How do I get the best from my VR quest 2.

I see there are a few stickies for this forum but obviously things have moved on and so the stickies not so relevant.
I have just made the move to the quest 2 and I am wondering how to get the best out of it.
I have been doing a little research but most of the stuff on the net is false.
One thing I do not understand is slow downs. When you think all the PC has to do is generate 2 images and put them into the oculus then why the slow down. When gaming on my pc same games there is no slow down.
Great credit to hell blade and senuas sacrifice. Astonishing VR experience and well optimised for the task.
So, whats the rub?
Ty lads.

 

"all the PC has to do is generate 2 images "

2 separate renders, from very slightly different angles, like how our real eyes work. PC is almost doing 2x the work.

 

@TimmyP
TY that explains.

 

I am getting into this now.
What I dont understand is how I feel so attached to these fake worlds, like in the matrix move. If you die in the matrix you die in the real world.
I have just had a car crash in dirt 2 and I got the same sort of physical sensation as being punched on the nose albeit mild but it was there. I had to exit the game!
I guess these could be called Ghost sensations?
Its very weird indeed.

 

Some tips:

If you primarily use either standalone or wireless VR, a magnetic charging cable is awesome! It'll reduce wear-and-tear on the USB port over time, and is more convenient. I don't prefer having to unplug the tip frequently with PCVR though, and I haven't heard good results with the magnetic cables that do data for Link (usually not strong-enough magnets and disconnects).

You can push the lenses a little further than the max 3rd setting with a spacer to get like 1-2mm additional distance for 70mm+ IPD. There's 3d-print adapters for this afaik, but I took a plastic bottle cap and managed to jam it in-between the lenses and had it not affecting the proximity sensor nor touching my nose.

If your Quest randomly black-screens during use, it's possible the facial interface top is interfering with the proximity sensor; it's a popular issue with 3rd-party interfaces and the replacement VR Cover ones originally sent out.

Rift CV1 has some of the best headphones for a VR headset, and Koss PortaPros headphones are reported to be the same drivers. They're cheap, 3.5mm, and work nicely on Quest 2. It's possible you may be more immersed with off-ear with the default strap speakers, or some 3rd-party mod like Valve Index speakers are.

If you have Developer Mode enabled, you can sideload most Android apks. My favorite use of this is playing OSRS. Can also be used for PC game streaming with Moonlight or Steam Link apps.

If you have a 6600 XT, for PCVR I recommend sticking with 72Hz when using wired or Air Link. I can do 1.1x rendering for most games I play.

For max Quest 2 volume (strap and 3.5mm headphones), set the volume to max and press it down once. I found nothing to benefit at max volume, and bass in some songs in Beat Saber sound distorted even at max volume with default speakers. For wired and Air Link, I believe you should go down 2-3 notches from max to workaround cracking/popping specific to Link.

Also for wired and Air Link, disabling the Oculus Virtual Audio device and using audio from something else coming from the PC (wired headphones or just face your speakers) is known to workaround performance issues. Apparently this doesn't affect everyone, but made a notable difference for me.

Either Windows 11 or the latest UWP driver from AMD make Oculus perform badly and nothing obvious fixed this. I know it's fine on 10 currently and performs good with the latest 22.11.2 driver. Ideally for a 6600 XT, 22.2.3 drivers are the best currently for Quest 2 PCVR.

For PCVR streaming, there's Link (wired and Air), Virtual Desktop (popular, paid), ALVR (open-source, Linux compatible, free), and Radeon ReLive VR (AMD GPUs only). There's notable technical differences. I recommend sticking with Link if it works fine, and Virtual Desktop if Link isn't fine without explanation, and only if you have good wireless network conditions. If you want to tinker, ever use Linux for the foreseeable future, or want to use a wired/USB solution that isn't Link, ALVR is great; I just think it's a little more technical compared to Virtual Desktop if you only want slightly better-performing Air Link.

Some games on Oculus are cross-buy, in that if you buy some game on Quest, you'll also get the PCVR Rift version for free. Games like The Walking Dead support cross-buy, and look drastically better on PCVR. Some games don't support this, like Beat Saber. This also only applies to games on Oculus/Quest/Rift/Meta store; games on Steam are usually Steam-only. Back when Quest 2 launched I was able to ask some devs for Oculus keys when I had games purchased on Steam and was able to get keys for most games no problem, but I don't know how this would work nowadays.

The store you buy PCVR games from matters in some cases. Star Wars Squadrons was a good example of this; if you bought it on Steam, you only had access to SteamVR, which has higher overhead on Oculus headsets compared to using a native Oculus mode (and Squadrons being what it is is already pretty intensive). If you bought Squadrons on Epic or Origin however, it supports both native Oculus and SteamVR modes. If you ever switched to a non-Oculus headset, having games on Oculus isn't ideal. If you ever want to mess with Linux, having games on Steam is ideal for Proton integration and you can virtually forget anything on Oculus. Alien Isolation MotherVR mod didn't work on the Epic version, but works fine from Steam. This is all game-specific.

With all 3 last points, games also perform differently depending on the VR API used, and even the PCVR streaming app used. Beat Saber works better in native Oculus mode. Blade & Sorcery has CPU usage issues for some people on the Oculus mode on Link, but SteamVR mode is fine on Link. Zenith looked better in Oculus mode from Virtual Desktop than it did from Link. City Car Driving has some camera oddity with SteamVR mode on any Oculus headset (even Rift) and any app (VD, ALVR on win and Linux, even Link when forced with OVR Toolkit), but works perfect from Oculus runtime, only on Windows. Basically, for the best PCVR experience with a game, you'll want to do a bit of research.

 

@Espionage724
TY Buddy. tbh I have not had time to read your whole post. Tomorrow when I have 5 mins.
One problem that I have had with my Quest 2 which I solved today was how it dominates audio. I appear to have solved it by disabling windows fast boot.
Edit, I found 5 mins, good tips and tricks there and one I have. Use a cotton pad in-between the lenses for extra comfort an less skin irritation to the snout.