Meta finally got a 2014 PC game demo to run on the Oculus Quest 2
Meta wants more PC games to come to the Quest 2
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Meta wants to prove that itsMeta Quest 2VR headset (formerlyOculusQuest 2) isn’t the underpowered hardware game developers might believe it to be. And it’s doing so with a 2014 PC game demo.
For Oculus Connect 2014,Epic Gamesbuilt Showdown, a PC VR demo using Unreal Engine 4 (UE4). It was designed to show off the awesome levels of detail a VR setup could provide.
The experience shows a high-octane scenario slowed down to bullet-time to emphasize the action as a team of soldiers fight off a rampaging robot. Fiery smoke trails behind the missiles the robot is launching, and rubble and cars are flung off in a variety of directions due to the resulting explosions. It looks and feels like a warzone.
Some elements look a little dated today, but at the time this was the best that PC VR setups could achieve – setups that consisted of anOculus Rift headsethooked up to a PC with aGTX 980 GPUor similar.
Now, roughly eight years later, Meta has managed to get a severely trimmed down version of the Showdown demo to run on its Quest 2 hardware at a smooth 90 FPS –the same as the original (viaRoad to VR).
Graphics aren’t everything
Meta wasn’t just doing this for a fun throwback though. Its optimization efforts have been cataloged inOculus For Developers blog postsso that other creators can mimic what it has done with Showdown in their own games.
While it’s fun to joke around this being a nearly eight-year-old demo, getting Showdown to run on the Quest 2 is no mean feat.
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The Quest 2’s Snapdragon XR2 chip isn’t as powerful as the hardware Showdown was designed for, and the details about how this was pulled off are long enough to fillnot one, buttwo long blog postsjam-packed with technical jargon.
As seen in the video captured by Road to VR above, the new demo is pretty similar to the original, albeit with a few drops in quality. The world’s objects look significantly more polygonal, and the textures and lighting aren’t as impressive – but Showdown is still just as busy with objects and debris flying around the player.
For some players, the PS2-era graphics will be a tough pill to swallow, however from our own experience the visuals aren’t what make or break a VR game.
TakeResident Evil 4 VR. It looks graphically identical to the classic GameCube version, yet the slick immersive features and the adrenaline you feel as monsters close in on you were more than enough to keep us as engaged as we would be playing aPS5orXbox Series Xtitle.
Plus, VR gaming graphics don’t have to take as hard a hit if developers create less busy environments. While the latestElectronic Mixtape courses in Beat Saberare little more than laser light shows, they’re some of the game’s most visually stunning and fun to play yet.
Hopefully, the Showdown demo and the promise of more powerful hardware withProject Cambriaand theMeta Quest 3will encourage other developers to create VR ports for the Quest 2, but we’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, why don’t you check out thebest Quest 2 gamesthat are already playable on the platform?
Hamish is a Senior Staff Writer for TechRadar and you’ll see his name appearing on articles across nearly every topic on the site from smart home deals to speaker reviews to graphics card news and everything in between. He uses his broad range of knowledge to help explain the latest gadgets and if they’re a must-buy or a fad fueled by hype. Though his specialty is writing about everything going on in the world of virtual reality and augmented reality.
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