Unreal Engine 5.1 VR Preview not active for MacOS/Oculus Quest 2

I’m having issues getting Unreal Engine to activate the “VR Preview” on my Macbook using the Oculus Quest 2. I’ve done an endless amount of research over the past week trying out everything. Here are the specs and settings I have used/setup on my macbook:

Macbook:

  • Macbook Pro 15-inch 2019
  • 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
  • Radeon Pro 560X 4 GB Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB
  • 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
  • macOS Ventura 13.0.1

Oculus:

  • Oculus Quest 2
  • Version 47.0.0.282
  • Developer Mode Enabled (I can upload my apk builds from my laptop to my headset install and launch. So my laptop is communicating and transferring data with my oculus).

Meta Quest Developer Hub: Installed
USB Connection: Meta Quest Link Cable (bought it from Meta)
Android Studio 4.0: Installed
Android SDK installed:

  • Android API 33
  • Android API 32
  • Android 10
    Android SDJ Build-Tools
  • 33.0.1
  • 33.0.0
  • 32.0.0
  • 30.0.3
  • 29.0.2
  • 28.03
  • 26.0.3
    NDK
  • 25.1.8937393
  • 25.0.8775105
  • 23.0.7599858
  • 21.1.6352462
    Android SDK Command-line Tools (latest)
    CMake
  • 3.10.2
    Android Emulator
    Android SDK Platform-Tools
    Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator (HAXM installer)

Unreal Engine Plugins
OpenXR
I tried to use SteamVR but UE5.1 with SteamVR’s app installed and still the VR preview option is greyed out. Plus in the plugins panel it says SteamVR is deprecated and suggests I use OpenXR. Same for Meta and Oculus VR plugins

Also UE 5.1 recognizes my head set, it appears in the Device Manager:
Screenshot 2022-12-19 at 12.57.52 PM

Not sure what else I’m missing, but if anyone can help out I would greatly appreciate it. Also anyone on a Mac have this working?

Hi,
I think that the only way to use the VR Preview option is by connecting the Quest 2 using Air Link… However, if I’m not mistaken, the oculus app (that allows air link) is only available on Windows… :confused:

Tell me if you find a solution please.
I’m interested in !

Yea, that is what it’s looking like. The SteamVR beta doesn’t work on a Mac and like you said AirLink only works on PC/ the .exe version of the oculus developer hub. I’m hoping someone employed at Epic Games that has some insight can chime in.

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Unfortunately, I would say that the problem comes from Meta, not epic x)
I think that if we could enable air link on any OS, Unreal VR preview would work perfectly.
What about linux ? Is Air Link working?
If yes, what do linux users use to get it working ?
Maybe we could use the same solution on Mac OS :eyes:

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The runtimes doesn’t support MacOS - nothing we can do about that.

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Thanks for chiming in Victor. Would you recommend using a different VR headset to develop on a Mac platform, like the HTC Vive headset? Our department at Pandora/SiriusXM Radio use mac’s, I doubt I can convince them to spending a lot on getting me a PC just for this then spending on an alternative headset if it works and is much cheaper haha. Any insight would be greatly appreciative as we are currently doing a lot of R&D research with expanding our products with UE and this has been one hindrance towards our progress (not blaming you guys), just trying to find a solution.

Thanks,
Jeff

Like I said, none of the PC runtimes (Oculus/SteamVR) support MacOS. It is technically possible to develop standalone VR applications (Meta Quest) on MacOS, but, iteration times are going to be poor as you have to deploy to test everything, and it’s not something we test or can provide support for.

Yeah, that’s basically been our work around, to build out our iteration, manually install the .apk and test on the headset. Which in longer term, this is not going to be ideal for our production pipeline.

Also thanks for providing clarification on runtime. Cuz all the conflicting information and youtube videos really was driving me insane.

But on another note, I was hoping I could get a hold of someone from Epic or perhaps with you about other questions we have with UE capabilities and limitations we may encounter with the type of projects we are working on. It would be great to hear from your team’s expertise if what we would like to create is feasible with (in theory or not) using UE.

Thanks again

Do you think that would be possible to install Windows and mac and run UE 5 for VR development?