change this to 100 and the issue is resolved
Steam Link is just so easy to use. I am finding I am doing PC VR more now. Sitting on my couch, pop on the headset and go.
So far i have tried air link, virtual desktop, and steam link on my quest 3, and unfortunately. none of them really work good for me.
Tried using all of them to play beat saber since thats the only vr game I have on my pc at the moment. For both air and steam link, they gave me the issue where clarity wasnt the best. as well as the most annoying issue, where it looked like someone was moving the screen close and away from EXTREMELY fast. making it borderline nauseating. And it would only happen when the game was running, sitting in the steam vr room ran perfectly fine. They also had the issue of when the game was running the whole thing lagged and the actual movements of the controllers was incredibly delayed
The Virtual Desktop didnt have the issues with the shaking, which was a good sign at the start. but it did still suffer from the delay in the controller movements, and so far nothing I mess around with really fixes it
Hey does real fishing vr for pc works with the ps2vr? idk if you checked it.
Virtual Desktop also has passthrough out of the box. Pick a color and it becomes transparent.
Useless. Steamlink is free
@@iDeker Not useless. I spent $20 to look into my bathroom mirror and see my VRChat avatar. Money well spent.
It's not for everyone, but like, that's the point of the video??
@@geoffreyprecht2410 what makes VD better that you like it for vrchat ? :)
@@mmxoxo With VD I can use the program Reality Mixer on my Quest 3 to create boxes of passthrough mixed reality in my VR space. It's great for eating or drinking, seeing your IRL floor in VR to avoid tripping, or for showing your doorway at the click of a button like you're in a Star Trek holosuite!
Or, I can walk around my apartment while using VD's chroma key passthrough and using a blue screen or green screen world in VRC. I can do chores in my apartment while wearing an avatar and having multiple desktop windows track my head with OVR Toolkit, so I can watch UA-cam and chat on Discord while wearing my VRC avatar in my home. Lately I even started using wireless full body tracking to complete the experience! Inviting my VR friends over to my apartment is a surreal experience for me, even if they're mostly just seeing a green screen on their end.
I don't always use VD, but it's the best way to get passthrough on Quest. With other games I just use SteamLink or a wired connection. I try to avoid using the desktop Oculus app these days, especially with Airlink since the other wireless options are better.
4:59 for me it was the opposite, Steam link made my hands feel very delayed and floaty but virtual desktop didn't have any.
Steam link is so good, it's the only app I have pinned to my home screen.
I subscribed bro just cuz you seem like a cool dude LOL
Salute!
bought Vd twice once meta once steam, just to get those sick environments
I'm assuming most use the PC version?
is there a difference between steam link and air link? You kept saying steam link but the video always showed air link
For me despite same WiFi networks and not using Ethernet cable for both
Steam link for whatever reason was much more laggy compared to virtual desktop
so i thought steam link was going to be terrible, I was wrong. In my opinion steam link is 4x better than VD in quality
Who saw that one coming? :) Thanks for the vid. Personally, I missed some form of concluding chart with pros, cons and some numbers. But I'll just watch the viedo again.
Strangely, my experience with Steam Link is, that I get short lags or dropouts, not too often, I'd say once in 30 seconds (who's got a working sense of time in VR). And there I'm exactly with you: if Steam Link could grow some fobs to twiddle it's innards, it'd be a load easier to look for and fix glitches in one's setup. Congrats on the 2k. Keep it going🤟
I still like Virtual Desktop, but there is one thing I don't like - I have to disable my VPN to use it. Also, Steam Link is still in beta officially - Valve does not play, they will iterate and iterate as long as they see a profit endgame in it.
Using SSW is an essential feature for me, since on my RTX 3070Laptop some games like No Man's Sky simply won't run properly on 72Hz with decent graphics quality. Even on my RTX 4070 i have to use SSW for No Man's Sky. STEAM Link is missing any frame reprojection, neither on PC nor on the headset. The problem with most tests i see on UA-cam is, that those are done on high end GPUs like the RTX 4090 and that may work for comparing the maximum quality possible, but it does not represent the majority of players. In addition to this performance comparisons are pointless on a RTX 4090. For those tests you need to consider mainstream midrange GPUs from RTX 2070 to RTX 4070 and also CPUs to a certain degree using different games and some that need a lot of GPU/CPU load.
So basically am I fckd if I think My gaming laptop with only a 3050 Ti (laptop) ryzen 7cpy and 32 gigs of ram can handle it? lol I just got myself my first ever VR a quest 3 and wanna play steam games and I don't need the craziest settings I just want games to work.
You're fine, just use SSW and not too crazy settings @@irollerblade13
I've been trying to use steam link and steam VR cause its free and its just not having it should i just get virtual desktop already?
@@joshuam4993
Hello, I would like to get some advice from you guys. Currently, I'm building a PC with RTX 3090 ti, i9 12900k, 32gb Ram DDR5, how would it perform in PCVR with most of the recent released titles on Quest 3?
After I am done with building my pc, I've thought about buying the Quest 3, this would be the first time I'm jumping into VR.
What I'm looking to buy is the Quest 3 128 GB as I would like to use the Quest 3 mainly to play games that I am buying through Steam.
I've done some research and tried to find out if it worth it buying a link cable and play games with a wired connection, or wirelessly through virtual desktop.
I do not own any Wifi 6 routers and my PC is not wired to the router, as I am always using it through Wi-Fi. Would I be able to play games wirelessly without any issues with those internet speeds on wifi? Download 126.2 Mb/s, Upload 97.1 Mb/s, Ping 13ms, Jitter 0.8ms
Also, I would like to mention that I am looking to play games where I have to move a lot like Arizona Sunshine 2, Blade & Sorcery and so on.
Would you guys recommend me using a link cable or virtual desktop? Any advice helps, thank you!
Just buy VD -> try it for about a hour -> then if its no good -> refund it. Then you could do link cable.
@@MartydudeVR Thanks for answering, I will surely give it a try.
@@fabianc23 No problem! Just hit me on discord if you need help or anything
Aye man your wifi is decent but if you aren’t using ethernet or a wifi 6 router you need one man. It will make gameplay 20x smoother and everything will be more powerful. I highly suggest getting one
Virtual desktop doesnt work for me, i have an rtx 3090. Pc connected to ethernet. Super sampling everything on 1. Modest settings. Still get tears and lags. Blurry as hell
Great video by the way
I livestream to twitch in VR and using the Quest 3 Headset. I bought Virtual Desktop and Steam Link. In half Life Alyx for example I get a strange behaviour when docking a window for example the twitch chat in my game while using virtual desktop. The game is starting to run really worse even with top notch hardware. I play with a RX 7900 XTX 24 GB VRAM and a Ryzen 9 7950x3d with a wifi 6e Hotspot. When moving the headset the image gets really jittery and laggy. On Steam Link I don't geht this weird issue even when I use the docked twitch chat.
Virtual desktop seems to disable force feedback on racing titles for me. Does anyone know of a workaround?
what is that plane game at the end of vid ? , will totally browse your vids , i'm just landing there after typing "steam link vs virtual desktop" , you have the youtube algo with you 🥂
Its Project Wingman! And thanks for the support!
@@MartydudeVR cool 50% on steam, I instantly bought it, the colors and general vibe , it looks nice (and ace combat bro...)
How can I use my oculus as a gigantic monitor to play non vr games
I think VD may be in trouble when valve gets enough time to actually work on steam link properly, squash bugs, improve settings, add settings ect.
It would make sense valves own software would run steam games best lol
Steam link could benefit from connected people for simulator.
Virtual Desktop don't want to touch that segment with reason imo.
Airlink is a abortion
Linked Quest is absolute shite & Outdated and full of bugs
@@DCS.1-1 I don't know much about this connected people thing. I've had some decent experiences with air link believe it or not. When I tried virtual desktop I couldn't start my modded Skyrim VR from its custom exe launcher VD would only launch through the normal vanilla launcher so I couldn't use it to play my mods. Not to mention there was too many settings to tune I didn't know much about either.
Steam Link was the best so far for me with my only real complaint being some games like one I tried called Divago (something like that) it kept putting my in some theatre screen view. Like I wasn't actually IN the game fully I was just in my steam virtual room looking at the game on a 2D big screen when the game is a native VR game.
On games like Half Life Alyx it properly launches me in full VR but on some games like davigo it didn't and I don't know why or how to make it treat it like a full VR game and not put it on some 2D movies screen in virtual steam room
I bought Virtual Desktop after the release of SteamLink. VD has a passthrough mode that looks great on the Quest 3, and the chroma key options are easy to use.
Yesterday I booted up VRChat, went to a blue screen world, put on my green skinned avatar, and looked at my VR self in my real-world bathroom mirror. It was surreal, and absolutely worth the $20! I can't wait to try this out once I have full body tracking too, I'll be able to hang out with other people IRL and look down to see myself as a dragon or a robot or something!
Glad you're having fun!
Need help! I have a Quest 3 and a 4070 i7 laptop and have Virtual Desktop. I get a lot of frame freezes and stuttering like every 5 seconds. My laptop is more then ready. On the laptop screen there's no stutter. Just in the headset. Internet speed is 400 on 5 hz. Everything is optimal yet in the headset it's a mess! Any help is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks
hello i downloaded virtual desktop but idk how to get it to work, someone help pls
Wait..why are you comparing VD to AIR link @3:55 ? Also whats your wxact setup in terms of wifi...are you wireless or ethernet cable connected from pc to router?
does turning the monitor off while using link or vd help performance? so it's not displaying maybe? I can't tell
I stepped away from PCVR, after buying a gaming PC, because it sucked. There was lag and jumping around between Oculus PC App and Steam was a bit of a pain in da azz. I downloaded Steam on my OQ2, going to try out "Half Life Alex" and VR Chat too.
Virtual desktop was the only thing that worked for me and allowed me to pkay half life alex and so much more on my pc and my pc is not VR ready ...get Virtual desktop viewer for pc and buy the quest app
@@ThatDorkyReviewShowhow many settings did u have to mess with? Did u have to watch some tutorial video just to get it set up?
Interesting… I play everything through steam vr using air link and I never have any latency or stuttering. What issues did you have?
Virtual Desktop has much better vibrant colors in the screen resolution, Steam Link has a a more realistic screen resolution where the colors don't pop out as much as what is in Virtual Desktop, it's still better than Airlink by far, I like both Virtual Desktop and Steam Link, I use both at certain times, I don't think I'll ever go back to using Airlink, Meta refuses to update the Oculus software to a more updated Meta software app for pcvr it seems, Airlink has been so boring for the last couple of years with no improvement to the home environment
I cant play DCS in multi threading with steam link. That means I cant use my CPU to its potential AND I cant use NVDIA DLSS. Going through the desktop, I can.
Any steam link setting recommendations for an Asus ROG Zephyrus G16? Specs are i7-13620h, gpu is a 4060 8 gb, ram is... 16 gb 3200 mhz. Noticed when in vrc last night my cpu hit around 93/94 c.
Steam link just is bad everytime I get an error and I can't play
steam link, for me has a few bugs. the audio issues, and some games just not having sound, and the steam menu being mapped to the same button my game menus are kind of breaks it for me. I cant even play crossfire because you have to hit the menu button in game. you cant hit the menu button because Steams menu comes up instead lol.
VD started messing up with quest 3 for me. The controller tracking going crazy. Steam doesn't have that prob for me. (And I loved and used VD since it came out basically)
Virtual desktop just work VDXR was the nail in the coffin of the oculus software for me.
I uninstalled the thing and never looked back.
Link cable always had something off needed odt setting then ott settings then open xr settings then the VXX update fuck everything .....
Then the oculus executable would not lunch in high priority then the framerate suffers ...
I don't like Steam Link now because when I open it, Oculus app on pc also opens. Maybe it's just my setup but I don't know. I prefer great visuals on my VR games so I like VD better. Its worth the 20$. Also SSW is an essential to PCVR. I know Steam link will improve but for now I still go for VD.
VD runs so much better for me
Good review, but I’m a bit confused by the airlink label on the video, while you talk about steamlink.
Yeah I was up late editing and sadly put the wrong thing 😭 Sorry for the confusion
@@MartydudeVRno worries, thank you for clarifying 😅 keep up the good work :)
If you like Steam link's bitrate so much, why don't you just switch to H264+ in Virtual Desktop? You can even go beyond 350Mbps...it's not like your wifi is limiting you to 200Mbps, you're doing 2Gbps...plenty of headroom lol
I get the best performance out of AV1 personally. Tried all of them
which method has the best image quality and latency, cable or wireless?
Watcb video
Also to use av1 encoding you need a rtx 40 series 😅
Oof.
Are you on smack petal?
Steam Link audio doesn’t work with Voicemeeter
Ouch 😭 I had the same issue with Elgato Link
Hey man, I'm in the market to get into full fledge VR sim racing, going for a maxed out pc , but have no clue which headset to buy, I will only play sim racing games in VR, what would be your recommendation?
That's a tough one tbh. I'm not into sim racing so you'd definitely have to go into the sim racer VR side of YT for that advice.
@3:56 (I can't remember how to time stamp properly) does the heading Air Link refer to Steam link?
Yes it does 😭 I edited this tired as hell last night. Sorry for the confusion
I'm new to VR. I have the quest 2. So with using steam link would you recommend air link or oculus link cable? pros and cons of each? thank you
Im in the same boat and cant find really good answers online can someone please elaborate
Look at youtube videos but I can give it simple
1 Link cable is best w a pc or laptop that could ovv run it
steam and the virtual is simply if you want money for a better experience (cheaper) but steams free
Air link?
I have tried both several times. For me personally there is no comparison between the two. VD is much better just because of one simple reason: with steam link even if you bring the foveated rendering all the way to the minimum, the picture at the edges is still aweful.
steamvr is stutters for me when im trying to play blade and sorcery
@@Eliteplungercameraman125 did you turn off Motion Smoothing?
@@MartydudeVR no and where i can find that
@@Eliteplungercameraman125 Check my recent video and I have a screenshot of it highlighted. Link right here:
ua-cam.com/video/XavnlLziixE/v-deo.htmlsi=hsS2cZuLMrPdDSOw&t=219
@@MartydudeVR thx
Am I the only one that gets hand stuttering no matter which streaming platform I use? Always happens if I select 90hz, my hands will just occasionally move like powerpoint slideshows for a second, while the head tracking is perfect.
do you use Quest 3? If so, that's why.... there's an ongoing issue with the Q3 Wi-Fi firmware or hardware. Search the Quest forums and you'll see it's a serious issue. Wi-Fi 6e can somewhat reduce it but it's not smooth as it should be vs Q2.
@raheenb nope, im on Quest Pro.
It’s very laggy and tells me that “pc host is hooked to a wirelessly router which is not a method for steam link” I have a wireless router tho
Hmmm. Yeah you have to have a ethernet connection to your PC
@@MartydudeVR ok
@@MartydudeVR ohh ty
i hope virtual desktop stays working with the quest1 for a good long while. steam link doesn't, and im prolly not the only broke ass who can't upgrade any time soon
Don't feel too bad about that. I'm also wondering how ppl are throwing down money like it's nothing for 4090s and Apple vision Pros with joe Bidens failing economy lol
is there a reason why in the video you are visually comparing virtual desktop to "air link" instead of "steam link"
Late night editing. It's supposed to be Steam Link. Footage is legit. 👍🏿
@@MartydudeVR all good
Steam link is a crazy shadow drop!
Facts!
Whats a shadow drop?
what about link cable ? Is there better image quality then wifi connection ?
cable has higher and steady bandwith, leading to less compression, leading to less artifacts and better latency.
wireless encoding puts extra stress on the gpu, even more so on AMD over Nvidia ( better since RDNA2, but still )
both are way inferior in clarity to native displayport support. If you prefer PCVR over standalone, get a Pico 3 NeoLink as the cheapest entry.
@@kawafahra Thanks a lot! I have Quest 2 and prefer to play with link cable then wifi :)
My work includes finding the lost. You have a presence over you. They asked me to tell you something.
Hi dude, that OSD with stat you have at the bottom how is made? Tks.
It's an option you can turn on in Virtual Desktop
HI. I'm still considering joining the VR world. Problem is I'm a MAC user. Do I have to have a PC to get this thing to work ? Thanks.
No! Should work on Mac also.
Can you help me with something? I'm playing Lucky's Tale. The CPu is at 10%, GPU is at 30%, the bitrate is 172, the network bitrate is 780, the latency is around 45 ms, BUT I'm having trouble getting over 68 fps and the game feels like garbage compared to using the link cable. (i'm using a virtual desktop on a ryzen 3600, gtx 1080, quest 3)
Hmm. Didn't you get changing the encoder you're using on the desktop softwate?
Great video. I just got Virtual Desktop from this video. But Steam Link is pretty great too...a bit fuzzy; but I think that's my wi-fi. Time to upgrade my router.
Does steam link have pass through?? I can’t find it
Sadly no 😭
Can you use steamlink in steam offline mode ?
Hmmm don't know tbh. I doubt it but it'd be cool if you could
Can i use virtual desktop with cable?
Sadly no 😭
So virtual desktop is just a 1 time fee?
Yes.
Didn't know steam link was a thing. I have virtual desktop and use it for VR streams, but noticed those occasional frame drops, May try steam link later to see if it'd work better for streaming
I just did some initial tests and results are that the periodic stutter I was experiencing in Virtual Desktop are not present in Steam Link. I did a test in LOFI Katana, Superhot VR, and VRC for a few minutes each.
Normally I experience some level of stuttering with OVR toolkit and LIV running, however I did not detect any over steam link. So it seems steam link will be my go-to for my VR streams from now on since stuttering can give me motion sickness.
Virtual desktop I think I'll reserve for when I want to kick back and watch some anime and movies. Unfortunately I can't really use it for productivity since I run a 2-PC setup and thus could only use 1 PC with VD
Virtual desktops VDXR mode is better than using the link cable, no serously.
I play i very bery teachnical VR drim games the requires the controller tracking to be 100% dead on or its unplayable.
KILLING steam KILLING meta entirely through task manager or else stram will still run the game.
Launch game from withing the VD headset or right click wondows ican and launch any game.
Plays the game without stram or meta running. Performance boost is insane. And the graphics are better.
hello I love you have a good day
You too!
My computer bad. Virtual Desktop better
W
I’m hearing you but your wrong
I use virtual desktop purely because it supports wifi and steam link is ethernet cable only
Nope!
sorry bud VD is dead
nice channel thx
I had to pay for virtual desktop so I’m just going to assume it’s still going to be a bit better than the free steam link. Probably more settings to customize too so I really don’t have a reason to download steam link as a virtual desktop user.
Edit: just finished playing a game I can’t disclose rn but I must say I’m very impressed with steam link! I wasn’t able to get a quality experience with VD no matter what setting I tweaked so I said what do I have to loose and went ahead and gave steam link a try. I must say now after my experience you do not always get what you pay for and the ability to customize settings and be flashy doesn’t always translate to good performance! Steam you get a W from me 💪🙌
I use virtual desktop due it giving me longer battery life somehow over oculus link and the graphics are nearly the same. steam link i just cant use it due to not being able to interact with popups for some reason but with virtual desktop + steamvr i can. VD is 100% worth $20 in my honest opinion.
Amen