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Multiple Base Station(2.0) developer questions


VRZach

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Hello, I'm developing a turn key product that utilizes the Vive. The product uses physical props and a "booth" style area of tracking. The product aims to use 2 base stations per booth in order resolve the occlusion issues caused by our untracked props. In some cases there will be many of these booths setup next to each other. For the most part we can solve tracking issues by using different base station channels and adding partitions between bays (as seen in other forum discussions). However, I have some questions on edge cases and how customizable I can make the experience. The main goal is make sure the users never have to touch SteamVR. Also to give some background, I'm using OpenVR in a OpenSceneGraph (C++) application on a Windows 10 computer. if not known then if you can answer the questions generically that would be great.

  1. Is it possible to set a base station's channel externally from the SteamVR configure channel interface? Can I set them via code or through command line?
  2. The SteamVR Status UI greys out any duplicate channel base stations. When this happens, how is it determined which "channel 1" base station is being used? by distance? by which base station is seen/configured first?
  3. When a Vive hmd/tracker sees multiple base stations, Is it possible to set which base stations are used for tracking via code? For example, to say I only want tracking from base station LHB-########.

I tried to give enough information to allow for answers but not too much to be TMI, so let me know if more detail is needed.

 

Thanks for your time

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@VRZach

1. Valve only has a few limited public commands/APIs around the basestations - specifically around pushing firmware updates. I'm not aware of ways to programmatically interface with SteamVR. These are all Valve controlled systems so they're deciding the access level and tools.

2. If two stations are duplication channel within line of sight of a SteamVR sensor - that's direct interference. There is no correction mechanism expect it displays a

3. We think of it in a loose concept of primary and secondary stations. A headset can have upto 4 "primary" stations, but SteamVR also seems to pull some sampling data from other stations in the environment as well. We generally recommend physically unplugging the stations that you don't want to act as primary tracking stations when doing setup. Only have the 2-4 stations you want to weigh into your calibration plugged in when preforming a room setup/quick calibrate.

SteamVR seems to factor in data from "secondary" stations - but how that works seems to be mostly proprietary and black-box. Physical isolation is the only way to ensure you fully isolate the tracking systems.

For more serious installs, I recommend using something like a smart plug to control the power state of the base stations to automatically turn off the stations when the system isn't in use to maximize their lifespan.

There is a pinhole on the back of the unit you can manually channel change with. You could use that to preconfigure the unit somewhat so your clients don't have to adjust the channels.

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@HackPerceptionThanks for the quick response. I had sort of figured that most of the programmable interface was pipe dreaming. 

Good to know about the primary and secondary stations. I didn't know that was part of the system. Also didn't know that pinhole, could be useful.

 

Thanks again.

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