Steam Link VR Bitrate & The Quest 3 - Can It Actually Go Up to 350Mbps?

After having a query about the bitrate in Steam Link in VR, and whether it could actually go over 250Mbps, let alone up to 350Mbps, is this even possible?
I therefore demonstrate my settings, and my experience with the bitrate whilst playing Half Life Alyx.
For reference, I have the performance settings in Half Life Alyx set to Ultra Fidelity, and am using an RTX 4090, and 10600K CPU. The latency throughout my test was around 35ms, which is pretty good with these settings.
I am using an Asus Tuf AX3000 V2 router, which is a Wi-Fi 6 router with 2.4 and 5GHz frequencies.
I hope this has been helpful, and once again, thanks for watching.
I have not been sponsored for this video.

[@DayDreamerVR]

For reference, I have the performance settings in Half Life Alyx set to Ultra Fidelity, and am using an RTX 4090, and 10600K CPU. The latency throughout my test was around 35ms, which is pretty good with these settings. Thanks all 👍

[@libbybrown9745]

I’ve been wondering how high I could get my bit rate so this is really helpful - as usual your channel is BS free - cheers for another good vid

[@DayDreamerVR]

Glad it was useful 👍

[@chan13153]

350 seems kinda low knowing that its only h.264. On VD I can max it at 500 bitrate.

[@DayDreamerVR]

I think VD is 400Mbps, so it isn't too far off. Atleast it is much better than PICO software, they still limit you to 150Mbps!

[@chan13153]

@@DayDreamerVR VD is 500 megabit. They did that update a few months back.

[@DayDreamerVR]

@@chan13153 Oh yeah, brain freeze, I had even covered the update when it happened, and have had it set on h264+ at 500Mbps for sim racing 🤣

[@simonoregan4744]

My head is spinning. Had my Quest 3 for a couple of months and I seem to spend more time tweaking settings than actually playing of late.

[@DayDreamerVR]

That can be an issue with VR. If that is the case and you want to just get on with it now, I would almost recommend setting the resolution and frame rate etc low enough so that your system can run with those settings on just about any game. Then get on and game. I completely understand how difficult that is though, with my own personality traits I sometimes wonder whether I enjoy playing with the tech more than actually gaming. Can be frustrating when you look back at how you have used your time for mostly getting it to work perfectly, rather than enjoying a game which you probably would have got immersed in and not noticed a large number of aspects selected in the settings 🤔

[@simonoregan4744]

@@DayDreamerVR I found a workable solution with the one game I play the most. Asseto Corsa. I keep all of the in game settings the same I never change them at all . I have the res slider in oculus set to max and 90hz. I then go into an online practice before the actual race. Observe my average fps in game and simply adjust the oculus refresh rate to much the in game fps for that map and car combination keeping the oculus res the same (yes it changes depending on the track and car combination). That's how crazy it is, even within the same game I get different fps depending on what is being played. But this system works for the moment. Unfortunately finding an average doesn't really work for me. Because Graphics & CPU tech is still a little behind there is not much room to play with. I have a RTX 4080. I'm not sure how well this approach will work with other games though. I think it will depend largely on the game. Sometimes I will also lock the oculus at 45hz, enable space warp, then use super sampling on quite high 1.4 or 1.6. This gives me amazing graphics and clarity but locked smooth at 45 fps. In fact if I had to decided on one approach this would be it and then I would just play with the super sampling. I never use Steam VR. Ive even tried open composite and the OpenXr toolkit. Oculus always produces better performance and image quality alone on my Quest 3. I cant stand FSR or DLS so I never use them. The image degradation is not worth it for me personally. So its either higher frames lower res or higher res lower fps.

[@DayDreamerVR]

@@simonoregan4744 Yeah, I find in sim racing, different tracks, being around loads of cars on the grid vs just a couple during a race and a number of other factors can really change the demand on a gpu during the same race, let alone different tracks etc. It really is difficult to balance, glad you have found a kind of workable solution. It almost needs a "keep my gpu at 70-85%" setting, and automatically adjust the graphics on the go at a set fps. Or something similar 🤔

[@simonoregan4744]

@@DayDreamerVR There is a mod for one of the flight sims that does this. Not sure what its called. But from my understanding its been custom designed for that sim. I believe PlayStation does something similar as well. It maintains a constant frame rate by dynamically adjusting the games graphics settings while you are playing the game.

[@DayDreamerVR]

Ooooo Interesting, I'll have to do some searching to see if there is anything for PC generally 👍

[@highiqgaming2010]

Thank you!!!

[@StealthJim]

Hi, i play a competitive first person shooter (population:one). What's your thoughts on the best wireless setup for a low latency advantage? I've tried airlink, steam link and VD but useful to hear your thoughts

[@DayDreamerVR]

So steam link uses foveated rendering, this means the resolution in your peripheral vision is slightly lower, this helps reduce latency, and I think makes it the lowest latency option. So if you are happy with that reduced resolution in your peripheral vision steam link is probably the best option. Then keep the bitrate low, on manual and probably around 75Mbps. That will give you good/low latency 👍

[@StealthJim]

@@DayDreamerVR thanks for the super quick reply. 75mbps seems crazy low after running 500mbps (Qpro, H.264, WiFi 6E) but I'll give it a go in the name of science! 🙂

[@DayDreamerVR]

@StealthJim Yeah, that's as low as I tended to go with virtual desktop and it still gave an okay image, play about and see how low you're willing to take it for image quality, and on the debug graph I showed it has the latency graph and figures on the bottom half so you can see how each bitrate affects latency 👍

[@imeverywhereandnowhere56]

@@DayDreamerVR How do you get the debug graph to show up in game? It only shows on the desktop for me.

[@DayDreamerVR]

@@imeverywhereandnowhere56 in the steam menu, you can click on the monitor at the bottom to view your desktop. When viewing your desktop in steam, there should be options to resize the monitor and pin it either in space, or to a controller. The maximise the debug screen on your desktop, and you will be able to watch it whilst gaming 👍

[@dawnnieto2778]

I can’t find the steam link option in the vr settings, basically saying I can’t change my mbps or bandwidth on the steam vr app

[@word2RG]

and im tearing my hair out over which USB C cable to get.. 10gbps or 20gbps 🙄

[@NeytozINF]

Can you use discord on PC while streaming via Steam Link? Like with air link? Does quest's audio mic and headphones become available as windows and discord audio devices?

[@DayDreamerVR]

I haven't tried it so I am only guessing, but I can't see why this wouldn't be possible. In steam VR you can go to your desktop view, open up Discord, then you could pin the desktop view to your left or right controller so you can view it whilst gaming, and I have heard the Discord pings through the headset, but have never tried the microphone back to Windows. Worth trying 👍

[@thestepback]

Played SteamVR via Steam Link and streamed to my friends while using built in mic and headphones of the oculus quest 2

[@DayDreamerVR]

Awesome, thanks for confirming, I hadn't got around to double checking 👍

[@thewhyzer]

Wait, you can turn off the "room" in Steam VR Home? How? Does it let Steam VR launch faster? (I just got Quest 3 today and been playing around, don't know anything yet). And I was looking for a way to see the framerate and bitrate in Steam VR games, now I need to figure out how to get to that menu you used...

[@DayDreamerVR]

So to remove the steamvr home, you go to the vr settings and I think it is down the bottom of one of the settings pages. It should put less demand on your system by having it off. The different performance graphs I am looking at, one is fpsvr, which you can get on steam and open at the same time as your game,which will show most of the stats needed. If you are using steam link, then in the settings you can turn on debug graph in the settings and are able to see this on your PC, or are able to look at your desktop whilst in steam vr, and can connect the desktop view to one of your controllers so you can view it whilst gaming. Hope this helps 👍

[@thewhyzer]

@@DayDreamerVR Thanks! I've actually been using Air Link, and then switched to Virtual Desktop which has its own performance overlay. Now one thing I'd really like to do is to stop Steam VR games from mirroring to the monitor, as that's too big a performance hit for my poor 1050 ti which is already below min reqs for most VR titles :)

[@DayDreamerVR]

@@thewhyzerYou can turn off the VR mirror in the Steam VR settings, however the game may also render its own window. So depending on the game you might have to do a quick google to see how to turn that off. Hope you manage to sort it 👍

[@thewhyzer]

@@DayDreamerVR VR Mirror seems off by default, and yet every game I've tried mirrors itself to the desktop...

[@DayDreamerVR]

@thewhyzer Yeah, the only game I ever looked into this for was Project Cars 2, and I had to put the command line "-novrmirror" in the launch options. To do this go in to steam, go to library, right click on the game and go to properties, and it is down the bottom in the general tab. It might not be the same for each game though 👍

[@jasonjames71]

hi, what determines bitrate, anything over 75 for me causes drags . i have a 1200mb connection to my router :( ? 13600k 7800xt

[@DayDreamerVR]

I take it you are connected with the 5GHz band to your router, and that your router is connected with an ethernet cable to your PC? Are you in direct line of sight to your router or is there a wall between? There are alot of factors that could affect bitrate, but 75Mbps is very low. Hope you manage to find the solution 👍

[@jasonjames71]

yeah all of those ,im right next to my router@@DayDreamerVR 🤔

[@DayDreamerVR]

Have you got virtual desktop and how does that perform? If you do have virtual desktop and have bad performance with that as well, it is worth going onto the Virtual Desktop discord as it will be easier to problem solve than over KZbin, if you have a quest 3,you could get a usb c to ethernet adapter and connect your Quest 3 to your router. That should help rule out if your WiFi is the issue 👍

[@toxic1x1]

can you help me please i have alot of stutters with movement i tried lowering bitrate and resolution without any benefit my pc is 3070 with 9900k

[@DayDreamerVR]

Hi, sorry, just seen this, did you resolve your issue? Is your PC connected to the router with ethernet? Is your headset connected to the router with 5GHz? Have you tried virtual desktop and does it work with that wireless streaming app? If your router is an internet providers one, you might need to get another. They recommend some routers on the Virtual Desktop discord if needed: discord.gg/fS7PhPFS

[@thomasyantorno1734]

I heard a rumor that I'm going to have a steam link for the Pico for as well? thank you

[@DayDreamerVR]

Unfortunately the PICO devices would need upgrading to Android 11 (currently android 10) before steam link could be transferred to PICO, hopefully that will still happen though 👍

[@montys8237]

You might have covered this but i noticed your at 150% in the global setting. Is that supersampling or is that technically 100% I went back to airlink for now the steam resolution slider gets even more confusing cause going in through steamvr via airlink and steamlink the sliders change together but they show very different values. Ultimately the constant bitrate of 600 h264 just looked a bit better in my games using airlink Maybe im sensetive to it but the microstutter seems to happen in games when i set it 350 when im just walking long distances or hallwaya. Noticed it slightly in vertigo 2 but it not might bother some. My router 6e should be good enough running 600 fixed in airlink

[@DayDreamerVR]

Yeah, 600Mbps H264 is probably less demanding than 350 in H265, and I found a high bitrate in H264 gave a very good sim racing experience over USB. So unfortunately each different system (virtual desktop, oculus link, steam link) will have a different resolution for 100%. Virtual Desktop Graphics quality settings change the resolution of 100% in steam vr, so the potato setting in virtual desktop will be a low resolution at 100% whilst it will have a high resolution at 100% when set to Godlike. The 100% steam vr res on oculus link is whatever resolution you have it set to in the Oculus software. Steam link also sets the res differently for 100% depending on what you set the encode res at. With supersampling, the Quest 3 needs about 3100 x 3100 per eye to provide the full amount of pixels to the screens (some of the resolution is lost when correction for the lens shape takes place). So you are only supersampling if you can get your 100% to above 3100 x 3100 per eye, which the closest to this is in virtual desktop. If you then put the slider above 100% in steam vr, with these wireless solutions (virtual desktop, oculus link, steam link) it will then allow your PC and headset to make the best possible picture when it is transferred into the encode resolution. The encode resolution is how many pixels actually get sent to your headset in the data stream from your pc. So a 100% res of 3100 x 3100 will only send about 2100 x 2100 per eye to your headset (atleast in virtual desktop anyway), but like I say, pushing the slider over 100% in steam vr, will help to make that 2100 x 2100 per eye as good as it can possibly be. I would say that you are only truly supersampling on PCVR headsets connected with a displayport cable where if you put your resolution high, it is actually sending every pixel to the headset (after correction for the lens) as it doesn't send through an encoding resolution, it just sends whatever you have set through. I hope this explains it, this is a bit of a long explanation 😬 I did another video about the settings for steam link here which might help and have done videos previously about Virtual desktop: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppPEg52Xfdl2kK8

[@montys8237]

@@DayDreamerVR so a few findings. The 350 bitrate in steam random stutter happens in games like vertigo 2 and alyx just kind of when your walking to certain objects. It's weird. I don't think this is stress on a GPU as a 4080 should be plenty for h265 encoding. Also can't be network doing 600 h264 over airlink....via wifi 6e...maybe some people are not sensitive or have not encountered those sections? Someone on Reddit said they also noticed the random stutter with the bitrate higher in alyx. Yet others saying having the foveated rendering at max causes them frame drops and yet I have not noticed that. All said though I'm sticking with airlink. I did end up turning it back to 500mbps h264 as starting with 600 you just noticed increase latency creeping in. Noticeable when pointing to items in a menu quickly or aiming in fast paced shooters. But alot of people have warned about that going over 500 and the latency that goes with it. But furthermore I think steams dynamic bitrate is just not enough. Comparing some scenes in vertigo 2 outdoors you really see steam compression. The bitrate was actually going at 270 h265 but it's not enough. Someone took pictures on Reddit a year ago that said 200 h265 is equivalent to 300 h264. If you want to be generous and say it's closer to a 150 difference we would need a fixed 350mbps option in steam to match 500 h264 airlink...not a dynamic one. In that scene 270 h265 was just not enough. That lies the problem as if you test 350 h265 in oculus debug tool the headset decoder can't keep up. I assume that's what vd creator meant when he said pushing a fixed bitrate of over 250 h265 leads to horrible lag over h265. So I don't think that's possible. And how it's even going above 250 spiking at times I'm not sure although there is tricks I think some use in the debug tool to do the same over airlink with an offset... It must have an algorithm or something that applies bitrate sparingly and quickly not to cause horrible lag. It's still new and I want to switch to steamlink cause I don't know if meta cares about pcvr anymore. But my final thoughts for now are airlink for me with tweaking is still the best option for me. It's smooth, low latency and looks the best at h264 and nearly every game works. I tried vd but at h264 500 and it worked even slightly better for steam vr but I play alot of golf plus or other oculus store apps and even with there new runtime it ran a bit worse then metas airlink and some games don't work properly. No idea though. For me I think I will use airlink h264 500 for quest store PC games and vd for steamvr games.

[@DayDreamerVR]

@montys8237 It is confusing, and there are so many different factors which can affect it. Go with what works for you 👍

[@thearminius1]

@@DayDreamerVR bitrate might be higher but even via usbc it'll still send an encoded video stream, not the actual pixels. Keep in mind native 4K HDR / HDMI 2.1 is 48 gbps, the link cable however can only do around 2.7 gbps max

[@DayDreamerVR]

Yeah, note my comment which starts "Yeah, 600Mbps", half way down the comment I explain about encode res 👍

[@jbeeches1]

Hi Day i have a Q3 /my pc is a 4090 and i have a bt hub 5 . When i play Arizona sunshine 2 i only get from 45 to 100 mbps on default settings cannot get to 350 mbps Help lol

[@DayDreamerVR]

No problem, nice PC! Can I confirm: -is your pc attached to the router with an ethernet cable -are you playing vr in the same room as your router -have you separated the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands on your router, and connected your headset just to the 5ghz band? -if you have virtual desktop, go onto it and bring up the performance panel and see if anything is being identified by virtual desktop as an issue, this should help with identifying the issue with steam link The issue could be the router as these ones provided by an Internet provider can struggle, but it's worth checking/confirming the above first 👍

[@savedbybravado4382]

here I thought I might get a decent vr experience with a 4060

[@DayDreamerVR]

You totally can! 👍

[@madpancake9891]

you can play Half Life: Alyx even on a gtx 1060/rx 580

[@johnbeaton1076]

You are not Richard Ayoade are you?

[@DayDreamerVR]

Haha, that's amazing, just listened to myself again and could really imagine it! 😂

[@johnbeaton1076]

@@DayDreamerVR Hey, hold on. That's the kind of thing that Richard Ayoade would say!😁

[@nicholasmarshall3191]

I only play iRacing. Would this help for that?

[@DayDreamerVR]

The higher the bitrate the less compression there is, so it should reduce compression artifacts, and the pixelated blurriness with it. With Virtual Desktop you can probably get a better picture quality as you have options for higher bitrates and higher resolution. But the very best I find for sim racing is using a USB cable with Oculus Link, and you can set the bitrate to 960Mbps with a copy and paste in 960, in the Oculus debug tool, and that will give you the best image, with the resolution as high as your system allows. I did a video about racing with the Quest 3 here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2eZgWmDirp0sNU Hope that helps 👍

[@andrew-q5h9w]

man that debug tool is gross

[@DayDreamerVR]

Very, not very easy to read or see what is what, both of which are quite important

[@ChrisJones-sw9il]

72 fps… why so low? Do 120 and see what u get for me so I can compare apples to apples

[@DayDreamerVR]

The fps shouldn't affect bitrate, but the lower the fps the higher you can put the graphical settings and resolution. Also a bitrate of 350Mbps split over 72 frames gives you a better image with less compression than 350Mbps split over 120fps 👍

[@Sonnerick2k]

@@DayDreamerVR _"The fps shouldn't affect bitrate"_ Yep, but fps will slightly affect picture quality a little because you need to encode more frames with the same bitrate...

[@DayDreamerVR]

@@Sonnerick2k That's exactly what I meant when I said: "Also a bitrate of 350Mbps split over 72 frames gives you a better image with less compression than 350Mbps split over 120fps 👍"

[@Sonnerick2k]

@@DayDreamerVR Oh, my bad, missed that part.😅

[@DayDreamerVR]

@@Sonnerick2k No problem 👍