Quest / Go Build 18.0 Release Notes

[ShowbizDonkey]

These features and enhancements will become available throughout the week of 06/29/2020



Universal Menu and Multi-Browser Support

• We’ve continued iterations and updates on the redesigned universal menu that was released as an opt-in feature of v15. These include:

• Design updates to streamline usability and improve discoverability of system apps (Store, Library, Browser, etc)
• Combined Library and Apps into a single panel
• The universal menu will now be accessible as an overlay from within a number of Quest apps.
• Improved the multi-browser experience that allows you to have multiple windows open when browsing the internet in-VR.

Introducing VR tooltips

• We’ve made it easier for you to find and learn how to use new and popular VR features. Look out for tooltips that help guide you through your journey in VR.

Keyboard

• The Oculus in-VR keyboard will now utilize predictive text to make typing in-VR more efficient.

Guardian

• You’ll now be able to change the color of your Guardian Boundary. You can enable this feature by selecting Settings > Guardian > Guardian Boundary.

Notifications

• We’ve made updates to in-VR and in-app notifications. These include:

• You can now fine-tune your in-VR notification preferences from the Settings panel. To do this, select Settings > Device > Notifications.
• Added the ability to interact with notifications
• Ex: Screenshot saved. Press the Oculus button to view your photos.
• Added additional info within the notification to help you understand why you’re seeing it
• Ex: Check out [X app], because you tried [Y app].
• Updated notification styling.
• Please note that these features may only be available to a percentage of users at this time.

Social

• You can now share in-VR content or ask a friend to join you in an app or experience in-VR via Messenger. This can be done by selecting Share > Messenger and then choosing who you’d like to share with.
• Now, when you save a VR post on Facebook, it will show up in your notifications panel the next time you put on your headset.
• If the post includes an app link and you already have the app installed, you’ll be able to open the app directly from the notification. If you don’t have the app installed, you can select the app link to download the app from the Oculus Store.

Voice Commands

• Voice Commands (Beta) is now available to all US English speaking users.
• If you have the redesigned universal menu, you can find it in Settings > Quick Actions > Voice Commands. The Voice Commands icon is located next to the Microphone icon. Otherwise, you can find it directly in your Oculus home menu.
• You can activate Voice Commands (Beta) by clicking on the icon in the Oculus menu or enabling the controller shortcut which allows you to double press the Oculus button to activate Voice Commands (Beta).
• You can change your Voice Commands (Beta) settings by selecting Settings > Device > Voice Commands (Beta).
• Voice Commands (Beta) has been re-designed with sleeker visuals. It also supports a wider breadth of commands.
• Try saying, “Take a photo” to take a screenshot while you’re in an immersive experience, “Start casting” to mirror your headset to another screen or “Turn off” to quickly shut down your headset. You can also ask, “What can I say?” to see more examples of commands available to you.

Known Issues

• Sideloaded 2D applications may not be visible within your library and, as a result, may not be able to launch from the main menu. As a workaround, you should be able to view and launch these sideloaded 2D applications from within Oculus TV.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused some first party apps to show incorrect dates below Library thumbnails.
• Fixed a bug that caused multi-tasking browser windows to merge into a single window when the headset was restarted.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the wrong notification to be shown when a controller battery is low.

[gregor616]

Vanteal said:

Well, I think it's safe to say this release is a bug-filled disaster!...I hate how updates are rolled out these days. Development companies are getting rid of their bug/tester teams to save money and instead rely on the public to report bugs by submitting them to the dev team. Except most people don't do that. So the majority of the bugs that could have been found and fixed before any update is released, is instead pushed out to the public to depend on us to do their job for them. Because again, it's all about money, money, money! As long as we give them our money that's all that matters, while we end up with buggy/glitchy/broken devices. This sucks. I've had nothing but problems with my quest since I got it last month. 

I work for a software company and it is impossible to test every possible scenario before releasing. Also you have to keep in mind while this thread and most of the others nowadays are nothing but complaints there is a large majority of users that are not experiencing issues. I was having the issue where you would get the three dots and have to reboot. That hasn't happened since the update, also I am experiencing none of the other issues being reported, so I think this update was great. While this does not imply that they shouldn't address the issues, saying things like they fired all their testers and rely on the users is just wrong. I have had my quest for over a year now and I can tell you I have issues with various updates but the improvements over the last year are incredible. I am sure Oculus has to get the majority of the bugs worked out then address any that come up after release as quickly as possible. I have seen in the past where they will stop an update and release a patch then continue the update with the patched update. 

No one is perfect. 

[MayaMiracle]

So I only got my Quest yesterday, and thus never was able to
experience a pre-v18 version of the Quest. But so far I have spent
countless hours trying to get ANY kind of streaming/casting to work, to
no avail.

When I cast to virtual Chromecasts like
AirReceiver on Win10 or AirScreen on Android, there is immiedately an
error "Casting/Livestreamining error. There was an error and the
streaming has stopped." According to other responses on this forum, the
v18 update broke Chromecast compatibility - mostly for virtual
Chromecasts, but maybe even some real ones.

When
I try casting to phone via the official Oculus Android app, it also
doesn't work though. At first I didn't get a connection at all, but
apparently that was caused by being connected to 2.4 GHz instead of 5
GHz network. So I switched to 5 GHz (giving a seperate SSID for the 5
GHz network, so it definitely doesn't roam to 2.4 GHz) and tried again,
and then my phones were usually able to connect fine. But then after
just a few seconds, the image completely freezes and doesn't return,
unless I completely restart the streaming.

I
have tried with two different phones, a top-notch, up to date Pixel 3
and an older Android 8.1 phone (Umidigi One Pro). I have tried with two different 5 GHz
Wifi routers, making sure to give the 5 GHz network a separate SSID so
both the phones and the Quest definitely connect over the same 5 GHz
wifi. I have even tried via tethering (=connecting the Quest
*directly* to the Wifi of my phone) but can't even get it to connect there.

Is
there any other method to get streaming/casting to work? Or is this
just plainly broken for pretty much everyone on v18? Is there any
acknowledgement of Oculus that this problem even exists, and that
they're working on a fix? Because like this, I'll probably go back to my
PSVR, where all of this works without any sort of issue right out of
the box. I thought the Quest was technically superior, but it seems like
it isn't after all.

[RadRift]

Quick question!

I noticed, after the new update, that I can use some of my old go games on my quest via a drop down interface in the menu. It's only a handful of apps, but do I have to install them by a certain date to keep them in my library? I didn't have a quest when the option to get your go apps upgraded was available, without having to repurchase them. I was just wondering if this is a similar situation? I can't find any official deadlines or anything.

Thanks!!

[jab]

synchromesh62 said:

When it comes to Oculus Link ( which is awesome ) is there any reason Oculus cannot make it Wireless also ?
I mean if Sidequest and Virtual Desktop can do it in a third party way surely Oculus can out of the box ?

 The main problem is bandwidth. With a USB link you have a fixed high bandwidth transfer. This makes it possible to use very little compression on the image, which ensures low latency (critical for VR) and good quality. With wireless (wifi) you get much less bandwidth and even worse, varying bandwidth depending on signal strength. So on wifi you will need to use much more aggressive compression which would increase the latency (inherent to how video compression works and very bad for VR) and degrade image quality.

[Anonymous]

@jab
Ye agreed i realise you really need a High broadband speed for this and even then as you say its not 100% but i find it very acceptable .. I was only thinking as an option as well as the cable. certainly not to replace it 🙂

[Vanteal]

gregor616 said:

Vanteal said:

Well, I think it's safe to say this release is a bug-filled disaster!...I hate how updates are rolled out these days. Development companies are getting rid of their bug/tester teams to save money and instead rely on the public to report bugs by submitting them to the dev team. Except most people don't do that. So the majority of the bugs that could have been found and fixed before any update is released, is instead pushed out to the public to depend on us to do their job for them. Because again, it's all about money, money, money! As long as we give them our money that's all that matters, while we end up with buggy/glitchy/broken devices. This sucks. I've had nothing but problems with my quest since I got it last month. 

I work for a software company and it is impossible to test every possible scenario before releasing. Also you have to keep in mind while this thread and most of the others nowadays are nothing but complaints there is a large majority of users that are not experiencing issues. I was having the issue where you would get the three dots and have to reboot. That hasn't happened since the update, also I am experiencing none of the other issues being reported, so I think this update was great. While this does not imply that they shouldn't address the issues, saying things like they fired all their testers and rely on the users is just wrong. I have had my quest for over a year now and I can tell you I have issues with various updates but the improvements over the last year are incredible. I am sure Oculus has to get the majority of the bugs worked out then address any that come up after release as quickly as possible. I have seen in the past where they will stop an update and release a patch then continue the update with the patched update. 

No one is perfect. 

Look up the video:

Microsoft SDET Explains Why Windows 10 Bugs Exist. 

The guy explains what I'm talking about and how most companies are going about bug testing. 

[MadMax1998]

MountainDog12 said:

Does the Quest update even when turned off? I shut down my Quest after every session. Every now & then i forget due to the poor implementation of the power off(headset button, confirm... ) With the ver 17 update, i believed i shut the Quest down as i did not want to be a beta tester for Oculus & one morning, BAM i had Ver 17. Happened again, with ver18, i did not want all the bad stuff reported with this version but this morning it is showing ver18. Can this happen with the power OFF, but plugged in & fully charged?

Two things on this:

1) Yes, the Quest does update itself even if you properly turn it off. For me, it said update 18 available to install, but didn't want to install it because the battery was less than 50%. I drained the battery while playing, then turned the Quest OFF completely, then plugged it in to charge overnight. Next day when turning it on, the Guardian confirmation came up, black screen, headset rebooted on its own, bam I was on V18. So there is *no* way around it unless you take it off the Internet.
2) The easier way to properly turn the Quest off is to HOLD the power button for five seconds. The "power off" dialog will appear but KEEP HOLDING the button and it will power down! You can also do this while not wearing it.

[jamesgjt]

Ok I paid my money for a rift S and the money goes to Quest improvement and rift s has been silently ignored. I update the headset last year and the experience is still the same with no improvement on the microphone, speaker or not even the hand tracking mode of the quest. thank you facebook to make this happened

[Anonymous]

@jamesgjt
Perhaps you should say your piece in the Rift / Rift S  Build 18.0 Release Notes Thread.
Did you not just get one recently as well ?

[Anonymous]

Hmm Duplicate post somehow 
Sorry