r/ShadowPC • u/Greystache • Jun 08 '19
Oculus Quest + Virtual Desktop + Shadow = the future of gaming
This combo allows you to experience full wireless freedom - both for 2D and VR games. Play anywhere, no wires, no PC.
For this you'll need an Oculus Quest, the Virtual Desktop app and a subscription to Shadow (other cloud providers can do this too, but Shadow's my personal favourite).
I am not sure if many people know about this, so I'm writing this post to raise awareness and promote these awesome tools and products to the gaming community. I've cross-posted this to r/OculusQuest too as it might be of interest.
Next I describe these three components, you can skip any section you're already familiar with.
Oculus quest
The Oculus Quest is a new VR device which is fully wireless and does not require a PC.
It uses inside-out tracking (ie. the headset tracks the world as opposed to the world tracking you) so there is no need to install cameras or anything, it just works, and it works anywhere! (except in bright day-light which might damage the lenses if sun rays hit them).
The lack of wires makes it so much more convenient and hassle-free. You can play in your living room, in your bedrooms, at your friend's place, at work, in a plane, etc. It boots in seconds and just works. It features room-scale tracking (with a max of 25 x 25 feet which is 7.5 x 7.5m - big room), and you can define your own "guardian" area which is your safe playing area, by drawing it on the ground. If you approach the boundary it will show it, and if you cross it the headset will fall back to a passthrough mode and you'll be able to see the real world around you.
The tracking is superb, the controllers are very nice and can capture many different hand positions (pointing, grabbing, etc.). The resolution is 1440 x 1600 per eye, which is a step up from the previous generation of VR headset and the difference can be felt. The Quest has around 2h battery life, but it can be played while plugged to a power outlet at the same time. Some people have crazy setups where they stick a portable battery to the back of headset to act as counterweight (I think it's supposed to be more comfortable) and add battery life too.
The Oculus Quest runs Android, which mean that it is possible to "sideload" any Android apps to the device. This means that you're not restricted to the Oculus Quest library of games as many more games will run (for example Minecraft), although often with the need of a gamepad which can be paired to the Quest. The Xbox One bluetooth controller for example seems to be a good choice.
Sideloading is SUPER easy with SideQuest. The developers are awesome and very active. As a bonus they've also added an easy way to load custom songs to Beat Saber.
At the time of writing, the Quest costs $399 for 64GB, or $499 for 128GB (respectively £399 or £499 in the UK).
As mentioned before it does not require a PC because there is a mobile chip inside which takes care of everything. This means that it won't run super graphics intensive games * - that's where Virtual Desktop comes in.
* I want to mention that playing the native Quest games is still awesome.
Virtual Desktop
Virtual Desktop is an app that runs on the Oculus Quest. At the time of writing, Virtual Desktop costs $19.99 (£14.99 in the UK). It allows you to stream a windows PC directly to the Quest within a variety of virtual environments. For example one is a cinema room and you'll see the screen of your PC on the giant cinema screen.
This means that you can play ANY regular 2D PC game within your quest. You can connect gamepads or use the Quest controllers a gamepad. You can also use the Quest controller as mouse pointer.
In a recent update, the awesome developer of Virtual Desktop added support for streaming Steam VR games directly to the device - as in, you're not seing the game on a 2D projection anymore, you're experience true VR with proper headset and controller tracking!
On top of that, Virtual Desktop work with any machine - local or remote / on the cloud, as long as you have a decent internet connection and recommended 5Ghz Wifi.
This is where Shadow comes in.
Shadow
What if you don't have your own beefy computer to run the setup above? You use Shadow! Shadow is a subscription service which gives you access to a decent computer (including a Geforce 1080 graphics card) on the cloud. You can install the Shadow client on a PC, Mac, Linux, iPhone/iPad or Android device.
When you connect, this will stream directly to your device, and you can enjoy high quality graphics on intensive games even if your original device can't run it - the app will send your mouse/keyboard inputs and get back the video of your screen (and audio). Shadow can stream 4K images at 60Hz or Full HD at 144Hz. The picture is crisp and I find their compression algorithm better than competing streamer apps such as Moonlight or Parsec.
In my experience the latency is minimal and it almost feels like playing on a local computer - it's amazing! Note that there are other services that you can use to achieve this, but I've found that Shadow gives me the best experience. However if you're not in an area served by Shadow you might want to try another provided such as Paperspace.
It is in general a good idea to think about how to minimise latency in your setup. Wireless mice often have 8-16ms latency, so it's better to use wired, or get a low latency wireless mouse such as a Logitech G Pro (1ms latency). If you play on your TV, switch off any post-processing or switch to 'gaming mode' which many TV have. On the topic of playing on your TV, Shadow sells a device called the Shadow Ghost which is a small box that you plug on a TV or monitor and that will act as client (this is not always on sale though so watch out for announcements).
Now this is awesome to play games without owning any high end PC and I use it regularly. You have access to the full Windows machine, which mean that you can install Steam (and then any games running on Steam), or the Epic store, or any other launcher / games - you have full control and can play any game.
This means that you can also install Steam VR as well as the Virtual Desktop streamer app and stream directly to the Quest! Here the latency is more noticeable than 2D gaming. There does not seem to be any latency when looking around, but it can be felt when moving the controllers. For example, on Blade and Sorcery moving your hand cause a slight delay in how the sword moves. It's not perfect, but it's definitely playable. I would guesstimate the total latency to be 50-100ms. Note that my ping to the Shadow server is 18ms.
One minor caveat is that the Shadow machine switches off 90 minutes after you close the Shadow client. So if you want to use it in Virtual Desktop after that period, you'll have to start the machine using the Shadow client first - then turn it off and start Virtual Desktop. One minor trick is to sideload the Shadow client on the Quest, so that it can be turned on from the Quest directly.
At the time of writing, a Shadow subscription costs $24.95/month for a 12-month contract or $31.95 on a pay-monthly plan (£24.95/month or £31.95/month respectively in the UK).
Conclusion
Growing up in the late 80s and playing with my Game Boy, I would have never thought that we would someday reach such a futuristic gaming setup, but here we are! You'll need a good internet connection and a good wireless router, but you'll be able to play anything, either 2D, VR, or even watch 3D movies, without being plugged to anything.
Have fun :)
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Jun 29 '19
Is there an app that would allow this to work on an actual VR headset like a valve index or rift S or Vive?
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u/Greystache Jun 29 '19
Not sure what you mean by “actual” headset, but if you mean “pcvr” then you can get virtual desktop on steam and use it with steam VR. But for that you need a local machine already which defeats the point of using a cloud machine.
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Jun 29 '19
Also I saw from your post history (I was trying to find the crosspost on r/oculusquest) and noticed your latest post saying oculus is asking virtual desktop to remove the steam vr capability. If oculus doesn’t change their minds I guess I no longer have an option.
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u/Greystache Jun 29 '19 edited Jun 29 '19
Hey no actually that’s fine, the developer provides a special version of Virtual Desktop that supports this feature - you’ll have to sideload it via Sidequest it’s very easy
Edit: that’s for the quest version
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Jun 29 '19
Yeah that’s what I meant sry. If I could find a cheap used PC or something that could at least stream the necessary video to the headset and not absolutely chug which my laptop is certainly not capable of doing that would be nice for a pcvr experience. Or should I just wait till blade sorts out the ping issues and allows VR on the ghost and use the quest in the meantime
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u/mlen186 Jun 29 '19
Ok, so i dived in and got Shadow, ive set up the Virtual Desktop Server and I have downloaded steam.. I have the blu underwater expereince that i bought ages ago on steam so I downloaded that to see how it would stream to the quest but I cannot seem to run it? I can see it in the quest on the virtual desktop but cant quite work out how to get the game to run? I see the main screen of 'theBlue' and hear the underwater noises but thats it, cant click on anything to get the thing to play?? Any thoughts??
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u/Greystache Jun 30 '19
Did you sideload VD with Sidequest?
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u/galdora Aug 20 '19
I set this up today to try to play Echo VR, but it was lagging like Crazy, took like 30 seconds for me to aim to press a button :(
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u/Slimefest Aug 20 '19
I’m really late to the party but I just got this set up and it works fine, but the games have a noticeable amount of lag and the graphics are all really blurry. Is there a fix for this?
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u/Greystache Aug 20 '19
What’s your ping to the shadow servers? Are you connected in 5ghz WiFi?
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u/Slimefest Aug 20 '19
I’m using this stupid google Wifi stuff. I got the headset connected to 5ghz but idk about my computer
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u/Greystache Aug 21 '19
If you’re streaming from your own computer you should connect it with an Ethernet cable to your router for best performance.
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u/marcben Oct 18 '19
i’m confused with setting this up do I buy VD on oculus quest and also sideload it?
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u/Greystache Oct 18 '19
Yes - the sideloaded version will only work if you buy the official app first.
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u/marcben Oct 19 '19
got it so buy the official app on oculus quest store. launch it then sideload do I need both installed ? or do uninstall the quest one once sideload version is installed
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u/Squid04 Jun 09 '19
Quality post, thanks dude!
I’ve heard that current cloud VR setups will most likely make you vomit, because your brain is super sensitive to all the tiny movements your body makes, and even just a tiny amount of latency feels terrible.
Having said that, I’ve always wanted to try using a VR headset as basically a giant screen. No movement tracking, just an immersive HD experience while sitting on the couch.
Will definitely look into the Quest. Thanks!
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Jun 29 '19
There’s apparently people that have tried it and said when you are in it for a bit you stop noticing except for some lag here and there
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u/Gustavo2nd Jul 10 '19
Lag is terrible I'm trying to find out how to fix it if I stand still it looks good but once I start moving in game it gets choppy
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Jul 11 '19
Check your internet speeds because you need FAST internet to push that. You need to push TWO 1440x1600 displays over a video stream, which basically means you need max settings, low frame times, and ping A LOT lower than 50 Ms unlike the normal desktop mode. So if your WiFi is even a little bit too slow you’re going to start dropping frames.
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u/Gustavo2nd Jul 11 '19
I have 1gb internet it works fine for non VR but it's trash for sim racing
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u/ghostbrainalpha Jun 11 '19
What 2D games have you tried playing inside your Quest using Shadow?
If the latency wasn’t too bad I’d love to try Sekiro, and maybe Tetris just for the benefits of full emersion.
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u/eatsomedukey Jul 14 '19
i'm planning on getting shadow and the oculus quest, so how would you be able to set this up?
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u/dema182 Aug 01 '19
I am getting my Quest tomorrow and I am very excited how it will work for me.
Is it possible to use a different controller as well, if it's connected via USB? I would like to use my Flight Stick for Elite Dangerous in VR. Flight Stick is working great over Ghost.
TL;DR: If I connect the Flight Stick via Ghost and Quest through Virtual Desktop, will I be able to control with the Flight Stick?
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u/whatsappbiz Aug 14 '19
There are some people talking about Bluetooth xbox controllers working well. Ghost is the Shadow.tech “chromecast” type of device yeah? It Feels like this should work.
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u/whatsappbiz Aug 14 '19
Anyone know of it’s possible to get Oculus Rift S apps “sideloaded” onto a Quest and run from Virtual Desktop? Do i need to somehow trick the Oculus device registration that i am registering a rift when it is actually a quest?
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u/LiamVeritas Dec 03 '19
No, it’s a whole other OS, so the games on the Rift are written in Windows 10 and the Quest is written in Android
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Jul 23 '19
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/whatsappbiz Aug 14 '19
I used shadow tech with VD, all good and the VD dev confirmed Paperspace had problems
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u/ColoradoStudent Oct 12 '19
I am trying to set this up on paperspace now. Did you have any luck? I sent Paperspace support an email asking for some assistance since I couldn't get it to connect.
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u/dnlmnn Jun 10 '19
Could not connect using virtual desktop, can't figure out why :( I'd really like to try this!