Forum Discussion

Starlocket's avatar
Starlocket
Protege
19 days ago

v83 Link Workaround Fix for Quest Pro/FT

For those with Quest pro's/Headsets that have facial tracking, as you know v83 rolled out an update that did not force the runtimes to expose facial tracking features. We've been troubleshooting this for weeks and not to many leads other than running backups that immediately get overwritten. 

Skipping over the entire troubleshooting here's the fix for now:

Well thanks to another user here: andrea.511384

Passthrough over link not available? | Meta Community Forums - 1357035

This made me go back and validate a few things on working machines ( friends in other countries that haven't been hit yet ( 1 was as of today but validated this brought it back)

While the post above is more for Quest (non FT) it did give me an idea to revaluate the remainder of the registry. Skipping over powershell scripts and comparisons:

 

Here's what you need:

Main ones are Face and Eye tracking however make sure to set VRPreviewLaunchLink to 0 as I found this can cause the preview area to keep loading over steamvr or others when launched.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Reenable Linkside experimental features + tracking toggles
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Oculus VR, LLC\Oculus]
"VRPreviewLaunchLink"=dword:00000000
"ExperimentalExtensions"=dword:00000001
"PassthroughOverLink"=dword:00000001
"SpatialDataOverLink"=dword:00000001
"FaceTrackingOverLink"=dword:00000001
"EyeTrackingOverLink"=dword:00000001

; Prevent Dash from stealing focus 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Oculus VR, LLC\Oculus\Config]
"PreventDashLaunch"=dword:00000001

For the second part its important because with the current update for w/e reason DASH does not want to yield to steamvr in link it wants to stay on top. So if you load SteamVR from a dash environment it will load up then pop back to dash.

If you need to restore dash functionality simply run this ( or open regedit and navigate to the below key and set it to 0

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Oculus VR, LLC\Oculus\Config]
"PreventDashLaunch"=dword:00000000

For those unsure how to run this, you can save the code snippets

Make sure file extensions are visible (so it doesn’t become .txt)

  • open file explorer
  • click view
  • hover show
  • turn on file name extensions

 Create the file

  • pick a folder or area you want to save this to, right click and create new text file. 
  • name it w/e you want but make sure the extension is .reg  i.e:  linkfix.reg
  • if windows warns about changing file type, click yes

Paste the code above

  • right click your new regedit file you made and click edit (or load into notepad)
  • copy paste the text from the large block above (or small if undoing (DO NOT COMBINE THESE)
  • save and close the text editor.

To Apply it

  • simply double click your registry file you made , click ok if prompted ( u might be prompted twice if UAC is active) 
  • one applied it'll let u know its successfully applied, you can check if you want by navigating the folder path in regedit to look.

Currently running link with SteamVR, VRCFT is tracking and no issues to date. Please ensure to pass this around to those u know as Meta has openly stated its not a major focus atm for them.

8 Replies

  • Starlocket's avatar
    Starlocket
    Protege
    19 days ago

    Since I'm unable to edit, to add you just need to restart the OVRService for it to apply vs reboot. Can do so via services or the oculusdebug tool.

    • Aviet's avatar
      Aviet
      Explorer
      10 days ago

      Wanted to ask, it seems that anytime they update the platform, it breaks this reg fix. My face tracking was not working again last night. Do I need to try to go back to an older version of the meta portal then rerun the script? Or reinstall/rerun the script? 

      • Starlocket's avatar
        Starlocket
        Protege
        9 days ago

        I haven't seen this but u can also block meta services in your firewall from connecting, then reopen it later once an actual fix has been released.  

        Also to update on this I've been struggling for 2 weeks now trying to get them to take the fix but they keep insisting this is a normal functioning update and that if I feel strongly about it I should leave feedback on their helpdesk/forums on it. Meta does NOT care at this point, they're aware  but that's just a lie at this point they have no plans for an update till later this year per majority of support.

        Firewall wise if you're using windows security:

        Open powershell as admin and copy/paste this:

        New-NetFirewallRule `
 -DisplayName "BLOCK Oculus Meta Outbound (Wildcard)" `
 -Direction Outbound `
 -Program "C:\Program Files\Oculus\*" `
 -Action Block `
 -Profile Any

        This will ensure anything in the oculus folder has no outbound access. If your install is "C:\Program Files\Meta Horizon" just update the path. You can verify its active by running this after:

        Get-NetFirewallRule |
Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -match "Oculus|Meta" } |
Select DisplayName, Direction, Action, Enabled, Profile |
Format-Table -Auto

        You should see direction outbound, action block, and enabled = true for the rules. Readd your registry fix and restart the service and it should stick.  This will at least prevent Meta from touching the website for more updates/breaks etc since there's 0 QA on their side. Given Meta's history of treating us as Beta testers, I highly recommend this to anyone on a stable version to keep theirs working and only disable when absolutely needed.

        ---------------

        In the event you're using a different AV/Firewall/Security program: Simple add the folder or executables from the Oculus/Meta folder into the firewall and deny outbound access. 

  • Vigor124894's avatar
    Vigor124894
    Honored Guest
    10 days ago

    Thank you for sharing this solution, but it still didn't work after I followed the method you suggested.