{"id":1362,"date":"2022-09-03T12:51:09","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T12:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vrlowdown.com\/?p=1362"},"modified":"2022-09-03T12:51:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T12:51:10","slug":"how-to-play-half-life-alyx-on-oculus-quest-2-without-a-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vrlowdown.com\/how-to-play-half-life-alyx-on-oculus-quest-2-without-a-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Play Half Life Alyx On Oculus Quest 2 Without A PC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you’ve got an Oculus (Meta) Quest 2 and you want to play games such as Half-Life: Alyx, you need to connect to a VR-ready PC via a Link cable or Air Link. However, if you don’t have a PC, or if yours doesn’t have the hardware to run Half-Life: Alyx, you may think that you’re out of luck. The good news is there is a great way to play Half-Life: Alyx on Oculus Quest 2 without a PC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best way to play Half-Life: Alyx without a PC is to connect your Quest 2 wirelessly to a cloud PC service and use Steam VR on this virtual computer. Plutosphere is a VR-focused cloud PC service that I have successfully used to play Half-Life: Alyx without a PC. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is going to explain the steps you’ll need to take to play Half-Life: Alyx on your Quest 2 without a PC, and also discuss the other ways to play this game on your Quest 2 VR headset. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How
Half-Life: Alyx is one of the best PC VR games, and you can now play it on Quest 2 without needing a VR-ready PC.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

What Are The Options For Playing Half-Life: Alyx on Meta Quest 2?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are three main options to play Half-Life Alyx on Quest 2, but the first two require you to have a VR-ready PC. It’s the third option in this list that you’re going to learn about in this article. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. You can connect your Quest 2 to a VR-ready PC with an Air Link cable or suitable third-party cable. This creates a physical connection between your Quest 2 and your computer and allows you to play PCVR games in the same way that you would with a Rift headset or other PC-VR headset. <\/li>
  2. You can connect wirelessly to a VR-ready PC with Oculus Air Link or Virtual Desktop. This creates a wireless connection in place of a wired connection and works surprisingly well. Air Link is my preferred method for playing PC-VR games with my Quest 2 headset. <\/li>
  3. The third option is to connect your Quest 2 headset to a cloud PC service and use this remote PC to provide the graphical processing required to play Half-Life: Alyx, and other SteamVR games. The most popular options are Plutosphere and Shadow.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How To Use A Cloud PC Service To Play Half-Life: Alyx on Quest 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Whilst there are a number of cloud PC services that can be used for VR gaming, the one I prefer to use is Plutosphere. This is a VR-focused cloud PC service, which makes it easy to use Steam and start playing your games as quickly as possible. The rest of this article will explain how you can use Plutosphere to play Half-Life: Alyx on Quest 2 without a PC, and I’ll share my thoughts about the pros and cons of this service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I should note that this article is completely independent of Plutosphere, or any other service, and it simply represents my experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What Is Plutosphere?<\/h2>\n\n\n
    \n
    \"Plutosphere
    Plutosphere is a VR-focused cloud PC service<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

    Plutosphere is a cloud PC service that is focused on providing standalone VR headset users a way to connect to a gaming PC to play PC-VR content. It’s available to use around the world thanks to a wide variety of hardware locations that provide a low latency connection to your cloud PC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It is a paid-for service, but you can either pay by the hour (currently between $1.5 and $2\/hour) or pay for a monthly subscription that provides you with permanent cloud storage and 20 hours of playtime per month, with the option to buy more time as needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Considering that a VR-ready PC will cost upwards of $1500, the ability to pay a relatively low fee on a pay-as-you-go basis is pretty appealing. Being able to offload the demanding graphical processing that many PC VR titles require<\/a><\/strong> is a great option if you don’t have the required hardware available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Plutosphere generally works very well, but it will be highly dependent on your location and hardware. Performance is generally good but is less suitable for games that require twitch reflexes such as rhythm games<\/a><\/strong> and FPS titles, due to the increased input lag, and very graphically intensive games that can struggle on the available hardware of cloud PCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let’s run through the process for getting set up with Plutosphere so you can get playing. You can either use a PC or you can use an Android or iOS mobile device to complete the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step By Step Guide To Playing Half-Life: Alyx On Quest 2 Without A PC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Please follow these steps carefully. There are a few things that you need to do in the correct order, so pay attention to avoid issues. Once you have the process figured out, it’s very simple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here are the things you’ll need to do to get started:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. You need a\u00a0Meta\/Oculus Quest 2 (or Quest).<\/li>
    2. You must have a\u00a0Steam account<\/a><\/strong>.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>
    3. You need a Wifi-6 (AX) or 5ghz (AC) wireless network with 50mbps minimum download speed.<\/li>
    4. You need a ping of less than 75ms to an Amazon Web Services (AWS) server. (Test your ping here<\/strong><\/a>).<\/li>
    5. You must have SideQuest<\/a><\/strong> installed on your Quest 2. Instructions for doing this are outlined below.<\/li>
    6. You need an iOS or Android device with the SideQuest app on it, or a computer with SideQuest installed on it.<\/li>
    7. <\/a>You must sign up to use Plutosphere<\/a><\/strong>.<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      This may sound like a lot, but it’s a fairly simple process, and once you’re everything set up, you can play a wide range of games. Assuming that you have met the technical requirements of having a Quest device, a Steam account, a suitable WiFi connection and download speed, and your ping is less than 75ms, the first step is to set up SideQuest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Step 1 – Install SideQuest<\/h3>\n\n\n
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      \"Use
      Download and install SideQuest from the SideQuest website.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n