Where to put the base stations?

[harf4ng]

Hi, 

I have my cockpit in a corner of my living room. 

What is the best place to put the base stations? 

Look at what it looks like. 

Though if I can my goal would be to be able to play in the middle of my living room as well when not seated for some games. 

Thanks 

 

@VibrantNebula

[HackPerception]

@harf4ng

• Are these 1.0 or 2.0 stations?
• Do you plan on using roomscale VR at all or will this strictly be for seated sim experiences?

If using 1.0 stations, the best solution in the mast majority of deployments is to use the recommended setup of installing the two stations ~6-8 feet off of the ground about 15 feet (~4.5M) diagonally across from one another. This setup is recommended because it maximizes the tracked volume, minimizes occlusion (ensuring the HMD always sees a station), and allows the two stations to see one another to enable "optical sync" which lets them sync up with one another wirelessly without having to use that giant "sync cable" that ships with the kit.

[harf4ng]

Thanks. Those are the stations that came with the first Vive. 

Why? How are the new v2 stations? 

Also my issue is to find a place to put them where they will see me even when I'm seated. So to not have my seat or screen to block the view. 

Occasionally I'll do standing experience and maybe room scale but not often. I'll more often use the seated one. 

[HackPerception]

@harf4ng

• If you're using 1.0 stations, the two stations need to pointed roughly towards one another for the optical sync system to work. 2.0 stations have more flexibility because they don't use optical sync.
  • I'd mount one of the stations on the lefthand wall (lined up where your chair will be so the chair is dead in the middle of the FOV) mounted high and pointed more downward. This will nail down tracking for your cockpit. I don't know what the rest of the room looks like - if you can mount one in a opposite corner 3-5m away, that's most ideal. Otherwise, mount it in a location that enables as much overlap with your first basestation and your desired tracked volume. The stations have a 110x110 FOV so a little wider than a right angle.
  • With 1.0 stations, mounting them diagonally is simply how they were engineered to be used. If you mount them in other locations, bear in mind that your 360 tracking may be impacted. The stations do need to be pointed generally towards on another for you to use optical sync, if you mount them in a way where that's not possible, you'll need to use the massive sync cable and set the stations to channels A + B for wired sync mode.
• The new 2.0 stations are a godsend for enterprise and advanced use-cases, especially if you're doing multi-HMD setups or setting up at conferences. That said, the added benefit is pretty minimal in the typical in-home use-case and most content that's developed for in-home VR is optimized for 3x3m playspaces. You're not missing out on much unless you have a more advanced deployment scenario.