GameVRoom Solves Virtual Desktop’s Biggest Problem
The weird thing about using Virtual Desktop in VR is that you have to sit in front of a real desktop when you use it. I’m sitting at my desk in my normal chair like I always do, my hands are on my keyboard like always, but I’m wearing headphones and looking at a virtual version of my real monitor, one that’s harder to read. thanks to the Quest 2’s low resolution. I can see how it could help some people reduce distractions around them, and the ability to resize the screen and have it follow your eyes are nice benefits, but it’s never been worth the effort. pain. for me. I paid a lot for myself ultra-wide Samsung Odyssey G9and I don’t see the point of looking at a simulation when the real thing is here.
However, the GameVRoom app on Steam makes me wonder. Instead of using a controller or mouse and keyboard to interact with Remote Desktop, GameVRoom allows you to link the buttons on your Quest 2 controllers to your Steam games. Its function is quite simple, but it opens up a lot of gameplay opportunities. Now, I can play my entire Steam library in VR anywhere I want. I can sit on the couch, lie on the bed, or jump into the bathtub, and I have a full, customizable view of my desktop and an easy way to control my games.
The app has a fairly intuitive system for assigning your keys to Quest 2 controllers. It takes a lot of cues from the Steam Controller and tries to make launching as easy as possible by providing a database of user-created configuration options. There are default maps to choose from based on the genre of game you’re playing, but if someone else has come up with a specific layout that works best for your game, you don’t have to fiddle with the settings yourself, yourself. you can only use yours. GameVRoom is only in Early Access, and it’s a pretty specialized app, so as you can imagine, there aren’t many custom control schemes yet. Fortunately, the default ones worked fine for most of the games I played.
While it’s possible to pair a controller to your Quest 2 and play desktop games remotely, it can be cumbersome to manipulate multiple controllers while wearing headphones, and the Bluetooth connection puts a lot of strain on the battery. GameVRoom solves those problems and offers a lot more customization. Not only can you map controller buttons to VR controllers, but you can also emulate a mouse by dragging the right controller. You can also create pose actions and gestures to replace key combinations. Instead of pressing A to swing a sword, you can move the controller, or instead of pressing a trigger to accelerate a motorcycle, you can twist your wrist to simulate twisting the throttle. You can also create virtual buttons and place them anywhere you want in the virtual environment, then simply reach out and physically press the button. If you’re willing to spend time playing with it, it can create some really unique ways to interact with games.
It was a lot to understand (and hands on), and I struggled to adjust to using the Quest 2 controller as a mouse. I think it’s something I could get used to, but after a lifetime of playing with a mouse and keyboard, many of these control options were hard to come by. It’s one thing to move in a VR game in a semi-natural way, but playing something that wasn’t designed for VR, like Midnight Suns or Monster Hunter Rise, with motion controls isn’t easy. Even moving the mouse to look around in a shooter like Doom Eternal felt weird and unnatural at first, but I eventually got the hang of it.
I also had difficulty getting the software to work without overloading the Quest 2 and my PC. To play a game via GameVRoom only, you must first stream your PC to the headset via the Oculus App using Airlink, then launch the SteamVR interface, then launch GameVRoom from within SteamVR, then launch your chosen game from within GameVRoom . All of those layers of processing pretty much gave my PC a heart attack, and I found that streaming games on my ultrawide 5120×1440 monitor was completely out of the question. I eventually got it running pretty stable by freeing up my processor and memory as much as possible and limiting my resolution, but it took a lot of trial and error to get it working.
It will never replace the games on my desktop, but the GameVRoom features have been fun to play with. One thing I haven’t had a chance to try out yet is its multiplayer mode, which allows you and your friends to play non-VR games in split-screen couch co-op, in VR. I use Steam Remote Play often to play couch co-op games with my friends, and I like the idea of a little extra immersion where we all sit together in a virtual room to play Overcooked or Unrailed. There’s a lot of potential for a truly remote desktop experience like this, and the developers at GameVRoom have already implemented some really nifty ideas into the app.
GameVRoom launched in early access on Steam last month. You can get more information on this at your steam pageand you can join your official Discord server to ask questions and make suggestions for future development.