Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Appreciate this post from Jess Weatherbed at The Verge:

Meta is investigating reports of tracking issues blighting its Quest 3 VR headset following user complaints that controller tracking performance is “much worse than the Quest 2” in some games…

One comment from a game developer (known as carrotstien) for Eleven Table Tennis claims the issues stem from the LED arrangement on the controller. “Oh how I wish the developers of sports games were invited to the table when discussing controller design,” said carrotstien, adding that “there are users which are simply sticking with their quest2 headsets and returning their quest3s because of the tracking issues.” 

As reported by New World Notes, complaints have also been posted to Reddit in the last few weeks echoing similar tracking problems.

I'm skeptical that the problem resides in LED arrangement, rather than the AI models for "estimating" controller position that Meta's CTO recently boasted about. Any hardcore gamer knows that in most twitch games, you need absolutely precise. real time control over your game interface, not "estimates".

For the record, reader Liana says she hasn't personally experienced this problem playing Beat Saber, which probably the most popular twitchy Quest game:

The majority of complaints as you say are from pro / hardcore gamers. People who play things like Beat Saber at that level are most often using a Quest 3 with PCVR which has added latency, even with Quest 2.

The standalone version of Beat Saber doesn't suffer anywhere near the same number of complaints, especially for people who play up to Expert level. I'm not an expert+ player so I can't say but having played plenty of songs at Expert level in GOOD lighting on Quest 3 once I got used to the weight difference of the new controllers, and I honestly believe that's a factor because my first tries in crappy lighting on an overcast day, were night and day in the scores and number of misses I was getting to what I achieve now.

OK, so poor lighting might also be a culprit? But I agree it's likely related to the hard core player base, which has become so passionate about the game in multiplayer mode, it's evolved into a kind of mini-virtual world:

It is common to see people clapping to the person who won the round, and the winner graciously taking a “namaste” bow. People wave goodbye, and gesture up to the center board in between songs to encourage a newcomer to select the song they would like to play next. It is incredibly friendly and warm. Has Beat Saber accidentally stumbled on a wonderful way for us to communicate in games? 

In other worlds, these are the kind of people who comprise the Quest 2/3's most engaged, active users!