Virtual Desktop’s latest update for PC enables hands, eye, face and even tongue tracking

All of the best VR headsets have their app staples, just like the best phones in the world have their own. But even if you’d expect to encounter WhatsApp among them — even though it is available on the Quest Store — the world of VR is quite different.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Beat Saber is one of the best VR games around and is absolutely a staple, precisely because you don’t need to be a hardcore gamer in order to enjoy it. But what about pure apps and not games?

Well, when you start digging for those, it’s only a brief matter of time before you find Virtual Desktop. A fan favorite worthy of its praise, for it lets you get to all sorts of shenanigans with your favorite VR headset, in standalone mode or via PC VR.

And thanks to its latest update, the PC version of Virtual Desktop became even more awesome.


One of the issues with PC VR is that sometimes it requires proprietary… Things in order for everything to work properly. For example, the fact that the Quest Pro supports tongue tracking doesn’t automatically mean that all Quest apps will support that, right?

Well, the same logic applies to PC VR, but with another hurdle along the way: your PC doesn’t understand the Quest Pro’s tongue tracking data on its own. Hence: proprietary things are required. Preferably for more meaningful features, but you get the gist.

But you know what? Guy Godin — Virtual Desktop’s dev — ensured that even tongue tracking is supported with the latest update for the staple VR app on PC. So now, in total, so long as your headset supports these, Virtual Desktop can take advantage of:

• Hand tracking
• Body tracking
• Face tracking
• Eye tracking
• And, exclusively to the Quest Pro: tongue tracking

I presume that body tracking includes the Quest 3’s IOBT capabilities, which basically enable full body tracking without the need for external trackers? If so, that would be a feat. And if you know for sure: let us know in the comments!

So, here’s the big one: does this mean that your PC VR games can suddenly utilize these features, if ran through Virtual Desktop? Yesn’t. As in, in theory: yes, but only if the developers ensure that they’ve updated them accordingly, so you may have to sit tight a bit longer for that.

From what I hear, Hubris is an example of a title that already has support, but I’m not sure to what extent the different tracking methods are implemented.

If you’re eager to test these out, you’ve got to update your Virtual Desktop app, maybe even through Steam, to version 1.30.0. Of course, the update brings other goodies too like extra details in the performance overlay and different bug fixes and improvements.