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Oculus Quest dev discovers replay, passthrough features in system software

Oculus Quest (left) connected to an Anker USB cable for Oculus Link, alongside the Oculus Rift S (right).
Oculus Quest (left) connected to an Anker USB cable for Oculus Link, alongside the Oculus Rift S (right).
Image Credit: Jeremy Horwitz/VentureBeat

Oculus Quest developer Gerald McAlister has made more discoveries while digging inside the Quest system software after finding a potential “Guardian Couch” feature earlier this week. New code he uncovered indicates that an instant replay feature is being developed for the Quest, as well as a “passthrough portal” feature.

In the tweet above, McAlister shows code from the Quest system indicating that an Instant Replay feature would enable the Quest to continuously record the last 15 seconds of VR. That would permit the user to save a video replay of their most recent actions at any time. The description in the code notes that it could impact performance in some apps.

Right now, the Quest permits users to natively start recording video footage at any point. Similar features can be found in modern consoles and PC gaming platforms.

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Additionally, it looks like a “Passthrough Portal” or “Passthrough Area” might be imminent, permitting users to mark an area of their Guardian boundary, where the view from the passthrough cameras would be displayed in VR. McAlister gives the example of a user bringing their TV into VR by outlining it and creating a passthrough portal around it so it becomes represented in the VR environment through the passthrough cameras.

Of course, discovering code and seeing it implemented are two very different things. Whether we’ll actually ever see any of these new features is completely unknown.

Previously, McAlister uncovered code pointing toward “Jedi” controllers, which may be the slightly updated Touch controllers seen in the leaked images of a new Oculus Quest.

This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2020

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