So there are some cool tricks that gives you better graphics and higher refresh rates than
currently possible on the Quest 2.
However, if you only try this, you will get frame drops in some heavy games.
So to avoid that, I will show you a third trick in this video that allows you to increase
performance so your Quest 2 can handle that graphical bump better.
Hi everyone!
Cas here, and today I’ll show you how to make your gameplay absolutely beautiful and
crisp.
This is an advanced tips video for the Oculus Quest 2.
If you’re interested in some beginner tips and tricks first, then watch my previous video.
If you’ve already seen it, then thank you so much for your support.
That video has been received well, and I just appreciate it so so much
If you like more VR content like this, though, consider subscribing if you haven’t yet
as it will help support this channel a lot.
And now, join me beyond reality.
Now, I’ve tested this out, and I can confirm that it works.
Or else I wouldn’t make this video.
So here’s some proof.
On the left side, you can see the default graphics settings of the Quest 2.
On the right side, you can see the increased resolution.
At first glance, you’ll probably be like, Cas, I don’t see anything, but let me zoom
in now, and now you can see it makes such a difference.
I don’t know; I find it strangely exciting
Now also add increased framerate and improved performance, and it’s *muah*
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me give you some context.
Right now, you can only turn on 90Hz mode for certain Oculus apps, like the Home environment
and Oculus Browser.
It does not work for games and apps yet (I know, pretty boring!) but with this method
it does.
We’re going to talk about how to do this in a just bit, but before we dive into that,
please keep in mind that if you want to do this, it does impact your headset like it
will use more battery power, it might get hotter, and it might cause performance issues.
So if you want to try this, it is at your own risk, you might get motion sick, but I
have tried what I did in this video, and it has worked out for me so far.
Everything mentioned in this video is also a tool publicly available to all developers,
I actually got them from the official Oculus developer documentation, so it should be fine.
Thankfully, it’s also easy to get the headset back to the default state as everything that
we are changing does not persist after a reboot.
So this means that if you reboot your headset, all settings are put back to default, so if
something goes wrong, you just need to reboot your headset.
Now let’s get started with the fun stuff
So, to do this, the easiest method would be to use SideQuest.
If you don’t know how to use SideQuest, then check out my video that I linked below,
where I go over how to setup SideQuest in an easy to understand way.
You just need to follow the steps until you’re able to connect your headset.
If you’ve already done it before on Quest 1, there’s no need to do it again.
So once you’ve done that, launch SideQuest on your computer.
Then connect your Oculus Quest with a USB cable to your computer.
You can use the provided USB-C to USB-C cable from in the box.
Wait until you get this nice green icon at the top left in SideQuest because that means
that your Quest is connected successfully.
Now, SideQuest has a handy built-in user interface that allows you to run ADB commands.
ADB stands for Android Debug Bridge, which is basically a tool that developers use to
install or debug code on Android devices.
The Quest, if you didn’t know yet, works on Android.
So open that user interface by clicking this icon at the top right.
Then clicking ‘Custom Command’.
Here we will fill in the commands that allow us to change the settings.
Now Oculus provides a couple of commands, which are pieces of code that developers can
use to debug their games and apps.
I will provide the code in the description for your convenience, so you only need to
copy and paste it.
So to increase resolution, we will use this command:
adb shell setprop debug.oculus.textureWidth 2560 && adb shell setprop debug.oculus.textureHeight
2560
This setting overrides the default texture width and height.
If you set this number to one that’s higher than the default, then some in-game textures
will render at a higher quality, so you’ll get better graphics in a game.
Now I’m setting this to high -but you can set it lower too- if you’re curious to know
what that looks like.
I can tell you it looks like S*, though.
The numbers here and here can be customized a little, but I’ll explain that in just
a bit.
So copy and paste this line in the text field and click ‘Run Command’.
It will say ‘Command Completed’ if it was successful.
Then to increase refresh rate, we will use this code:
adb shell setprop debug.oculus.refreshRate 90
The end says 90 because we want to change this to 90hz.
So if you want to change it back to 72, put 72 here.
So if you set this, all games and apps will try to use a refresh rate of 90.
Now you may be thinking if this also works if you type 120Hz.
Unfortunately, this does not, I tried it, and it looks like Oculus entirely blocks that,
and it will just default to 72Hz.
Unfortunatelyyyy…
This is probably because the Quest 2 is just not able to handle that.
Okay, now we increased resolution and refresh rate, but if you only set these two settings,
you may notice frame drops in the headset.
Not with everything, but some games may not be playable at all.
So to help with that, we can also increase the cpu and gpu level.
For that we will use this command:
adb shell setprop debug.oculus.cpuLevel 4 && adb shell setprop debug.oculus.gpuLevel
4
This command can be set from 0 to 4.
Now, I do have to say, many games already have this set.
Most games are already running at level 3 or sometimes even 4.
I checked this with Beat Saber and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners on default settings,
and both were already running on CPU level 4 and GPU level 3.
I’m using Oculus Developer Hub here, by the way, to check this.
So this command will probably not make a big difference in games where this is already
set to high.
But even in Beat Saber and Saints & Sinners, I noticed that this does help when you play
in higher resolution, and I think it’s pretty awesome.
So copy and paste that code and run it.
And that was the last of the commands!
You can now put on your headset and have fun with it.
BUT before you do that and exit this video, please watch this part too because you can
increase that texture setting even further to make it look even better, or maybe you
want to set it lower because some games are not running well on that setting.
So if you go back to SideQuest, you can click on this icon for ‘Device Settings & Tools’.
If you scroll down here, you can see that the SideQuest developer also provided the
same settings, but he made buttons for it, so you only need to click these buttons to
change it.
I showed you how to do this manually as it just provides you much more freedom.
In here, you can only choose these numbers and settings.
And these settings are mostly made for Quest 1, so if you want to try out different Texture
Sizes or CPU levels, you won’t be able to do that here.
But with the method that I showed you, you can.
I got you here, though, because here you can see what else you can try out like 3072 is
the highest setting here, which you can try as well.
I noticed though that this is a little bit too high that is why I am recommending a lower
setting, like this works OK with Beat Saber, but you’ll see frame drops in other more
heavy games.
Still, I think it’s pretty cool to look at how crisp everything can look.
Of course, this isn’t what Oculus intended for the Quest 2 so please take that into account.
But remember, these changes will reset if you just reboot your headset.
Which is a good thing, honestly, as it protects us from completely messing up our headsets.
This is why I personally think, while this is super cool to look at, I do believe it’s
not worth doing it every time you start your headset.
I mean, the changes are significant if you look really closely, but if you are playing
a game actively, you may not notice it as much.
But it is cool to have the option and I do recommend trying it out (at least once!).
Let me know if you are going to try this out, and if so, what do you think of it, and will
you keep using it?
Let me know in the comments below.
If you got more time, help support the channel by watching more videos on the screen right
now.
Stay healthy & I hope to see you in the next.
A special thanks go to all our Champions, especially these Patrons down below.
As always, VR on!