Steam Link now streams to your Quest over a USB cable, if you run two betas
Steam Link can now stream PC VR to a Meta Quest down a USB cable, with no Wi-Fi involved. Valve's SteamVR beta 2.18.1 notes add "tethered Quest support over USB (must be used with Steam Link Beta)", which means two opt-ins: the SteamVR beta on the PC and the Steam Link beta build on the headset.
An image from SteamVR's own Steam page. The 2.18.1 changes are on the beta channel only. Image: Valve
Neither is hard to get. Anyone can join the SteamVR beta from the app's properties in Steam, the Steam Link beta comes from the app's beta channel on the headset, and Valve's Steam Link FAQ covers the setup. Valve posted the build on September 23.
Quest owners also get a say over frame rate. Valve now lets the headset override the host frame rate "if configured manually at OS level on Meta Quest headsets", again alongside the Steam Link beta, and automatic bitrate selection has been improved. The same build fixes "cases of video corruption, checkerboarding, and stuck streams".
Valve makes Aurora the default environment
The room you stare at while a game loads has changed for everyone on the beta. "Default environment is now the 'Aurora' (can be disabled in settings)", Valve writes, and the theatre environment gains content-aware tinting that follows what is on screen.
A gamepad can now drive the system UI, lesser-used controls have moved into an "Additional Options" menu, and the dimming of a running game while the dashboard is open can be switched off. Valve also fixed a keyboard that failed to appear when summoned in some games, naming Skyrim VR.
Linux gets three fixes, and none of this is stable yet
On Linux, Valve fixed async reprojection failing on AMD GPUs, GPU selection on machines with both discrete and integrated graphics, and compatibility with systems that run without systemd. Controller bindings get three fixes too, including bindings going missing when they were edited locally and the Steam account was then changed.
What Valve does not give is any sense of how well the wired path performs. There are no bandwidth or latency figures, no cable specification, and no model named beyond "Meta Quest headsets", so a Quest 2 owner has the same information as a Quest 3 owner. Valve names no other brand of headset.
Valve has spent September on its streaming stack more broadly: its new Pyrowave codec for Remote Play asks for up to 10 times the bandwidth and wants gigabit ethernet. Version 2.18.1 is the first 2.18 build Valve has announced, following the 2.17.10 hotfix on September 18, and Valve asks for bug reports in the SteamVR forum rather than in replies to the post.
The stable channel is still on the 2.17 line, which is where Valve switched Steam Link's new sharpening filter off by default. Meta's own Quest Link has carried PC VR down a USB cable for years. Valve's route to the same place runs through two betas.
