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aaroncollegeman
New Participant
August 31, 2021
Solved

What is the best way to build for Rift and test with Oculus Quest 2 (Oculus Link)?

  • August 31, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 2776 views

My team is working on an app targeted the Rift platform. Our developer workstations are setup with Quest 2. Is it possible to build from Unity for the Rift and then load run that distribution locally via Oculus Link?

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    Best answer by baroquedub

    Yes. When a Quest is connected to a PC with Oculus Home and Oculus Link is enabled, it behaves much as a Rift does. It's arguably a more common scenario then someone actually using a Rift or Rift S (as both are now deprecated pieces of hardware). As developers, I'd say we tend to think more about building for standalone VR or PC VR, with PC VR encompassing tethered Quests as well as other manufacturers' HMDs.

    3 replies

    baroquedubAnswer
    Honored Contributor
    August 31, 2021

    Yes. When a Quest is connected to a PC with Oculus Home and Oculus Link is enabled, it behaves much as a Rift does. It's arguably a more common scenario then someone actually using a Rift or Rift S (as both are now deprecated pieces of hardware). As developers, I'd say we tend to think more about building for standalone VR or PC VR, with PC VR encompassing tethered Quests as well as other manufacturers' HMDs.

    aaroncollegemanAuthor
    New Participant
    August 31, 2021

    Thank you for the validation. Can you speak at all to process? For example, for QA and demo purposes, we'll build our Quest 2 apps and distribute the APKs manually. Receiving parties just install using SideQuest. How do we distribute a PC VR app to be tested/demoed using Question Oculus Link? I guess a simpler version of this question is, how do you play an app/game via Oculus Link without distributing the build via the Oculus Store?

    baroquedub
    Honored Contributor
    August 31, 2021

    Re. "how do you play an app/game via Oculus Link without distributing the build via the Oculus Store" Zip the build folder (which has the exe as well as the Data (assets) folder created by Unity during the build process. Upload to a site like itch.io or just share the zip as you see fit.
    If your target platform is PC VR, I don't see the point of doing QA and demos as native Quest builds. You'll have to optimise for Android (set texture compression differently, remove post processing and be much stricter on geometry and drawcalls). The two platforms aren't really analogous. 
    Some might say that it's not a bad idea to build for Quest (it's a more buoyant and lucrative market) and then port to desktop (adding more eye candy) but that can antagonise the PC community who don't just want a Quest game. My personal preference is choose your market (and platform) and build with that in mind. test on your end platform and work within the performance budget that platform gives you.

     

    ps. there is of course the option of using release channels which you can read about on the official Oculus developers portal https://developer.oculus.com/resources/publish-release-channels-upload/ This would be a more traditional approach for a game studio who eventually intend to sell on the store

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