3D Slicer Virtual Reality Experience with Meta Quest 3

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I’m writing to share my initial experience using the 3D Slicer VR extension with a Meta Quest 3 on Windows 11 and to ask for some guidance.

My Setup:

  • Headset: Meta Quest 3

  • PC OS: Windows 11

  • Connection Methods Tested: Meta Link (Air Link) and SteamVR

Observations:

  1. Meta Link (Wireless): The connection was laggy and unstable. I attribute this to my 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network and the lack of a direct cable connection.

  2. SteamVR (Wireless): This provided a much smoother and more responsive experience, even on the same network configuration. The rendering and head-tracking were excellent.

  3. 3D Slicer VR Extension (via SteamVR): While the scene rendered perfectly, I encountered issues with controller bindings. Most controls were non-functional, except for basic vertical movement (up and down). My attempts to reconfigure bindings did not resolve the issue.

  4. Standalone SlicerVR Application: In contrast, launching the SlicerVR application directly was far more successful. All controller functions worked as expected, allowing for full interaction with the models.

Based on this, I have a few questions for the community:

  • Is the controller binding issue with the VR extension a known problem for the Meta Quest 3?

  • Are there recommended SteamVR binding profiles or a specific setup guide for the Quest 3 that I might have missed?

  • What is the recommended workflow for the best VR experience? Is using the standalone SlicerVR app the preferred method over launching it from within the main 3D Slicer application?

Thank you for any insights or advice you can offer.

Thank you

3D Slicer Virtual Reality Extension

Direct App

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Thanks for sharing your experience!

Is the controller binding issue with the VR extension a known problem for the Meta Quest 3?

Looking at the DeveloperGuide, it looks like controller bindings are directly fetch from VTK which does not provide default bindings for the Meta Quest 3. I have a draft PR on VTK that should provide support for basic interactions with this device when using OpenXR as a backend.

You can try to locate the json files provided by the 3D Slicer VR Extension on your machine and apply the modifications from my PR and it should work.

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@manjula Just letting you know that the SlicerVR extension is up again since quite recently, so I suggest using the latest Slicer / SlicerVR.