The Definitive Quest Piracy Guide
(THIS IS A PCVR AND QUEST PIRACY GUIDE)
So you wanna sail the seven seas of virtual reality?
Last Edited: 4/6/2021
In my continued attempts to quiet the spam of people begging for the quest game links, I've written up a guide towards obtaining it yourself instead of spamming threads asking for it on this subreddit.
^ I think i've accomplished this mission now :]
This guide shows you how to download and sideload pirated games on the Oculus Quest 1/Q2 as well as the best place to find pirated games for PCVR headsets or Quests connected through Oculus Link or any other wireless streaming solution.
Just to reiterate and stress this,
DO NOT PUBLICLY POST LINKS TO PIRACY DOWNLOADS. BY DOING THIS YOU ARE RISKING THE SUBREDDIT AND ENTIRE PIRACY MIRRORS TO BE DELETED.
I'm thankfully able to circumvent these rules by not providing *direct* links to downloads, but just pointing people to where they can access these downloads by themselves :)
I am not affiliated with any of the hosts of these links. Just someone in the community who knows the ins and outs trying to point noobies in the right direction and to (hopefully) slow down the subreddit becoming nothing but a cesspit of people asking the same question over and over. This also means don't come to me for help, I don't run any of this stuff. Ask for support in the VRP Discord.
AND I DO NOT ANSWER DIRECT MESSAGES
QUEST 2 USERS: Not all Quest 1 games currently work with the Quest 2, please take a look at this spreadsheet before installing any games.
if you're here looking for a cracked version of Virtual Desktop, there isn't one. VD is uncrackable as far as I know. If you want a PCVR streamer for Quest, here is a free alternative.
If you have a Quest 2 you may now freely and officially stream PCVR wirelessly using Air Link on the V28 update.
Also wanna add that certain multiplayer games (mainly Oculus originals such as Population One) cannot be cracked either, so only way to play those is to buy them.
WILL I BE BANNED FOR PIRATING GAMES?
As it stands right now, you won't be banned for pirating games. As of right now, Facebook has never issued any form of punishment to anyone for piracy.
If you feel weary when it comes to pirating games, you can take some precautions just to be safe.
"LVL 0: Do nothing, play cracked games online and offline
LVL 1: Play cracked games only when your wifi is turned off (still not safer since oculus sends logs)
LVL 2: Spoof games as random packagenames and only play with wifi off (safer, but still not 100% safe)
LVL 3: Play with wifi on but block all oculus and facebook domains through pihole or your router (even safer, still SOME game developers will see your ip trying to connect to their servers, using a fake dns does work)
LVL 4: Block quest external access to internet from your router/pihole (only allowing stuff vd and file transfer between devices on LAN)"
- Zale Anderson, VRP Discord
PLEASE READ THIS GUIDE CAREFULLY TO NOT MAKE ANY MISTAKES
Also, if you're manually sideloading, DON'T USE SIDEQUEST. THEY HAVE AN APK BLACKLIST AND WILL NOT LET YOU SIDELOAD PIRATED GAMES. YOU CAN USE AN OLDER VERSION OF SIDEQUEST TO SIDELOAD BLACKLISTED APKS THAT CAN BE OBTAINED THROUGH RCLONE BROWSER, WHICH IS MENTIONED LATER IN THIS GUIDE
YOU WILL NEED:
An Oculus developer account with the Quest in developer mode (Tutorial - WATCH UNTIL STEP 5)
EDIT: I've heard about recently that you now need a Credit Card or phone number to get a developer account for verification purposes. I don't know any way around this so I apologise if you can't make a developer account for these reasons.
A Telegram Account (requires phone number, if you don't have one that's on you)
EDIT: you can use various websites that provide free phone numbers online, namely TextNow (US only but VPNs work) and FreePhoneNum. thanks to u/FlowV4 on this post for reminding me that these apps existed lol
Any device capable of sideloading to an Oculus Quest/Quest 2 (this guide will be directed to Windows 10 users as that's the main use case here, if you use something else then I think there are downloads on the Telegram for other operating systems. Keep reading to know how to get to the Telegram)
A USB Type C cable routing from your PC to the quest (to sideload games to the headset)
Step 1: Join the VRP Telegram channel.
Step 2: On top where it says pinned message it'll say "CLICK HERE TO MESSAGE THE BOT." Click on the image and it'll maximise the image and also show you a message along side it linking to a telegram bot. click that link to message the bot.
Step 3: Now you should have just started a conversation with their bot, click Start at the bottom, then click option 1 and get the VRP Essentials pack, after selecting VRP Essentials it'll send you a download. Download that and install the VRP Essentials pack
So at this point there are multiple methods here to obtain games. I'm going to go through them here.
ROOKIE'S SIDELOADER VRP EDITION (AUTOMATIC SIDELOADING, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR NOOBIES)
When you install the VRP Essentials pack it'll put a shortcut on your desktop for Rookie's Sideloader VRP Edition. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND USING THIS TO PIRATE GAMES. IF WINDOWS SAYS THIS IS A VIRUS, IT'S A FALSE POSITIVE. ALLOW THE APPLICATION THROUGH YOUR ANTIVIRUS. when launched, you can plug your quest into your PC, Select from a huge drop down menu of games and easily, with a couple of clicks, automagically download and sideload games to your quest.
If you get Rookie's Sideloader VRP and are prompted with an update on launch, accept the update and it'll be downloaded and launched on your PC. Games on the list are automatically added and updated at the rate they're cracked by the pirates.
Please note that there are two versions of Rookie's Sideloader. The VRP version and the GitHub version. The GitHub version does NOT provide games and is just a sideloader.
RCLONE BROWSER (MANUAL SIDELOADING, RECOMMENDED IF USING ANY OTHER SIDELOADING METHOD, ALSO FOR PCVR/GEARVR GAMES)
After installing the essentials pack you may also have a shortcut to rclone browser. With this, you can obtain PCVR and GearVR games on top of Quest games.
THE PCVR GAMES ARE TO BE DOWNLOADED AND PLAYED ON A PC WITH A PCVR TETHERED HEADSET OR A QUEST CONNECTED TO A PC WITH OCULUS LINK/VIRTUAL DESKTOP/ALVR.
YOU CANNOT SIDELOAD PCVR GAMES ONTO A QUEST 1 OR 2 AND PLAY THEM STANDALONE WITHOUT OCULUS LINK OR A PC STREAMER APP.
If the UI for rclone browser is confusing to you, refer to this short tutorial video. (when the game you chose is showing as running, wait until it says finished before sideloading)
WHITE WHIDOW'S SIDENODER - NEWER, IN DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVE TO ROOKIE'S FOR MAC, LINUX AND WINDOWS
all info regarding WWS can be found here. includes download and installation guide
I have yet to try WWS so i'll give it a try when i can and update this part with more details.
EXTRA, LIKELY NECESSARY INFORMATION
To manually sideload, use sidequest or rookies sideloader to access the quests file system and drag the "com.xxx.xxx" folder to the directory Android/obb then sideload the apk using the sideloading method of your choice.
Not all games need obb files so they won't come with them.
To access sideloaded applications, go to your Quest's library screen, on the top right select the drop down menu that says "All", scroll down and select Unknown Sources. From there you can access your sideloaded games and apps
As of the v29 update the Quest 2 has updated UI on the universal menu. If they have moved the Unknown Sources section then you'll just have to find it yourself. I can't check as I own a Quest 1
If you want a live feed of what games are added or updated on the VRP download mirrors (Rookie's, rclone etc) You can join the VRP Discord and use the vrp updates channel there to keep up to date. invite link can be found in the telegram channel.
UPDATING QUEST GAMES
To update your pirated Quest games, while keeping the current version of the game installed, download and sideload the new version of the game using your preferred method and your save data should stay intact with the new update installed
OTHER
rclone browser also provides downloads for other tools and options regarding your Quest and games. This includes:
App launchers spoofed as legit apps that can be launched from your regular library screen, eliminating the need to go to unknown sources
Method(s) to disable Telemetry tracking
Alternate sideloading methods such as older versions of sidequest that allow blacklisted apks, total commander for local sideloading and rookies sideloader vrp edition.
All the old Quest firmware versions and methods to downgrade
Previous versions of games
DLC for games
Modded/maxed out save files for games
PORN (yup... just 1tb of porn on some of the mirrors. your headset, I suppose.)
GEARVR AND PC TETHERED VR
Rclone browser also provides downloads for GearVR and PCVR games.
The GearVR games should sideload fine onto a Quest but there is no guarantee that they will fully function. However I don't know how to play GearVR games on a PC using a PCVR headset
Reminder: THE PCVR GAMES ARE TO BE DOWNLOADED AND PLAYED ON A PC WITH A PCVR TETHERED HEADSET OR A QUEST CONNECTED TO A PC WITH OCULUS LINK/VIRTUAL DESKTOP/ALVR.
YOU CANNOT SIDELOAD PCVR GAMES ONTO A QUEST 1 OR 2 AND PLAY THEM STANDALONE.
To play pirated PCVR games, download one using any of the rclone mirrors. Some may be packaged into repacked installers to make downloads smaller, so follow any instructions that are (hopefully) provided alongside the repack files.
PLAYING PIRATED GAMES WITH STEAMVR
Game shortcuts also allow pirated games to be played through both Oculus Link and Virtual Desktop
In my experience, the easiest way to run these games is through SteamVR, being only a Quest owner i've found running games through the Oculus PC app with Link very unreliable due to their software just being a MASSIVE processing power hog so only use Oculus Link if you have no other way or you think your PC is beefy enough for it. More on this a little bit down the line.
So, if you're on an Oculus headset (Quest with Link, Rift) enable unknown sources in the settings for the Oculus PC software so you can run SteamVR.
Find the executable (.exe) for the game you've just downloaded and installed/extracted (you may have to look around in the game directory depending on what game) and add it as a Non-Steam game shortcut within Steam.
Then go to properties for the shortcut you have just created within Steam and enable "Include in VR Library"
Then when running SteamVR on launch you'll be presented with your VR library where your shortcuts should appear and you can just launch the games from there and enjoy.
POSSIBLE SETUP IMPROVEMENTS (IN MY EXPERIENCE)
Here i'm just gonna dump a few things that have enhanced my PCVR experience on a Quest over time in hopes that it'll help out others.
I play games on a budget ass rig (i5-4590s, 8gb ram, gtx 1650) so running the Oculus app and playing with Oculus Link is a MASSIVE MASSIVE hit on performance in games.
So if you're able to, use Virtual Desktop instead of Oculus Link as long as you've got a nice connection (preferrably ethernet) and at the cost of a bit of pixelation in display or some higher latency, you will run games WAAAY smoother. I am incredibly below spec for Half-Life: Alyx but by running it with Virtual Desktop and not the Oculus app bloating up my CPU power it sat at more than playable fps (50-72fps) for me at all times on low fidelity.
Along with that, close anything else you have running in the background like any web browser or Discord.
Sure VD is $25/£20, but its worth it not only for the experience improvements but for supporting the developer because this guy is doing a better job than Facebook when it comes to this stuff.
This post will be updated for general improvements (i suck at writing guides) and if any changes come along to the process.
I hope this helps those who want to try before they buy or the many clueless people who just want free games on their shiny new VR headsets.
But remember, please support developers and their work by buying their games on legit marketplaces, maybe wait for a sale or something and buy their games if you enjoy them. They absolutely slave away to bring us these incredible experiences and we are responsible for making sure they can afford a tin of sardines to ration for the week and maybe buy more models off the asset store for their next game
I know this is coming from the redditor who just taught you how to pirate every single VR game but i still like to support developers by buying their games if i enjoy them and it goes way further than you think when you buy a game.
Except for Bethesda and Rockstar, please pirate their games to your hearts content as they are shitty companies releasing low effort VR ports for a quick buck from the small but growing amount of VR enthusiasts and gamers.
Thanks for reading and enjoy!
Posted Oct 17, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC · edited