November 2020 – techbloggingfool.com

A Comprehensive Guide to Playing PC Steam VR Games on your Oculus Quest 2

November 30, 2020Posted in GamingTagged Full PC games on Quest, PC Games on Quest, Steam on Quest, Stream to Quest, Virtual Desktop on Quest11 Comments

Pretty much the first thing people realize after spending a few minutes in virtual reality via the Oculus Quest or Quest 2 headset is that VR should never have wires. The experience is more immersive without a tether bouncing off your back and the worry of tripping. The trade off is a loss of processing power.

Don’t get me wrong, the Quest, and especially the Quest 2 are packing some serious hardware and can deliver amazing experiences. However, the electronics inside them are similar to a Nintendo Switch or high-end phone and this means the games are limited to those types of environments. If you have a Rift or Hive you are probably enjoy playing AAA titles like Project Cars 3, Star Wars Squadrons, or the new Half-Life; all of which require a powerful desktop PC.

There are ports of popular games like Beat Saber, Onward, and Robo-Recall for the Quest headsets, but they don’t quite stack up to the full versions that I play on my Rift. Of course, you can use a link cable to connect your Quest to a PC and use it to play Oculus Rift or Steam VR games. Linking works really well with the right cable, but even a single cable can be bothersome once you’ve experienced wireless freedom.

It turns out that with a little ingenuity and a couple of apps, you can have your cake and eat it too. Virtual Desktop is a desktop streaming app that allows you to control your desktop PC from your VR headset. It is available in the Quest store for $19.99. There is a side-loaded add-on from the developer that converts the Oculus USB development drivers to function over a wireless network. Before you head down this road, know that your PC and network need to be robust to support a pleasant wireless streaming experience.

There are a lot of steps to complete in this project. Use this outline to stay on track.

Check Wi-Fi connection speed in headset
Check Computer GPU
Install Oculus app on phone
Setup Quest Headset and link to Facebook
Purchase and install Virtual Desktop application on your Oculus
Install Oculus PC application sign in with Facebook account
Install Steam PC Application sign in or create account
Purchase and install Steam VR game
Download and install the VR desktop streamer app on your PC
Configure the VR Desktop Streamer App
Register for Oculus Developer Account
Download and install the Quest ADB Drivers
Enable Developer Mode on the Oculus app
Download and install SideQuest on your PC
Connect the Oculus headset to your PC with USB C cable
Accept USB Content prompt
Accept USB debugging mode prompt
Install the Virtual Desktop Steam VR add-on from SideQuest
Tune Virtual Desktop
Tune VR Game
Enjoy

Your wireless network needs to sustain a 300 Mbps (Megabits per second) or faster connection to your headset for game streaming to be smooth. I experienced stuttering, visual artifacts, and fuzzy video anytime my bandwidth dropped below this mark. Check your network speed by selecting the Wi-Fi symbol on the menu bar while in your headset. Then click the SSID of the Wi-Fi network that you are connected to. Scroll down and click on the Advanced menu. Scroll down some more to see the send and receive speeds.

Your computer needs to be strong enough to run VR applications. On the lowest-end you’ll need at least an RX-480 8GB or GeForce 970 GPU. Check which GPU you have by right clicking on the Windows Start button. Then choose device manager from the menu. Click the chevron next to Display Adapters. If you have a lower end GPU you will need to carefully tune the graphics settings of your game. Disable SuperSampling, turn shadows to low, and use the least expensive anti-aliasing option to improve performance.

After you are reasonably sure that your network and computer can support VR game streaming, get started by downloading the Quest App on your mobile phone. Continue by setting up your Quest (put on the headset and turn it on) and link it to your Facebook account. The headset and app will walk you though this process. A tutorial will show you how the controls work. A Facebook account is required to install the streaming add-on, so you might as well use it for everything.

You’ll need to purchase and install the Virtual Desktop app from the Quest Store in your headset or the mobile app. Next you will need to download and install the Oculus and Steam VR applications on your PC. Sign into the Oculus Software with your Facebook account. Sign into or create an account for Steam. You’ll also need a Steam VR game installed and ready to go.

You will also need to download and install the VR streamer application for the Virtual Desktop software onto your PC and provide it with the Facebook account name that you setup in your Quest. In general you will want to select all the boxes in the application’s configuration screen.

At this point you should be able to open the Virtual Desktop app in your headset and use it to access and control your desktop. To gain the ability to stream VR games we will need to install the add-on that the Virtual Desktop developer releases for free. The add-on gets side-loaded onto the Quest headset. To side-load applications you’ll need a developer account, don’t worry its free and easy. Go to Oculus Developer Dashboard and sign-in with your Facebook account. Provide any unique organization name that you like and accept the agreement. Should you ever publish an Oculus store app, the name you pick here will be shown in the store.

Now you’ll need to download and install the Quest ADB Drivers. On your PC, go to Oculus ADB Drivers | Developer Center | Oculus click the “I agree to the terms….” box and hit the download button. Open Windows Explorer and find the the downloaded file. Right click on it and choose Extract All from the menu then click the Extract All button. A new window should open, double click the “oculus-go-adb-driver-2.0” folder, then the “usb-driver” folder. Right click on the file named “android_winusb” and click Install from the menu. On the next screen click the Open button, then click Yes, then click Install.

Now we need to enable developer mode on your headset. Open the Oculus app on your phone. Tap on your headset to connect to it, then tap the settings button in the bottom right. In the menu that appears, tap on more settings, then tap developer mode and the slide the setting to on.

SideQuest is a 3rd party app store for your Quest headset. The Virtual Desk add-on is published here and that makes installing it much easier. In addition, there are lots of games and apps for your headset that are not available in the Quest store and many of them are free. On your PC head over to SideQuest (sidequestvr.com) download and install the software. You’ll notice they have an installation guide on the download page, you have already completed those steps, but it is a good idea to double check everything. Open SideQuest when the install finishes. You’ll notice that is says it can’t connect to a headset. This is normal.

Now we are ready to connect your headset to your PC via the USB cable that came with it. Put your headset on and select a stationary boundary. You will be presented with a prompt to allow your PC to access content via the USB cable, accept it. Then another prompt asking to enable USB debugging will be shown, check the box that says to always allow from this computer and accept it as well. Do not enable the Oculus Link option if you are prompted to. Remove your headset (leave it connected) and the top right of the SideQuest app should show a green dot along with the name of your headset. If it doesn’t, you probably missed one of the security prompts, unplug and try again.

In the SideQuest app on your PC (with your headset still connected). Search or browse for Virtual Desktop. Click the Install To Headset button and watch for the message that the install task has been completed at the bottom. You can also use the task manager icon on the toolbar to verify the install has completed. When the install finishes, unplug your headset and close SideQuest.

The install is complete. Put on your headset and select / draw a play area sized boundary. Open Virtual Desktop and wait for it to connect to your PC or pick it from the menu. Once you are connected, quickly press and release the menu button on your left controller to access the Virtual Desktop settings menu. Long pressing (holding for a couple seconds before releasing) will access the Steam VR menu.

You will need to tune the application to align with your network and PC capabilities. I like to turn everything to the max settings try my game and then back the settings off until I find a good balance between looks and performance. Running everything on their highest settings is a fantastic experience, but requires some very beefy hardware in both your computer and network. Dropped frames and lagging game play tend to mean that you need to lower the graphics settings in your game. Fuzzy video, black screens, and lockups are usually related to the bitrate of your Wi-Fi which require you to tune Virtual Desktop settings.

Facebook has Enabled Ninety Frames Per Second on the Oculus Quest 2!

November 21, 2020November 22, 2020Posted in GamingTagged How to enable 90 FPS on Quest 2, Quest 90 FPSLeave a comment

As of firmware version 23, the Oculus Quest 2 supports 90 FPS both in Quest games and desktop VR games via the Oculus Link cable. This is a major upgrade for Quest 2 owners and for those thinking of jumping in the VR pool. In my opinion, the new option raises the Quest 2 to being the best VR headset you can buy.

Ninety frames per second is the sweet spot for lessening the motion sickness that people experience while piloting virtual reality vehicles. Games that involve driving, flying, roller coasters, and even riding horses are notorious for causing queasy reactions if you turn your head to look around the environment.

Your computer will require a powerful GPU to play desktop VR games at 90 FPS. To achieve virtual reality, your system is displaying a copy of every frame in each eye at a resolution of 1440×1600. If your system cannot hit 90 FPS while playing regular games in 4K, you may be disappointed with the results of the new setting.

To enable the setting, make sure your Quest 2 has the newest firmware installed and then connect your Link cable and open the Oculus Desktop app. In the menu on the left select Devices, then click on your Quest 2.

In the menu that opens, select Graphics Preferences.

Click the bottom radio button and then click the Ok button to save and restart the Oculus application.

The setting will be applied to any game you launch from the Oculus desktop application. Steam VR will also automatically pick up the setting. Currently there are only a limited number of Quest store games that support the faster frame rate, those that do will automatically engage the option.

A Kickstand for any Phone or Case

November 14, 2020Posted in The BuzzTagged Spigen U100 Review, Stick-on Kickstand, Universal KickstandLeave a comment

I’ve been a big fan of Samsung’s LED Wallet Case for years. I had them for my last three Samsung Galaxy Note phones. They hold a couple of cards and have an LED display on the front that displays various simple lighted icons for notifications, calls, texts, and music. The one thing the case doesn’t do is hold my phone up when I want to watch a video.

The missing kickstand bothers me so much that it has driven me to try other phone cases multiple times. Somehow I always end up back in the Samsung. There’s just something about the way it feels and fits both the phone and my pocket that the others don’t quite match.

A couple of years ago I started down a different path. Adding something to the Samsung Wallet that would keep it propped up seemed like an easy solution. This journey has taken far longer than I ever imagined. Rings, pop-sockets, fold-out card contraptions, and even 3D printed gizmos, I’ve tried them all to no avail. Granted, a big part of the reason they don’t work is due to the size of the Galaxy Note. When you attach a ring or pop-socket in the middle, the angle is to shallow when you change to kickstand mode.

I had all but decided that I would forever be searching for something to prop my phone against when I ran across the Spigen U100 Universal Kickstand. This wonderful little gadget is a stick-on, metal, spring-assisted kickstand that adheres to your phone or case with 3M tape. It solves the angle issue because it is much longer than a ring or socket.

The kickstand folds pretty flat, I don’t notice it when the phone is in my pocket. I have it stuck to the bottom third of my phone case so it isn’t in the way when my phone is in my hand or while it sits on my wireless charger. The same strip of 3M tape has kept this thing stuck firm on two different cases for more than a year. Taking it off my last Samsung Wallet did leave a mark that I had to clean off with a magic eraser. It ships with an extra piece of the tape if you have a different experience.

It holds my phone steady at the perfect angle. I found the Spigen for $10.99 on Amazon. I especially like that it is available in a few different finishes. It was easy to match the style of my case. Spigen also makes several other models of kickstands, rings, and sockets.

PowerShell: Find User Profile Disks on all RDS Session Hosts

November 12, 2020Posted in MicrosoftTagged Disconnect UPD, Locate UPD, Orphaned UPD, RDS UPD, User Profile DisksLeave a comment

User Profile Disks in Remote Desktop Services allow for a consistent user experience in a distributed computing environment. UPDs utilize Hyper-V VHDX technology to ensure a user’s profile and data is available for their use regardless of which session host the connection broker directs the client to.

User Profile Disks replace the more well known roaming profile and folder redirection solutions. UPDs are easier to manage and use, for the most part. However, they occasionally become orphaned which requires an administrator to dismount the virtual disk. Unfortunately, this can be easier said than done. There isn’t a direct way to perform this function in the RDS Server Manager.

If you search the web for “find user profile disk”, you will inevitably encounter the Sidder app. This tool was a godsend when it was released during the 2012 era. Just download the app, double click the .exe, browse to the location of your UPDs, and a popup lists each user’s mounted virtual hard disk.

The Sidder App

The Sidder app worked great in its time, but in today’s remote work environments most RDS farms have more than a single session host and multiple UPD storage locations. Searching them all one at a time is tedious. PowerShell to the rescue. The code below will prompt for a username, just enter the name part, the domain will be added automatically. You’ll need to run it from an RDS server or a workstation with the RDS RSAT loaded.

 $UserToFind = Read-Host "Enter Username (e.g. firstname.lastname)?"
 $User = $env:USERDOMAIN + '\' + $UserToFind
 $RDCollection = Get-RDSessionCollection
 $RDHosts = Get-RDSessionHost -CollectionName $RDCollection.CollectionName | select SessionHost
  
 $Array = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $RDHosts.SessionHost -ScriptBlock {Get-Disk | select Location,DiskNumber | where {($_.Location -notmatch "Integrated") -and ($_.Location -notlike "PCI Slot *")}}
  
 $UPDs = @()
  
 foreach ($VHD in $Array){
 $DiskID = (Get-Item $VHD.Location).Name.Substring(5).Split(".")[0]
 $objSID = New-Object System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier ($DiskID)
 $objUser = $objSID.Translate( [System.Security.Principal.NTAccount])
   if ($objUser.Value -eq $User){
    $UPDs += "$($objUser.Value) has user disk number $($VHD.DiskNumber) on $($VHD.PSComputername)"
   } 
 }
 If ($UPDS -ne $null) {$UPDs}
 Else {"$User does not have any user profile disks mounted in RDS"}
 pause

This version will list all of the user profile disks in the RDS farm.

 $RDCollection = Get-RDSessionCollection
 $RDHosts = Get-RDSessionHost -CollectionName $RDCollection.CollectionName | select SessionHost
  
 $Array = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $RDHosts.SessionHost -ScriptBlock {Get-Disk | select Location,DiskNumber | where {($_.Location -notmatch "Integrated") -and ($_.Location -notlike "PCI Slot *")}}
  
 $UPDs = @()
  
 foreach ($VHD in $Array){
 $DiskID = (Get-Item $VHD.Location).Name.Substring(5).Split(".")[0]
 $objSID = New-Object System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier ($DiskID)
 $objUser = $objSID.Translate( [System.Security.Principal.NTAccount])
 $UPDs += "$($objUser.Value) has user disk number $($VHD.DiskNumber) on $($VHD.PSComputername)"
   }
 $UPDs

Oculus Quest Adds Native Bluetooth Headphones Support

November 2, 2020November 1, 2020Posted in GamingTagged Oculus Quest3 Comments

Ever since I first put on my Oculus Quest and jumped into a VR game, I’ve wished that I could pair my noise cancelling earbuds with it. The sound system built into Facebook’s virtual reality goggles sounds pretty good, but it isn’t quite loud enough to fully overcome the amount of ambient noise that it lets through. Facebook included audio jacks on the Quest and Quest 2 and it does solve the problem, but who wants to plug cables into their fancy wireless headset?

A few days ago we wondered what would happen if we tried to pair my son’s Air Pod Pros to his Quest. To our surprise they paired up and worked perfectly, even the microphone was supported. What’s more, is that they sounded fantastic. There is a slight lag that is worse if you are streaming a game from your PC.

To be sure we hadn’t experienced some type of fluke, I grabbed my Quest 2 and paired my MPOW X3 earphones to it. Again, they paired up without issue and worked perfectly. I went on to try several other Bluetooth headsets that I had lying about. All but one worked and those wouldn’t pair to my phone either.

Both of our Quests are running OS version 21 and are in development mode, but I don’t think it is required. To pair your earphones just go to Settings and then to Experimental Features to access the Bluetooth pairing option.