Three new user questions

[Coconice]

We set our Vive up last week, and it seems to have gone well, but since, three points have arisen.

 

First, it is just a bit blurry.  I've used another Vive that was sharper.  I've adjusted the pupil to pupil width, and I've adjust the nearly secret ring on the side of the headset.  It isn't unusable, but it isn't rigth either.  The very first instruction for the headset was to remove the protective cover from the lens.  There was no protective cover, and that concerns me that mine was a refurbish/return that just doesn't work right.

 

Second, we are a family of four, and we would like to know our own individual scores.  I've read and googled, but I cannot find a way to have separate names for us as players inside one account.  This is somewhat important for bragging rights.  But, it is more important for content.  We are at various stages of different games, and we would like the Vive to know which of us is wearing it.

 

Finally, I won't use the Vive much, but I play Rocksmith on my laptop often.  Last night, I launched Rocksmith and was alerted that if I proceeded, whoever was playing The Lab (a Steam game) on the Vive was going to get kicked.  During the setup process, it never occured to me to make a second Steam account.  The idea of that is ridiculous to me.  But, is this really a thing?  I cannot have active Steam content on my laptop while someone else is using the Vive on a different PC?  I could understand if we were talking about playing the game on two machines at the same time, but this I do not understand.

 

Thanks for any help.

[HackPerception]

Hi , welcome to VR. Here is my take on a few of these questions:

 

1) Depending on your PC's hardware specs, applications and SteamVR itself my be downscaling the resolution of the applications to ensure they run at 90 FPS. Under the "developer" tab of SteamVR's setting, verify that the supersampling slider is set to 1.0 which is the default. You can increase the value to increase the rendertarget resolution in app as well as the overall bandwidth that's being delivered to the HMD but your results will vary entirely on how powerful your GPU/GPU are. The goal is to not drop below 90 FPS. While in SteamVR's settings, you should pop over to "performance tab" and ensure Asynchronous reprojection is turned on (and I prefer to turn interleaved repro. turned off as the two in combination can cause issues with some apps). Async helps ensure that you hit 90fps via interpolation. It's also worth nothing that the fresnel lens design requires you to position the HMD on your face in such a way that the "sweet spot" aligns with your vision. The "protective cover" is a piece of paper that protects the lenses during shipping and warns against exposing the lenses to direct sunlight which can burn the display. 

 

2)  Most VR apps that have leaderboards that are driven by an SDK that is tied to online services. For example, most Steam builds are using the Steamworks SDKs to handle leaderboards. Some games like Space Pirate Trainer have arcade style leaderboards. It's ultimately dependent on decisions the developer makes about how to handle these features. One way around this is to create your own local leaderboard and create your own challenges. This allows you to get creative and create challenges unique to the community you're playing with; for instance "fastest time to complete challenge X". You can use a whiteboard or can print out a challenge list and stash in in a 3-ring binder in a page protector so you can mark on it and erase it. 

 

3) This is simply Steam's library policy and they've operated under these rules for years. You can use "offline mode" to use content from one account on multiple devices at once but this will kill any SDK driven multiplayer features. Vive does not have any influence on Valve's policies toward this matter. 

     3b) Viveport developers have the option of how many computers can access a piece of content tied to a single account simultaneously. They can chose to limit to to a single PC's at once or can opt to allow numerous PC's to access the content at once.  

[Coconice]

Your reply is helpful, and I appreciate it.

 

I'm just going to learn to live with most of it, but I'm struggling with the blurriness.  I'm happy to hear that the paper protector was in place as it should have been.

 

My friend who also has one has stopped by and agrees that it is not right. 

 

We made the changes you suggested.  The supersamling was at .6. 

 

These changes did not help.

 

The card is a GeForce 1080, so I would b e surprised if something is downscaling the resolution, but I suppose it could be happening.

 

It feels/looks more like imperfections in the lens to me.  It has the flavor of a physical imperfection rather than something in the software.

 

My next step will be to try my headset at a friend's house, and his at mine.  If mine is still blurry at his house, I will contact my vendor to see about replacing.

 

It is just not quite right.

[Coconice]

Oh, and the Steam account issue...  I know that is an issue with Steam and not HTC.

 

I have contacted them, and i have verified that I need to make a second account and re-purchase the games that I want to be able to play while the VR system is running.

 

So, with that in mind, I have the following suggestion:  When I was installing the VR software on my new PC, the question was "Do you already have a Steam Account?"  (That's not an exact quote, but it is the general idea.)

 

Of course, I said [Yes] because I do.  And, I followed all the instructions.

 

What I wish the question had been was more like, "Do you already have a Steam account that you don't want to have access to while your kids play VR?"

 

It shouldn't be worded like that, but I would have really appreciated a heads up that my non-VR Steam content would be unavailable while the VR content was in use.

 

You can argue all day about whether or not I am an idiot for assuming that I could use my laptop while the kids VR, but that's not the point.  These installations need to be Idiot Proof. 

 

I proceeded with the entire purchase and setup experience of my new PC and the Vive very carefully and with quite a bit of thought.  In spite of that, there were still three idiot issues.

 

The first is the Steam account mentioned above.

 

The second was a cable.  There is only one HDMI out on my GPU.  It was plugged into my monitor when I set up the computer.  When the PC was up and ready, it was time to install the Vive.  Well how about that.  I had no way to connect the Link box and the monitor at the same time.  Nobody, and I mean nobody stocks a DP to HDMI adapter.  I found a cable with a male DP on one end and a male HDMI on the other at Staples, and felt lucky to get it.  My setup was held up for a weekend for lack of a cable I never imagined needing.

 

The third is sound.  I expected sound to get to my monitor and sound system over the HDMI cable.  But now, it is not connected with an HDMI cable.  Also, the Vive seems to have turned off my onboard sound as well as the headphone jack.  Plugging a 3.5mm cable into either port gets no sound output.  Other than splitting the audio that runs into the headphone and running that cable back to a set of speakers, I have no idea yet how to make sound happen.  VR spectators want to hear it, particularly on a game like Audioshield.

[Synthesis]

 

To answer one of your questions, you can mirror audio quite easily. SteamVR settings -> Audio -> Mirror audio to device (Pick your speakers)

Thank you,

-John C

[Coconice]

Now that was a quick and easy fix.

 

Prior to today, I had realized that the small SteamVR window expanded like it did.  In my mind, that was a window to let you know that the Vive was on and the status was good. 

I was trying to make adjustments from inside VR.

 

So, I have sound now.

 

Thanks!