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Oculus Quest 2 to get wireless gameplay from Air Link

Experimental wireless connectivity is one of a handful of new features announced by the VR headset maker.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Steven Musil
2 min read
Oculus Quest 2

The Oculus Quest 2 is getting ready to cut the cable.

 Scott Stein/CNET

Being tethered to your PC by a cable while playing a VR game can be limiting and spoil the immersive experience. The latest software update for Oculus Quest 2 VR headset aims to fix that with a new feature called Oculus Air Link.

The new streaming technology, announced on Tuesday, allows gamers to dump the traditional cable connecting their headset and PC, relying instead on your home Wi-Fi -- as long as you have a strong connection. The feature is rolling out in experimental mode on the v28 update, but Oculus cautions that not every network and PC setup will be ideal for the intended experience and recommends using a secure 5Ghz Wi-Fi network connected via ethernet cable to your computer.

Because Air Link requires both the headset and PC to be running v28, the company said it will unlock the feature when both the Quest and PC v28 releases gradually roll out.

Oculus is also adding more functionality to Infinite Office, the VR workspace environment it unveiled last year. Launching as an experimental feature on the Quest platform, physical surface integration will allow you to place a virtual desk on real furniture so you can use it while in your Oculus Home environment.

Another experimental feature coming to Infinite Office is physical keyboard tracking, which presents a 3D representation of your hands and keyboard within VR while you type at your physical desk. At least initially, this feature will require the Quest 2 to be paired with a Logitech K830 keyboard, although support for more keyboards is expected in the future.

The software update will also beef up the Quest 2's display refresh rate, with the goal of creating a smoother gameplay experience. Quest 2 currently runs at 90 Hz by default, but gamers will soon have the option to enable a 120 Hz display refresh rate on Quest 2.

"While there aren't any apps that support 120 Hz just yet, people who turn on this setting will experience 120 Hz performance in apps that choose to support it in the future," Oculus said in a statement.