HackPerception

@SimonW - Please see this post from Triad Semiconductor on how to use SteamVR tracking without an HMD. SteamVR hardware tracking is a highly proprietary system per Valve. The entire system is underpined by the "Watchman" system which is a hardware solution which drives the sensors - all heavily proprietary. For instance, they're able to achieve a ~93% compression ratio on the data that gets sent over bluetooth back to the PC. For all essential purposes, OpenVR/SteamVR SDK and the SteamVR runtime are the only way to query a pose from any SteamVR tracked device. You can't really interface with the tracking hardware directly - the closest anybody has come has been CNLohr's reverse engineering attempt but he only got so far, even with help from Valve. You may be able to work with Valve directly by becoming a SteamVR licensee but between the effort of doing so, buying an HDK kit, ect... It's not really practical (and is very $$$) and only makes sense if you actually are building a tracked device, and even then - you still hit proprietary roadblocks and I'm not sure you get direct hardware access. So overall, you really should just use a PC with the SteamVR runtime and the OpenVR SDK. It's how the system was designed to be used and if you try to use it any other way, you're probably going to get very far. It's going to be cheapest, fastest, and easiest to use SteamVR tracked hardware as it's intended and designed to be used. You could browse around the SteamVR HDK forum but as it pertains to Vive tracker, it's not really worth the effort to try and circumnavigate SteamVR/OpenVR as that's the archstone of the entire system and you likely won't succeed in finding a working solution without input from Valve.

@TomCgcmfc Vive Cosmos' stock linkbox does not have the correct SteamVR bluetooth circuitry to power manage base-stations. Vive Pro's does. The Elite does not ship with a linkbox but instead ships with an inline breakway converter. The ET/Elite have the circutiry for BT power management in the faceplate itself. If you get an ET to use with a standard Cosmos, BT power management will work for you regardless of the linkbox/converter situation. I've just tested this IRL to confirm. I personally use a Pro linkbox at my new home workstation for Cosmos/Elite/Pro/Pro Eye. Never have had an issue personally but it may not be advisable in a in-home use scenario due to the different power requirements you mentioned. @eddyfanbo I've sent out an internal request for clarification on Chinese availability @Shevron We're exploring potential options but have nothing hard to share at this time per a controller/basestation bundle. The COVID situation makes everything dramatically more challenging. @Beta_Tester Definitely doesn't hurt to ask and I'll forward that request to some folk on the hardware team because it doesn't hurt to ask ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . Generally though, it's not feasible for us to "play favorites" with community members, especially given the ET/Cosmos tracking community dynamic. If you're developing content that will publish to a storefront, that potentially opens some doors. I'd post-face all of this all with to note that I am not on Vive's hardware team and am actually on the Viveport Content team so I am not a definitive source of truth for Vive hardware matters - I am merely someone who believes very strongly in community hence my forum activity.

@goslingdkc SteamVR is not something that lends itself to a traditional manual - it updates and changes way too frequently unfortunately. In 2019, Valve released ~300 beta updates to SteamVR and another ~12-15 or so major public releases and in 2020 they released a ton of major UI updates. I think I'm going to start trying to document it better more informally but it's a bit of logistical nightmare. I'd personally recommend going through and clicking through every single option and menu within SteamVR and it's setting pages just to gain a baseline understanding of what's possible in SteamVR currently. Nowadays, when SteamVR updates - there will be a dialog box that pops up alerting you to the update with a link to "see what's changed". I'd recommend reading those so you're always in the loop for major changes. You can also manually access them via this page. I'd definitely recommend RMA'ing that unit if it's so new. You can do by collecting the S/N off of the back of the unit and going to vive.com/support -> contact us -> contact us. Depending on your region, COVID will likely affect your turn around time but it really varies by region. You should receive an invoice/order confirmation soon - I don't work directly with vive.com so I'm not sure of what their overall status is presently.

@goslingdkc In short, basestations have a primary tradeoff. They offer the highest quality tracking system under $30-50K but it's enabled by the fact that the stations are high-precision mechanical devices that spin at high speeds. The rotors in a station spin at ~3600RPM which adds up to over 200k revolutions over the course of an hour. The can wear down and develop other mechanical issues. There are also laser sources in there which can burn out. The device may be under warranty depending on your purchase date an region. The best way to prolong the life of a base-station is to never ever touch or move it while it's spinning and to enable base-station power management. The following setting will add a few seconds to your VR startup routine but will ensure the stations aren't just spinning 24x7 if they have power. I personally recommend all in home users use the following settings as they completely stop the motors from spinning: If you use this - you'll need to ensure you close SteamVR for the stations to spin down - if you suddenly shut down (i.e. a hard shutdown on your PC), the stations won't get the signal from SteamVR to enter standby. An added bonus is that they'll make no noise while they're in standby.

@goslingdkc - we are still shipping outbound as of this post without any major service alerts. Our repair/RMA pipeline is however affected as RMA/repair devices need to be received and physically inspected/fixed. We are starting to see some impact on EU shipping, but we don't have formal advisories yet. We're pausing shipments in Taiwan/China and some other APAC regions until April 5 due to COVID related impacts. There will be a banner on your localized webpage if there is an active alert for your region.

@ralphp - the mount's CAD file is attached. You'll need to ensure that your externalcamera.cfg files are calibrated to the controller. This workflow is almost 4 years old - we no longer provide support it anymore. Good luck! 160927-controller-bracket-v7_id.stl

Reposting our March 31st blog post here for increased visibility:

@richardparrker It's generally straightforward with the caveat that your power supply has to have both the right connector to attach to the GPU as well as enough capacity to drive the new GPU. The 2060s/2070's generally need a 500-600w power supply and 6/8 pin PEG connectors depending on the card. The other thing to think about is that modern GPUs are freaking massive - you want to ensure that your case can fit the full length and width of the card, most GPUs nowadays take up 2 PCI slots.

@richardparrker - Open up your resource monitor/task manager and try to figure out if you're GPU or CPU bound. That said, that GPU is considered min-spec for VR content nowadays (and you're below req for Alyx). The RTX2060/2070 are good upgrade cards and the 2060 is pretty affordable considering it's performance and will likely breath a few years of extra VR life out of your PC, even more so for the 2070. VR generally isn't CPU bound unless you're using wireless. I wouldn't generally recommend dumping a bunch of money into an older PC - I lean on the side of doing complete rebuilds every few years rather than trying to upgrade part by part. A good GPU can last you a while though.

We made an official post about the ET faceplate today as well as a new "HMD Only" SKU of Elite. https://blog.vive.com/us/2020/03/30/cosmoselite/ @sbrandon111 - We're exploring that scenario but don't have hard info to share on that specific scenario as of today. Everything is extra tricky right now due to the ongoing health crisis.

@groslala From an offical source: https://blog.vive.com/us/2020/03/30/cosmoselite/

@ralphp I've been trying to hunt down this file internally - that design is ~4 years old now and was rapidly replaced with the Vive Tracker MR workflow so it hasn't been easy to find.

Registration reminder: Our first GDC webinar will happen tomorrow morning - Tuesday the 31th at 10am PST – A Step Ahead of the Curve: Using Data Trends to Build a Successful VR Experience.

@dflorin77 - Valve controls SteamVR, SteamVR Tracking, and 2.0 base-station updates, not HTC. I've experienced the exact opposite in many cases, the default firmware is really early firmware and I've always had really bad tracking with 2.0 stations out of the box until they're updated. There are two likely scenarios that you should consider first: You'll want to ensure that each basestation is on a unique channel. If you don't have the Bluetooth management enabled, you could have two stations on channel 1 but they'd have no way to report back to SteamVR to display an error message. You should explicitly check the stations and ensure they're on different channels. You could have a reflection in your playspace. To detect reflections, generate a system report or open up the SteamVR web console and search for the term "back-facing". Here's an example of what a reflection looks like in the logs/web console: Sun Jun 26 2016 23:02:09.676 - lighthouse: LHR-4E8EF209 H: Dropped 32312 back-facing hits, 2069 non-clustered hits during the previous tracking session I personally find that 1.0 tracking is a little more robust when it comes to handling reflections but then again the 1.0 solve algorithms are 3 years more mature.

@Shevron , Unless your on Index controllers - Valve made it so that only your trigger controls hand actions. The grip buttons don't work on any other controller - for instance on Vive wands - the grip button triggers the pause button. A/B/X/Y have functions related to ejecting clips, pause menu, reloading your first round, ect... The mapping on Oculus controllers is the same as Cosmos, ect...

We used to host this package on https://hub.vive.com/en-US/download - I asked that team to reupload it but it doesn't seem to have happened yet. I sent out another bump today to get that access point restored.

Yes, for Vive 1/1.5, the minimum requirements are specifically 18W and QC 3.0+ support. I'd recommend to sticking to trusted brands for packs like this (Anker, RAVPower) as cheaper >10,000mAh battery packs can pose fire risks. When using larger battery packs, it's also helpful to have a QC 3.0+ power supply to charge the batteries as the larger ones can take over 24 hours on standard chargers.

@jakelogg If you haven't looked at this blog, it's pretty helpful. There's just not alot of OpenVR API's to interface with the cameras so your level of access will definitely have some constraints and the end-user needs to have all of the camera settings/permissions in place for the API call to work. https://blogs.unity3d.com/2017/06/16/codesnippets-toggle-vives-front-facing-camera-and-tron-mode-at-run-time/

@CHRAND!53 - Your wired HMD would have originally come with a USB A -> USB A cable used to connect the wired linkbox to the PC. You can use this cable to test with to isolate out the USB-A cable as the source of the fault.

@CHRAND!53 - If it's not staying on, it's either because it's loosing connection to the wireless adapter (i.e. faulty USB cable to the HMD-side adapter) or the battery is potentially damaged. If the latter - I would recommend trying to get it replaced under RMA if it's under the warranty period via www.vive.com/support -> contact us -> contact us.

Thanks for sharing @letschat6

@MrOsuG - Are you using vive.com/code? I am PM'ing you an additional support line you can contact

@Beringela001, It's not required unless you're using Cosmos Elite and want basestation power management to work. The bluetooth HW required to communicate with the basestations is in the wired linkbox - you can keep BT power management enabled if you hook up the linkbox to the PC with just power and USB forgoing the Display cable. If you have the display cable hooked up in addition to power and USB, the system will anticipate that you're trying to hook up a wired HMD and will switch over to wired mode which can block the wireless adapter from working as anticipated.

There is definitely no public list - it's a device specific NDA. I'll touch base with the Cosmos team to see what the internal thoughts are - 2020 is well... 2020.

@davide445 It was supposed to be an MWC2020 announcement - we had a full lineup of programming including the announcement but we were unable to implement our plans due to the cancellation of the event. The XR plate announcement still went out as we had given press outlets an early lead on it - we're still reevaluating the situation in context of the current global situation. Similarly we are reevaluating our GDC programming and we've shifted some of those presentations to webinars.