Oculus Quest does not work when the lights in the room are off - why? "Dark room mode" needed.

[petra.skachova]

So while I may understand, that in order to work at best, the Oculus Quest 1 needs to "read" and track the surrounding conditions from the environment around us with the camera sensors, it doesn´t have sense in many other situations. For example, when I want to go in a travel and want to watch movies while being seated in a car (not driving of course :smiley: ), or during a long flight, I cannot do that. Or while lying on my bed, with lights turn off, I would like to watch a movie without disturbing with lights the person sleeping next to me - I can´t. As soon as the Quest looses the tracking, it forces me again and again to redesign the guardian, but at the same time that is not possible, and the main environment disappears. Also, you cannot play in open (secure) areas like garden with insufficient light conditions or work at night on some projects in the Quest for instance.

There should be an option as "Dark room mode" in my opinion, in order to make sense to this headset. Because not everyone is using always the headset in great light conditions, and given the fact that the headset is portable and standalone, it would make it an important travelling companion and not only. So the Dark room mode would deactivate the sensors and would work only for the Stationary position without room scale. This way it would be secure to use it and it would be usable, and finally this headset woud have even better sense.

Otherwise the use is a bit limited and I am upset for this missing feature.

Could it come with some next update? I don´t want to be forced to buy the IR illuminator in order to bathe the darkness with infra red light - which is currently the only solution that works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfBOcuJT0bs

[Anonymous]

Could it come with some next update?

Dont hold your Breath 
What is there isnt all working yet. We all seem to have different variations of the V20 update.
Some with new universal menu, some without, etc . To be honest i dont think anyone know exactly which is the 100% working V20 at this moment ???

[kojack]

If you enable developer mode, the settings menu has a developer submenu with the option of turning off guardian. With it turned off, the Quest goes into 3dof dark mode when the lights are out.

If you are moving around it may occasionally get a little upset and ask you to recentre, but it works fine for sitting or lying down.

[ldorsey]

For myself, the ir illuminator was the best purchase I ever made for my quest 1. At first, like you I didn't want to either, and did like kojacks suggestion and did the developer mode for awhile. But not apps will allow it. So when I had the spare money, I bit the bullet, and bought the Tenedulux 80ft Illuminator off of Amazon. Even during the day, the tracking is more reliable with it. The neat side affect with it is the night vision. With the rest of your lights turned off, and the ir light plugged in, to your eyes the room is dark except 4 red dots, like what you have on a TV. But in the headset, when you go to guardian, the room appears brighter than if you just had your lights on.

Anyway, other than by powerbank, this ir light was the best investment I made for my quest. Just my 2 cents.

[nalex66]

Quest already has this option. Settings/Device/Tracking. Turning off tracking puts you in 3dof mode, which doesn’t use the cameras, and should allow you to use the Quest in the dark. 

[beattsabearcham]

Just get an illuminator

[JohnnyDioxin]

You haven't fed it enough carrots!

[petra.skachova]

Thanks everyone for your answers, I will buy the illuminator, and try to turn off the guardian in developer mode. :wink: