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Prevent Touch Controllers From Sleeping

democedes
Honored Guest
Does anyone know how to temporarily disable or change the sensitivity or timing of when touch controllers go to sleep?

I'm playing minecraft with the touch controllers.  The controllers have the issue of going to sleep while it is in my hand.  It seems to do it when I haven't pressed a button in a while or am only using the thumb-sticks. This can happen every 2 minutes.  It does it even with a fresh pair of batteries.
57 REPLIES 57

mr12fingers
Explorer
I would like to know the answer to this too.  I'm building an application with not a lot of movement and the controllers keep falling asleep on me.

bahamutod
Honored Guest
I would also like to see a solution.  I'm developing a game where its common to hold your hand very still for several minutes, either resting or holding something.  The sleep function prevents you from being able to quickly react.

Tuuvas
Explorer
I too was curious about this. When performing very fine movements, I found that the touch controller goes to sleep/standby even if the small controller movements were being tracked.  Its almost as if the standby timer can only be reset if the controller has been moved/rotated more than X or something.

MrDood12
Expert Protege
I would somehow want an option in oculus debug to turn this off.

When sniping in Onward they ALWAYS go to sleep since i need to sit as still as possible.

kojack
MVP
MVP
This may require updating the firmware of the touch controller.

Oculus have added in "VR Objects", which is the option to turn a touch controller into a tracked object attached to something like a camera (for mixed reality recording). When you pair a touch as a VR Object, a new firmware gets uploaded to the touch which changes the sleep. As long as the headset is being worn, a touch will then stay active for up to 24 hours (or until it's battery dies of course).
But once you make it a VR Object, it stops being usable in normal games, until you unbind it and it restores previous behaviour.

So in theory it's possible, but it's not a simple option in the runtime.

bahamutod said:

I would also like to see a solution.  I'm developing a game where its common to hold your hand very still for several minutes, either resting or holding something.  The sleep function prevents you from being able to quickly react.


I wonder if sending a very weak and short vibration event to the controllers would reset the sleep timer? I'm not sure if the vibration can be reduced to the point of not being felt, but changing vibration every couple of seconds might hold it awake.

Author: Oculus Monitor,  Auto Oculus Touch,  Forum Dark Mode, Phantom Touch Remover,  X-Plane Fixer
Hardware: Threadripper 1950x, MSI Gaming Trio 2080TI, Asrock X399 Taich
Headsets: Wrap 1200VR, DK1, DK2, CV1, Rift-S, GearVR, Go, Quest, Quest 2, Reverb G2

ramonoliva
Honored Guest
Hi, 

Is there any chance that we get a way to setup the sleep time of the touch controllers in an upcoming release? I've noticed that controllers enters in sleep mode after 1 minute of inactivity, and to awake them you need to press the X/Y, A/B buttons or move the controllers during some seconds in front of the cameras. 

Maybe it is only a matter of changing the sensitivity. I mean, when the HMD enters in sleep mode, it only needs a very gently movement in order to awake again, but the amount of movement required to awake the controllers once they are on sleep mode is far higher. 

Any news or progress on this issue would be appreciate. 

Thanks!

cybernettr
Superstar
Hmm. I haven't had a problem with the Touch controllers going to sleep prematurely until I activate a different controller, such as the Xbox. 

Precache
Explorer
I'm having the same issue. It makes it hard to play Subnautica, Lucky's Tail, and Aircar. I contacted tech support, and they thought my controllers were broken, so I'm not sure it's on their radar.

I'd approach the problem as the controller needs to come out of standby rather than keep it from entering. It would be an easy fix for the firmware guys if it's as simple as keeping track of the last transmitted analog value for each control, and waking it out of standby if the value changes significantly.

Diesel128
Explorer
Same issue here, really disappointing to find out its on Oculus's end. I'm in the process of developing a game for the rift, which relies heavily on joystick inputs. It took me a while to figure out why my character would suddenly stop responding to stick inputs at seemingly random intervals while using the touch controllers. It turns out that each controller enters standby mode after precisely 1 minute without any inputs to the buttons, even while the joysticks are ACTIVELY in use. Extreme motion to the controllers will also prevent them from entering standby mode, however, I do not require my users to do jumping-jacks in the middle of my game... This is a firmware bug that could be fixed very simply on Oculus' end (if they felt it necessary). I believe this bug was introduced in a hotfix update to the firmware that was meant to prevent the touch controllers battery from going dead so quickly when not in use, as it appears that there were many people in the past complaining about the issue of short battery life on the touch controllers.

Oculus staff, if you are reading this, here is the issue, and how to fix it :

The Problem : Touch controller enters standby mode after 1 minute elapses without both sensing motion (above some specified threshold) from the accelerometer/gyro, and without reading a button press from either the A, B, X, Y, or a click-in of the joysticks. Some games do not require these inputs for 1 minute or more at a time, especially games that require using mostly the joysticks (As one post from MrDeathX1 mentions above, sniping could be one of them, or driving a car, controlling an aircraft, etc). 

The Solution : Simply check for joystick inputs in order to keep the controllers from entering standby mode.

It would probably also be a good idea to add this same check for grip and trigger buttons as well.

Precache also offered another possibly viable solution above, although I doubt it would be possible to read input values from a controller that is in standby mode in order to know if the value has changed significantly.
If you are targeting gamers with your platform, this is a huge issue. Fixing this issue would allow developers to have the opportunity to develop whatever awesome ideas that they may be able to implement on your platform. Help us help you. The touch controllers should NOT enter standby mode while in use.