Oculus Link
More actions
| Oculus Link | |
|---|---|
| |
| Basic Info | |
| VR/AR | Virtual reality |
| Type | Accessory |
| Developer | Meta Platforms (announced under the Oculus brand of Facebook) |
| Announcement Date | 25 September 2019 |
| Release Date | 18 November 2019 (beta software); official cable December 2019 (limited quantities) |
| Price | US$79.99 (Meta Quest Link Cable, Meta Store, September 2026) |
| Requires | A Meta Quest headset and a Windows PC that meets Meta's Link requirements |
| Connectivity | |
| Connectivity | USB-C cable (USB 3); Wi-Fi through Air Link |
| Device | |
| Dimensions | Official cable: 5 m (16 ft) long, 4.6 mm outer diameter |
| Weight | Official cable: 224 g |
| Material | Official cable: fiber optic (USB active optical cable), TPU exterior |
Oculus Link is a feature and accessory cable from Meta Platforms (announced under Facebook's Oculus brand) that connects a standalone Quest headset to a Windows PC so the headset can run PC VR software. The PC renders each frame, compresses it and sends it to the headset over a USB cable, and the headset decodes and displays it.[1]
Facebook announced Oculus Link at Oculus Connect 6 on 25 September 2019 and released the software in beta on 18 November 2019.[2][3] A wireless mode, Air Link, followed in April 2021.[4] Its PC app was later renamed twice: the Oculus PC app became the Meta Quest Link app in 2024, and Meta renamed that app Meta Horizon Link in its build 83.0 release in late 2025.[5][6]
Overview
Oculus Link allows an Oculus Quest or Quest 2 (and, in its current form, later Quest headsets) to connect to a PC. This expands the library of games available on these stand-alone VR headsets. It turns these Standalone VR headsets into PC-Powered VR headsets similar to the original Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.[7]
Using Oculus Link requires a Link-compatible cable and the Oculus PC app (since renamed Meta Horizon Link). This also enables Rift content to be played on Quest devices.[7][6]
Facebook sold its own branded Oculus Link cable (USB-C, fiber-optic), 16 ft (5 m) long; Meta now sells it as the Meta Quest Link Cable. However, Oculus Link also works with a "high-quality" USB 3 cable, and Oculus reported testing Anker's cable internally with good results; the cable has to carry both the data and the power that VR requires. Oculus recommended a cable of approximately 3 m (10 ft) for comfortable play.[8]
Information on setting up Oculus Link is available through Oculus Support.[9]
Announcement and release
Facebook presented Oculus Link at Oculus Connect 6 (part of the conference series now called Meta Connect) on 25 September 2019 as a way for Quest owners with a gaming PC to use Rift Platform content. The company said it would release the software in beta that November, that it would work with "most high-quality USB-C cables", and that it would later release a premium cable with "maximum throughput to run Rift content and a longer cord so you can move easily in VR".[2]
The beta went live on 18 November 2019. Quest owners could plug the headset into a USB 3 port on a PC and then use the Oculus desktop app as a Rift owner would, including Oculus Home and Dash. Oculus said it would use the beta period to test and validate graphics cards, and AMD GPUs were not supported at the start.[3] UploadVR listed the launch requirements as Quest firmware version 11.0 or higher and Oculus PC app version 1.43 or higher. At the beta launch the supported NVIDIA cards were the Titan X, GTX 1070, GTX 1080, 16-series and RTX 20-series. UploadVR also found that SteamVR content could be used with the Link beta, and noted that developers could opt their Rift titles out of Link support.[10]
Oculus said the official cable would first be sold in limited quantities in select regions in 2019, with more regions in 2020.[3] By 8 January 2020, UploadVR reported, it was available in all 22 countries where Facebook sold the Quest. At the time UploadVR noted that no compatible third-party cables were longer than 3 meters.[11]
Timeline
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 25 September 2019 | Oculus Link announced at Oculus Connect 6[2] |
| 18 November 2019 | Link software released in beta for Oculus Quest[3] |
| December 2019 - January 2020 | Official 5 m fiber-optic Link cable released, first in limited quantities, then in all Quest markets[11] |
| November 2020 | Version 23 software: Quest 2 Link at 72, 80 or 90 Hz; Link leaves beta[12][13] |
| April 2021 | Version 28: Air Link wireless mode added as an experimental feature for Quest 2[4] |
| March 2024 | Oculus PC app renamed Meta Quest Link; 120 Hz Link on Meta Quest 3[5] |
| October-November 2024 | Casting and remote desktop merged into the Meta Quest Link PC app[14] |
| Late 2025 | Build 83.0: Meta Quest Link app renamed Meta Horizon Link[6] |
How it works
Meta engineers Volga Aksoy, Irad Ratmansky and Amanda Watson described Link's design in a November 2019 developer blog post. The Oculus PC runtime renders the application's frames, encodes the eye textures with H.264 video compression and sends the images as slices over USB. A streaming client on the Quest decodes each frame, rectifies it and submits it to the headset's compositor, acting as a proxy for the PC application; in the other direction it sends head position, input state and display timing back to the PC.[1]
To reduce the amount of video data, Link uses a technique the engineers call AADT (axis-aligned distortion transmission). Instead of sending undistorted eye buffers, the PC applies a distortion separately along each axis. In their example, eye buffers of 3616 x 2000 are sent as 2016 x 1120, which they said saves "close to 70% of the video codec budget" while keeping detail in the center of the view. The pipeline also uses Asynchronous Timewarp and estimates end-to-end latency so that frames are shown at the correct time.[1]
Refresh rates and later updates
With the version 23 software for Quest 2 and the Oculus PC app in November 2020, Link could run at 72, 80 or 90 Hz, and users could adjust the render resolution. Road to VR reported that 72 Hz worked over USB 2, while 80 Hz and 90 Hz required a USB 3 cable and port.[12] Oculus announced in the same update that Link was leaving beta, about a year after its launch.[13]
Air Link, added in version 28 in April 2021, streams the same PC content over Wi-Fi instead of a cable. Oculus launched it as an experimental Quest 2 feature and said the wired Link would "continue to offer the best quality and most reliable experience".[4]
A March 2024 PC software update renamed the Oculus PC app to Meta Quest Link, raised the maximum Link refresh rate on Meta Quest 3 from 90 Hz to 120 Hz, added support for NVIDIA 40-series graphics cards and introduced USB Link Auto-Connect, which starts Link automatically when the headset is plugged in by USB-C. Meta said Air Link power use fell by about 30 percent, which Road to VR put at roughly 1.5 hours of play rising to about 2.2 hours.[5] In October 2024 Meta began folding its separate casting and remote desktop tools into the same Windows app, first in the Public Test Channel and then in the stable release by November 2024.[14]
The Meta Quest build 83.0 release notes, for an update rolling out from the week of 24 November 2025, state that the "Meta Quest Link App is now Meta Horizon Link".[6] Meta's help pages now describe two connection methods: Link over a USB-C cable and Air Link over Wi-Fi, with a 5 GHz network preferred.[15]
Official cable
The official Oculus Link cable is a 5 m (16 ft) fiber-optic cable. Oculus's product page listed an outer diameter of 4.6 mm, a weight of 224 g and a "full featured USB active optical cable, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C", with a right-angle USB Type-C connector at the headset end and a straight Type-C connector at the PC end. The cable also powers the headset while it transfers data, provided the PC's USB-C port supplies enough current.[7] UploadVR reported that it carries the full 5 Gbit/s of the USB 3.0 specification over 5 meters along with 3 A of power, and that the fiber-optic design makes it about half the weight of a copper cable and more flexible.[11]
As of September 2026, Meta sells the cable as the Meta Quest Link Cable for US$79.99 and lists it as compatible with the Quest 3S, Quest 3, Quest Pro and Quest 2.[16] Meta's setup guide asks for a USB-C 3.2 cable for wired Link.[15]
PC requirements
Meta's current requirements page for Meta Horizon Link lists the following minimum specifications:[17]
| Component | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10, Windows 11 |
| Processor | Intel i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater |
| Memory | 8 GB+ RAM |
| USB | 1x USB port |
| Graphics | Listed NVIDIA and AMD cards; Intel Arc GPUs and workstation cards are not currently supported |
The supported graphics card list has changed over time. The beta launched with NVIDIA support only, and the March 2024 update added the NVIDIA 40-series.[3][5] A Road to VR requirements guide updated in July 2026 covers Horizon Link and Air Link for the Quest, Quest 2, Quest Pro, Quest 3 and Quest 3S, and recommends connecting the PC to the router by Ethernet and using a 5 GHz Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 connection for Air Link.[18]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Volga Aksoy, Irad Ratmansky, Amanda Watson (2019-11-22). "How does Oculus Link Work? The Architecture, Pipeline and AADT Explained". Meta Horizon OS Developers Blog. Meta Platforms. https://developers.meta.com/horizon/blog/how-does-oculus-link-work-the-architecture-pipeline-and-aadt-explained/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Oculus Connect 6: Introducing Hand Tracking on Oculus Quest, Facebook Horizon and More". Meta Newsroom. Meta Platforms. 2019-09-25. https://about.fb.com/news/2019/09/introducing-hand-tracking-on-oculus-quest-facebook-horizon-and-more/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Scott Hayden (2019-11-18). "Oculus Releases Beta Support for Link, Turning Quest into a PC VR Headset". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-beta-support-link-quest/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ben Lang (2021-04-14). "Quest 2 to Get Air Link for Wireless PC VR, 120Hz Refresh, Keyboard & Desk Tracking". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-quest-2-update-v28-air-link-wireless-120hz-refresh-desk-keyboard-trakcing/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Scott Hayden (2024-03-07). "Meta Updates Quest Link with 120Hz on Quest 3 and Big Battery Savings for All". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/meta-quest-link-update-120hz-battery/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "2025 Meta Quest release notes". Quest Help. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/help/quest/1143157924428593/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Oculus Link Cable - Oculus". Oculus. Facebook Technologies. https://www.oculus.com/accessories/oculus-link/. Retrieved 2026-09-27. Archived copy of 21 September 2020
- ↑ "Oculus Link Compatibility". Oculus Support. Facebook Technologies. https://support.oculus.com/444256562873335/. Retrieved 2026-09-27. Archived copy of 19 January 2020
- ↑ https://support.oculus.com/394778968099974
- ↑ Harry Baker (2019-11-18). "Oculus Link Beta: Everything You Need To Know About Oculus Quest's PC VR Headset Makeover". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/oculus-link-beta/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 David Heaney (2020-01-07). "Official 5 Meter Oculus Link Cable Now Available Worldwide". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/official-oculus-link-cable-available/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Ben Lang (2020-11-16). "How to Run Oculus Link at 90Hz on Quest 2". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/oculus-quest-2-90hz-oculus-link/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "The First Gift of the Season: Oculus Quest Update Adds Native 90Hz Support, a New Fitness Tracker, and More". Meta Quest Blog. Meta Platforms. 2020-11-13. https://www.meta.com/blog/the-first-gift-of-the-season-oculus-quest-update-adds-native-90hz-support-a-new-fitness-tracker-and-more/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 David Heaney (2024-11-18). "Meta Is Unifying Its 3 Quest PC Apps Into Meta Quest Link". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/meta-unifying-quest-pc-apps/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Set up and connect Meta Horizon Link and Air Link". Quest Help. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/help/quest/509273027107091/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "Meta Quest Link Cable". Meta Store. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/quest/accessories/link-cable/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "Windows PC requirements for Meta Horizon Link". Quest Help. Meta Platforms. https://www.meta.com/help/quest/140991407990979/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Scott Hayden (2026-07-30). "Meta Quest PC Requirements & Specs for Horizon Link & Air Link". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/oculus-quest-pc-requirements-oculus-link-minimum-specs/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.