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Jul 31, 2023

Beat Saber founder on Quest 3 controller tracking: "It's good, don't worry"

The Quest Touch Plus controllers don't have tracking rings. However, this should

The Quest Touch Plus controllers don't have tracking rings. However, this should not affect the tracking quality.

The Touch controllers, first introduced in 2016, have tracking rings with infrared LEDs that allow for sub-millimeter precision tracking. The new Meta Quest 3 Touch Plus controllers do not have tracking rings, which has raised questions about their accuracy.

In a recent Q&A on Instagram, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth explained the difference in tracking method and confirmed that the tracking "works really well."

Here's the full Q&A excerpt:

"Going back to the original Oculus Touch controllers, the ring on the outside is covered in a constellation of LEDs in a specific pattern that allowed the computer vision on the inside-out headsets to track the controllers in space. The new controllers still have infrared LEDs on them in a constellation that you can't see because you can't see infrared light, but the cameras that we have on the headset can see. However, they are also going to be in positions where many of those LEDs are occluded. And so we have fused the computer vision we were using for Constellation tracking with our hand models. So the hand tracking is also going to kind of running at the same time. And so we have a model of your hand and it tells us where the controller is in conjunction with all the tech tricks we've been using for a long time using IMUs and smoothing to fill in gaps. They work really well."

Beat Saber is often used as a benchmark for controller tracking quality and accuracy. According to Beat Games co-founder Jaroslav Beck, there's nothing to worry about when it comes to the Touch Plus controllers: "It's good, don't worry", Beck wrote on Twitter over the weekend.

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It's good. Don't worry.

— Jaroslav Beck (@JaroslavBeck) June 3, 2023

There was another statement from Meta engineer Misha Davidov, also via Twitter. "They pass the Expert+ test. Just can't use claw grip vs Q2 for obvious reasons."

Interesting detail on the side: in the Quest 3 teaser, you can see that the Oculus logo on the controllers is replaced by a Meta logo. | Image: Meta

By the way: The fact that the controllers and hands are tracked simultaneously, unlike in Meta Quest 2, and that the hand tracking supports the controller tracking, suggests improved hand tracking compared to Meta Quest 2. Something that Bosworth pointed out in a blog post last week when he said that hand tracking will take "another step forward" in Quest 3.

You can read all about the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro in the linked reviews.

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