Set Display Refresh Rates

The display refresh rate represents how many times per second a headset’s screen refreshes. A higher refresh rate enables higher frame rates, brighter output, and improved color clarity. However, higher refresh rates rates require your app to perform its work in shorter amounts of time.

The default display refresh rate for Quest and Quest 2 apps is 72 Hz. If you want to run your app at a different refresh rate, you are responsible for ensuring that your app is performant enough to sustain that rate. Apps that can’t consistently render at the desired display refresh rate will fail Oculus Quest Store review. Such apps might exhibit judder, flickering black areas on the peripheries, and other performance-related problems.

Get Refresh Rates Supported by the Device

Display capabilities differ between Oculus Quest models, with Quest 2 capable of higher display refresh rates. The table below lists the currently available refresh rates by device for convenience only. You should always confirm programmatically that the refresh rate you want is valid on the user’s device before attempting to set that rate.

120 Hz is only available on devices where the user has enabled 120 Hz as an experimental feature. If a user hasn’t turned on this experimental feature, this refresh rate won’t be available to developers. To turn on 120 Hz yourself, open the universal menu, go to Settings > Experimental Features, and then enable 120 Hz.

60 Hz must only be used by media player apps. It is provided as a way to synchronize 30 FPS or 60 FPS video with the display refresh rate for smooth playback. Non-media player apps that set the display refresh rate to 60 Hz will fail Oculus Quest Store review.

To get the list of refresh rates supported by a device:

• Call OVRPlugin.systemDisplayFrequenciesAvailable to get an array of the available display frequencies.

  For example:

float[] freqs = OVRManager.display.displayFrequenciesAvailable;

Set a Refresh Rate

If you want to set refresh rates higher than 72 Hz on Quest 2 devices, you must set Quest 2 as a target device. Oculus automatically adds the Quest 2 support, <meta-data android:name="com.oculus.supportedDevices" android:value="quest|quest2"/>, in the Android Manifest file. However, if you are using a custom manifest file, this is something you must verify yourself.

To set a refresh rate:

• Call OVRPlugin.systemDisplayFrequency with the desired refresh rate.

  For example:

  OVRPlugin.systemDisplayFrequency = 90.0f;
  

Considerations for Refresh Rates over 72 Hz

Quest 2 apps may target display refresh rates higher than 72 Hz on the following conditions:

• The app must declare specific support for Quest 2 in the manifest file.

• Oculus Quest and Quest 2 deal with issues of excess heat and power consumption in a similar way to mobile devices such as phones and tablets: the system slows down the device temporarily to reduce power consumption and help cool the device. If a Quest 2 app with a display refresh rate higher than 72 Hz experiences thermal events, dynamic throttling may reduce the refresh rate to 72 Hz as a first step. If thermal conditions worsen, dynamic throttling may take an additional step and reduce the frame rate to 36 FPS while keeping the refresh rate at 72 Hz (the equivalent of minVsyncs=2).

• While most apps don’t need to change anything about their behavior if they are throttled, apps that want to be kept aware of refresh rate changes can hook to a new event for Display Refresh Rate Change.

Handle Refresh Rate Change Events (Optional)

If you need your app to know if dynamic throttling reduces the refresh rate so that the app can respond in some way, you can register the OVRManager.DisplayRefreshRateChanged event using a function signature Func(float fromRefreshRate, float ToRefreshRate).

OVRPlugin.systemDisplayFrequency = 90.0f;
OVRManager.DisplayRefreshRateChanged += DisplayRefreshRateChanged

private void DisplayRefreshRateChanged (float fromRefreshRate, float ToRefreshRate)
{
    // Handle display refresh rate changes
    Debug.Log(string.Format("Refresh rate changed from {0} to {1}", fromRefreshRate, ToRefreshRate));
}

Testing how an app handles dynamic throttling

You can simulate the dynamic throttling to 72 Hz from a higher display refresh rate. While your app is running, broadcast an intent through the adb shell activity manager. For example, this command simulates throttling for 10 seconds:

adb shell am broadcast -a com.oculus.vrruntimeservice.COMPOSITOR_SIMULATE_THERMAL --es subsystem refresh --ei seconds_throttled 10

If you aren’t able to see a visible change in your app, you can verify the refresh rate change by looking in the logcat for VrApi events that show an FPS value pair. The first value is the frame rate. The second value is the display refresh rate. For example:

VrApi   : FPS=90/90,Prd=33ms,Tear=0,Early=0...
VrApi   : FPS=87/72,Prd=33ms,Tear=0,Early=0...