Oculus Quest firmware hints at next-gen 'Jedi' controllers having much better tracking

A proper upgrade to the Oculus Touch controllers is on the way.
(Image credit: Oculus)

Firmware released for the Oculus Quest highlight some upgrades that could be headed to the upcoming Oculus 'Jedi' controllers, including improved motion tracking and haptic feedback.

These next-gen controllers will be the third iteration of the Oculus Touch. After debuting in 2015 with a 'Half Moon' design, Oculus issued a revised model last year, which saw the IR tracking rings relocated to the top. The first-gen controllers had the rings going underneath your hand.

The Jedi controllers, however, represent a more substantive upgrade in functionality, if the features in the firmware pan out. As spotted by Gerald McAlister of RGB Schemes and analyzed by UploadVR, there are some specific and noteworthy changes mentioned in the firmware.

One of those is a reference to a 60Hz IR LED mode. Like the current Touch controllers, it appears the Jedi upgrade will feature optical tracking with the cameras built into the VR headset, but it's set to be much quicker—current Touch controllers refresh at 30Hz.

The Jedi controllers effectively double the number of times per second they detect and relay positional data. In theory, this could allow the controllers to be picked up much quicker by the headset when the they go out of view and come back in.

Other potential improvements come by way of the firmware referencing a new inertial measurement unit (IMU) chip, labeled as a TDK ICM-426 series part. Compared to the IMU found in the current controllers, the chip inside the Jedi controllers sports an accelerometer with a more than five times reduction in noise, or interference, and a gyroscope that boasts a two times reduction in noise.

These improvements could benefit users when performing fast movements, including ones that move the controllers out of view of the cameras.

The firmware further suggests Oculus might be upgrading the haptics and adding analog capacitive touch sensors for more precise finger tracking, similar to Valve's Index SteamVR controllers.

We'll have to wait and see if all these upgrades actually come to fruition. The other question is, will the Jedi controllers work with the Quest? The references in the firmware hint that they will, assuming they were not included accidentally.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).

Latest in VR Hardware
A woman wearing a VR headset with dramatic, colourful lighting across the background
'World’s smallest LEDs' could lead to accurately lit screens with 127,000 pixels per inch and much more immersive VR
Varjo Aero
Nvidia confirms 'open issue' with Varjo Aero VR headsets and RTX 50-series graphics cards after affected users ask for help
A "sensor-actuator–coupled gustatory interface chemically connecting virtual and real environments for remote tasting," or essentially a virtual reality tongue in an artificial mouth
Would you like to taste fish soup in VR? Me neither, but this electronic tongue does it anyway
Varjo Aero
Varjo Aero VR headsets seem to be not working on RTX 5090s, and its community is opting for strange solutions while waiting for an Nvidia driver release to fix it
A still from a YouTube video showing The Swedish Maker cutting a piece of wood with power tools while wearing a Meta Quest 3 VR headset.
YouTuber The Swedish Maker wears a Meta Quest 3 VR headset for his entire woodworking project and miraculously emerges with all fingers intact
The HTC Vive XR Elite front three quarter angle
Google is bulk buying HTC Vive engineers to help Android XR become a platform that can rival Meta's VR/AR dominance
Latest in News
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway