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Inspiring
October 11, 2023
Solved

[UNRESOLVED as of May 30, 2024] - Quest 3 Controller Tracking Issues

update May 30, 2024: There have been no updates/improvements to controller tracking since Meta Support marked this as solved! Community consensus seems to be that this issue stems from hardware/software limitations with the controllers, specifically the method of tracking (as a software developer working specifically in the machine learning and computer vision space, I agree that this technology is not particularly robust enough to handle some types of movement). If you play games that require fast hand movements and/or dynamic hand positioning, I would recommend not buying a Quest 3, unfortunately. I've heard some anecdotes regarding improved tracking with the Quest Pro controllers, but the improvements are marginal at best - not worth the additional ~$300 for minimal performance gains IMO. My personal recommendation is to stick to Quest 2. Not to detract from the various improvements that the Quest 3 has brought (e.g., color passthrough w/higher resolution, better hand tracking, higher overall hardware specs compared to Quest 2, etc.), but Quest 2 controller tracking is significantly better than the Quest 3's. Ideally, my hope is that Meta will push an update that allows for pairing Quest 2 controllers with the Quest 3, but as of right now, that's just a pipe dream as Meta has given no indication of making these headsets/controllers backwards compatible. While I'm (naively) hopeful that things will change, realistically speaking, I have 0 expectations and a lot of disappointment.

 

tl;dr: I've had a Quest 2 for almost 3 years. I received my Quest 3 today and was very excited to use it. Controller tracking performance is much worse than the Quest 2, at least in the context of games where you swing your arms as fast as you can. This was not a problem for the Quest 2 (unless controllers were physically damaged, e.g., hitting a wall, dropping them, etc.). Don't buy if you play games like Gorilla Tag, Beat Saber, Synth Riders, or any of the other games mentioned throughout this thread!!!

 

Question:
Are there ways to modify the Quest 3's controller tracking such that fast hand movements won't be affected by the prediction-like behavior where the in-game hand moves farther than you swing? When I perform a baseball throwing movement with my hand/arm, the tracking will not keep up and it ends up losing my hand's position for a fraction of a second, causing my in-game hand to be positioned farther away than my hand actually is (this is not an issue with Quest 2 controller tracking).

 

Details/Context:
I primarily use VR for exercise, and I mostly play Gorilla Tag. Gorilla Tag is a game where you play as the upper half of a gorilla, using your arms as your means of locomotion. Basically, you use your arms as if they were your legs, and you can run, climb trees, wall-run, etc. It's an infection-based tagging game where you join a lobby of up to 9 other people, and the game will randomly select a player to be the first tagger. The tagger(s) will continue tagging until everyone in the lobby has been tagged (infection-style), and then a random player will be selected as first tagger; this pattern just continuously repeats.

While the learning curve is pretty steep to play at a high level, there is a growing community of players who are very competitive (approx. 10-20k players based on the communities I participate in - Competitive Gorilla Tag on Discord and Gorilla Tag Competitive on Discord). As a prominent member of this community, people have been seeking my feedback on whether or not the Quest 3 is worth it. While I feel that a majority of the new features are amazing, I have had issues with the controller tracking.

Gorilla Tag is an active game where you're constantly swinging your arms as fast as you can to travel around the map(s) to avoid being tagged. The primary player base for the game is Quest 2 users. Aside from physical damage, most players have not had any problems with controller tracking on the Quest 2, aside from when the controller goes out of the tracking range of the headset (as expected). 

However, the Quest 3 controllers lose tracking during medium-fast to fast hand movement (medium-fast: like playing catch with a friend; fast: throwing a baseball as hard as you can). The consequence of this in the context of Gorilla Tag is that your in-game arm extends to the game's max arm length frequently, causing your hand to collide with the wall/tree/ground and launch you away from the surface. This is a big issue for games/activities involving fast-paced hand movement as it's not nearly as reliable as the Quest 2 controller tracking performance. 

TheAntiSocializer
Honored Contributor
October 24, 2023

Hey everyone, I've connected with the team and they are actively investigating tracking issues like you've mentioned. We'll be working to improve performance, especially for competitive players in games like Gorilla Tag, Supernatural, IB Cricket, and Eleven Table Tennis. We expect to roll some of these improvements in the upcoming releases.

Sometimes it's okay to be a little Bing Chilling

531 replies

Up and Coming
May 27, 2024

I did the update from the PTC channel because I have nothing to lose and after the update, my left controller started updating (the right one didn't). I checked the software version of the controllers and both are 1.19.1. This proves that the V65 update only updated the right controller that I saw. I didn't see the left one and I thought she was the first one to do it.
I don't know how you test it there, or how much you pay testers, but you're definitely doing it wrong.

Up and Coming
May 28, 2024

Hey Meta. Thank You!

After update to V66 (PTC). Link connection have huge lag, 60fps and -116% of perf. headrom and all is slow (screen tearing effect). Device is unplayable by link because of screen tearing. Even after disable PTC and back to V65 meta quest link app the problem remains. So it's quest V66 firmware. It half brick device.

EDIT: Same with airlink. I also noticed that the device heats up quickly and intensely when PC link or airlink is active.

 

Time to find new HMD with HDMI from more serious company.

Up and Coming
May 31, 2024

I'm just checking back after a few months... still no progress at all. I guess we're not getting any more updates from TheAntiSocializer? They had at least been good communicating with us about this issue. We're coming up on nine months since this issues was opened and a bunch of us started providing detailed information and solid reproductions. Still nothing? Could we at least get an update like, "The hardware doesn't support your needs, wait until the Quest 4?" Could we at least get an answer about using the Quest 2 controllers with the Quest 3 headset - is it possible? I understand it might not be possible because of the poor camera choices, but don't know for sure. A little information would go a long way.

Participant
May 31, 2024

Despite us being sensible about this issue and we're understanding that they've made a blunder and its difficult to fix it, we still love the quest headset and finding ways to enjoy it with workarounds. Its unfair that there's no updates from the community managers. Gotta admire their audacity for marking this as solved and pretend nothing happenend

Up and Coming
June 4, 2024

A small update. This definitely applies to fast-paced games on PC Link. On PC Link Beat Saber I can't play (after FW update) on hard or even easy levels. The margin of error is about 1mm to hit a note or not. I checked the slowdown records (beatleader) and it looks like artificial acceleration was added to the faster moves. Some swings are completed in a fraction of a second. I don't swing at 300 km/h or more! Some of them seem shortened, generally artificial. It's as if I accelerated my arm in a split second and immediately reversed direction at full acceleration.

To make sure If I  had lost all my skills in one day (after upgrading from V62 to V65), I ran the standalone version of Beat Saber. I can play there on Expert, Expert+ without these strange, artificial "additions" and I hit the notes.

So Meta did it on purpose to put pressure on sales of the standalone version, or it did it unintentionally (as usual) on their "introduce one new thing, break three" rule. Or you tweaked the controllers' AI so much that it exceeded your expectations.

 

The problem only occurs with faster movements. I didn't notice it at slow speeds, but even with such slow movements I can't play on easy because the map is still faster than I would have to slow down my movements.

 

You broke it dear Meta.

New Participant
June 5, 2024

This is really frustrating. I can't play Les Mills anymore because the controller isn't working properly. The issue started for me about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I've tried everything, including adjusting the lighting and changing the batteries, but nothing has worked. Downgrading the firmware doesn't seem to be an option either. We urgently need a solution for this.

Up and Coming
June 5, 2024

Did this happen after a firmware update?

Can you describe in detail what is working wrong?

Participant
June 23, 2024

Hi, I can speak only for the eleven table tennis, after the controllers update any fast-forward serving spinning, leads to the controller disappearing 5 seconds or so.

Up and Coming
June 5, 2024

Update. Today I tested BeatSaber via Virtual Desktop. It works without weird stuff like over PC-Link.

Did the meta do it on purpose or by mistake? The next test will give the answer.

Up and Coming
June 5, 2024

The final test and proof!

I installed the latest version of BeatSaber (1.37.0) via BSManager, so I have 2 versions at once. I'm not patching version 1.37.0, just the original one as it is. I can easily finish expert mode on OST7 with a few errors/bad cuts due to incorrect controller settings (I'm using EasyOffset Mod on ver.1.29.1). On version 1.37.0 I feel like I'm playing and I feel my mistakes. Similar to version 1.29.1 before the FW/Oculus Meta update.

 

So Meta, you intentionally broke version 1.29.1. Is not bug in Meta Quest Link sw or FW. 🟥

 

Time to spread this info.

Participant
June 5, 2024

Yep. The new Beat Saber VII update, I failed out of multiple songs. The new Les Mills Body Combat DLC, so many missed targets that I'm hitting. Unfreakin' believable. It just keeps getting worse and worse.

Up and Coming
June 5, 2024

I think I found what and how they broke 1.29.1. Anyway, I copied openxr_loader.dll from version 1.37.0 to 1.29.1 and renamed it to openvr_api.dll (I renamed the old openvr_api.dll to keep a copy). I'll restore the file tomorrow to be 1000% sure, but this file copy/paste operation caused HUGE change and ver. 1.29.1 feels like before. If this is really problem, then many steam games may be affected (which use openvr_api.dll).

 

In 1.37.0 I only played OST7 (expert) maps to see if I'm the broken one or not 🙂