Meta Quest update brings better passthrough, panoramas and more
Less than a month out from the Quest v64 update Meta has now released v65. With it come improvements to Passthrough (again) and a focus on support for spatial videos and photos amidst other improvements.
Passthrough is when a VR headset shows you a feed of your environment using external cameras. This is often used for MR games: overlaying the real world with digital content. Passthrough on Quest headsets received a video quality boost in v64.
Now, with v65, Passthrough is receiving a quality-of-life improvement. Some menus in Passthrough, like the power off menu and the lockscreen, used to display over a gray void. These menus and panels will now show in Mixed Reality.
Spatial videos, introduced in v62, are also receiving an update. This feature allows users to upload spatial videos from their iPhones to their Quest headset using the Meta Quest mobile app. This was previously limited to only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now any iPhone user running iOS 17 or higher can upload spatial videos to Quest headsets.
Passthrough is when a VR headset shows you a feed of your environment using external cameras. This is often used for MR games: overlaying the real world with digital content. Passthrough on Quest headsets received a video quality boost in v64.
Spatial videos, introduced in v62, are also receiving an update. This feature allows users to upload spatial videos from their iPhones to their Quest headset using the Meta Quest mobile app. This was previously limited to only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Now any iPhone user running iOS 17 or higher can upload spatial videos to Quest headsets.
As if the Quest 3 wasn’t already a banger deal.
And like spatial videos, you can now upload panoramic shots taken on iOS 17 or higher to your headset as well. This will also be done with the Meta Quest mobile app. Panoramas are quite suited to VR because of their wide field of view, so I’m not surprised to see this work. But I am glad it got added.
Another quality-of-life update in v65 will now reduce interruptions from hand tracking when using an external keyboard or mouse. What this means is that there will be fewer instances of the headset trying to track your hands when you’re actually just using a keyboard or mouse.
The update will start rolling out today. But like all Meta Quest updates it will be a gradual process. If you’ve got Automatic Updates enabled your headset will update itself when not being used.
As usual, the update will be rolling out on the Meta Quest 3, Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets. These frequent updates are what make the Quest lineup some of the best VR headsets on the market today.
And I can’t wait for when more third party headsets are also running Meta Horizon OS and creating a shared ecosystem of virtual goodness.
Another quality-of-life update in v65 will now reduce interruptions from hand tracking when using an external keyboard or mouse. What this means is that there will be fewer instances of the headset trying to track your hands when you’re actually just using a keyboard or mouse.
The update will start rolling out today. But like all Meta Quest updates it will be a gradual process. If you’ve got Automatic Updates enabled your headset will update itself when not being used.
And I can’t wait for when more third party headsets are also running Meta Horizon OS and creating a shared ecosystem of virtual goodness.
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