what you need to know
- Hand tracking has been upgraded and added to Meta’s Presence Platform and works with Unity, Unreal, and Native.
- Quest users will need firmware v39 to get the update.
- Upgrades include improvements in tracking continuity, gesture support, more reliable movement, better performance, hand overlap, clapping, and more.
- Games like Cubism, Hand Physics Lab, Unplugged, and Liteboxer are already using the new upgrade.
Hand tracking on the Oculus Quest and Meta Quest 2 has been a fun, but largely frustrating experience. Meta tells us that this will all change with the launch of Hand Tracking 2.0 on the Quest, which is now integrated into the Meta Presence platform. Once your Quest is updated to firmware v39, any game that supports the new hand tracking feature will see improvements.
Meta launched the Presence Platform last October to give developers an easier way to include natural interactions like hand tracking and voice commands. This new v2.0 update brings increased performance and accuracy thanks to machine learning improvements. Players will find that they can now move their hands faster and more naturally, won’t have many issues with their hands crossed or hidden from each other, and can enjoy an overall better hand tracking experience on the Oculus Quest 2.
While only a few of the best Quest 2 games support hand tracking — like Unplugged, the air guitar simulator — Meta hopes that new improvements in tracking will allow more games to incorporate the technology. Unplugged is actually one of the hand-tracking improvements coming out this week, including a complete overhaul of the chart of notes you play in songs. The video below shows how accurate tracking is and how developers can make the experience richer and allow for more detailed interactions.
Additionally, you’ll find that games like Cubism and Hand Physics Lab are more friendly to complex, natural hand movements, including the ability to move and rotate virtual objects more naturally using only your hands. This means you don’t have to worry about the system losing track when you cross your hands or other things humans typically do when interacting with objects. Other games like Liteboxer are able to improve and add new hand tracking modes due to the increased speed and accuracy.
Meta provides a large number of video examples for improvement, including rapid hand wave, grasping and clapping, as well as hand occlusion detection. Quest 2 gamers don’t need to do anything to enable the new hand tracking feature. An update is rolling out this week, and any of the aforementioned games will support the new tracking. Developers who previously integrated hand tracking through the initial release of the Presence Platform will see their code updated to the latest version.
Meta Task 2
The Meta Quest 2 may come with two motion controllers, but thanks to the headset’s camera for advanced hand tracking, you won’t have to need them in every game.
