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GLB Optimizer for Meta Quest & VR: Hit 90fps Every Time

Here's an uncomfortable truth about VR: bad performance doesn't just look bad—it makes people physically sick.

Drop below 90 frames per second and your users start feeling dizzy, disoriented, and nauseous. Keep it up and they'll take off the headset and never come back.

That's why optimization isn't optional in VR/AR. It's the difference between an experience people love and one that lands in the "never again" pile.

Why VR Has Zero Tolerance for Bad Performance

The Science of VR Sickness

Your brain is constantly comparing what your eyes see with what your inner ear feels. In VR, when there's a mismatch—like your view stuttering while your head moves smoothly—your brain freaks out.

The result: motion sickness, nausea, and a very unhappy user.

The frame rate targets:

That frame time budget includes everything—rendering, physics, audio, input handling. Go over by even a few milliseconds and you drop frames.

Standalone vs. PC VR

PC VR headsets connected to a gaming computer have more headroom. A beefy GPU can push through heavier content.

But standalone headsets like Meta Quest? They're running on mobile chips. Think "really powerful phone" not "gaming PC." That means serious constraints.

Meta Quest Performance Targets

Meta Quest dominates the VR market—over 74% market share. If you're building for VR, you're probably building for Quest.

The Hardware Reality

The Magic Numbers

These are your targets for Quest development:

Note that triangle budget is for your whole scene. If you have 10 objects visible, each averaging 10k triangles, you're using your entire budget just on those.

VRChat Performance Ranks

If you're making avatars or worlds for VRChat, their ranking system tells you exactly where you stand:

Quest "Good" rank (avatars):

Quest "Very Poor" (hidden by default):

Many VRChat events require avatars to meet at least "Medium" ranking. Go over the limits and you show up as a gray robot—not a great look.

WebXR: The Browser Challenge

Building VR/AR experiences for the web brings its own challenges. WebGL has different bottlenecks than native apps.

The #1 Problem: Draw Calls

Every material, every mesh that can't be batched = another draw call. JavaScript can't feed the GPU fast enough when draw calls pile up.

Real optimization results from a WebXR project:

Metric Before After Improvement
Materials 49 34 31% fewer
Meshes 638 38 94% fewer
File size 21.7MB 8.2MB 62% smaller
Frame time (Quest) ~34ms ~7ms 79% faster

That's the difference between "unusable" and "smooth."

Framework Support

Good news: all major WebXR frameworks support GLB natively.

Apple Vision Pro

Vision Pro's M2 chip gives you more headroom—200,000 to 500,000 triangles is possible. But optimization still matters for battery life and thermal management.

Apple's recommendations:

Mobile AR (ARKit & ARCore)

For phone-based AR experiences:

Platform Differences

Mobile AR Budget Guidelines

Optimized assets reduce tracking interruptions by up to 40%—that's the difference between AR that "just works" and AR that constantly loses tracking.

Optimization Techniques for XR

Geometry Optimization

Aggressive decimation: You can often remove 80-90% of polygons with minimal visual impact.

LOD (Level of Detail): Multiple versions of the same model—high detail up close, low detail far away. Essential for any scene with distance.

Remove what's invisible:

Merge meshes: Fewer objects = fewer draw calls. Combine static objects where possible.

Texture Optimization

KTX2 compression: Unlike JPEG/PNG, KTX2 textures stay compressed in GPU memory. Huge savings for texture-heavy content.

Texture atlasing: Combine multiple textures into one large texture. Reduces material count and draw calls.

Mipmap generation: Pre-computed smaller versions for distant rendering. Improves quality AND performance.

Compress aggressively: ETC1S for solid colors, UASTC for complex textures.

Material Optimization

Merge materials: Every unique material is a potential draw call.

Bake lighting: Pre-computed lighting in textures instead of real-time calculation.

Avoid transparency: Alpha blending is expensive. Use alpha cutout or opaque materials where possible.

Unlit materials: When you don't need lighting calculations, skip them entirely.

Testing Your Optimized Models

Tools to Use

What to Measure

Don't just look at FPS—dig deeper:

The Bottom Line

VR/AR optimization isn't about cutting corners—it's about respecting your users' physical comfort and the hardware they're using.

The good news: a well-optimized experience looks just as good as an unoptimized one. Often better, because consistent frame rates feel smoother than pretty graphics that stutter.

Start with the fundamentals:

Get these right and you'll build VR/AR experiences people actually want to spend time in.

Need to optimize 3D models for Quest or WebXR? Our optimizer handles Draco compression, texture optimization, and mesh simplification automatically.

Ready to optimize your 3D models?

Try the Free GLB Optimizer