Last week we reported that Oculus Quest 2 120Hz support was aiming for a release later this month. Now we know that won’t be happening.
Facebook’s official Quest Platform Roadmap (which is only available to those with a developer account), has been updated, moving the 120Hz support back from a projected release in March to somewhere in the Q2 2021 window. The ‘Confidence’ listing for the feature has also moved from ‘Medium’ to ‘Low’, which could well mean the team anticipates support arriving even beyond that timeframe.
No reason was given for the delay. That said, delivering a 120Hz refresh rate in mobile VR experiences is undoubtedly challenging – Quest 2 originally touted the ability for developers to run games at 90Hz, but not all titles have made that transition. Last week, Facebook’s John Carmack noted that “only a few” existing games would be able to add the feature, which will first arrive as an experimental item.
Higher refresh rates make VR experiences appear smoother and more realistic, with 90Hz widely considered to be a baseline. But faster rates are, obviously, also more demanding on the hardware. 120Hz is a tough target to hit even on PCs, and the PSVR headset is only able to reach it by ‘reprojecting’ games that are actually running at 60Hz. We’d expect, then, to only see services like the Oculus Browser and maybe a few simple experiences reach this high bar on Quest 2.
Which games and experiences do you hope we’ll see at 120Hz on Quest 2? Let us know in the comments below!
