Just wanted to share my experience - as a new Quest owner - with Virtual Desktop and the aforementioned title. I got HL: Alyx a few days ago and tried it first with Link, using a USB 2.0 cable. I know it's not ideal, and I did see artifacts and banding in darker scenes. Was very playable though. I finished my session by stepping on the cable and violently disconnecting.
The next day I thought I'd give Virtual Desktop a shot to see if I can go wireless. I had tested ALVR with some games earlier and the image quality was not great. I didn't want to spend ages messing with ALVR, so I decided to go the paid route with VD.
Totally worth it.
Setup was relatively easy and launching games is a breeze. I made only minor changes to VD settings. I disabled automatic bitrate adjust from the Windows app and set the bitrate to "insane" in the Quest app. To me the visuals look better than with Link (though USB 2.0 probably is a factor here). Sure there is some banding in dark areas but nothing to complain about. Detail is excellent. I notice some input lag when moving my arms quickly, but it's not a problem in a game like this. The VD Quest app says that latency is 27 milliseconds.
In case anyone's interested, my setup: - TP-Link Archer VR600 5 GHz router (a decent one but not high end), connected to PC via Ethernet cable
- The router is in the same room, never more than 2 m away from me
- Separate network IDs for 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz
- i7 8700 & RTX 2070 Super
I've played via VD for a couple of hours now and I'm baffled by how this is working so well. I still need to learn that I don't have to avoid a cable (I had a Rift CV1 for 2 years). And right now I feel very confident about having upgraded to a Quest and not some other headset.
Of course, if someone has tips on how to further reduce latency, they'd be welcome. For HL I will prioritize image quality over latency, though, if that's the trade that has to be made.
I played 2/3 of Alyx with VD. It was playable and at the time I thought it was pretty fantastic. I did have an aftermarket Link cable from Amazon but it was only 10' and didn't work consistently so I stopped trying. I finally got the official Link cable and that worked really well with only an occasional issue starting it.
Here is my take after playing the last 1/3 with Link. There is no comparison. VD is fine for some things but even with a perfect setup, and mine was about as "perfect" as you can get. There was still occasional screen tearing and lag with continuous movement and around complex scenes - especially notable with weapons modification stations. Throwing was aggravating with the latency in VD. Hard to be accurate. I thought it was just a game issue until Link where it was smooth as butter. There is absolutely no latency I can notice with Link and I noticed no compression artifacts and clearer and more prevalent particle effects that were strangely missing with VD.
VD is nice... but if you want the closest approximation of PCVR gaming with a Quest you need the official Link cable or a viable aftermarket alternative.
OTT also seems to work really well if setup properly with Link and really improves visual clarity... I don't think ODT or OTT currently work with VD.
also: Latency - ggodin, the maker of VD said somewhere (I can't find it right now) that input latency is actually around 40ms at best. I'm not sure why VD always shows latency in the 20's. Mine typically shows around 22ms but I can assure you that input reactions in game are nowhere near 22ms.
For the time being I will make do with my USB 2 cable and Virtual Desktop, though it would be interesting to see what the experience is like with the official cable. The latency with VD could be an issue when full precision is required (with rhythm games for example). But I find HL really enjoyable when I don't need to worry about the cable getting tangled, even if image quality is not at its full potential.
