Multiplayer

[burak]

 

We are planning to develop a multiplayer game, 2 players.

 

As you can see above image sensor A will track player A, when both players cross in the game pitch (if player B stands between Sensor A and player A), does it going to be a problem ?

 

Do you think 4 sensors is going to be enough for multiplayer game (2 players) ?

 

[Maribel_Hearn]

When you have multiple users in the same shared play space, you only need two lighthouses, so long as occlusion of the lighthouses is not an issue. Since the lighthouses are passive devices, the Vive HMD and computer do not care how many other Vives are using the same lighthouses. The only issue is if player 1 stands between the lighthouse and player 2, occluding the HMD/Wand's line of sight to the lighthouse, which would cause tracking loss.

If you are using tracking 1.0 (Original square lighthouses) you are limited to two lighthouses within line of sight of each other. If you are using tracking 2.0 (The newer lighthouses that have the slightly rounded front) you can have four (Or possibly more?) lighthouses in the same play space. Note that if there are more than two tracking 1.0 lighthouses in view of each other, SteamVR will error out and refuse to work. If you must have more than two lighthouses, you either must be using Tracking 2.0, or totally block line of sight between the two sets of trackers. Tracking 2.0 only works with the Vive Pro and newer tracking 2.0 wands/trackers.

I personally use a shared play space where my wife and I both play at the same time using the same two lighthouses. Tracking occlusion is sometimes an issue of we get too close to each other at the wrong angle.

[HackPerception]

, 

's response is spot on - thanks for writing out an accurate and detailed reponse!

 

The basestations are totally agnostic - they just spit out tracking data blindly and if a device is able to pull valid tracking data from it; it will. The technical term for what you're after is called "co-located" multiplayer meaning they're sharing the same tracked volume. You can totally do this with SteamVR 1.0; it's just way easier with 2.0 tracking tech. You can only use 2 - 1.0 stations in an area - you'll need SteamVR 2.0 devices to pair 2-4 stations together. 

 

A super important thing to note is that if you're doing co-located VR - safety is the top priority! You could be legally responsible if two users run into each other causing injury. The current best practice is to set up your SteamVR chaparone on one PC, and then copy that file (info.VRChap) from on PC onto all other PC's that will use that space. If you basestations move at all - even a fraction of a degree, you MUST regenerate the chaparone config and redeploy it. 

 

Also, your HMD teather management needs to be on point if you're not using wireless.