Making use of Valve's lighthouse tracking system just got much easier. And a heck of a lot cheaper, too.
If you have, tried, or at least witnessed the HTC Vive headset in action, you'll have noticed the little black cubes around the room in use. Those little guys create a perimeter around the player and relay data back to the PC to determine where the VR headset is within that space.
It's a nifty idea that creates 1:1 spatial and motion tracking for the VR peripherals in use - like the HTC VR and the Wand controllers. Instrumental to its operation, those who wanted to make use of the tech in their games or projects had to shell out $3,000 for a training course. But that idea is no more.
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"After working with numerous third parties and updating the tools, Valve is opening more direct access to the technology and course work," says the newly issued press release. Costing a whole lot of nothing, interested parties will be permitted to use SteamVR Tracking in any of their games or projects free of charge with all the required documentation being available in both English and Chinese. You can still pay out for the course should you feel you need the guidance, but for those wishing to go it alone, learn by doing or willing to build up a community of individuals to learn from, that's now absolutely possible.
Those looking to get involved without the HTC Vive hardware, though, will need those aforementioned 'lighthouse' base-stations. You'll be able to buy them directly from Valve a little later in the year. That's a plus for anyone who just wants more precision with their current Vive set-up, too.
