Oculus Quest 2 owners can now enjoy untethered PC gaming thanks to the release of the new Air Link feature a little earlier than expected.

Previously, the only official way to play PC games with the Oculus Quest was to physically connect the headset to a USB port on a gaming PC. Now, however, with a sufficiently powerful wireless connection, one can play without cables.

Initially, this feature was disabled in the latest release of the software, but according to Andrew Bosworth of Facebook Reality Labs, the release date was pushed back a bit due to "the excitement over Air Link."

The Oculus v28 must be running on both the PC and Quest 2, but Bosworth says that if it hasn't arrived yet, it will "soon." Once you have the software, you will need to enable Air Link from the experimental features section of the settings menu.

Unfortunately, Facebook has no plans to include this feature in the original Oculus Quest, leaving early adopters to tether or other paid wireless solutions.

This is obviously a major development, and would theoretically offer the best of both worlds.

However, Oculus makes it clear that this will not work for everyone. For example, not only do you need the best gaming PC to run "Half Life," you also need "Alyx": you also need a solid, uncrowded wireless connection to achieve the speeds needed for streaming.

That said, for some, using a Link cable remains the best way to play PC games on Quest 2: "If you want to charge your headset during your VR experience, experience the highest fidelity visuals possible, or have an available If your Wi-Fi network is congested or insecure, Link via USB-C cable is the best option. If you have a strong and secure Wi-Fi network and your play space is ideally located within approximately 3 meters of a WiFi router, Air Link is a good option."

With previous wireless solutions like the excellent Virtual Desktop app, many people swear by having a dedicated router for Oculus traffic. For me and my mesh Wi-Fi setup, this was not necessary and allowed me to enjoy PC gaming three rooms away from my desktop with more floor space and noticeable lag (except when the PC is also downloading something)

. Now this is part of the Oculus OS and I don't have to pay $20 for software to see if it works for me.