SFX house Stress Level Zero recently received their Valve Vive Developer Edition kit and have now published a useful image demonstrating just what Valve’s 15×15 feet ‘room scale’ tracking looks like when applied in reality.

Valve and HTC’s Vive virtual reality systems are shipping in developer kit form right now with many already in receipt of their boxes of magic and wonder. But how does the system’s Lighthouse work in a real life setting? Stress Level Zero are here to help answer that with this informative illustration of their setup, roughly approximating the theoretical boundaries set our by Valve themselves.

One thing to note, the defined boundaries for Vive’s ‘Chaparone’ system, which kicks in, displaying an overlaid grid of your real world boundaries should you approach them. As the system’s monicker suggests, to stop you making and arse of yourself crashing into your favourite furniture. Valve’s Lighthouse tracking system uses laser scanning base stations and photo receptive sensors on tracked objects to pinpoint their position in 3D space.

Valve have indicated that, although these Developer Edition systems have only been issues to selected code houses, the retail version isn’t far away, due to ship by the end of the year with unconfirmed reports it could be as soon as November.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Knuts

    I’ve been wondering: (1) is this a static size that is required always and everywhere, (2) since you are standing, do you still have controls for walking motion, as when exploring large landscapes, and (3) how does this bode for seated experiences?

    Also, the desk and chairs in that shot seems to protrude into the playspace. Can one arbitrarily place the chaperone wall in the metaverse to avoid that obstacle?

    If the size of the box is dynamic, so that it can vary between apartments and rigs, the rooms in the games must also change in size or additional walking mechanics need to be in place. I really want to invest in the Vive, but real life limitations might make it hard for city dwellers like myself if there is no flexibility on the playspace requirement.. (especially since I will be moving around for a while, and apartments will change size and configuration).

  • rimouskite

    From what i’ve read (from the vive setup pdf) the size is about 3×4 meters… But you can size your boundaries with the controllers and from the comments of the valve people it’s up to the developper to create a seated experience or room scale, the vive can do both….

  • rimouskite

    An other tought… As you can see on the picture at the sart of the article the physical placement “square” of the lighthouse base station (orange lines) is independent of the virtual chaperone (blue lines) “square” size… Is the chaperone area size that can be “controller selected”