Problems for AMD, half-baked features. Make Airlink Good Again. Quest 1 > *

[bazwyn]

If you want exposition, just scroll down to the end.

1. Make airlink good again! - For Reasons I can't wrap my head around, encoding the data via USB 2.0 even with the compression is somehow perfection, but PC<GigE>wifi 6 Router<5' to playspace>Headset is Ironically somehow not good enough for a quest 2 to use airlink without an intermittant stutter and heavy graphical compression artifacts.  I guarantee my wifi6 to gige connection has more throughput, and nominal latency.  This brings us back to the only thing it can be.  I have a 6900xt which while capable of middling graphical fidelity is known as not being as good as nvenc for h264 and h265.  That said, we're talking 9.6Gbps vs 480Mbps.  I should be able to transmit raw for 0 compression latency.  Putting that aside for the moment, the issue did not used to be a problem during the quest 1 and early quest 2 days, and I put literally 2.5 straight days into zenith VR with this rig.  However, somewhere along the way, shortly after the sunsetting of the quest 1, oculus software changed and broke what made airlink good.  AMD has not worked with airlink without a intermittant stutter since, and while the severity of the issue varies based on version changes, it has not been what it should be and neither company seems to care.  Make airlink good again!

2. Fix livestream useability - When streaming to facebook, I've linked my meta account with my facebook account, and my facebook account with my gaming account.  That said, I can stream from my headset to facebook but only to my personal facebook page, not to my gaming page.  This is a massive oversight.  If we link accounts, you should be able to swap to the gaming page or what's the point of having a gaming page or linking this all. 

3. Make Livestreaming Profitable - While I get that meta wants to keep the quest on facebook and all software and hardware in house for profit - LET ME SPEAK TO YOU LIKE A CORPORATE GHOUL: You have proven the viability of livestreaming direct from headset, and inclusion of even youtube livechat.  Meaning you know you could allow direct livestreaming to youtube or twitch.  Nothing will give more marketing prowess to the quest lineup than direct livestreaming to other platforms with supported livechat.  That's a portable setup for content creators and a very powerful tool.  Additionally, with configuration for other platforms, you would not suffer the tax on bandwidth commensurate with its use, and would reap the benefits of the free marketing that it would bring.  A literal free profit feature if fully developed.  You could even have the livestream include a little meta symbol watermark in the bottom corner and boom.  JUST SAYIN.

4. Laying down mode - I'm just gonna bring this back because I don't have the time to learn what I need to implement it myself.  Laying down mode for apps and content that dont support it.  we're talking about a literal relative-tilt function.   beat saber in your bedroom without punching a lamp, and casually throwing fullscreen videos from browser onto your ceiling when you're chilling.  It's a no-brainer and I know you have the code laying around from past PTC mentions.

5. Quest 3/lite/beyond - The quest 3 has been hyped and the result was almost double the price for 1.5 times the graphics with twice the power use and color passthrough.  AR/XR is absolutely important to the industry and will be a large part of the endgame, but consider what made the quest 1 so successful and the quest 2 after it.  The quest 1 had build quality for days, feeling like a premium product from box to bezel.  It gave complete features at the time including standalone play and inside out tracking with the followup of quest link for PCVR.  The quest 2 built on this by trading luxurious build quality for an affordable price tag, while adding more performance, better display resolution and refresh rate, better wifi which it leveraged adding airlink(which at airlink release, was magnificent once properly configured xD) and refining its quest link. 

The quest 3 however reverses the value proposition for the user, and actually trades luxury and cost for performance, and while the depth sensor has large implications down the line, the main reason people are enjoying the quest 3 purchase right now is because of the pancake lenses.  For people like me, it begs the question, what is the switch point, and I think at the moment that's going to be the quest 4, but I would encourage meta to look back at the innovation and actively game changing features brought on in the previous versions and reflect on the lack thereof on the quest 3 at launch, but also on the power design failure of the quest 3.  The quest 3 lite without pancakes might fix the battery life, but is it a quest 3?  What actively game changing feature is the quest 4 going to bring.


Exposition:
As someone who dabbles in just about everything, and who still uses the quest 1 daily for casual non-gaming or exercise, and has owned 3 quest 2s(2 RMA'd due to build defects), it's safe to say that in a tightening economy and an era of backlash against feature incomplete development, meta is not doing itself any favors. 

I now use my quest 2 to update and pray for a fix for PCVR for AMD users and ... nothing else.  Why?  Well, I could use virtual desktop and wirelessly play through some of the steam or oculus titles i've been sleeping on, and I probably will, but a lot of what I "want" to do involves things best shared via streaming to others.  I can't use OBS or any of the variants though, since I would need to use oculus mirror or similar to share it properly, and with meta's AMD userbase being informally "not supported" but formally meta is "unsure how to talk to AMD's representatives and get oculus support for drivers", Airlink is out of the question. Oculus link works if you enjoy limited play sessions, but I use my charging port for charging so I can bobovr my way through the quest 2(and from what I hear, the quest 3 is even worse) battery life.  Anyone who argues "you can charge while you play" on quest 2, clearly either has an exceptionally powerful USB bus or hasn't tried, because the amperage all of my test computers have is not enough to feed this thirsty headset.

The live streaming feature was pretty well covered in the above, but it is truly baffling that zuck would throw away such obvious free marketing.  You give the ability for people to have a portable streaming platform anywhere there's internet, and you slap a meta watermark in the lower right.  Let them go onto twitch, yt, kick, everywhere. You dont have to pay for the bandwidth, the transcoding, the VODs.... I mean... board of investors someone slap this man awake.  Or maybe dont, I guess he's into all that MMA.

But laying down mode should immediately be pushed out to all the quests - if you're using a headset and you have an app like cards and tankards or you're browsing the internet and you want to view something full screen you shouldn't have to crane your neck.  when I'm chilling let me exist horizontal ffs.

I won't dig too hard into the quest 3 here other than the fact I think it's a miss at the price point and especially with such a catastrophic launch flaw.  VR enthusiasts aren't typically the "30 minute" user type, showing the Q3 as more of a target demo of people with expendable income vice people actually interested in the industry.  Quest 1 was the OG.

These are my thoughts not yours, if you agree with anything here please bump this up, so one day we can make airlink good again.  I yield the remainder of my time to the comments. lul

[eRHoodx]

you're right. It seems to me that META does not agree to cooperate with AMD, but only with NVIDIA.