Steam VR not detecting VR Preview (Oculus Quest + Virtual Desktop)

Hey VR devs,

I’ve been racking my brains trying to test my project on my Oculus Quest.

Using the cable works fine;

  1. In the device, enable the Oculus Link
  2. This will launch auto Oculus app on the computer
  3. Launch Unreal and on a new VR map press the VR preview button.
  4. Runs perfectly, my head rotation/location is streamed and I am in the virtual environment.

My goal is to do away with cables and use Virtual Desktop instead.

So here’s what I tried:

  1. Launch Virtual Desktop on the device
  2. Launch Virtual Desktop Streamer on the computer
  3. In the device connect to the computer via Virtual Desktop.
  4. Press the ‘Launch Steam VR’ button in the device.
  5. The Steam overlay launches perfectly
  6. Launch Unreal and on a new VR map press the VR preview button.

Here’s in lies the problem: Steam VR overlay doesn’t recognise the VR preview (e.g. ‘Running QuestTrackingTestMap Preview’), so it doesn’t appear to run. I end up stuck in the Steam Home and not in the Unreal application.


(In that image the Unreal application is not receiving the head tracking, only appears to take mouse input)

The trouble I’m having is that Steam VR isn’t detecting the same VR project, that the Oculus desktop app detects. This is problematic since Virtual Desktop runs through Steam VR and not Oculus Desktop.

Any guidance/help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

  • Sean

I have the same problem, do you found the solution?

Here is the fix:

UE sees VD as SteamVR headset so.

Solution if HMD name contains “steam” and controller name contains “oculus” set HMD to oculus