Virtual Desktop or SteamVR/Steamlink?

[q1uant]

Seems this has been debated and changed over the years, where do we stand now?

Also I'm confused if "SteamVR and Steamlink" are the same thing? I usually launch SteamVR through Steam after launching into my Oculus 

If Virtual Desktop is recommended, would I want to buy it through Oculus store and not Steam? Since the latter would require my PC to be on to launch it? It is $25 on Oculus store, is there ever a sale for this?

Thanks for any help, pretty confused.

[kojack]

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@q1uant wrote:

If Virtual Desktop is recommended, would I want to buy it through Oculus store and not Steam?

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The Steam version of Virtual Desktop is for PCVR headsets like the Vive, Rift, WMR. It's made for viewing your Windows desktop inside of VR.

The Quest store version of Virtual Desktop is for wireless streaming of PCVR games to the Quest.

If you bought the Steam version, you will still need to use something like Airlink/Link or Quest Virtual Desktop to actually see it on the Quest.

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@q1uant wrote:

Also I'm confused if "SteamVR and Steamlink" are the same thing? I usually launch SteamVR through Steam after launching into my Oculus.

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SteamVR is one of the software systems for running VR games on a PC (there's also WMR, Oculus and OpenXR). Any game with VR support must be written for one or more of those 4 systems.

SteamLink is a program that runs on the Quest and streams video from SteamVR games. It's like Airlink and Virtual Desktop (quest version).

Airlink, Virtual Desktop and SteamLink are all wireless streaming of PCVR to a Quest. All three can play SteamVR games. Airlink and Virtual Desktop can also play games from the Rift store (SteamLink can't). That may be important because some Quest native games come with a free version for the Rift.

There's also Link, which is the USB cable version of Airlink. Basically the same idea, just not wireless.