(Not Resolved) Known Issue - Quest PCVR streaming micro lags and stutter esp. when moving head

[acreed11]

Hi team,

I'm getting micro lags and stutter in Airlink on my Quest 3 (EU/UK), esp. when moving my head. In the Oculus debug overlay this causes brief spikes in transmit/decode, fps drops and visible stuttering. The issue is not present on my Quest Pro with otherwise identical settings - see below screenshots to illustrate.

Few more details:
- Issue is not present on Quest Pro with same settings on HMD, router and PC (using same res)
- Issue is worse at higher bitrates, esp. >200mbps, but still present <200mbps
- Issue is unrelated to PC/game latencies (CPU, GPU, Queue each <5ms)
- Stutters/lags are intermittent (every 10-20 seconds) when not moving but happen immediately and reproducibly when moving the head to either side or especially looking downwards (i.e. on any bigger headset movements)
- Wifi 6E router (TP Link AXE75 EU/UK)
- EDIT: exact same issue with Asus RT-AXE7800 (EU/UK) wifi 6e router
- Connection shows as 2,400mbps
- Airlink codec H264 (but same on other codecs)
- I've attempted factory resetting, installing latest drivers
- Updated to v62 and latest Quest Link desktop version (I can see the 120hz option for my Q3)
- EDIT: Ordered a separate Quest 3 for testing: presents the exact same issue

-EDIT: Same issue on 5ghz 802.11ax 160mhz BUT switching to 802.11ac (!) completely fixed the issue. I cant test this on 6ghz but looks like 802.11ax or something related to how q3 implements it is the culprit

As the issue is worse the higher the bitrate and not present on Q Pro with otherwise same settings, I suspect it's related to the below known Wifi issues - but opening a new thread as instructed. 
https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/Known-Isssue-Unstable-wifi-coverage-with-Quest-3-on-s...

Best,
JensQ3QPro

Updates:
- Tried separate router: exact same issue with Asus RT-AXE7800 wifi 6e router
- Ordered a separate Quest 3: exact same issue on both routers

-Same issue on 5ghz 802.11ax 160mhz BUT switching to 802.11ac (!) completely fixed the issue. I cant test this on 6ghz but looks like 802.11ax or something related to how q3 implements it is the culprit

[007xSlayerx007]

Hi @acreed11 

I personally have experienced this issue at one point. What I did to fix it was turned off QOS settings, and disabled all port forwarding and triggering I had setup for other apps. I am running the Netgear Nighthawk XR1000 and it is giving me lag free play now. For some reason router QOS seems to occasionally interrupt the stream. Finally I also recommend using the 5Ghz channel and be in the same room, in an uncongested frequency. Sometimes users will get WIFI interruptions due to two channels either too close to the same radio channel frequency, or exactly on the same radio channel frequency conflicting. 

The 5GHz radio only works well within line of sight, because the frequency is greatly compressed compared to the 2.4Ghz radio. It leads to greater speed, but less coverage and requires line of sight to work well for VR.

Finally, also make sure that no one else is using the 5GHz radio but you. It is actually best to use a dedicated router for VR, however in my experience it is unnecessary. 

[MisutaaAsriel]

I've done some more testing, thanks to a new wireless card in the device providing the 5GHz network, (I'm the one who had this issue on Quest 2 and had their post forcibly merged into this one), and I found interesting results.

That being:

• On an 802.11ax network (Wi-Fi 6), lag spikes are constant and the worst, making software like AirLink & Steam Link for Meta Quest unusable. Ping observed through cnping shows regular spikes upwards of over 100ms.
• On an 802.11ac network (Wi-Fi 5), lag spikes are rhythmic, and unbearable at their worst, but tolerable at their best. This has been reproduced with different networking hardware and antenna configurations, ruling out the networking hardware itself. Ping observed through cnping shows spikes regularly upwards of over 70ms.
• On an 802.11n network (Wi-Fi 4), lag spikes are periodic, and tolerable. Furthermore, using cnping, it has been found that lag spike behavior is different from 802.11ac & 802..11ax networks, with spikes lasting for a 1 - 3 second period, and being moderate, rather than severe. Ping observed through cnping shows spikes upwards of around 40ms, peaking at 60ms during these lag spikes.

As a result, interestingly, using a lower grade network connection results in better performance, and this does step between 802.11ax/ac/n.

Was there a change to the wireless networking drivers or software with recent updates? Or a change in networking behavior of the Quest/Horizon OS which causes undue network load? I did notice in previous tests when monitoring the connection from the Quest that there do appear to be attempts to connect to Facebook, Oculus, & Meta servers during the period of the spikes. I will be testing later to see if this is observed with the 802.11n network as well.

[MisutaaAsriel]

I'm not sure if my reply went through as it disappeared after refreshing the page, but I observed some interesting behavior when switching out networking hardware to rule that out.

Primarily, the Quest 2 (I was the one experiencing issues on Quest 2 whose thread was merged by moderation) appears to degrade more the newer the connection standard. Ping spikes were at their worst on an 802.11ax network, and at their best on an 802.11n network. Likewise, the spikes went from rhythmic on 802.11ac/ax networks to periodic on 802.11n networks, and the spikes themselves are lower in time (ms) the lower the Wi-Fi generation the network is set to use.

Older tests also showed frequent server connections during lag/ping spikes, to Facebook, Meta, & Oculus domains and owned IP addresses, and I will be testing later to confirm whether this is the same with 802.11n as well.

[Godsblink]

@TheAntiSocializer I think I've found a solution or at least something to start looking at for the root cause of this problem.

Enabling a Dynamic Bitrate Offset and setting it to 30 in ODT and the issue is completely gone.  My working theory is that there's something happening in Airlink when the received data from the computer fluctuates and the Quest is just bottoming out the decode bitrate instead of slightly adjusting.

[ImaNoobatStuffs]

My issue is just as the tittle says. I have micro stutters all the time. Even when I'm just in Oculus home or SteamVR home. It's really annoying and distracting. Could this also be related to the fact that i can't seem to disable asynchronous space warping? I am using the kiwi design link cable, and using a Meta branded Quest 2. My specs: RTX 3060 ti, Intel core i7 12700k, 32G Ram. I am on windows 11 btw. I saw that someone else had a post with the same issue as me, but there was no answer on that post so i made my own. other post

EDIT: My post has been forefully merged into this one, and is not the same issue as everyone else is having here. I am on a LINK CABLE, not airlink.

[inkbleed]

Quest 3 hardware version: 64.0.0.508.370.586682934

Quest Link PC App version: 64.0.0.489.367 (64.0.0.489.367)

Have used the same PC on the same Wifi for 9 months and it's worked well. Since the most recent update, I'm getting the described stuttering/lagging issue every couple of minutes, lasting 5 seconds at a time, and making the games unplayable.

[Nlzz]

Same issue as everyone 😞

Intel i9-10900K, 64GB DDR4 ECC RAM, RTX 3080, Windows 11 22H2.

I've just bought Quest 3 and had a great experience with a 5GHz router in the other room.
I wanted the best experience possible, so I upgraded to 2.5Gbps network card, 2.5Gbps switch and 2.5Gbps Wifi 6E Ubiquiti Unifi U6-Enterprise access point, which I've mounted directly over my play area.

I had some issues trying to get it on Wifi 6, but everything connected successfully in the end.
But since then the experience has been terrible - bad quality, horrible stutter when moving and it made me sick, the games are unplayable, also random disconnects from Airlink.

I'll try to disable the 6GHz on the Ubiquiti and post back if it helps, but it's a MAJOR bummer. 

Question to everyone - is it really a software issue? Did Wifi 6E work flawlessly before?

EDIT1 - switched to 5GHz on the Ubiquiti and the issue is gone, I just feel like the quality was actually a bit better on the router next door, I'll do some more testing.

[Babinok]

I think I'm closer to the truth than ever before. Based on all my observations, I can conclude that the problem of lags is not a problem with the router, but a problem with processing tracking on the headset itself, caused by the load on the hardware, possibly throttling the processor! I replaced my old router with a powerful ASUS RT-AX82U a long time ago, I get perfect numbers when broadcasting games on quest both in the airlink and in Virtual Desktop, I have no problems with video transmission, the only problem is with tracking. The video below shows a test of the game I Expect You To Die 3, with the same streaming settings via Airlink (first half of the video) and Virtual Desktop (second half of the video). In the video you can see that in the case of Airlink there are practically no problems, while in the case of Virtual Desktop the problem is clearly visible, although the same router is used with the same settings. At the time of recording the video, the Wi-Fi settings of the router are set to AC mode with a channel width of 160 MHz. Moreover, only with this combination of settings does the airlink work as smoothly as in the video, but when setting the AX mode or the channel width to 80 MHz, the same tracking lags are observed as with the Virtual Desktop.

https://youtu.be/fLMAaL5u3sA?si=wnTy1YIYT5y8b-M7

Today I decided to try the standalone version of Expect You To Die 3 and purchased it in the headset itself. When testing the standalone version, I got much larger lags than what can be seen in the video above. I was unable to record them on video because for some reason they almost completely disappeared when I started recording the screen with the headset and reappeared immediately after recording ended. Perhaps during recording some graphic effects are turned off or the game resolution is reduced to reduce the load on the hardware, I cannot explain this exactly. After that, I started trying to test my other standalone games, such as Resident Evil 4 VR and A Fisherman's Tale, but they worked with perfect tracking. That is, the problem was expressed only in this one game. This problem can also be observed in the home environment of Meta Quest 3, if you carefully observe your hands when moving in space.

https://youtu.be/-laYcjVEJcQ?si=DuC4eHVVJvBPO7ap

I tried experimenting: changing the room, lighting, tracking mode in the headset to 50, 60Hz and auto, changing the batteries in the controllers, but none of this helped solve the tracking problem. Only at the end of testing, by random chance and unknown to me, did the standalone game Expect You To Die 3 start without tracking problems and run smoothly. Immediately after this, I launched Virtual Desktop and it also showed fairly stable performance. Based on all this, I draw the conclusion that the smoothness of tracking depends on the load of the headset hardware, and the load depends, firstly, on the Wi-Fi mode (AX mode loads the hardware more than AC mode) and the selected streamer (streamers such as Virtual Desktop or Steam Link load hardware headsets apparently more than the airlink integrated into the system itself). In the case of standalone games, the load on the hardware depends on the hardware requirements of the game itself. Expect You To Die 3 is apparently more resource-demanding than Meta Quest 3 and causes lags when heating/throttled. I finally urge the meta engineers to either recognize all such cases as a defect in the headset and make a replacement, or fix this problem with updates!

[D3ft0ne]

Just out of curiosity, what air link settings in ODT are you using if anything was changed? 

[Babinok]

You can see the settings in my video.