How to Display Entire Desktop into Oculus Rife with Virtual Desktop?

Diana Joan

May 13, 2015 03:26 am / Posted by Diana Joan

Virtual Desktop is an free application developed for the Oculus Rift that improves your VR experience on Windows. By replicating your desktop into the rift, Virtual Desktop allows you to see your desktop on a giant virtual screen.

Virtual Desktop for Oculus Rift

You can launch VR games, browse the web, watch movies or even play non-VR games. The Virtual desktop can be used in multiple environments, including a home theater which provides perfect experience for watching movies. Virtual Desktop also supports hardware accelerated playback of 360°or 180°videos and the playback of Side-By-Side 3D content.

Following are the applications that has have been tested on Oculus Rift with Virtual Desktop:

1. The Virtual Desktop is waiting for you when you exit your game or demo without some funky looking windows background image.

2. You do not have to take your rift on and off to get games running, before you start your game, you can click and see your desktop. You can also configure Virtual Desktop so it loads when Windows start up.

3. You can stream online video from Neflix, YouTube with browser on your Oculus Rift DK2.

4. Watch videos with Plex media player in Oculus Rift DK2.

5. Play games such as BF4 perfectly without installing additional driver, but a high resolution is more preferable.

6. Watch movies is easier than the previous VR player, you can simple change the background to Home Theater then you will feel like sitting in a movie theater.

Wish to play your favorite games or movies with Virtual Desktop when you don the Oculus Rift? Go with the following steps to enjoy this special experience on your own.

Step 1: Download Virtual Desktop for Oculus Rift.

Step 2: Setup and configuration.

Download the latest Oculus 0.4.4 Runtime.

Ensure your monitor is set up as the main display, not your DK2.

Monitor main display

Step 3: Play Non-VR games.

Turn off the full-screen option in Virtual Desktop and run your game in Windowed or windowed full-screen mode. The checkbox in the bottom of the screenshot below:

Virtual Desktop Settings