Meta Developers

Once your environment is set up with the appropriate tools and your project settings are configured properly, you can build virtual reality projects targeting Android, and then load and run the APKs on your Meta Quest device.

Prerequisite

Use the Quickstart Guide to set up your development environment and links to set up your device for development.

Build and Package Projects

Connect your Meta Quest device to your PC via USB.
Open a shell terminal and verify you can communicate with your device by using adb devices.
Note
Depending on the device you are using, you may need to configure your connection for software installation. For more information, see [ADB](/documentation/native/android/mobile-adb/) in the Mobile SDK Developer Guide.
From the Platforms menu, select Android > Package Project. Under Flavor Selection, Android (ASTC) compression is recommended, although you can alternatively select ETC2.
Browse to the destination folder where you would like your APK to be installed.
Once the build process is completed, navigate to the destination folder. Run the .bat file beginning with Install_ to install the application.
Click the application to launch.

Launching a Project Directly onto your Headset

You may also directly build and launch an application to your Meta Quest headset without saving the APK locally.

Connect your device to your PC by USB.
From the Platforms menu, select Project Launcher.
Select your project, and then select your headset in the window below it.
Note
If you do not see your device listed, verify your USB connection, and check if you need to set your connection to **Connected as an Installer**.
Click the Launch this profile icon on the right side of your device profile.

Your application will build and install to your Meta Quest device.

Preview Content on a PC

You can launch Unreal Engine with a configuration option to use the Meta XR plugin in conjunction with the Mobile renderer on the PC. This allows you to preview mobile development from the desktop using PC-VR. To do this, disable OculusRift and SteamVR plugins for your project, and run -OpenGL -FeatureLevelES2 from the command line.

Although you can preview mobile applications in the Oculus Rift headset during development, this isn’t generally useful, because PC-VR applications are subject to substantially different performance requirements than Meta Quest applications. For more, see Performance Targets in Meta Quest: Testing and Performance Analysis. You may find it easiest to use the 2D preview in Unreal, and then either build an APK or use Launch on Device when you need to view the app in VR.

Note

Mobile Content Scale Factor is not currently supported for Meta Quest development.

Blueprints

Meta Quest provides Blueprints for common Quest operations such as querying battery level and headphone connection status.

For more information, see Blueprints Reference.

Advanced Rendering Features for Mobile

Meta Quest provides advanced mobile rendering features such as multi-view and hybrid monoscopic rendering. Under some conditions these features can significantly improve performance. For more information, see Rendering.

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