Future Vives - Base Stations or Not - Ceiling Height

[mtarallo]

Hi there - I have the original HTC VIVE and love it - we are having a new family room built - BUT the ceilings are much higher 10 1/2 - 16 ft (vaulted) - I am considering putting outlets in the ceilings for the base stations - I assume flush mounted with the provided bracket will be too high and I really don't want to use long down rods to the required height. So - If my assumption is correct where they would be too high to function correctly -  does anyone know if future VIVEs will require base stations? If Base Stations are essentially eliminated then I don't need to put the outlets in the ceilings, as I will just buy the latest model when it comes out.  I ask this because I also have an Oculus Quest which does not require base stations for room scale as the cameras are built into the headset. 

Thoughts?

P.S. I did send HTC a support request as well but figured I'd check in with the community.

Thanks

Edited January 29, 2020 by mtarallo

[HackPerception]

@mtarallo,

• You're correct, you cannibalize their effective range when you mount them high-up.
  • Basestation 1.0 are rated to ~4.5 meters overall range and 2.0 stations are rated to about 5.5m.
  • The range of basestations is partially limited by things like angular resolution - as you add distance, the laser beam collimation gradually fans out and becomes diffuse. SteamVR tracking is a timing based - past a certain distance, the angular speed of the laser across the headset sensors is too slow.
  • If you're using 1.0 tracking - the range limitation is more pronounced because of how SteamVR 1.0 uses optical sync. Since 2.0 eliminates optical sync, 2.0 stations are more flexibility to deploy overall.
• We've already released an optically tracked desktop headset in Q4 2019 called the Vive Cosmos.
  • No current consumer VR optical tracking system as as high precision/accuracy as basestation tracking - there's a tradeoff between the ease of optical tracking and the fidelity of the tracking.
  • Cosmos is a modular headset. In Q1 2020, we plan on releasing a modular face-plate for Cosmos that lets you switch from the Cosmo's default optical tracking over to basestation tracking which also lets you use other SteamVR tracked devices like Knuckles controllers with the Cosmos. This is really helpful if you do things like travel with HMDs because you can use optical when traveling and then can switch to basestation tracking when needed.

[mtarallo]

Just an update on this thread - our family room remodel is done and I mounted at about 12 ft high and 12 ft apart and it works awesome !! Very pleased. 

i recall someone telling  me the base stations should be about 7-8 high and at least 7ft apart - so that is why I was concerned it may not work.  - I don’t know where I heard that from 

https://twitter.com/retrogameboyz/status/1286849746569658370?s=21

Thanks for the info!