The future of high-end PC VR may not require an actual PC

An image of an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset. — (Image credit: Facebook)

High-end PC VR is a demanding sort. You need to invest in a decent VR headset and the gaming PC with enough GPU grunt to play without getting woozy, and it can become a pricey hobby if you don't already own one up to spec. That's where PlutoSphere hopes to help out: The company is bringing PC VR streaming to the Oculus Quest 2.

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That's PC VR games without the PC, essentially. Don't get confused, though, this isn't just wireless streaming from your PC to a VR headset. Whereas today it's possible to play either pared-back standalone VR games rendered on your device or games rendered on your local PC and transmitted via cable or wireless to your headset; this will allow for the latter to be played without a local PC.

How does it do it? PlutoSphere will beam your own library of games to the Oculus Quest 2 headset direct from the cloud (via VRFocus). And powered by Nvidia's CloudXR SDK.

It's the same game libraries that you'd run into on a gaming PC—Steam and Epic Games come preinstalled with PlutoSphere—and that means you have full access to the wide gamut of VR games built for headsets like the Valve Index, Oculus Rift/S, HTV Vive Cosmos, etc.

You still need a relatively up-to-date home setup to get up and running, however. Specifically, 50Mbps internet and a 5GHz Wi-Fi 6 router.

For most of us, however, it's going to be a question of quality and latency. Perhaps even more so than your regular game streaming service. If PlutoSphere can't deliver both up to par then it's going to make for a disorientating time in virtual space for the user.

As a budding concept, though, it's an exciting one. It'll certainly take the hurdles out of high-end VR in terms of price, especially when paired with the value-oriented Oculus Quest 2 headset, although we've no details on how PlutoSphere intends to monetise its platform just yet.

Right now, you can only reserve a spot in the staggered rollout for the Oculus Quest and Quest 2 that will occur sometime soon.

If all goes to plan, PlutoSphere hopes to roll out to other devices down the line: Microsoft HoloLens, Nreal Glasses, PC, and mobile phones.

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog, before graduating into breaking things professionally at PCGamesN. Now he's managing editor of the hardware team at PC Gamer, and you'll usually find him testing the latest components or building a gaming PC.