I am currently selling my Index full kit + 3.0 vive trackers, and will be sidegrading to the Pico 4. Since I won't have base stations anymore, I'm wondering what some good alternatives would be? Trackers that are WiFi/Bluetooth based would be my priority, because of the ability to use them under a blanket. I really don't want to use camera tracking unless it is really that good. Going from Vive 3.0s to anything else will probably feel like a big downgrade, but I'm wondering if there are any cheaper alternatives that don't require base stations and are still comparible in ability.
There's a lot of good IMU based tracking systems out there that can get pretty close to traditional lighthouse tracking. Lighthouse tracking (mainly Vive and Tundra) typically tend to have the best, and most accurate tracking, but the flexibility and cost of IMU based tracking can be pretty appealing.
Sony's Mocopi tracking system is a 6-point tracking system for $400-450 that connects directly to your smartphone. The kit includes: 1 head point, 2 wrist points, 1 hip point, and 2 ankle points. I'd imagine controllers and your headset will function just fine for the head and wrist tracking, so it might be best to repurpose those ones for chest and knee/elbow tracking. Supposedly, the 2.0 update allows these to be used with the SlimeVR drivers for even more accurate tracking. I'm not sure if they pass the blanket test, but I'd imagine they'd work fine when occluded.
Speaking of SlimeVR, that's the other IMU based tracking system I'd probably recommend. They've just started shipping out to early supporters recently. Placing an order now shows that it'll ship by May 31st 2024, so it's a little ways away. The tracking is proven to be pretty great for being IMU based, and there's plenty of community support across their Discord and Reddit page. They have kits ranging from $195-560 depending on how many trackers you want, and the kits range from 5 trackers (starting) to 10 trackers. I've seen a few people do the blanket test on these, and it works surprisingly well.
The Mocopi trackers will ship faster, but are quite expensive—coming pretty close to lighthouse tracking cost. SlimeVR is relatively cheap compared to lighthouse based tracking (depending on the kit you choose), but the shipping date is quite a ways away. SlimeVR is open source if you're handsy when it comes to soldering and whatnot, so that's also worth noting. They have their tracker firmware, SteamVR drivers, and server software all on their GitHub repository. With some help from the community, it might be possible to set up your own for a cheap cost as a weekend project.
I'm sure there's plenty of other IMU based tracking systems out there for relatively cheap. I know Vive recently just dropped their Ultimate tracker 3+1 kit for $600, but as of right now, I'm pretty sure those only work on Vive specific headsets. At least, until they release drivers for compatibility with other headsets. These are just the two most popular one's I know about, that may be worth looking into. Be sure to watch plenty of reviews to see which one works for you!
Hope this helps!
Technology, at a certain level of sophistication, is indistinguishable from magic. - some wise guy or something probably
Yep, slimevr is pretty cool (I've got the 7+3 set).
Instead of the official trackers, you can use a heap of mobile phones, Nintendo joycons or build your own with arduinos. But the official ones are cool.
The software is good too. It supports not only SteamVR (it can emulate Vive trackers) but also works with a stand alone quest (although limited software on quest supports it so far).
Oh, nice! I've been wanting to get my hands on a SlimeVR kit myself to see what more than 6-point tracking looks like. I'm currently using 3 Vive 3.0s with 2 2.0 lighthouses. It works great, but sometimes the limb tracking is a little...meh. At $130 a tracker for the 3.0s, $350 definitely sounds like a good deal for 10-point tracking.
With you having the 7 tracker kit, I'm curious what you end up doing with the 7th one. What would make the most sense to me would be 2 on the feet, 1 on the hip, 1 on the chest, 2 on the elbows/knees, but I can't really think of anywhere else a 7th one would go. On one elbow/knee?
I forgot about that! Yeah, SlimeVR does work with some standalone Quest games. The main one I could think of being VRChat with their OSC tracking. Not sure if many other apps support this on standalone Quest, though.
I've also seen some people using the old PS3/4 Move controllers and cameras to emulate Vive trackers, too. Seems like a pretty decent, cheap full-body solution, but the community is a bit small last time I checked. It might be a bit hard to get help with it if something ends up being difficult to set up.
Not quite related to full-body tracking, but I think it's something also worth noting. There was something pretty interesting that came up in the V62 patch notes that I'm pretty excited for:
Link now fully supports the following Quest Presence Platform features: Hand Tracking, using hands and controllers simultaneously, and body, face, and eye tracking for PCVR games and applications (these were previously only supported for developers).
I'm curious to see what Quest Hand Tracking looks like in PCVR. I'd imagine it's going to bump up the immersion level quite a bit. As far as I know (at least from my experience), Virtual Desktop doesn't support Quest Presence Platform features yet, either (unless I missed that option somewhere). I know face and eye tracking can be used with third-party software currently, but I don't think I've seen anything for hand tracking just yet.
Technology, at a certain level of sophistication, is indistinguishable from magic. - some wise guy or something probably
With you having the 7 tracker kit, I'm curious what you end up doing with the 7th one. What would make the most sense to me would be 2 on the feet, 1 on the hip, 1 on the chest, 2 on the elbows/knees, but I can't really think of anywhere else a 7th one would go. On one elbow/knee?
Mine is the 7+3 kit, so there's 10 total trackers. 7 of them are full standalone units (wifi, battery) and 3 are extension units (no battery or wifi, they connect by a short cable to the standalone units).
I had the 7 main ones as upper arms, thighs, lower legs and chest. Then the extensions were hip (connected to chest) and feet (connected to lower legs).
If you did end up with an uneven number, the software does support chest, waist and hip as separate locations
Oooooh, that definitely makes more sense. I was thinking the kit was 7 trackers and 3 straps (this doesn't make any sense in hindsight). I might look into picking up my own set once the shipping dates aren't set so far out. The 6-point tracking I have is nice, but that setup sounds like it's worth the investment—especially with Slime passing a lot of occlusion tests. My lighthouses aren't nice to me sometimes.
Thanks for the info!
Technology, at a certain level of sophistication, is indistinguishable from magic. - some wise guy or something probably
Here's a pic of what the main trackers and the extensions (much smaller) look like. It comes with 2 long and 4 short cables, which would suit the 10+6 set, but I only need 1 long and 2 short.
Interesting! With how small the tracker extensions are, I'm curious if there's any tracking quality loss in comparison to the main units. If there is, would it eventually be worth swapping out those extensions for main units if you don't go with the 10+6 set, or is the juice not really worth the squeeze in that case? I'd imagine with 10 main trackers, that would be enough to cover all of the limbs, right? 2 feet, 2 knees, 1 hip, 1 chest, 2 elbows, and 2+6 leftover to experiment with?
Technology, at a certain level of sophistication, is indistinguishable from magic. - some wise guy or something probably
There should be no difference in tracking between them. Both use the same IMU tracking chip inside (BNO085). The only real difference is the main units also have a CPU, wifi, battery and charging controller. The extension is just the tracker and a longer cable to connect it to the CPU in the main unit. They could remove a lot of weight and size by piggybacking onto a main unit.
That definitely makes a lot of sense. I was thinking the extensions had different IMUs, but I didn't know they all use BNOs. Thanks for all your help! You're definitely making me reconsider Slime over my Vive trackers.
Technology, at a certain level of sophistication, is indistinguishable from magic. - some wise guy or something probably
