Quest 2 Setup Guide - 2023

Getting Started with the Quest 2

Estimated time required: 30 minutes.

To setup your Quest 2 headset for the first time, you'll need access to an iPhone or Android Device, a Facebook account, a USB-C cable (should be included with your Quest), and a wifi connection. 

Instructions:

1. First, using the USB-C cable, charge your headset until the green charging indicator turns green. 

2. While waiting for the headset to charge, download the Oculus app on your phone.  Click here for the iPhone version or here for the Android version.

3. Once the app is downloaded, open it and login to your Oculus/Meta account*. Also, make sure your phone's bluetooth is turned on. 

4. Next, once the headset is fully charged, first turn it off by holding the power button (right side) until you hear the powering down sound. 

5. Then, factory reset it by holding the power and volume down (bottom side) button simultaneously. After seeing the Meta logo, a bootup menu should appear. Keep holding both buttons for a few seconds after seeing this menu, then let go of both simultaneously. 

6. Select the Factory Reset option.

7.  Once it has reset, turn it on again and begin the setup process. 

8. The setup process involves several steps:

   1. First, you'll need to pair your controllers. 

   2. Then, you'll need to select a language. 

   3. Next, you'll need to adjust the lens spacing based on your eyesight. 

   4. Then, you'll need to connect the headset to wifi. 

      1. If you're on campus, then you can connect to Brown wifi via headset settings on the Meta Quest app. If this is not working then you can also connect to Brown Guest directly from your headset.

   5. Next, the headset will restart. After restarting, you'll be prompted to connect your headset to the Meta Quest app on your phone using a pin number. 

   6. Next, the headset will perform an update, which can take up to 10 minutes. During this time, you can remove the headset and wait until it makes a sound, signaling the update is complete. 

   7. Finally, you'll need to draw a Guardian, which determines the edges of your play space when using your headset.

9. After the setup process finishes, you should see a screen that looks like this: 

4. For more detailed instructions, visit the official Oculus Quest 2 setup guide or watch this video.

* If you don't want to use your personal Meta account, feel free to create a new one. 

Running SteamVR Games with the Quest 2

Estimated time required: 30-50 minutes.

While the Oculus Quest 2 can be used in standalone mode (i.e. without connecting the headset to a computer), only games listed on the Quest store can be played in this mode. Over the course of the semester, you'll likely want to test applications that are listed on the Oculus Rift store or Steam VR store, as these platforms support a broader suite of applications. To run Steam VR / Oculus Rift games on your headset, there are two options.  We will use the first one in class.  But if you have your own local windows machine, you can use the second option.  

1. Power your headset using Virtual Desktop and a Remote Computer (do this if you don't have a local windows machine):

If you don't have access to a computer that supports Oculus Link or you don't have an Oculus Link cable, you can still run SteamVR games using Virtual Desktop and a remote computer that does support Oculus Link.  To do this, you'll need to purchase a copy of Virtual Desktop on the Oculus Quest store.

At this point, we'll assume that you have access to a compatible remote computer -- which could be your personal computer satisfying or a remote server on Paperspace -- and have access to Virtual Desktop. To set up Virtual Desktop, perform the following steps:

2.1. Setting Up Paperspace (optional if you have a compatible windows machine)

1. Go to paperspace.com and sign up for an account using your Brown email address.  

2. Send the email address you used to register for Paperspace to the course staff. This ensures that you'll be added to the course's workspace, which has remote servers you can use. 

3. To verify that you've been added to the course workspace, check your email for an invitation link from Paperspace. 

4. Next, login to Paperspace and go to the course workspace:

   1. If the course workspace does not show up in the menu under your name (as shown below), click Manage teams then "Accept" on the class's pending invite.

5. Then, select one of the available machines and hit launch:  

Before doing this, make sure that the top left menu says "CORE"

6. Once launched, open Steam and install SteamVR -- if it's not installed already. 

7. Launch the Virtual Desktop Streamer on your remote computer. At this point, the following warning might show up on your paperspace machine. Make sure NOT to download the new windows version. Otherwise, please disregard this warning. 

8. Enter your Oculus username (which is given to you in the VR Desktop app on your Oculus), and ensure that the Allow remote connections box is checked: 

 WARNING: Be sure to shutdown your server once you're done using it! This helps reduce costs and allows other students to use the server. 

2.2. Setting Up Virtual Desktop 

1. Download Virtual Desktop on your headset from the Oculus Quest store. 

2.3. Testing Performance

At this point, you should be able to play SteamVR games on your Quest headset! To test this functionality, perform the following steps:

1. Ensure that the Virtual Desktop streamer is open on your remote computer and that Allow remote connections is enabled. 

2. Then, launch Virtual Desktop on your Quest headset and wait for your remote computer to appear. 

3. Click on your remote computer to connect to it and wait until you're connected. If your remote computer does not appear, try quitting Virtual Desktop on Quest and opening it again. 

4. Once connected, launch StreamVR from your headset by clicking the hamburger menu on your left controller and selecting the Launch SteamVR button on the bottom left of the screen:

5. Once SteamVR is launched, you should be able to see all of your SteamVR games under the GAMES section of the Virtual Desktop screen:

Potential Issues

• Remote computer not showing on Virtual Desktop: ensure that the Virtual Desktop streamer is open on your remote computer and that Allow remote connections is enabled. In addition, try restarting Virtual Desktop on your Quest. If that doesn't work, then try reinstalling Virtual Desktop onto your machine. 

• Virtual Desktop says "Measuring Bandwidth": connecting to the remote computer can take up to five minutes. If after five minutes you're still not connected, try restarting both the Virtual Desktop streamer and Virtual Desktop.

• High-latency when using Virtual Desktop with a remote computer: unfortunately, streaming VR applications requires a fast internet connection, so there will likely be some latency when using SteamVR applications. To reduce latency, try modifying the VR bitrate in the STREAMING tab of Virtual Desktop. If the latency is too high to be usable, please contact the course staff via Slack or email to discuss options.

• SteamVR not recognizing headset: first, restart SteamVR. If that doesn't fix the issue, disconnect from your remote computer using Virtual Desktop and reconnect to it. If the error still persists, restart your remote computer.

2. Power your headset using Oculus Link and a local windows machine (optional for class):

Requirements: a high-bandwidth USB-C to USB-C (or USB-3) cable that's at least 10 feet in length and a computer running Windows 10 with a sufficiently powerful graphics card (see here for the required specs). The cable can be purchased either from Amazon or directly from Oculus.

To setup your Quest using Oculus Link:

• Install the Oculus app on your PC and follow the official Oculus Link instructions. 

• To verify that Oculus Link is setup correctly, download a game (e.g. Google Earth VR) from the Oculus pc app and try running it on your headset.

Once Oculus Link is setup, you can run SteamVR games by performing the following steps:

• Install Steam. If you haven't used Steam before, you'll need to sign up for an account. 

• Once Steam is installed, download SteamVR using Steam. 

• Once installed, SteamVR should launch automatically and a pop-up should appear, signaling that your headset and controllers have been recognized:

• To validate that SteamVR works, download a SteamVR game (e.g. Google Earth VR) and try running it on your headset.