A dive into the Oculus Quest 2 system software discovered a dormant “pass-through keyboard” function. This feature is typically not available for general use and could make using a keyboard a lot easier while wearing a VR headset.
This feature was discovered by YouTuber Basti564 and it allows the user to define an area of real space in which your keyboard and hand movements are visible. Essentially, this incorporates a rectangular camera view into your virtual reality gaming sessions so you can effectively type accurately without taking off your Oculus Quest 2 headset.
Without the pass-through keyboard feature, there is currently only one keyboard that can be viewed in VR thanks to a unique feature – the Logitech K830, which pairs with the Quest 2 headset to create a visible 3D model of the keyboard. It’s far from an ideal solution, and the technology it relies on makes it particularly limited.
Type with your eyes closed
While the pass-through keyboard feature is undeniably useful, the question remains why Facebook left it in Oculus Quest 2’s purgatory. The function can actually be accessed by following the instructions from Basti564 and it works as intended. That means for the most part.
A test conducted by UploadVR found that the pass-through keyboard function crashed the Guardian functionality of Oculus Quest 2. Guardian is Oculus’ safety feature that defines your surrounding play area and creates virtual boundaries to minimize accidents in VR.
So there are obviously some compatibility issues that need to be fixed before the feature can go live. The pass-through keyboard is hands down a cool feature that will do wonders for accessibility, but the Oculus team needs to iron out the kinks before it’s ready for widespread use.
However, we’d love to see the pass-through keyboard feature fully available on Oculus Quest headsets soon. The ability to easily use a keyboard thanks to this functionality could be immensely valuable and make VR much more accessible for genres where communication is vital, such as MMORPGs, shooters, and real-time strategy games.
Today’s best deals on Oculus Quest 2
Comments are closed.