iMyth

Tag: Steam VR

  • Update on Steam VR 2.0

    Update on Steam VR 2.0

    There are two bits of information out there giving some direction of where HTC and Steam will be taking with the Vive.

    In fact, I know this may be too early guessing, maybe the next generation of HMD coming from this collaboration won’t even be called the ‘Vive‘ any longer. What are your thoughts?

    On first order, the engineers at SteamVR reminded all future developers to start ordering their new, STeamVR 2.0, base stations. The new base stations will not be compatible with the old HMDs. These new base stations will only be compatible with the new TS4231 sensors. Good for backwards compatibility, these new sensors will still respond with the old lighthouse base stations. These new base stations will be cheaper, have no moving parts and will not have sync issues. Steam is asking manufacturers to start making orders now. The manufactures must buy them in bulks of 45 at $60 a piece and supply no packaging and no mounting equipment. The retail price of the new base stations will probably be more expensive than $60 but we’ll just have to wait for the MSRP in 2018.

    What is really exciting about these new bases is that they will soon be able to support up to four base stations working in conjunction with each other, covering volumes of up to 10 cubic meters. That is really big! In fact it is so big that that should be a sufficient enough space to implement redirected walking seamlessly without resetting. Of course there would be caveats in the environment to compensate for the limited space. However with a 10mX10m space you should only have to worry about a reset ever 13m which is still quite a large distance! This is super exciting and more information as things continue to develop.

    The next bit of information invites even more room for conjecture. HTC has just applied for a New Zealand patent for a new HMD called the HTC Eclipse. The HTC Focus was thought to be the new, wireless mobile headset to be compatible with the new Windows 10 VR suite. The new HTC Eclipse has these particular tags: head mounted display for computer simulated reality, motion tracking sensors, handheld computer simulated reality controllers. ” Is this an indication of the next generation of VR?  Time will only tell. However, the simultaneous release of the next generation of tracking and this new HMD may be more than coincidence.

  • House Scale VR in Sight!

    House Scale VR in Sight!

    I received some bitter sweet news today from the folks at Valve Software.

    After much anticipation, the engineers at SteamVR have found a way to create a cheaper, more versatile Lighthouse solution. The old sensor chip, the TS3633, produced a single “envelope” pulse per laser or sync blinker hit. That hit allows the Watchman module in the device to time the difference between the sync and the laser hit and compute angle from that difference.  There is a new sensor chip from Triad Semiconductor, the TS4231 which is actually simpler and cheaper to produce. What’s most important, it provides a burst of data per laser or sync hit. Using that data allows information to be transmitted on the laser itself, which we can be used to learn about the source of that laser.

    This new capability to encode information in the laser is significant for two reasons:

    • It allows support for more than two base stations, and thus larger tracking volumes.
    • It allows a base station to function without including a sync blinker, which is the source of most of the interference between base stations (and is also a significant driver of base station cost.) This technology is called sync-on-beam.

    Depending on tests, these new sensors will start rolling out in late June. The new lighthouses won’t start rolling out until November.

    Here is a diagram of the compatibility of the two systems:

    Regretfully the old sensors will not work with the new Light House configuration. The new sensors will work with the old but not the other way around. Regretfully I just invested in 7 new Tracker pucks. They can still be used with the old system but not the new.

    So this news is bitter sweet. iMyth will have ware house scale VR in 2018. Regretfully We will need to retrofit will all new sensors. I suppose it was a good thing I had not had a chance to turn the printed iMyth props into controllers since they will be need to be redone anyway. At close to $500 per prop, I suppose the damage could have been much worse. I have recently finished long conversations with the folks at Optitrack and Motion Reality. It seems now Steam VR can join them in the House Scale/Warehouse Scale VR race. Because Steam VR tracking is not bound by cameras, there may be possibility to have vertical structures as well. Very cool!

  • Steam VR Lighthouse Operation

    Steam VR Lighthouse Operation

    I guess I’m just being a geek here. I would not normally create a posting like this but I think it is just so cool.

    It’s very hard to understand just what the Steam VR lighthouses are doing and how they track an object’s position in real time. In my opinion it is a minor engineering miracle. The lighthouses basically works as thus:

    • The LEDs flash which tell the controller’s sensors to get ready for a scan
    • The horizontal(lower) wheel spins and emits a lazer beam spanning from right to left, 120 degrees
    • The sensor counts the time between the led flash and the lazer pulse
    • The LEDs flash again
    • The vertical wheel(right) spins and emits a vertical beam, 120 degrees
    • The sensors records the second time difference
    • The computer then uses the two time differences to compute the sensor’s location and orientation

    https://gfycat.com/BleakAcclaimedJellyfish

    The Lighthouse fundamental operation is cool. But what steams my noodle is that it is doing the cycle 60 times a second!

    How groovy is that?

  • HTC Makes Full Body Tracking Open Source

    HTC Makes Full Body Tracking Open Source

    Yesterday, HTC Vive Senior Engineer James Xiong posted a Vive IK Demo on GitHub, which includes a reference source code and a Unity Demo. Too bad it was not for UE4 but methinks this can be easily transferred. The demo experience employs 3 Steam VR trackers mounted to each ankle and one to the participant’s waist. From this the lower body animation is more or less “guessed”. This has to be an approximation since without understand the pole vector constraints imposed by the knee, it’s really impossible to understand the direction the leg is pointed. However, certain basic cases can be considered and predicted with fairly decent accuracy.

    iMyth was planning on inventing its own solution for this problem. However, having code  to start from will definitely help!

  • Introducing Dreamscape Immersive

    Introducing Dreamscape Immersive

    I just discovered today there is a new player in town, Dreamscape Immersive. Dreamscape is a new Los Angeles-based startup for location-based virtual reality planning to open their first VR Multiplex in Los Angeles this coming September. The facility will use untehered VR headsets to allow consumers to move freely through a space and interact with real and virtual objects as well as with each other. This is very similar to the iMyth experience.

    Dreamscape has an impressive list of investors and supporters. Co-chairman Kevin Wall is an Emmy award winning producer. The company’s CEO is Bruce Vaughn, who until last year was Chief Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering. Imagineering has been hinting at this new medium for the last ten years. Maybe Vaughn’s exodus signals Disney’s apathy or unwillingness to participate in this new field. Dreamscape has raised $11 million in funding in a round led by Bold Capital, with contributions from Warner Bros. 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), IMAX Corporation, Westfield Corporation, and Steven Spielberg. Advisors include star designer Yves Behar and legendary film music composer Hans Zimmer.

    Just as iMyth has its sights on shopping malls, the first location for a Dreamscape Multiplex will be the Westfield’s Century City Mall, which is undergoing remodeling and expansion. iMyth will need to establish its empire in central Florida.

    Dreamscape has said that its multiplex will be powered by technology from Swiss tech and arts foundation Artanim. These folks have probably been doing immersive experiences longer than anyone else. I first learned about them before Siggraph 2015.  Artanim co-founders CaeciliaCharbonnier and Sylvain Chagué will serve as co-CTOs of the company. Artanim had been a non-profit foundation in Switzerland. it will be interesting discovering their ambitions over the next few months.

    One interesting thing to note is that they will be using the Vicon tracking system mixed with the OCculus Rift. A basic installation of the Vican cameras probably starts around $160K. This is a hefty price to pay. However, the Vicon system can track multiple objects at the same time including multiple participants and props without additional cost. At this moment in time that inital tracking cost is a bit expensive. iMyth will probably stick with the Steam VR tracking system in the near future.