Star Wars Squadrons VR Setup

TLDR:  Skip to the TLDR section below for instructions.

Courtesy of my lovely bride, I received a copy of Star Wars Squadrons for the XBox One on the day it was released, and I've been loving it!  Over time though, I started getting my ass kicked by players on other platforms.  A bit of research revealed that I was holding my own against other XBox players, but was getting demolished by PC players... especially those with VR and HOTAS.  (HOTAS is Hands On Throttle And Stick... a flight joystick with no foot pedals.)  After a while, playing just wasn't as much fun.

I did some digging and got my hands on a pseudo VR setup, using an older Oculus Rift.  This setup didn't get me into full VR mode, and I didn't have the HOTAS setup.  However, the pseudo VR setup placed the screen much closer, and gave me a lot more real estate (translation: larger screen.)  I was sold, and decided to spring for the full set-up.  Yeah, I'm a geek... I bought a new gaming rig, an Oculus Quest 2, and a HOTAS joystick.

This setup arrived over the course of the last week.  Oculus Quest 2 arrived first, and I had a blast!  HOTAS arrived second, so I connected it to my XBox and got used to the new controls.  New gaming computer arrived last, and I put it all together last night.  There were a few hiccups, and a bit of a learning curve to getting the full experience set up.  I figured that I'd write this all up with the hope of saving others some of the learning curve I went through.

TLDR:  Here's what you'll need to play Star Wars Squadrons in VR using a PC, HOTAS, and Oculus Quest 2.  This will discuss wireless connectivity as well.

It's assumed that you have the hardware...

You can download Star Wars Squadrons from Steam, or from EA Origin.  I did it through Origin, because I had an Origin account, but not Steam.

In order to play the game in full VR mode, you will need either Oculus Link, and/or Steam VR.  Oculus Link will work fine if you're okay with using the Oculus connect cable.  If you want to be completely wireless, you will need Steam VR *AND* Virtual Desktop.

Either way, you will need to allow your Oculus Quest to play games that weren't downloaded through the Oculus store.  In order to do this, open Oculus Link on your PC, go to Settings > General and allow Unknown Sources.  Once that's done, you can play with a cable.  If using a cable, Connect the Oculus to the PC with the cable, open Oculus Link and start the game.  In the base options, you will see VR Settings... select Toggle VR and follow the instructions.

If you want to run wirelessly, you will need to purchase Virtual Desktop and configure that.  You will also need to install SteamVR and configure that.  After configuration, you will launch Virtual Desktop and run Squadrons.

At one point during all of this testing, I didn't have sound through the Oculus.  I had to go into the PC sound settings and enable the oculus audio.

Oh yeah... if you're using the Thrustmaster T.Flight, make sure that you download the software, and make sure that you configure things as needed in the game's settings.  I had no thrust using the thruster stick at first.

This is NOT designed to be a step-by-step tutorial.  I am assuming that you have a bit of technical ability.  Additionally, settings will likely change over time... that's kind of the nature of technology.  Also, I'm not really prepared to answer a bunch of specific questions.  My goal here is to give you a bit of general guidance for this specific question.