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Quest 2 & Half Life Alex

Schnuzola
Honored Guest

I have got ‘Half Life Alex’ (HLA) to work on Quest 2 via Airlink (GTX 1080). I found a well written explanation how to start the game (copied below) but this is not the way I have ever managed it. Instead after “first activate Oculus Link so that you can see the Oculus Dash“ I have had to launch SteamVR on PC desktop, then mash buttons in the childish Oculus home room screen until I (somehow) get into the SteamVR grid ‘desert’ screen, then press the Menu button (3 lines/ left controller) to get an icon for HLA, presumably in the Steam library.
HLA is now showing in the Oculus Library but so far no variation of mashing or opening order has allowed me to start it from there. Error messages include ‘too many apps- quit’, ‘check SteamVR properly installed’ ‘headset not found’ or similar.. I have reinstalled all software and now spent another gaming session and battery life just trying to get it started. I still don’t know how.. Gave up looking for which menu I had to find to fiddle with settings. What a waste of time. Desperately trying to remind myself what a wonderful game it appeared to be..

Since this isn’t working for me can anyone write straight forward, accurately described linstructions how to get playing please.

“I If you want to run SteamVR games first activate Oculus Link so that you can see the Oculus Dash. Then you’ll need to launch Steam on your PC and then launch SteamVR by clicking the VR icon at the top right of the Steam window. SteamVR should automatically detect your Quest, and when you put your headset back on you’ll find yourself looking at the SteamVR dashboard.

From here you can launch SteamVR games from the Library tab of the SteamVR dashboard (or launch them from Steam on your PC).”

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

I had multiple error messages in each case and interminable loops, as I said.

 

It wasn’t until I switched off the (irritating) Oculus home room from automatically loading (Oculus PC app/ Settings/ General/ Automatically LaunchOculus Home) that I got rid of the ‘multiple apps running’ cancel/ quit loop.

 

There was no ‘Half Life Alex’ game in the Oculus library window, it was only accessible from the PC desktop or Steam / Library, and not only did SteamVR not load automatically then, it also gave an error message to

“verify SteamVR is properly installed and try again”;

when launched from clicking the game icon in the Steam app (library) or from the PC desktop shortcut. Hence time wasted reinstalling.

 

Following your procedure of

“Obviously PC is on

oculus/meta app started

steam started ( NOT steamvr )

rifts/quests on,enable start link/airlink

click the desktop button

 

now you should be looking at your pc desktop within the HMD

choose your game from steams library on the PC ( NOT the HMD's library ) and start it from the PC

depending on the game itself you may get choices........ “

 

Well I still now get an error in the Steam app each time;

“Error SteamVR initialisation failed!”

… ”Hmd Not FoundPresence Failed (126)” - note not 108 as previously..

“verify SteamVR is properly installed and try again”;


I close that error, which I have to do on the PC after removing the Quest headset, I can then see the SteamVR grid ‘desert’ screen view, and nothing else. I still have to press the Menu button (Left-menu-click on, left, Touch controller) to get an icon for HLA, presumably in the Steam library.. and press that to get a Half Life Alex next up window banner and eventually the game now starts.

 

Sometimes.

 

Or it did, before Windows failed to accept my password and I am now locked out of my gaming PC.

 

I don’t think this is a pastime for me. I just wanted to play the game. 

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5

Choleni
MVP
MVP

You said you've get it to work once.

Now Steam vr - not HLA - should be shown up in your oculus library too.

I start always steam vr from library first, then you don't get this error message......at least for me it's like this.

 

 

MystaMagoo
Heroic Explorer

Don't  understand how people can get this so wrong.......

 

Start the Quest,activate link,choose desktop.

Then all you do is play any game on steam just by starting it from the PC/steam,not the quest library.

No need to start steamVR before because steam does it for you.

 

What you will/may find is that steamvr does not exit/close properly once you exited the game.

task manager,scroll down to find 'vr server' (I think,will check) and just close this program,it will close all the other stuff with it.

Antec Quattro ~ Asrock Taichi X399 ~ Threadripper 1920X ~ 32gb 3200mhz GSkill ~ RTX3060ti ~ m.2 970evo

MystaMagoo
Heroic Explorer

If only I could edit my above post eh

 

So here is your guide to playing steam vr games in the quests/rifts via link/airlink.........

 

Obviously PC is on

oculus/meta app started

steam started ( NOT steamvr )

rifts/quests on,enable start link/airlink

click the desktop button

 

now you should be looking at your pc desktop within the HMD

choose your game from steams library on the PC ( NOT the HMD's library ) and start it from the PC

depending on the game itself you may get choices........

start in vr mode

in steamvr mode

in oculusvr mode

choose whichever appropriate and just start the game

 

game will start whichever VR mode you chose and you will have the game in vr in the HMD

_________________________________________________________

Not every game shuts down vr components properly so it has to be done manually if you encounter problems going from VR game to VR game.......

 

Task manager

shut down 'VR Server'

thats it

Antec Quattro ~ Asrock Taichi X399 ~ Threadripper 1920X ~ 32gb 3200mhz GSkill ~ RTX3060ti ~ m.2 970evo

I had multiple error messages in each case and interminable loops, as I said.

 

It wasn’t until I switched off the (irritating) Oculus home room from automatically loading (Oculus PC app/ Settings/ General/ Automatically LaunchOculus Home) that I got rid of the ‘multiple apps running’ cancel/ quit loop.

 

There was no ‘Half Life Alex’ game in the Oculus library window, it was only accessible from the PC desktop or Steam / Library, and not only did SteamVR not load automatically then, it also gave an error message to

“verify SteamVR is properly installed and try again”;

when launched from clicking the game icon in the Steam app (library) or from the PC desktop shortcut. Hence time wasted reinstalling.

 

Following your procedure of

“Obviously PC is on

oculus/meta app started

steam started ( NOT steamvr )

rifts/quests on,enable start link/airlink

click the desktop button

 

now you should be looking at your pc desktop within the HMD

choose your game from steams library on the PC ( NOT the HMD's library ) and start it from the PC

depending on the game itself you may get choices........ “

 

Well I still now get an error in the Steam app each time;

“Error SteamVR initialisation failed!”

… ”Hmd Not FoundPresence Failed (126)” - note not 108 as previously..

“verify SteamVR is properly installed and try again”;


I close that error, which I have to do on the PC after removing the Quest headset, I can then see the SteamVR grid ‘desert’ screen view, and nothing else. I still have to press the Menu button (Left-menu-click on, left, Touch controller) to get an icon for HLA, presumably in the Steam library.. and press that to get a Half Life Alex next up window banner and eventually the game now starts.

 

Sometimes.

 

Or it did, before Windows failed to accept my password and I am now locked out of my gaming PC.

 

I don’t think this is a pastime for me. I just wanted to play the game. 

played the game through completion on q2 but it is a resource hog as steam vr and oculus must be running concurrently- i honestly thought u NEED steam VR running with this as its not openxr nor does it work with open composite. same thing with HL2 vr mod. if u guys got it run without error lmk as i always have errors trying to run the game with just oculus.