We all know having a powerful PC can significantly improve your Oculus experience by allowing you to access services such as SteamVR. However, is there a way you can take advantage of this without having a PC at all?
Yes, you can play steam games on oculus quest without a PC by using Cloud gaming/computing services. This allows you to rent a virtual desktop on the cloud, which handles the processing of your video game and then displays the content to your Oculus Quest. All you would require to start using this service is a subscription and a stable internet connection of at least 15 Mbps.
Let’s take a look at the different services you can use to play Steam games without a PC on your Oculus Quest 2. We’ll also take a look at the setup process for each method step by step. Let’s dive in!
How To Play Steam Games On Oculus Quest Without a PC?
In order to use your Oculus Quest to play Steam without a PC, you’ll either need to use a Cloud Gaming service such as Shadow Cloud Computing or PlutoSphere. Alternatively, you can create your own virtual machine with services such as Azure (Microsoft’s cloud platform).
Cloud Gaming is currently on the rise & is expected to grow significantly, thanks to its ability to provide an incredible gaming experience without having to own a powerful PC.
Cloud Gaming Services That Are Currently Compatible With Oculus Quest 2:
- Shadow
- Plutosphere
- Alternative methods (PaperSpace, Microsoft Azure)
1. Shadow PC
Shadow is the first cloud gaming service we’ll take a look at. It’s currently priced at $29.99 per month. You’ll be able to test if your internet connection is good enough to run shadow here.
It’s currently limited to:
- The U.S
- The UK
- Switzerland
- The Netherlands
- Germany
- Luxembourg
- Belgique
- Metropolitan France
Shadow’s Tech Specs
Here’s what their virtual desktops have to offer.
| GPU | GeForce GTX 1080 |
| Processor | 4 cores / 8 threads |
| Memory | 12 GB |
| Storage | 256 GB |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
How to Setup Shadow with your Oculus Quest 2
There are two ways you can set up Shadow PC with your Oculus Quest, the first is by using the shadow PC app through SideQuest.
Method#1 Using Shadow PC Beta App Via SideQuest
- Login to your shadow account via your phone, tablet, or laptop
- Select Start Shadow to begin using your virtual desktop
- Install Virtual Desktop app on quest 2
- Install SteamVR & Oculus Desktop app on your virtual desktop
- Download & install SideQuest
- Install ShadowVR Alpha through SideQuest
- On your Oculus Headset go to -> Apps -> Unknown Sources -> ShadowVR
- Login to your ShadowVR Account
- You’ll now have access to your SteamVR Page
Method #2
- Login to your shadow account via your phone, tablet, or laptop
- Select Start Shadow to begin using your virtual desktop
- Download & Install Steam
- Install Steam VR
- Download & Install Oculus Rift client on the virtual desktop
- Download & Install the Virtual Desktop PC App
- on your Virtual Desktop app on Oculus Username, select Change -> Enter your Quest Username -> Save
- Launch SteamVR on your Oculus Quest
2. PlutoSphere
Another Cloud gaming service that supports the Oculus Quest 2 is PlutoSphere. You can reserve your spot now for free access to its Beta program.
Plutosphere is currently rolling out with a limited launch, so you will need to sign up and reserve your spot.
Requirements To Use PlutoSphere:
- 50 Mbps internet
- 5 GHz Wifi 6
Method #1 (Desktop Vision)
You can take a look at Plutosphere’s complete setup guide with Desktopvision here.
- Setup PlutoSphere
- Turn on your PlutoSphere PC
- Login to Desktop Vision on your Phone, tablet, or laptop to access your Plutosphere PC
- Select your PlutoSphere PC
- You now have access to your PlutoSphere PC on your device
- you’ll now be able to download your preferred games on Steam
- Launch it on a Virtual desktop
Method #2
- Setup PlutoSphere
- Install Plutosphere on your Oculus Quest
- Download & install SideQuest
- Connect your Oculus Quest
- On the sidequest search bar, type PlutoSphere
- Click ‘Install to Headset‘
- Return to your PlutoSphere browser in your device (Phone, tablet, laptop)
- turn your PlutoSphere Desktop to On
- log in to Steam and begin installing games. (SteamVR must be running to connect to your PlutoSphere computer with Plutosphere Quest Client)
- Now on your Oculus Quest headset go to -> Apps -> Unknown Sources -> PlutoSphere
- Logging in with your Pluto credentials
- After logging in, you will get a message “Registering Plutosphere Device…Success“
- Click on the menu button on your left controller to access the SteamVR Dashboard.
3. PaperSpace
- Sign up to PaperSpace
- On the top left corner, select Core (instead of gradient)
- Select Create a Machine
- Choose the nearest server to your location.
- Now you can either select windows 10 or on the Public template tab, you can select Parsec for greater performance (You can read more on the Parsec template here)
- Select a machine with a dedicated GPU hourly
- Select your Storage
Once you are done setting up PaperSpace, you will need to:
- Download and install Steam
- SteamVR
- The Oculus Desktop App
- Virtual Desktop or AMVR
4. Creating your own Virtual Machine With Azure
Your last option is to create your own virtual machine with services like Azure (Microsoft’s cloud platform); you’ll be able to connect it with a virtual desktop and start playing steam games without the need for a PC.
This method is a lot more technical, but it can be done. Here’s a complete guide on how this works.
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