You can now switch to hand-tracking by simply putting down your Touch controllers.
The Oculus Quest just keeps getting better. Yesterday Oculus announced the rollout of their 13.0 software update, revealing a sprinkling of new features and enhancements heading to the standalone VR headset this week.
The most noteworthy of which, a new hand-tracking option that — when enabled, allows you to automatically switch between your Oculus Touch controllers and hand-tracking mode. Say you just finished an intense round of Rec Room Paintball and you find yourself back in the Oculus Home space craving some less physically-strenuous entertainment. Simply put your Touch controllers down in a safe location, lift your hand in view of the headset’s cameras, and viola; hand-tracking control has now been activated and you are free to begin pinching and scrolling your way through your favorite YouTube playlists.
While this may seem like a relatively minor alteration, removing the need to manually activate the hand-tracking feature before every use has in-turn made it a core part of the Oculus Quest experience.
Alongside this pleasantly unexpected feature are a slew of other useful improvements, including a new update that lets you use Passthrough to more easily locate your Touch controllers while transitioning out of hand-tracking mode, a new addition to the hand-tracking tutorial that instructs newcomers on how to scroll using their hands, remote rendering support for Unity allowing developers to more easily test hand tracking on their apps using their PC’s, and several general improvements to tracking stability.
Oculus Events also received its fair share of attention in the form of new updates to the party system that allow you to group up with friends from a live event details page directly as well as several improvements to the invite system, including the ability for guests to invite their friends and see what other events they’re interested in based on their past view history.
There are also several minor updates to the search functionality and various other system apps; for a full breakdown of these new improvements and additions, check out the official release notes here.
Update 13.0 will continue rolling out on Oculus Quest headsets throughout the week. To make sure your device stays up-to-date, leave it on standby mode while plugged into power and connected to a stable Wi-Fi network. You can also search for an update manually by visiting your device settings in-headset.
Feature Image Credit: Oculus
