Virtual Desktop gets one of the biggest updates in recent months. What's new?
Virtual Desktop is a must-have for anyone who wants to use the Quest with a PC. The VR app brings the Windows desktop into virtual reality, lets you set up a virtual home theater, or stream PC VR games into the glasses. And it does it all wirelessly.
Developer Guy Godin is continually working to improve Virtual Desktop. Over the past 12 months, numerous new features have rolled out, including Phase Sync to reduce latency, Synchronous Spacewarp for better performance, a dedicated VR video player, and a sharpening filter that improves the image quality of VR games.
Virtual Desktop now with new hand tracking
The latest update with version number 1.20.32 brings the following new features and improvements and also fixes several bugs. The biggest new feature is probably support for Quest's hand tracking 2.0.
- Added new Personal Theater environment
- Added ability to switch seats in some environments
- Now using hand tracking v2.0
- Improved resolution of desktop and screen toolbars
- Added windows notification when protected content is blocked with suggestion to use Firefox
- Fixed screens in ModernApartment to work with different aspect ratios
- Fixed issue with firewall rules preventing installation of Streamer on some systems
- Fixed screen and computer going to sleep mode while connected to computer
- Fixed Oculus username max length from 20 to 30 characters in the Streamer window
- Mafia 2 and 3 will now correctly appear in the Games tab when a RealVR mod is installed
Godin promises a number of new features
Godin is currently working on porting Virtual Desktop to OpenXR. He says this allows him to implement new features, including a passthrough mode and keyboard tracking.
Two keyboards are currently recognized by Meta Quest 2 and appear in virtual reality: Logitech K830 and Apple's Magic Keyboard. Multiple monitor support is also in development, according to Godin.
These features should make Quest 2 easier to use on a PC, especially if you use it for work.