Oops! Updates that enhance games for Quest 3 are also increasing file size for the Quest 2

Are you still riding the Quest 3 release day hype train? I know I am! And can you blame me? As if the release of one of the best VR headsets to release in 2023 wasn’t enough, new details are constantly popping up left and right.

Like that story we shared with you about Red Matter 2 and how the devs pushed an update, which leverages the Quest 3’s power in order to set a new standard for VR graphics.

But the coolest part about this is that the game didn’t become exclusive for the new hardware or anything. Some minor differences could be seen on older headsets like the Quest 2, but it remained completely playable and essentially backwards compatible.

But, let’s not forget: the update did revamp the textures. So now, the game’s file size is bigger than before, even on Quest 2. Oops?




Okay, so, before we proceed, let’s explain how that happens. Essentially, when a dev wants to improve the quality of some textures, they basically just replace the old files with new ones of a higher resolution. And as is with the photos you take on your phone: the higher the quality of an image, the bigger it becomes in size.

And that’s basically what has happened to some titles like:

• Red Matter 2 (5.6 GB to 9.1 GB)
• Espire 2 (5.6 GB to 9.1 GB)
• Cyborn BV (5.19 GB to 82 GB)

But here’s the thing: the Quest 2 can’t display those bigger textures, so why is the game’s file size impacted?

Meta hasn’t responded, but Vertical Robot — the devs behind Red Matter — and Guy Godin, who is the man behind Virtual Desktop, have confirmed that right now, there is no way to provide separate install packages for different headsets on Meta’s platform.

And that, in 2023, is just silly. I mean, if the Steam Deck can actually reach into my game’s files and cut away at the ones that it knows that I don’t need in order to save me some space, then Meta can surely implement something similar.

After all, compartmentalized installers aren’t anything new. A lot of games even allow you to pick your preferred asset quality and language packs, so that the installer can literally ignore everything else and save you a lot of space in the process.

Meta did this cool thing with the jump from Quest 1 to Quest 2, where users could select different builds of a game when installing. Back in January, UploadVR had managed to get a confirmation from Meta that this will be the case with the jump to Quest 3 too, but alas.

So, basically, for the time being: there isn’t a solution yet. But if Meta wants to keep its customers happy, a fix should be introduced soon, because forcing someone to install textures that they can’t take advantage of is a form of new-age cruelty that I simply can’t get behind.

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