Facebook just released a firmware fix for the Oculus Rift S “white static flash” glitch.
Since its release in late May, the Rift S has had a bizarre glitch. The headset’s view will occasionally show a static pattern, similar to that of an old analog TV tuned to the wrong frequency. This pattern lasts for less than a second, but it can still be annoying.
Facebook describes the issue as only affecting “some” people, but on forums like Reddit’s /r/Oculus it appears to be a fairly common problem. Some worried the prevalence of the issue and lack of a fix after almost two months meant it was a hardware issue requiring a recall process — so this update should be a relief for some. This update is the fourth major improvement Facebook rolled out to its new PC VR headset. One week after the launch of the headset, the company improved the bass and volume of the built in audio system. Last month, an update improved the quality of the video passthrough on Turing GPUs.
A more radical improvement came recently with version 1.39. This update dramatically improved the quality of the Touch controller tracking.
While the Rift S hit some bumps with its launch, it seems Facebook is addressing the product’s issues one by one. It still has a reputation for “black screen” USB issues, however, so we’ll keep an eye on future firmware releases to see if these too can be resolved.
