SteamVR Hardware|OT| Lighthouse Tracking 2.0 and Beyond
- Thread starter Zalusithix
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Some Russian leaked it from Steam Translation Server.
It's officialy confirmed by Valve.
www.pcgamer.com
Valve Index headsets are available for order
They won't ship for at least a couple of months, though.
So I tried putting in an order for the Index controllers, it gave me an error message, never went to check out or anything, then I refreshed and it just applied the order to my account? Really hope nothing got messed up and they'll reach out to me for payment.
I'd say you wouldn't get an accurate indication of anything comparing Google Cardboard with any PCVR headset, let alone the top end Index.
That's what I thought. I wasn't planning on getting it right away (besides the obvious situation, it's also sold out); maybe once everything get back to normal I'll see if there's any place around where I can try it out before actually buying it.
The fact that in general I'm pretty "good" with that kind of thing makes me pretty confident, but I'd like to be sure first.
Perhaps this new hp headset?So seems there's a new HMD being tracked in Steam Stats, currently marked as "unknown", could be they're starting to track Quest+Link?
And wow, wmr are low in this graph
Hi Guys, is the index any good for seated gameplay? my pc is connected to my tv with barely any standing room
the new HP headset isn't released yet or even really officially announced, so it'd definitely not be that that. These are actually connected (and detected) steam user VR headsets.
I think that falls under the oculus rift one, it's probably off-brand headsets like Pimax etc.So seems there's a new HMD being tracked in Steam Stats, currently marked as "unknown", could be they're starting to track Quest+Link?
So they've now added the Quest to the Steam Stats, plus a few other headsets, even PSVR:
Edit: interestingly the total amount of connected headsets (compared to overall Steam population) went down 0.77%, wonder what caused that. Would require quite a big surge in total steam user population.
Edit: interestingly the total amount of connected headsets (compared to overall Steam population) went down 0.77%, wonder what caused that. Would require quite a big surge in total steam user population.
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Well... you have seen the lockdown right?So they've now added the Quest to the Steam Stats, plus a few other headsets, even PSVR:
Edit: interestingly the total amount of connected headsets (compared to overall Steam population) went down 0.77%, wonder what caused that. Would require quite a big surge in total steam user population.
Also I guess they took away Other from the Total? So in this case the decrease would only be of 0.22 (0.77-0.55)
Really interested what the hell "Other" is now.
I can see the lockdowns having an affect on the daily active users, but not overall users. Like sudden influx of new users on Steam, not to that extent. Then again, I read it as a total decrees to 1%, didn't consider "other" being in addition to the 1%.
Yeah, question is what "other" is, I don't think there are any big (or many small for that matter) HMD's missing from that list that would have that large of an impact.
Survey is presented to active users though. (first time you start Steam after one year has passed from last survey or so). So in theory it could have effect :P
As Madjoki says, survey is based on people accepting it (so mainly Active users). We already saw a "decrease" when China was in lockdown due to Chinese players being less likely to have a VR headset.
Still surprised about the low numbers for Quest. Guess most people just dont connect it to PC with the Link.new stats for March, and they seem to have cleaned up the table:
Index shooting up.
could be it doesn't detect quest unless actually connected when the survey runs as well. Has been an issue before for instance not detecting my Vive when I've run the survey and not had it on/connected (Wireless so it's always disconnected when not in use).
Edit: apparently that part has been fixed for me at least, just did a quick system information check in Steam and it detected my disconnected Vive.
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I think that's likely a combination of the spotty unavailability of the link wire (or working alternative) over time along with the fact that a relatively large percentage of Quest owners probably don't have a decent gaming PC (thus why they chose a Quest over a Rift).
Highest resolution in order to my knowledge:
(Maybe The StarVR headset which was just announced?)
Pimax 8KX (4K per screen)
HP Reverb
Best all around:
Valve Index.
My understanding is Pimax can be fairly janky (others have had hands on impressions and might have better insight.) StarVR headset is not considered a real "consumer" option due to $3k(+?) price tag.
Index is generally highest quality and most versatile, though it of course has its own downsides as well.
question for Vive Wireless users, how have you positioned your WiGig- emitter? The cord for it is rather short, so can't really have it any other place than above my computer screen, getting this annoying thing that if I have my back against the screen and emitter, and bend down to pick something up, I get pixelation/drop-out at times. annoying as fuck, and not sure how to fix it with positioning.
So would love to hear others input on how they handle positioning and occlusion.
So would love to hear others input on how they handle positioning and occlusion.
Sooooo this is interesting. It involves VNN and a "Valve source" and is an excerpt from a chat log transcript on Pastebin so I'm not going to make a thread about it....BUT I still find it interesting. Essentially the source claims Alan Yates (who works at Valve) is the main reason why the Oculus SDK is incompatible with SteamVR headsets.
This actually gels with an excerpt from the book The History of the Future...
...and a comment Palmer Luckey made on Reddit around the launch of the Rift about wanting to support other headsets on the store.
Probably a lot more complicated than this lays out and a lot of other details to consider, but interesting to me nonetheless.
This actually gels with an excerpt from the book The History of the Future...
...and a comment Palmer Luckey made on Reddit around the launch of the Rift about wanting to support other headsets on the store.
Probably a lot more complicated than this lays out and a lot of other details to consider, but interesting to me nonetheless.
Whelp. That's not a good look on Valve and Yates more specifically.
I hope differences can be overcome.
Honestly I can't even take the vnn info at face value. You have so many stakeholders in this process , whose to say there weren't obstacles on both ends of the spectrum? Really have nothing but disdain for Tyler and his "reports"
The pastebin also talks about Valve thinking about making a switch exclusive for less than 1 million dollars. I would put the entire conversation in a "likely to be fake".
Level 1: "It's too ridiculous to be true."
Level 2: "It's too intentionally self-discrediting to be fake."
Level 3: "Which is why it actually is fake."
Don't get me wrong, I could see both the guy still being salty about Oculus after what they did (although the whole thing in the Palmer quote also sounds kinda meh as they also dont directly allow any other VR headsets such as Microsofts and OpenVR is well Open), and Valve making a switch game coexclusive with PC.
But for less than 1 million dollars? Valve, known not to move except for big ass money, making a game exclusive for less than 1 million?
There is also the part of game budget when the leaker said 200k would be enough to make a game. It is very likely that would barely cover the salary of 3 valve devs in a year, without counting for anything else.
I keep thinking of the Austin Powers "One million dollars!" line.
Except it wasn't even one million dollars. LOL
I have no doubt Tyler thinks he was talking to a Valve employee, but that whole thing is such a ridiculous read that I can only believe he was being scammed by some loser pretending to be associated with Valve. Either that, or some child of a Valve employee.
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Yeah, having read more of it now, it's definitely an interview from years ago and there are some things they claim they'd be revealing soon-ish that still haven't been (3D printed figurines for example). Granted, easy to write off as Valve being Valve, but still suspect. Also for someone trying to stay anonymous, they sure do give a lot of specific info about the areas they work in and were hired for (or maybe they thought the whole chat wouldn't actually be posted?). So yeah, even bigger grain of salt than before.
I mean this part:
Really sounds like somebody who has no idea of game development. 300k is not a buttload for any type of game and Starcraft 2 budget is well over that.
Or money at all. That's why I wonder if some kid wasn't using his parent's ID to fool VNN into thinking it was an actual Valve employee. The whole exchange is just cringeworthy IMO.
So I got myself an Index.
Started playing Alyx and noticed that the right controller sometimes drops out in the exact same space where the left one still has perfect tracking. No idea how that happens and if there's a way to test, if I was just unlucky with the controller and have to send it back or if there's something else going on.
Also the lighthouses are kind of loud - I guess that's normal though and not that important since you don't hear them anymore once there's sound.
I'm on a 2060 Super setup and chose 120hz - no idea if I should go for 90hz and up the rendering resolution?
I feel like I have a lot of shimmering going on in the game. Later this year I might want to upgrade to the 3000 series (probably also 60).
Do any of you with an Index and a better setup know if better supersampling really helps a lot with the image quality in the headset?
I also feel like I have a little bit of ghosting going on when there's bright lights or text but that could also be my left eye being around +.75.
Otherwise it is incredibly impressive. The sound especially! Not having to wear something in your ears or directly covering it really puts you into a place. And the Index Controllers are also something to behold. Very impressive tech.
Started playing Alyx and noticed that the right controller sometimes drops out in the exact same space where the left one still has perfect tracking. No idea how that happens and if there's a way to test, if I was just unlucky with the controller and have to send it back or if there's something else going on.
Also the lighthouses are kind of loud - I guess that's normal though and not that important since you don't hear them anymore once there's sound.
I'm on a 2060 Super setup and chose 120hz - no idea if I should go for 90hz and up the rendering resolution?
I feel like I have a lot of shimmering going on in the game. Later this year I might want to upgrade to the 3000 series (probably also 60).
Do any of you with an Index and a better setup know if better supersampling really helps a lot with the image quality in the headset?
I also feel like I have a little bit of ghosting going on when there's bright lights or text but that could also be my left eye being around +.75.
Otherwise it is incredibly impressive. The sound especially! Not having to wear something in your ears or directly covering it really puts you into a place. And the Index Controllers are also something to behold. Very impressive tech.
losing tracking with the controllers in the same space sounds like occlusion issues, the tracking points aren't really oriented the same so could be left one gets tracking and the right one has occlusion.
There used to be a Steam Workshop lighthouse replace that would visualize the tracking space for each of the lighthouses, can't recall the name though.
I associate the word shimmering with aliasing. If that's what you're talking about, yes, super-sampling usually helps. Something like forward rendering benefits a TON from super sampling. Deferred renderers can sometimes use a post process AA that almost completely negates the benefits of super-sampling (unless you crank to insane resolutions no GPU could ever run at).
Our heads are never completely still, so any aliasing at all will appear to crawl in VR. It's why super-sampling is so effective with VR. Really have to experiment for yourself to see which of your games are running on engines that will benefit from it.
That sounds interesting - so you think an adjustment of the lighthouses could in theory be enough?
I'm thinking about buying two poles to set them up when I want to play in pretty much the perfect positions.
Because of how my room is set up, one is right now at shoulder height and I don't wanna drill them into the wall to put it up any higher or have the cables always flap around.
Originally the plan was to play through Alyx and then sell the Index again to buy a Quest once that is back in stock.
But I'm not sure if I can let go of these controllers again.
Yep, that's what I meant - aliasing.
So the more super sampling, the better - I just tried the Lab and it looks a lot cleaner by default.
Generally. Yeah. Although, as I said, games that run on a deffered renderer benefit a lot less. So you really need to experiment on a per game basis. Steam also allows you to super sample on a per game basis (buried in the settings).
The Lab is an interesting case. It's mostly made in Unity (which is definitely running on a forward rendering engine here). But it also dynamically scales the resolution in-game. So if your CPU/GPU can handle more, the game itself will dynamically super sample higher on the fly.
EDIT: I'd just like to point out the obvious: Super sampling is very expensive. So it's a dancing act between image quality and maintaining framerate (because drops are terrible in VR). So ideally you want to super sample as much as you can without dropping any frames (at your given refresh rate). Which is why the per game super sampling is such a handy option to utilize.
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Absolutely, the lighthouses are supposed to be positioned high up and tilted down some to get the best tracking space, and least occlusion. Test it out if you can.
You know what - poles bought. This was gonna be an expensive set up from the get go, might as well invest a little bit more into making it comfortable.
I've heard this a lot in the past year. Is it just a base station 2.0 thing (question isn't really aimed at you but others)? I have the 1.0 ones and leave them on all the time and can't hear them at all.
I have 2.0 and I don't hear them when they are on, I did however when I first installed them. It was the mounting vibrating against the wall, I loosened the screw a tad bit that held the mount to the wall and the noise went away.
Weird. I wonder if it's the way I mounted them then. They're on camera clamps attached to floor-to-ceiling poles. The clamp is relatively loose and kind of hangs on the pole more than tightly clamped to it so that would be in line with your situation.