PTC v51 Release Megathread Quest 2 and Quest Pro

OK, now that I found out that Quest headset PTC's can be rolled back (Ryan, please get rid of your outdated first link and just use the second one, thanks) I broke down and enrolled into the v51 PTC on my Quest Pro today.  This was a fairly large update that included firmware and Pro controller updates.  I also needed to enroll in the oculus desktop beta PTC.

All went well and everything seems to be working well with standalone and wireless PCVR using Air Link.  Starting up Air Link is still a little cranky but I've found that if I just go to quick settings/settings/system/Link and wait for air link quality items to refresh and go Green, then on the same panel ask it to startup link, then launch, it seems to work 99% of the time.   

The new Local Dimming feature (shows up at the bottom of ODT and is enabled by default) seems to work fine and really improves blacks and contrast in darkish apps.  Colors seem to pop out even more now as well.  This works with all PCVR apps (eg. from Rift, Steam, or VivePort stores).  Some apps seem to benefit more than others and some dark screens with white (or light colored) things can have a little Bloom halo around them.

I found the best way to minimize Bloom was to adjust the Quest home quick menu Brightness slider down to about 85% and to then add a tiny amount of contrast in the setting (personalize?) contrast slider (hunt around for it and you'll find it.  I think that the contrast slider was introduced back in v49, so most should have it by now, lol!

The Local dimming feature is only available with the Quest Pro since the Q2 screens do not have this capability.  I'm not sure if the upcoming Q3 will have capable screens or not.

Nice to see the Quest Pro finally getting some love.  I'm not saying that Local Dimming makes the Quest Pro's lcd's look as good as oled's, but I will say that my good old Vive Pro1 (with AMOLED screens, etsy lens mod, and Index controllers) may start collecting a bit of dust, lol!

For those that want to know what Local Dimming does and are too lazy to Google, here's a nice brief explanation I saw on another forum today;

OLED screens can individually dim the brightness of each pixel for better blacks/dark colors.

IPS screens, which most VR headsets use, can’t. So iirc what local dimming does is it dims the backlight zones instead, which are spread throughout the screen.

Is there a change log for this update, as after installing can't seem to see anything that's changed..?

Found a bug!
Opening a 2D activity directly with an intent like `adb shell "am start -n com.basti564.dreamgrid/com.basti564.dreamgrid.MainActivity` and then resizing it causes window to blackscreen. This isn't the case if the activity is launched via the library.

I hope this gets fixed. In the mean time: is there a supported way to launch 2D apps similar to how the library does it?

Activity lifecycle if opened directly
activity opened directly

Activity lifecycle if opened from library

activity opened via ui

 

I believe this bug might have existed on earlier versions, but I'm not sure.

I need to rollback to V50. The steps stay just slide the slider in the Meta app, but its not working. I did have to factory reset after the update and repair so not sure if that might be why I cant rollback?

I just got the PTC v51 and have Q2 with Q Pro controllers. First thing I noticed was that before getting this version, the main menu panel was almost too large by default. It was a real presence that blocked too much of the home environment. Now it is smaller and not resizable if you move it around. The TV app only shows 2 event squares in its current size and you have to scroll a lot more to see other options. I see what looks like a pop-out or possible resize icon in the lower right corner of the TV app, but it isn't active for me. 

I am also getting quite a few more notifications about controllers charging, etc. that aren’t useful.

I have objects in my guardian play space and I usually have to ‘confirm’ it is ok to use each time.  The passthrough appears during this ‘confirm’ step and I am now getting an extra notification each time when it is a system generated passthrough mode vs when I tap my headset.

I am hoping there is or will be a setting to limit system notification pop-ups that aren’t headset power related to lessen the interruption of immersion.  Also hoping that there is a way to delete all notifications vs one by one.

I haven’t noticed other changes yet, but did receive an update to my Q Pro controllers. Not sure what was updated for those. There is still a bit of a lag when connecting those each time.

I noticed that Wired Link image quality became worse slightly after PC App v40 or v41, and had been discussing about that with Amanda (Meta Air Link developer at the time) for a long time. And it was confirmed that the image quality became worse by her. Unfortunately, Amanda left Meta and it has been difficult to contact her now.

Recently, I feel that the image quality of Wired Link has decreased (so bad at low bitrate) again. It's bad even in static state, but the deterioration is especially bad while the head is being moved. I compared it with the image taken last August, and I can confirm that I'm not wrong and that the image quality has decreased.

Aug 2022

Current

This forum doesn't seem to be able to display images at image size. So uploaded to another site. Try switching tabs with your browser in full screen and comparing. You can see that the current image has less detail.

Aug 2022

Current

Both are the same setting (and Fixed 200Mbps). Actual (real eye through the lens) difference is bigger. Ryan, please report to current Link developer. We can't rely on Amanda at this time.

I usually don't find significant issues to report in these PTC builds, but in the current v51: 

Meta Quest Pro seems to have significant stability issues while in sleep mode. 

You get one of the following behaviors:

A) When a user puts on the headset from sleep mode, the proximity sensor does not wake the device and the power button must be used to manually do so.

B) When a user puts on the headset from sleep mode, the proximity sensor does not wake the device, and upon pressing the power button the user is given a black screen. This may very rarely resolve itself after a few moments, but usually the only fix is to hold the power button and force shutdown as the system UI does not appear to select the power off option.

C) When a user puts on the headset from sleep mode, the proximity sensor wakes the device as intended, but upon login the system seems to 'reset' and you may get multiple notifications like 'Hand Tracking and Controllers are disabled' or 'WI-FI is disabled'  

D) When a user puts on the headset from sleep mode, the proximity sensor wakes the device as intended, and the system resumes normal behavior. WI-FI connection may have dropped while in sleep and need time to reconnect, sometimes manually (This has been a longstanding issue on it's own, though).

I hope these are taken seriously because it significantly increases friction!

1. I can't find the custom homes I installed after I updated to V51.
   The custom home is installed successfully and is on the unknown sources list, but it doesn’t show up in the virtual environment home list.
2. And I can't launch 2d apps in VR app now.
3. Also some app's  ask on QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES is blocked and is "denied" without even an authorization dialog.

v51 broke the connection to my controllers and none of the troubleshooting steps or even a factory reset fixes the issue.
The only workarounds I know are (thanks to another user with the same issue):
1. Factory reset and keep the headset from suspending (controllers can no longer reconnect after a suspend-resume cycle)
2. Turn off wifi. This fixes the issue temporarily but you can now only use offline apps.

The advertised PTC rollback isn't working for v51.
Is a fix for this issue in the pipeline or should we send them back under warranty?

My Quest Pro controllers had an update today that had the right controller not responding and then only partially. I restarted it several times and the headset. I had to unpair and repair the controllers to get them to work again. Not sure if this may help someone else on this thread who was having controller issues as well. They are still being a bit odd when I am choreographing an Audio Trip song that uses an in-VR editor.