Quest 2 Link Best Settings (Finally Better Than Rift S)

[Tbone]

I've had a Quest 2 and Rift S for a long time, using the Rift S for PC gaming and Quest 2 for when I go out of town. I had tried Air Link to compare and the quality was horrible, so I stuck with Rift S. Well, there's been a few patches since then and I've finally sat down and tried to tweak the Quest 2 for PCVR. The Quest 2 has the better screen, so if you can get everything else out of the way, the Quest 2 can become one of the best PCVR headsets you can own. Getting there is a bit of a journey, but here's how...

• Use a Link Cable, not Airlink

Yes, yes, I know. You want the freedom of wireless. You can do that, and you can THINK the quality is good enough, but be aware there are big tradeoffs. What we're attempting to do is crank up the bitrate to remove any and all artifacts, crank up the resolution to take advantage of Quest 2's pixels, and crank up the refresh rate to improve the overall experience. There's no way to do all three with Airlink, and certainly not at the threshold we need to meet. I got a cheap Link Cable for $16 and so far it's working great!

• Oculus Device Advanced Settings

And so our balancing act begins. Let's get this out of the way. 120Hz refresh rate is great and can feel very smooth, but it's experimental for a reason. In my opinion the tradeoffs are NOT worth it. You'll have to lower the resolution to try to get a steady 120fps, and it actually drains the Quest 2's battery quicker (more on that later). I have a 3080 and still decided against 120Hz. As a result, my settings are:

Oculus Desktop Menu - Devices - Quest 2 and Touch - Advanced - Graphics Preferences

Refresh Rate (90Hz)
Render Resolution 1.5x (5408x2736)

You want to crank that resolution as high as your computer can stand. This is the best place to supersample, though you can push it further using OTT or ODT. 90Hz is a higher refresh rate and, therefore, an improvement over the Rift S, but you can lower it as a compromise if you have trouble getting the frames.

• OTT or ODT Settings

Ok, here's where we're gonna get rid of the Link artifacts. You have two options. I recommend downloading Oculus Tray Tools but you can also browse to your Oculus installation and find the Support folder, Oculus Diagnostics folder, and use OculusDebugTool.

In OTT click "Quest Link" on the left menu. You'll find similar settings in ODT:

Distortion Curvature: Low (more detail in the peripherals)
Encode Resolution: 3970 3664
Bitrate: 480+
Link Sharpening: Enabled

Having the bitrate at 500 is important here. It gets rid of all streaming artifacts and achieves the same fidelity as if you were plugged into the graphics card itself. Any lower and you'll notice an annoying shimmering blockiness, especially on things in the distance. Even 400 will not cut it. Priority is to keep this at 500! You can paste in higher values. I currently have mine set to 800, but you can go as high as 960. The higher you go, the more likely you are to experience issues however.

In OTT go back to Game Settings. You can optionally set Default Super Sampling here if your graphics card can handle it. This will multiply with the resolution you set in the Oculus settings, so be very conservative here. I've set my default to 1.2, but for games such as HL: Alyx or Lone Echo 2, I'm leaving this at 1.0. If you click "View & Edit" under Profiles you can change the super sampling per game using OTT. This requires a bit of trial and error, but it allows you to really tweak the fidelity per game.

• SteamVR Settings

The above settings will kill your performance in SteamVR as any attempt at supersampling from Steam's software will multiply what you've already done, tanking your performance instantly. Our goal here is to set the SteamVR settings as close to baseline as possible and let the Oculus software do all the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, it's a little counter-intuitive and took some trial and error and Googling on my part, but here's what you want:

SteamVR Settings - Video

Refresh Rate: 90 Hz (should be automatic)
Render Resolution: Custom
Resolution Per Eye: 62% (2556x2580)
Advanced Supersample Filtering - Off
Overlay Render Quality - Medium

Note: I've also heard 100% resolution per eye is the way to go here, so try both.

Your impulse is going to be to leave "resolution per eye" to 100%, but this is actually supersampling what you've already done. 62% is the closest real resolution to the Quest 2, and so you want to force that setting. I'm not certain what "Advanced Supersampling" does, but I'm just getting rid of any supersampling Steam is attempting. "Overlay Render" probably doesn't make a difference, but I'm just trying to avoid any hiccups when menu hopping.

You could stop right here and be good to go. Your settings may differ from mine, but I believe the priorities are:

Bitrate 500 > Render Resolution > Super Sampling > Refresh Rate

If you're sensitive to a lower refresh rate and really want that feeling of smooth presence, you may want to sacrifice super sampling before refresh rate - just remember 120Hz is currently a trap. There are also other ways to make the Quest 2 closer to feature parity with the Rift S...

• Comfort

This is actually pretty important as the default headstrap for the Quest 2 is abysmal. I personally recommend a Halo style 3rd party strap for the Quest 2 to get it feeling like the Rift S, but I've also heard positive things about a simple head pad for the back of the strap as well. Some sort of counterweight on the back of the strap is also helpful, but this is where things get complicated. I had to 3D print an external battery mount that would be compatible with a Halo strap since the adjustment dial is directly on the back, but I believe there are now options of getting a Halo strap with battery holder already included.

Both the Rift S and Quest 2 lack headphones, and I recommend getting some Porta Pros and zip tying them to the sides of the strap (works for Halo - not so much of the OG strap of Quest 2). This improves the audio quite a bit! I also recommend feeding the Link cable to the back of the strap and attaching it there so that the weight of the cable pulls at the back of your head and not the side of your face. It's a lot of work, but the end result is a HUGE improvement in comfort!

• Downsides

There are a few caveats to using the Quest 2 as your primary PCVR headset instead of getting an expensive one designed solely for that purpose. One major drawback was already mentioned - the amount of modding needed to make it comfortable and improve the audio. This, however, would be an issue even if you were using the Quest 2 as standalone, so it's something you'd want to deal with either way if you already have one.

The other glaring issue is the battery life. Despite the Quest 2 being plugged directly into the PC, it seems it still doesn't charge fast enough to stay at 100%. Your headset will still slowly drain while playing and plugging it into the PC takes up the charging port, so there's no way for you to have an all day marathon session. This is another reason to avoid 120Hz, as it drains even faster. I still need to do more testing to see how much it drains, but after 2.5 hours of watching a movie it was at 49%.

Finally the Link cable itself can be a bit of a crap shoot when looking for third party. This one has worked well for me so far, but they can be fickle and the official one is still a whopping $80. If you have trouble, try Google for a solution (I had to disable Air Link on the Quest 2 to get regular Link working).

[Tbone]

Updated the original post. Changes:

-Supersampling is now going through Oculus settings and the render resolution first to optimize performance. Instead of setting OTT settings to 1.4-1.7, you'll be looking at 1.0-1.2 while setting the render resolution to 1.5 in Oculus' app settings.
-Added SteamVR settings that are required to get good performance for SteamVR games and apps.

[Tbone]

Some more advanced tinkering...

First, I've noticed using OTT to super sample can cause all sorts of issues with Oculus Dash, so for now I'm keeping that set at 1.0. Instead I'm sharpening with a different program while using foveated rendering to improve performance. It doesn't work with every game and the foveated rendering only works with Nvidia RTX cards, but for the games it does work on it allows me to set my refresh rate at 120 while also getting a sharper image.

Program: https://github.com/fholger/vrperfkit
Reddit Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/s7lghv/vr_performance_toolkit_combines_openfsr_and/

You'll have to install PER GAME. Copy the dxgi.dll and vrperfkit.yml in the folder of the .exe of any game you wish to apply this to. Edit vrperfkit.yml (using Notepad or similar text editor) for the settings you want.

So far I've found the foveated rendering enough to give me a nice performance gain, so rather than upsampling I'm using the other half of the tool just to sharpen. To do all this, I change the following settings:

upscaling method: cas
renderScale: 1.0
sharpness: 0.5 (still playing with this)
fixedFoveated enabled: true

For a more detailed explanation... CAS is the sharpening method of upscaling. RenderScale typically will render at a lower resolution and then upscale, but setting it at 1.0 will prevent it from rendering at a lower resolution. Sharpness applies more or less sharpening between 0.0 and 1.0.

My advice if you want to use this tool...

Nvidia RTX users: CAS sharpening and foveated rendering
Non-RTX for performance gain: Keep defaults to use upsampling.
Non-RTX for image clarity: CAS sharpening

If you want to see if it works in the game, you can use the hotkey CTRL+F1 to see if a red ring appears in the periphery. I'm not sure if this only works to show foveated rendering or works regardless.

[Tbone]

I'm in the process of revisiting these settings again. The question is whether 3970 encode resolution width and 550 encode bitrate is wasted performance. Some seem to think the Quest 2's decoding is locked into around 300, so increasing the encoding past that won't help. I seemed to notice a difference between even 400 and 550 when I made this post, however, so I'll have to look at it again. Quest 2's native apps render at 3660, so the theory is going above that isn't worth it for the width, though I've also seen that, due to the native resolution of the actual panel, going to 3970 can have benefits.

Either way a more safe baseline where you won't hit too much in the way of diminishing returns would be bitrate to 350 and encode resolution width to 3664.

[Tbone]

Updated current settings:

Bitrate > Resolution > Supersampling > Refresh Rate

My settings for Nvidia 3080



OCULUS DEBUG TOOL

Distortion Curvature: Low

Encode Resolution Width: 3712

Encode Dynamic Bitrate: Disabled

Dynamic Bitrate Max: 0

Encode Bitrate (Mbps): 480

Dynamic Bitrate Offset (Mbps): 0

Link Sharpening: Enabled

Mobile ASW: Disabled



OCULUS DEVICE SETTINGS

Refresh Rate (90Hz) or (120hz)

Render Resolution: (3712x1872) 1.0x at 90hz or 1.2x at 120hz



OCULUS TRAY TOOLS

Super Sampling: 1.45 (I start there and adjust depending on intensity of the game using the Profiles). If you use Steam regularly instead, you can also super sample within Steam settings per game. I like to use Oculus Tray Tool's Visual HUD - Pixel Density and Performance to see how close I am to the Quest 2's actual resolution and how my performance is being affected.



VRPERFKIT

Google it. You need to manually put two files in the directory of each game you want to use this on. If you have a video card that supports it, you can get fixed foveated rendering and some sharpening. Currently my settings are:

upscaling

enabled: true

method: cas

renderScale: 0.95

sharpness: 0.9

radius: 0.6

fixedFoveated

enabled: true

innerRadius: 0.6

midRadius: 0.8

outerRadius: 1.0



Note that you don't have to do ALL of these things, but if you leave something out, you'll want to adjust elsewhere. For instance, if you aren't going to super sample and apply sharpening, then just crank the resolution scale up instead. You'll notice my resolution is at .9x scale, but that's simply to give me more room to super sample and save a little performance at the same time. Obviously if I cranked my resolution up to 1.7x then my super sampling would need to be completely different or be left out completely.

[Tbone]

I made some additional slight changes. It was discovered that changing the encode resolution width to anything other than the render resolution width can create shimmering, so keeping it the same is better. I also updated my PC with a new CPU, RAM, etc. so tweaking some settings to reflect that.

I'm using the default 1.0x resolution at 90hz (3712x1872) and changed the encode resolution width to match (3712). I'm also experimenting with upping the refresh rate to 120hz (mostly for Pop One), but I haven't had enough testing to see if I'm keeping that setting).

[Tbone]

I've simplified a lot since first doing this. Got rid of vrperfkit since my current rig can handle better fidelity. I'm not supersampling with OTT as setting max resolution via Oculus seems to work fine. The biggest things to do are to take the slider all the way to the right in the resolution of the device and go to Oculus Debug Tool and raise the encode bitrate to 480+. I've also upgraded to the Quest Pro!

[Jeyk]

Have you picked up the Meta Quest 3, T?

[Tbone]

Have you picked up the Meta Quest 3, T?

No, it's pretty comparable to the Quest Pro. Most who have tried both said that it's a side-grade and that, especially for PCVR, it's not worth it to upgrade. People only recommend switching from the Pro to Quest 3 if you mostly do stand-alone gaming since the Quest 3 has a better processor for that.

[Jeyk]

So I nabbed a Meta Quest 3 today, but was disappointed to see that I can’t access all the games I bought on the Rift, with the exception of Climb, which has “Cross Buy”. 

Is there any way I’ll be able to play my old Oculus library with this thing?  I’ve read that I may be able to with a link cable on my PC, but not entirely sure as it seems that what I’ve read refers to the Quest 2 - I figured you (or someone here in a similar jam) would have the skinny on this.

[Tbone]

So I nabbed a Meta Quest 3 today, but was disappointed to see that I can’t access all the games I bought on the Rift, with the exception of Climb, which has “Cross Buy”. 

Is there any way I’ll be able to play my old Oculus library with this thing?  I’ve read that I may be able to with a link cable on my PC, but not entirely sure as it seems that what I’ve read refers to the Quest 2 - I figured you (or someone here in a similar jam) would have the skinny on this.

Yes, it's pretty easy to play all your Oculus library on the Quest 3. You have three options.

1. Link Cable. Personally this is what I use. The charging cable that comes with your headset is NOT a link cable, unfortunately. I use a third-party cable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B2QPSWSF/ . Plug it into USB 3 and your Oculus software should find the headset and get it set up for you. You connect via the Link interface on the Quest 3. Using this method you can really crank up the resolution and bitrate and get really high fidelity PCVR.

2. Air Link. Some people swear by wireless, so this is another option. The recommendation is to have a dedicated router for the Quest. You'll plug the router into your computer and then have the headset line of sight to the router. The better the router, the smoother your connection (6E is currently the top dog here). Personally I can tell a big difference in compression artifacts when using wireless over air, but it keeps getting better and better.

3. Virtual Desktop. Same setup as Air Link but using bought custom software to have more options and bypass Oculus' interface. Again, I just plug in with a cable so I can't really compare, but it's an option.

I use my Quest Pro mostly for PCVR. If you end up buying more standalone games, I recommend getting Quest Games Optimizer as it has profiles for each game that will greatly increase the fidelity/performance, especially with the extra headroom on the Quest 3. Let me know if you have any other questions!

[Lithium]

2. Air Link. Some people swear by wireless, so this is another option. The recommendation is to have a dedicated router for the Quest. You'll plug the router into your computer and then have the headset line of sight to the router. The better the router, the smoother your connection (6E is currently the top dog here). Personally I can tell a big difference in compression artifacts when using wireless over air, but it keeps getting better and better.

You can use this option with Steam VR as well? Bought a 6E router, battery strap, and Quest 3 for 'Christmas'.

[Jeyk]

Haha, it’s an early Christmas for you, Lithium!  How are you liking the battery strap?  Is it comfortable, and does it run hot?

I’m glad you linked a cable T, which was going to be my next question - I was eyeing the official cable, but it’s definitely steep at $79.  I do have a USB-C port available, but will it make all that much of a difference vs. an A to C cable?

Are there any generic USB-C to USB-C cables you can recommend for PCVR?

 I only went with the 128GB version…wishing I could have done 512GB version, but wanted to save were I could, especially knowing I’d want to use this for PCVR to access my Steam games and likely wouldn’t need so much storage for that - but I do love the standalone functionality..

[Lithium]

I don't get everything in until this weekend or next week. So I can't really say how it is yet. I think I'm going to buy the official link cable. It's expensive, but it's probably better quality than the others and if there are any issues with it I can bitch to them about it. Hopefully I won't need to use it much with wireless.

[Tbone]

Jeyk, the cable I linked is the one I use. I like it because it also connects to a wall charger and, therefore, keeps my headset charged during play. Using other cables the headset's battery will slowly drain. I have noticed I get audio crackling if I go above 500 bitrate, which MAY have to do with the cable but may not. I'm still troubleshooting that one. Here's an article if you wanna do some research: https://www.androidcentral.com/best-link-cable-alternative-oculus-quest-2

Lithium, Air Link will initially boot you into Meta's PCVR software and then you can load up SteamVR from there no problem. If you want to bypass Meta's software altogether, you'll need to buy Virtual Desktop on the Quest and then download the streamer software on your computer. Using that method you can boot up SteamVR without having to go into Meta's stuff first. Either way I've had no issues running SteamVR once connected.

My current contract ends Sunday. We'll have to start up some Pop: One again to test the new systems!