Oculus Link is loaded directly into SteamVR with the use of an open source tool called OculusKiller, which disables Oculus Dash. ItsKaitlyn03, a software engineer, created the program, which is available on GitHub. You might recognise the term because Kaitlyn discovered code for the ‘VR Air Bridge’ adapter for Quest 2 wireless PC VR earlier last month (the manual for this leaked last week). You might recognise the name OculusKiller – there’s another tool on GitHub with the same name, but it’s for a different purpose: forcibly killing Oculus services running on your PC.
Kaitlyn’s OculusKiller is a technical term for an executable that substitutes the Oculus Dash executable with a simple SteamVR loader. The Oculus PC software must be active, however the in-VR Oculus PC interface is no longer available. It’s a way to make hopping into PC VR faster and more convenient if you use Oculus Link but just buy VR material from Steam – that is, you don’t use Oculus Store content.
Kaitlyn believes that removing the Oculus Dash will “significantly improve speed,” as it consumes “200 MB of memory + GPU, even when not in use.” There is one issue, however: there is no way to exit SteamVR from within VR, as it will simply relaunch itself when it shuts. You must remove the headset and manually close the Oculus software, which will also close SteamVR.
Alternatively, if you’re using the wireless Air Link, you could buy Virtual Desktop, which bypasses the Oculus Dash UI and includes a one-click Launch SteamVR button. OculusKiller appears to be more suited to users who prefer a wired USB connection.
Simply follow the instructions on GitHub to install OculusKiller – change your existing OculusDash.exe to something like OculusDash.exe. Delete the old OculusDash.exe and replace it with the new OculusDash.exe. Simply delete the new file and rename the old one to OculusDash.exe to restore Dash.
