SteamVR now lets Quest owners play PC VR games over USB with Steam Link

Quest owners can now stream PC VR games over USB using Steam Link in the public release of SteamVR. Valve has added the wired connection option in SteamVR 2.18, with the latest Steam Link app on the headset also required.

Valve's USB support guide says wired streaming currently works on Meta headsets running Horizon OS v2.5 or later. Connect the headset to the PC, then open Steam Link on the headset to establish the USB connection.

Meta's 5m Quest Link Cable is one optional USB-C cable choice, listed at $60.99 new in the US, sold and shipped by Amazon.com when checked on October 28. The cable supports data transfer up to 5Gbps; check that your PC has a suitable USB-C data port before buying.

Quest 3S and its Touch controllers. Steam Link now supports a wired connection to a gaming PC. Image: Meta

The stable update brings a collection of streaming, controller and Linux fixes out of testing. The USB option gives Quest users another way to connect to their gaming PC through Valve's software; the PC still runs the games.

Streaming fixes address dropped frames and washed-out AMD colours

Valve has fixed roughly 300-millisecond gaps in frame delivery that could occur when packets were lost. It has also addressed some causes of corrupted video, checkerboard patterns and streams getting stuck, alongside further fixes for Error 17.

Steam Frame and controllers. The SteamVR update also changes controller defaults for games without VR input. Image: Valve

Automatic bitrate selection has been improved. Another correction targets colours appearing greyer than intended with certain AMD graphics cards. These are fixes for identified problems, rather than a promise that every connection will perform identically.

Steam Frame owners also get a controller change: VR games without support for tracked VR inputs now default to gamepad controls. Players can change that preference for individual games in Steam Input or the VR controller settings.

Valve promotional image for Steam Link, its game-streaming client. Image: Valve

Linux players get fixes for game launches and GPU selection

The Linux changes include a fix for OpenXR games crashing if SteamVR was not already running. Valve has also repaired asynchronous reprojection on AMD GPUs and graphics-device selection on computers with both integrated and discrete GPUs.

That is separate from the Proton overlay problem reported earlier this month; this release does not claim to resolve every OpenXR compatibility issue.

The update also introduces the Aurora desktop environment and gamepad navigation for the system interface. A keyboard bug affecting scenarios such as Skyrim VR and controller-binding problems in Google Earth VR and Thumper are among the other corrections.

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