SteamVR 2.8 adds hand tracking for Meta Quest users (and we tested it)
Steam's recent update for SteamVR – 2.8 – "adds support for hand tracking pass-through in Steam Link for Meta Quest."
As the virtual reality enthusiasts among our readers likely know, SteamVR (Steam Link) is one of the big three ways you can use your Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 or Meta Quest 3S as PC VR headsets. PC VR itself means virtual reality games made to run on a computer, usually a powerful one, and unavailable on the Quest headset alone.
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To take advantage of this new SteamVR feature you need to enable hand tracking and body tracking on your Quest 2, Quest 3 or Quest 3S, then launch the Steam Link app. If you don't have this app, you can download it from the Meta Quest app store from your headset.
After launching it, if Steam is running on your computer, and both it and your Quest are on the same network, you should see the option to connect the two. Afterwards (or beforehand) just put down the controllers, and your hands will start serving as sort of mouse pointers.
Indeed, you don't actually get some cool virtual hands in SteamVR, as you do on the Quest standalone, just two cursors where your hands are in 3D space, so it's a bit clunky, but hey – it's functional.
Doesn't matter too much either, as once you launch a PC VR game that supports hand tracking, such as Half-Life: Alyx, you will, obviously, have your hands represented in it, and can enjoy the full experience without controllers, as God intended. Okay, as Valve did, at least.
In our experience, this is already working really well, and is yet another new thing Quest users who own a gaming PC may want to try out. And yet another reason we can recommend Half-Life: Alyx.
Still, Virtual Desktop remains my personal favorite Quest PC VR solution, as I don't play games that necessarily use hand tracking, nor do I find it a better solution than using tried and tested controllers, but there's no arguing Steam Link and Steam VR are getting better and better. And are likely the easiest, most convenient solution for most Quest users interested in PC VR gaming.
As the virtual reality enthusiasts among our readers likely know, SteamVR (Steam Link) is one of the big three ways you can use your Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 or Meta Quest 3S as PC VR headsets. PC VR itself means virtual reality games made to run on a computer, usually a powerful one, and unavailable on the Quest headset alone.
To take advantage of this new SteamVR feature you need to enable hand tracking and body tracking on your Quest 2, Quest 3 or Quest 3S, then launch the Steam Link app. If you don't have this app, you can download it from the Meta Quest app store from your headset.
Indeed, you don't actually get some cool virtual hands in SteamVR, as you do on the Quest standalone, just two cursors where your hands are in 3D space, so it's a bit clunky, but hey – it's functional.
Doesn't matter too much either, as once you launch a PC VR game that supports hand tracking, such as Half-Life: Alyx, you will, obviously, have your hands represented in it, and can enjoy the full experience without controllers, as God intended. Okay, as Valve did, at least.
Still, Virtual Desktop remains my personal favorite Quest PC VR solution, as I don't play games that necessarily use hand tracking, nor do I find it a better solution than using tried and tested controllers, but there's no arguing Steam Link and Steam VR are getting better and better. And are likely the easiest, most convenient solution for most Quest users interested in PC VR gaming.
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