Beat Saber developer Beat Games confirmed to Road to VR that the game will include all official features, modes, and music when it launches with Quest this Spring. Additionally, the studio says it didn’t have to make any concessions on tracking input logic to account for Quest’s inside-out tracked controllers.

As far as standalone VR headsets go, Quest is the very first that will natively run Beat Saber, and we have been suitably impressed with its ability to handle the game’s hardest difficulty without tracking issues. As good as it felt in our hands-on, there was always the possibility that the developers had to introduce some invisible handicapping to make sure it worked well against the limitations and challenges of inside-out tracking.

However, Beat Saber creator Jan “Split” Ilavsky tells Road to VR that the Quest version of the game uses identical tracking logic to both PC and PSVR versions of the game. That’s impressive considering the kind of tracking performance that playing Beat Saber at a high level demands. Ilavsky said that the studio didn’t have to make any adjustments at all to compensate for the headset’s inside-out controller tracking.

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Beat Games CEO and composer Jaroslav Beck confirmed to Road to VR that Beat Saber on Quest will be the full game right at launch, including all official features, modes, and music as found on other platforms.

When Beat Saber first launched on PlayStation VR late last year, it included a good deal of exclusive content which was not available on the PC version at the time (like a Campaign mode with unique challenges, modifiers, and exclusive music). Last month, the PC version saw a major update which brought feature and content parity to the game on both platforms. At launch, the Quest version will be identical in terms of content and official music, Beck said.

One significant feature—custom song support—is only available on PC, as it is enabled through unofficial third-party mods. Such mods cannot run on PlayStation. It’s just about certain that Beat Saber on Quest will not officially support custom songs, though it remains unclear if it will be possible to deploy third-party mods to enable custom songs on Quest.

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Beat Saber is a confirmed launch title for Quest, though the headset’s actual release date is still no more specific than “Spring.” With Facebook’s annual developer conference, F8, coming up at the end of the month, we’re expecting to see the company either launch the headset at the event outright, or provide a final launch date.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."

  • Good to know.

    And by the way, happy Easter everyone!

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  • VR5

    The Quest controllers are not inside-out tracked, but outside-in, by the cameras on the HMD. Lighthouse has inside-out controllers and those are the most precise there are. The problem are dead angles from the outside-in cameras. Just like with PSVR.

    • The Mogget

      Inside-out in this context means the cameras are on the headset. Quest is an inside-out headset with no need for mounted sensors. The controllers don’t track themselves so it would be outside-in from the controller’s point of view, I guess, but you are the first person to describe it that way I know of. Having outside junk, whether the camera is out there or a little lightbulb is out there is still considered outside-in.

      • VR5

        Another user pointed out the very same thing on an earlier article on this site. Also, you yourself understand that I’m using the term correctly, as stated in your bolded text.

        The cameras on the HMD are used for inside-out tracking of the head position. They are also used for outside-in tracking of the controllers. Different nodes are tracked with different methods.

        Tracking of the head is usually no problem, regardless of the method used. Hand tracking often suffers from dead angles, also regardless of the method used. Center sensors have different dead angles than front or surrounding sensors.

        The problems the Quest might have with tracking are the same as PSVR. The solutions are also similar, guessing the position inside the dead angle with movement data from the gyros and accelerometers (like Iron Man VR is apparently doing). Quest has an edge though with better and more cameras (4 versus 2 on the PS4), resulting in a better spread.

        • The Mogget

          The bet they are making with the Quest is that the camera dead spots are spots that most players won’t use most of the time. I don’t know what the magic number of cameras is or how much they each cost, but the Rift S has 5.

          Even though I am getting at least one Quest right at launch, I would really be interested in a Quest Pro that has the top-of-the-line mobile chip, double the storage, support for knuckles-type controllers, and like 6 cameras. A cat can always dream….

        • Justos

          Did you really just call psvr and quest tracking similar? what are you smoking

  • Flikr

    The thing to note is, with sideloading possible on the quest, it’s entirely possible to get modded versions of beat saber on it, it would just be much more involved than loading mods on PC.

    • The Mogget

      People keep saying that, but I am not sure what is so involved. You have your Quest plugged in or connected wireless or something. Instead of modding a folder on the PC with new files or running some hack there, you are messing with a folder on the Quest or running some hack there.

      The big question is if the Quest has some unusually mean security on it that will refuse to run unless signatures and keys are spoofed to an internet server somewhere. Modding a Gameboy is much easier than modding a Wii. The Gameboy sideloads, but you hack the game first and then load it and done because it does depend on the internet. On the wii, if it is hooked to the internet and it updates on its own, and then one day your hacked wii turns back into an unhacked one or a brick.

  • vtid

    I’m incredibly bored of reading about bloody Beat Saber.

  • akiva

    No custom songs no reason to buy it as far as I’m concerned. (It’s the custom songs that keep me playing on the Rift)

    WITH custom songs I’ll pick one up for sure

    • The Mogget

      Have you played the official new song pack? Any good?

  • KOSTANTINOS KOD

    This game should be renamed – quest saviour and get pre-instaled.

    • jj

      or the website road to beat saber

  • gothicvillas

    Facebook will have strict walls and will never allow custom tracks.

  • Justos

    CORRECTION: The quest version is NOT fully featured, the level editor is never coming to quest