Hello,
I am resuming troubleshooting of my new Quest 3 headset. I got it week ago and played with official Oculus Link cable for a few days, until I've read everything needed for wireless gaming.
I have ordered dedicated WiFi 6E (Asus RT-AXE7800), Cat7/8 cables and wired everything together.
Using my ODT tweaked settings, everything runs smoothly at 40 ms latency via Link cable. But using these same settings (Quest 3 reports stable 2400 Mbit connection) on Air Link gets me really high latency spikes. I am experiencing stable 45 / 50 ms latency spiking up to 500 ms for a few seconds, then again stable to low latency. Sometimes I experience "earthquake", which I could explain as both displays shaking randomly, like it wants to make me puke.
I have analyzed all other frequencies nearby; I am the only one in the apartment and nearby using 6E router and 160 MHz channel. There should be no interference. I have disabled integrated Wifi 6E on motherboard, even the Bluetooth. I have tried almost every possible router setting, this is what I am currently using:
I have tried to turn off 2.4G and 5.0G, had to turn on at least smart contact and 2.4G, since I could not get my Wifi to show up, or it took long time.
I am playing like 3-5 m from the router. Not sure if it's relevant, but other wireless devices I am using are:
- Logitech Lightspeed mouse, keyboard and headphones. All of these peripherals have their own USB dongle, which should run on 2.4G frequency.
- Other than that, I have Samsung 24+ at the table, which I am not sure is able to use 6G frequency. I could connect to the wifi though, and it showed wireless symbol with 6E next to it.
All wireless devices are connected to the station, which is running 2.4G/5.0G. The Asus router is dedicated just to Quest 3 and is set to access point mode. In the settings it shows all devices, not sure if its relevant again, just tossing any info I can.
Am I doing something wrong? Networking was always out of my PC knowledge. I am going crazy, that I spent 300$ for unusable Wifi. Even lowering graphics didn't work, no matter what, the latency still spikes. VD is same, little bit more stable, but it still warns me about having installed GameFirst VI, even though I've checked, and I don't have anything from Asus installed.
If you are able to help me, I promise (if it's possible), to send you some oculus store gift.
Thanks to anyone who gets trough that wall of text with broken english.
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Accepted Solutions
Hey @Vaestor! Having a seamless wireless PCVR experience can be game changing, so I'd love to help out with trying to optimize your network setup. Thanks for all the details so far, it'll be a great starting point for us!
Starting off with your router settings, I noticed you had TX Bursting, WMM, Multi-User MIMO, and Beamforming enabled. While these can definitely have some great upsides, some of these settings can actually end up causing more lag and latency across the network.
TX Bursting:
This setting is pretty helpful to have enabled for overall speed and bandwidth with the way it optimizes data transmissions. When you have multiple devices connected to the network, the router sometimes assigns more airtime to single devices in "bursting" sessions. This ends up causing latency issues for those devices. Since you have a dedicated router for your Quest 3, TX Bursting should be helping it, but I'd recommend trying to disable it temporarily to see if any difference is made to the latency.
802.11ax/ac Beamforming:
This one improves your network's signal and data transmission by extending the mid-long ranges. There seems to be generally mixed opinions on whether or not this setting is worth keeping enabled. Some users report slower data transmission, while on the flipside, others are reporting slightly better performance. I'd recommend testing this one as well, as your results may vary.
MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output):
This allows the router to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously on the same channel. While great for increasing overall network capacity, it can introduce latency variability when streaming time-sensitive data like VR video. For a dedicated VR setup, MU-MIMO may not provide much benefit since you seem to only have two clients (the Quest 3 & Desktop) connected. I'd recommend disabling MU-MIMO to see if it helps reduce latency spikes.
WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia):
WMM is a quality of service feature that prioritizes certain network traffic over others. In theory, this should help prioritize your VR data streams. However, many have reported that WMM can actually make latency worse for VR if not configured properly. The router may not always accurately identify and prioritize the VR traffic streams. I'd suggest trying your setup with WMM disabled to eliminate any potential traffic prioritization issues it may be causing. If latency improves, you could re-enable it and try manually configuring the WMM settings to prioritize your Quest 3 traffic.
Channel Width:
You have the 6GHz channel width set to 160MHz, which is the maximum supported width for Wi-Fi 6E. This provides the highest throughput but can be more susceptible to interference from other 6GHz networks/devices. Since you mentioned being the only one using 6GHz in your area, 160MHz is likely fine. However, you could try dropping to 80MHz channel width to see if it improves latency stability. I also noticed you have Control Channel set to Auto with PSC. I'd also recommend trying to set a manual channel for your 6GHz connection, to see if there are any improvements. There are plenty of charts out there for channel selection, but I'll post a few here, too:
While these features aim to enhance overall wireless performance, they can sometimes negatively impact latency for real-time applications like VR when enabled. Testing with them temporarily disabled is a good way to isolate if they are contributing to your latency spikes. Let me know if disabling any of them makes a positive difference!
Hey @Vaestor! Having a seamless wireless PCVR experience can be game changing, so I'd love to help out with trying to optimize your network setup. Thanks for all the details so far, it'll be a great starting point for us!
Starting off with your router settings, I noticed you had TX Bursting, WMM, Multi-User MIMO, and Beamforming enabled. While these can definitely have some great upsides, some of these settings can actually end up causing more lag and latency across the network.
TX Bursting:
This setting is pretty helpful to have enabled for overall speed and bandwidth with the way it optimizes data transmissions. When you have multiple devices connected to the network, the router sometimes assigns more airtime to single devices in "bursting" sessions. This ends up causing latency issues for those devices. Since you have a dedicated router for your Quest 3, TX Bursting should be helping it, but I'd recommend trying to disable it temporarily to see if any difference is made to the latency.
802.11ax/ac Beamforming:
This one improves your network's signal and data transmission by extending the mid-long ranges. There seems to be generally mixed opinions on whether or not this setting is worth keeping enabled. Some users report slower data transmission, while on the flipside, others are reporting slightly better performance. I'd recommend testing this one as well, as your results may vary.
MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output):
This allows the router to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously on the same channel. While great for increasing overall network capacity, it can introduce latency variability when streaming time-sensitive data like VR video. For a dedicated VR setup, MU-MIMO may not provide much benefit since you seem to only have two clients (the Quest 3 & Desktop) connected. I'd recommend disabling MU-MIMO to see if it helps reduce latency spikes.
WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia):
WMM is a quality of service feature that prioritizes certain network traffic over others. In theory, this should help prioritize your VR data streams. However, many have reported that WMM can actually make latency worse for VR if not configured properly. The router may not always accurately identify and prioritize the VR traffic streams. I'd suggest trying your setup with WMM disabled to eliminate any potential traffic prioritization issues it may be causing. If latency improves, you could re-enable it and try manually configuring the WMM settings to prioritize your Quest 3 traffic.
Channel Width:
You have the 6GHz channel width set to 160MHz, which is the maximum supported width for Wi-Fi 6E. This provides the highest throughput but can be more susceptible to interference from other 6GHz networks/devices. Since you mentioned being the only one using 6GHz in your area, 160MHz is likely fine. However, you could try dropping to 80MHz channel width to see if it improves latency stability. I also noticed you have Control Channel set to Auto with PSC. I'd also recommend trying to set a manual channel for your 6GHz connection, to see if there are any improvements. There are plenty of charts out there for channel selection, but I'll post a few here, too:
While these features aim to enhance overall wireless performance, they can sometimes negatively impact latency for real-time applications like VR when enabled. Testing with them temporarily disabled is a good way to isolate if they are contributing to your latency spikes. Let me know if disabling any of them makes a positive difference!
