Photo: Sam Rutherford
After starting the Quest 2 Last fall, Oculus returned to bring some major work and gaming improvements to its flagship VR headset thanks to new support for 120Hz refresh rates, updates from Infinite Office, and wireless tethering for PCs.
For both general use and gaming, the added support for 120 Hz refresh rates is the most important new feature in Oculus’ v28 software update. When the Quest 2 launched last year, it originally came with a 90 Hz update. By increasing this limit to 120 Hz, Oculus not only wants to deliver smoother graphics and animations, but Oculus can also help reduce the incidence of motion-related nausea.
In general, it is quite rare for a device to experience an improved refresh rate after starting up. Therefore, the switch to 120 Hz on the Quest 2 is certainly a pleasant surprise. That said, 120Hz won’t work when in use Oculus Link Currently, and since this update is brand new, there are no apps that support 120 Hz yet. As a result, it may take a while for developers to update existing titles or ship new apps that natively support 120 Hz.
For people who have dreamed of using VR for work, Oculus is adding two new features Infinite office Productivity Capture: The ability to put a virtual desk on top of actual furniture to better fit your virtual workspace into the real world, and the ability to pair a physical keyboard with the Quest 2 for a better typing experience.
This is what the Logitech K830 will look like in VR. Gif: Facebook
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While Oculus physical surface integration is starting as an experimental feature, the idea is that by creating a virtual desk area that mimics your IRL setup, users will feel more comfortable in their virtual office while smoothing out transitions when switching between VR and Meatspace . Oculus even says that your virtual desk boundary is automatically detected and saved so you don’t have to repeat setup every day.
As for the Quest 2’s keyboard integration, anyone who has used VR even a little knows that it can be difficult to interact with physical objects if you can’t virtually see them at the same time. However, by partnering with Logitech, it will soon be possible to pair a Logitech K830 keyboard with the Quest 2 so that you can see a 3D model of the keyboard (along with your hands) in VR, which significantly increases your overall VR typing should improve experience. The obvious downside is that only a single keyboard model is currently supported, although Oculus claims it will “expand support for additional keyboards in the future”.
While it’s another thing that launches as an experimental feature, Oculus offers the Quest 2 a new wireless tethering option for connecting to a nearby PC with Air Link. Previously, if you wanted to use a PC to play Oculus Rift games, or to use that power to pump out higher quality graphics, you had to use a physical interconnect cable to send video from your PC to Quest 2.
With Air Link, Oculus is now testing sending video to its VR headset over WiFi, so you can increase graphics fidelity without the need for a physical cable. Since Quest 2 relies on good WiFi when using Air Link, Oculus recommends users make sure they are on a trusted network and connected to a 5 GHz signal on an 802.11 AC or AX router. Also, you need to make sure that both Quest 2 and the Oculus PC app have been updated to version 28, which Oculus says will be available soon.
Even so, the Quest 2 receives regular and fairly important updates for a device that has been out of stock for almost a year, which is always nice to see. Unfortunately, according to Oculus, the v28 update is being rolled out gradually. So if you don’t have access to the new software yet, please try again next week.
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