Tuesday, 6 September, 2022 UTC
Summary
Quest 2’s 120Hz refresh rate mode will soon no longer be experimental.
The refresh rate of Quest 2 is set per-app by the developer. Meta provides five choices of refresh rate: 60 Hz, 72 Hz, 80 Hz, 90 Hz, and 120 Hz. The 60Hz mode is only allowed for 360 degree videos, not apps & games.
The 120Hz mode was added all the way back in April 2021 as ‘experimental’ – meaning users have to opt in via the system settings. Developers can check if the user has opted in and use 90Hz if they haven’t.
120 fps has been an "experimental feature" on Quest 2 for a long time, and we are finally going to make it default-on. Any app that plays 60 fps video should consider 120 fps display — it avoids the flicker of 60 fps display, and makes imperfect release tempo less harsh.— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) September 5, 2022
On Twitter, Meta “Consulting CTO” John Carmack said “we are finally going to make it default-on”. He recommended that any 360 video apps display 60 FPS video should use 120 Hz display, since it avoids the flickering of 60 Hz and “makes imperfect release tempo less harsh”.
The 120Hz mode isn’t practical for most games to reach as it only gives 8 milliseconds for each frame to be rendered. But titles like Eleven Table Tennis use it to give extra responsiveness and lower latency than is possible on Pico or HTC standalones.