I came across an interesting post on Reddit earlier today saying that it was possible to play SteamVR with the Oculus Quest using an application called ALVR. I decided to give it a try today and these are the steps to install ALVR.
Just a heads up, ALVR is currently in alpha for the Oculus Quest and was just released today, 05/23/2019. You’ll definitely encounter some issues and the developer is working on getting an Oculus Quest system themselves. I can only assume that over time this application will improve, but for now it’s currently in the early stages of an alpha build and you should expect some issues.
Downloads
You’ll want to create a folder, maybe on your Desktop called ALVR, and download and install these items:
- Install vc_redist.x64.exe
- Install The latest ALVR release
- You’ll only need the client and setup.
- Extract Android SDK Platform tools
- Latest nvidia drivers
Oculus Quest Developer Mode
Once you have all of these downloaded it’s time to put your Oculus Quest into Developer Mode. Power on your Quest and then on the Oculus App on your phone you’ll navigate to Settings > Oculus Quest > …More Settings > Developer Mode. In order to activate Developer Mode you may be prompted to create an Oculus Developer account and organization. You can do that for free here. Once you have created your organization you can toggle Developer Mode to the on position.
Now it’s time to connect your Oculus Quest to your computer. You should see a prompt inside the Oculus Quest to approve/trust the connection. Once that is complete it’s time to move to the PC.
PC Configuration
Navigate to your ALVR folder and install the ALVR setup if you haven’t done so already. After that is complete you’ll need to extract the platform-tools zip file. Next you’ll want to move the ALVR client .apk file into the platform-tools folder that was extracted.
Sideload ALVR .apk
Now open Command Prompt and navigate to the platform-tools folder. Once there you’ll want to type the following, but replace the ALVRClient filename with the version you have:
adb install ALVRClient-release-v2.4.0-alpha1.apk
Congratulations, you sideloaded the ALVRClient and now it’s time to start it. On your Oculus Quest it will be located in your Library > Unknown Sources.
ALVR Server
On your PC you’ll want to start the ALVR server. If all went well you should see your headset displayed in the list and you’ll need to click Connect. This should start the ALVR server and SteamVR should automatically start running. If all went well you should be able to view the SteamVR library on your Oculus Quest.
That’s all there is to it. Hopefully you found this guide helpful and I am excited to see what ALVR has in store for us in the near future.
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