Valve Working On "SteamVR Link Dongle" For Reliable Wireless PC VR

Valve is working on a "SteamVR Link Dongle", datamining reveals, and it could improve the reliability of wireless PC VR.

VR enthusiast Brad Lynch and his team of Discord dataminers have discovered multiple references to the device and its drivers in SteamVR code, including a vendor and device ID which Lynch claims suggests the device is "being finalized internally".

Currently the Steam Link app for Quest, which datamining suggests will also come to Pico and HTC standalone headsets, leverages your existing home Wi-Fi network for wireless PC VR, as does the built-in Air Link and third-party tools like Virtual Desktop and ALVR.

Using your home Wi-Fi network rather than a dedicated dongle can present several issues, however. The signal can be degraded by the distance to the router or obstacles like solid walls, and frames can be dropped or delivered late if too many other devices are congesting the network.

A dedicated dongle can offer a point-to-point connection directly from your PC to your headset, avoiding any network congestion and signal propagation issues. Some VR enthusiasts create this setup themselves with routers, but the network setup process here can be somewhat complex.

Dongles also work well with laptops and where no viable network is available, particularly useful for trade shows and ad-hoc wireless PC VR demo situations.

D-Link VR Air Bridge For Quest 2 Wireless PC VR Review: Convenience At A Cost

VR Air Bridge promised to make wireless PC VR on Quest 2 easy and eliminate hitches. We tested it to find out if that’s actually true. The existing Air Link is a Quest feature that lets the device act as a wireless PC VR headset via your Wi-Fi network.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

In 2022 Meta partnered with D-Link to release such a device, the VR Air Bridge for Quest 2. But limited to 5GHz Wi-Fi 6, it quickly became outdated as Quest Pro and Quest 3 launched with support for 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E. Further, it only works with Meta's own Air Link by default, not Virtual Desktop.

Valve's SteamVR Link Dongle has the potential to truly deliver on the promise of VR Air Bridge, with a future-proof 6GHz Wi-Fi 7 connection directly from your headset to SteamVR, building on the ease of use of Steam Link while boosting its reliability for non-ideal network setups.

Leaker Claims Valve Deckard Set To Launch This Year At $1200

A Valve leaker claims the Valve Deckard headset is set to launch by the end of this year at $1200, including first-party “games or demos”.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Lynch suggests Valve could include the SteamVR Link Dongle in the box of Deckard, the company's upcoming headset now rumored to be launching this year, and this seems highly likely. But I suspect it could support other standalone headsets too, improving the experience of using SteamVR wirelessly no matter which standalone VR headset you own.