Meta Community AMA: May 2024 Q&A Thread!

[neurodivrgent]

Here for the May 2024 AMA? Then you’ve made it to the right place! This is the thread where we’ll gather your questions and get the highest voted questions answered by the team.

This month’s guest team hosting the AMA with us is the Link team! This is the team responsible for both the user experience for Link in the HMD, as well as for the Link PC app. For more information check out the May AMA Announcement here and if you’re curious for how our AMAs work check out all about them here.

[ZenekiVR]

Do you plan to support the AV1 codec in future releases?

[Anyverse]

Oculus PC Quest Link Extension library for 3rd party developers

Can the Quest Link and Air Link API's be made into an Oculus PC extension library that can be used by 3rd party developers apps like Virtual Desktop and Bigscreen VR?

The USB-C connection offers the fastest and stable 10 gigabits connection and would be useful if 3rd party developers could also use these features.

Existing alternatives require a strong WiFi and fast Internet connection to achieve similar functionality.

https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Ideas/Oculus-PC-extension-library-for-Quest-Link-integration-i...

Allow connection to WI-FI when there is no internet service available

Additionally the Air Link implementation has a bug that disconnects a PC VR session if there is an Internet outage.

It disconnects the WI-FI during an outage. It is not possible to reconnect to the WI-FI and PC until the Internet service is restored from the service provider. If there is no internet connection but WI-FI is available, it should still allow users to continue PC VR sessions locally on WI-FI.

https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Ideas/Maintain-connection-to-WI-FI-even-if-there-is-an-interne...

[oculusness]

There is always the option of the black grid.

[tanubon]

I've analyzed Link features and images in the past and have had many conversations with Amanda & Volga (unfortunately, both have now left the company). However, there are still things I don't know and would like to know.

1. Why is Link's VRAM usage huge? Can't it be improved?

VR games themselves consume much VRAM, so it's not desirable to squeeze VRAM outside of the game. When run at native resolution, Link consumes more than 2GB by itself, in some cases it reaches 3GB. VD uses far less VRAM (only about 500MB). More than four years after its release, there has been no improvement in Link's VRAM usage. The VRAM usage of the Dash menu is also extremely large. It consumes about 1GB. Link's overall VRAM usage is ridiculous, and since most people play games on SteamVR, the SteamVR VRAM usage is added on top of that. This makes the useable VRAM less and less, and the spec requirements becomes high. One of the main reasons many people choose VD.

2. Is it possible to increase the max encode resolution?

The current max encode resolution is 2048 horizontal, and it has not changed in Quest3. The rendering resolution can be made much higher depending on the PC specs, but if the final encoding resolution remains small, the improvement in image quality will be limited.

3. The Quality setting in Link Sharpening is supposed to be using Snapdragon Game Super Resolution, but it doesn't seem to be working as well as it should. Why is that?

Link's SGSR just applies weak sharpening, the quality of the image itself doesn't change at all. On the other hand, VD's SGSR, unlike Link's, improves the quality of the image itself. In other words, the effect is as if the rendering resolution is increased; if SGSR is functioning properly, it should look like VD's, but in Link, the effect can't be seen at all.

4. What was the Link Home removed for? Are you creating a new home feature?

5. Why did the bitrate for stable operation with H265 become low?

At some point, the bitrate at which H265 can operate stably became lower. Before, there was no problem even above 250 Mbps, but after instability increases when the bitrate exceeds 200 Mbps. What was changed?

6. Is there a plan to support AV1 codec?

7. When will hand tracking be natively supported?

[TomCgcmfc]

When is Meta going to fix the login issues with its user forum.  Logging into this forum has been very hit and miss for several weeks now.  If people can't login to it right away then most will probably give up trying.  I'm sure that forum usage is well down lately because of this.  When will Meta address and fix this?

[Choleni]

Thank you @oculusness 🙂

that's an option at least, but what I actually meant, was not the color but.....

Will PC Link ever have anything other than the void again?

I should be more accurate in what i say🙄

[oculusness]

Sadly black or white isn't a great option. I still think the Rift homes and the dash 2.0 homes should be a downloadable app from the Rift store as a background to the menu and belt. how hard can it be?

[Choleni]

Yeees,I absolutely agree...... i would pay for having that option!😍

[StorminLightEyes]

Any chance you could add some options for disabling the background sound in the link home? 

[oculusness]

3D recording on Quest 3