Understanding Free Roam VR Tracking and Calibration
Introduction This article is a work in progress and will be receiving updates Standalone VR headsets use a tracking technique called visual simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM)*. The exterior cameras on your headset create a map of your surroundings, and the headset estimates it’s position based on its approximate distance to various landmarks in your map. *To learn more about SLAM, visit: https://www.mathworks.com/discovery/slam.html How Does Free Roam VR Tracking Work? When you are drawing the “boundaries” on your standalone VR headset, you are drawing the SLAM boundaries. When an headset is reporting its position, it reports its position relative to the SLAM boundaries. SLAM creates a “map” file. When all the HMDs have the same SLAM map: This is how it is kept accurate for everyone. Advantages and Drawbacks of Different Headset Choices HTC VIVE Focus 3, Pico Neo 3 Pro, Pico 4 Enterprise have superior tracking accuracy for Free Roam VR These headsets have superior tracking accuracy, because of a feature called boundary sharing. This means, you can draw the boundary on just 1 of the headsets -> then export that boundary file -> and import it into the other headsets. Then they have exactly the same SLAM map. As long as they are physically in the same space, it is very accurate. Meta Quest Disadvantages Meta does not allow boundary sharing and there is no way to export/import a SLAM map onto multiple headsets. Therefore, your tracking accuracy is determined by how well you are able to replicate and redraw your boundary on each headset, one at a time. Headset Calibration HTC VIVE Focus 3, Pico Neo 3 Pro, Pico 4 Enterprise When you are using HTC VIVE Focus 3, Pico Neo 3 Pro, or Pico 4 Enterprise, there is no need to calibrate your setup. Meta Quest When using Quests, calibration is needed. The calibration is like this: If, during gameplay, a player performs the quick recalibration (by holding the Oculus button for 3 seconds), then the HMD has to be recalibrated at the X spot.
Environment Profiles – Store and Swap VR Boundaries
What’s an Environment Profile and why it’s needed? The SynthesisVR Environment Profiles cover headset variables such as boundaries, button states, scheduled HMD restarts, and other configuration and environment adjustments. With the growth of the LBVR segment and the VR industry in general, we do see more and more standalone HMDs released for business purposes. As of March 2023, there are multiple established platforms and HMD models: What SteamVR has been great at for so many years is providing a unification between all the PCVR HMDs. Regardless if you go for HTC Vive, Valve Index, Oculus, PiMax, or another PCVR HMD, they always get linked to SteamVR and become a viable LBVR option. With the growth of standalone HMDs, this has dramatically shifted. The manufacturers bundle their products with custom software and functionalities that cannot be used on a competitive brand. This all creates a bit of chaos and not to make it any easier – all of the standalone HMDs have the option to operate as Wireless PCVR HMDs (as a way to fuel more power / stunning visuals). Getting familiar with the specifics of all manufacturers and making them part of your daily operations can be challenging. SynthesisVR is the first LBVR platform to unify the environment variables into Environment Profiles in a simple yet powerful interface. Setting up a new Environment Profile: Step 1) Find the Environment Profiles page Head to “my.synthesisvr.com >> Administration >> Devices” and switch to the brand new “Environment Profiles” tab: Step 2) Creating an Environment Profile There are a few simple concepts behind the Environment Profiles: Example Configurations: Room-Scale: Free-Roam: Room-Scale profile for PCVR->HMD streaming: Free-Roam profile for PCVR->HMD streaming: Step 3) Specify the hardware platform that will be used for the specific Environment Profile: Please note that upon applying your selection, you no longer would be able to change it for the current Environment Profile. Luckily, deleting a Profile and creating a new one is quick enough. Upon defining the hardware platform, the next step is to define platform-specific actions. Examples: An HTC Focus 3 profile that disables the Focus 3 popup menu and, if there are any boundary changes (like switching between room-scale and free-roam spaces) – then the HMD gets restarted. Once the session is over, the Focus 3 popup menu is re-enabled and the HMD is shut down to save battery: A Pico profile that automatically turns on the screen at the start of the session and disables the screen upon the session ends. During session, the screen will be always on, regardless if the HMD is actually in use: Disable the 2D menu for Free-Roam sessions: Step 4) Export and Sync the boundaries: Click the boundary icon right from the Environment Profiles page: The pop-up will guide you through what devices(=HMDs) are online and which ones match the hardware platform: As can be seen on the screenshot, the Environment Profile won’t let you export SteamVR chaperone data from a PC streaming to an HMD. In that case, you have to run Synthesis on the HMD and use an Environment Profile with the appropriate Hardware Platform. Upon clicking the Save button, the export signal is submitted to the HMD: Please wait until you see a confirmation popup: Your boundary data is saved in two locations: Known Limitations: HTC Focus 3: Pico 4 Enterprise: Meta Quest 2:
Relaunch Last Game
On rare occasions some games crash and/or someone may leave a game accidentally. There is a method to relaunch that last game to potentially join the existing session. This method works slightly differently than launching the game directly and potentially not allowing the player to join in the active game with other players. Also note that this is primarily for games that have the One Click Launch through SynthesisVR. During an active session, click on the Station Name or the Gear Icon of the station that the game crashed on/customer left accidentally. Here is from the Standard/Station View: Or from the Timeline View: On the resulting Popup, go to the Manage tab and click on the Command Calls button: On the next popup, you can click on the filter at the top that says “Relaunch Game” or use the drop down menu to choose that as an option. Note that you may have a lot more if you have more Command Calls set up at your arcade. Once Relaunch Game has been selected, then click on OK and the last game played will be launched and should join the active game session.
General Network Settings
To keep lines of communication open between the Proxy and your stations, we recommend the following settings. The first thing to do is to be sure all your PCs are on a Private Network. (Note that the images below are from Windows 10, they will be somewhat different visually on Windows 11): From Network & Internet settings, be sure you’re in the Status section and click on the Properties: Once in the Properties, simply choose the Private option. Typically wired connections start off as Private and wireless connections tend to start off as Public: The next thing to do would be to disable the Private Firewall. From the Properties screen, you can just click on the Configure firewall and security settings and agree to the next prompt: Note that when you boot up, you will likely get a security warning from Windows about the Firewall being off, you can simply dismiss it. If you are not comfortable disabling the Firewall completely, you can simply be sure the ports referenced in this article are open: https://synthesisvr.com/knowledge-base/firewall-and-network-information/
Crashing Games
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Turn off Windows Access Point automated restart
Upon starting Windows, the Access Point app will start automatically and wouldn’t let you quit or stop it. Even further, ending the app through Task Manager would stop it just temporarily, but the app will start again in a couple of seconds. As long as this could be considered an intrusive behavior, it actually helps when SynthesisVR is used on a day-to-day basis. Operating a VR arcade could be stressful at times and having to interact with the desktops of 10+ PCs often comes too much. The default behavior also has a key role when you have your VR Stations set up with non-Administrator accounts and you don’t want your employees to mess up with the system. How to disable the default behavior: Step 1 – Find “Services” in the Windows Search bar: Step 3 – change the “Startup type” to “Manual”:
Remove/Uninstall Games
Removing games from your arcade depends on how the game is delivered. Games Installed Through Steam Open up the Steam App and head over to the Library; Search for the game via search field if necessary and the right click on the game and hover over the Manage option and select Uninstall. You’ll be asked to confirm. If a game is uninstalled then it will not show up in the SynthesisVR game menu. Note that this is station specific and you’d need to uninstall on all your stations. Be sure to refresh your Access Point so that SynthesisVR knows the game is uninstalled. Games Installed Through The SynthesisVR Access Point Go to the Billing Tab in the Games & Licensing section and scroll down until you see the game in question. You may need to click on the Show Unused Subscriptions at the bottom of the list if you have not played that game during the current month. Once you find the game, click on the Mark for Cancelation and decide if you want to cancel and remove it right away or wait until the end of the month. Optional Last Step To “clean things up”, you can also remove the game from any Game Categories it’s in. From the Your Games tab in the Games & Licensing section, filter on Uninstalled Games and on Show Only Games in Categories: Click on the game you would like to remove from a Game Category and go to the Categories Tab. From there you can remove it from all its assigned Game Categories by switching to Disabled.
Arizona Sunshine Advanced Game Settings Parameters
An explanation of the various configuration options: ForceLanguageIf this is not empty, the game will be displayed in the configured language.Supported values: EN, FR, DE, ES, RU, IT, ZH_CN, JA, KO. ForceEnableRotationIf configured as “yes”, and playing on Vive or WindowsMR, the “rotate left” and “rotate right” buttons are enabled. If configured as “no” you can only rotate by physically rotating. This is defaulted to “no”, because players often accidentally reload instead of rotating, and vice versa. DifficultySets the difficulty when using AutoStart and the default difficulty when using the menu. For more information, see the “Difficulty” section above.Supported values: “Easy”, “Norma”, “Hard” HordeModePlayTimeCan be configured to automatically end the horde mode session after the configured amount oftime has passed. The format is HH:MM:SS. If configured as 00:00:00 (the default), there is nolimit for the horde mode session. AutoSkipEndScreenTimeAfter a horde mode session, players will automatically become ‘ready’ (without them pressing the ready button) after this time. The format is HH:MM:SS. ShutDownAfterEndScreenIf configured as “yes”, the game application will shut down after the end screen is shown for 30 seconds (or the value configured in AutoSkipEndScreenTime) after a horde mode session. MutilationAndBloodIf configured as “yes”, mutilation and blood effects will be enabled. If configured as “no”, these effects will be disabled. LaserSightIf configured as “yes”, a red dot is shown where the gun is aiming. ForceLeftHandedIf configured as “yes”, optimizes controls for left handed players. InvincibleAtStartOfLevelSecondsThe amount of seconds players are invincible in the game level that is first played (when starting a game level from the menu or with the AutoStart configuration option). FriendlyFireIf configured as “yes”, players receive damage from other players’ shots. SelfDamageIf configured as “yes”, players can shoot themselves in the head. InvincibilityIf configured as “yes”, players will respawn after a short time when they die. Note that horde mode levels will never end unless “HordeModePlayTime” is used. InfiniteAmmoIf configured as “yes”, players don’t have to press the reload button because guns will have an infinite amount of ammo. ForceStartWeaponMainHandThe gun which is automatically equipped in the main-hand at the start of a level. If empty, the player will not automatically be equipped with a gun. Default: “M9”. For a list of all guns, please refer to the ‘Weapon List’ . ForceStartWeaponOffHandThe gun which is automatically equipped in the off-hand at the start of a level. If empty, the player will not automatically be equipped with a gun. Default: “M9”. For a list of all guns, please refer to the ‘Weapon List’ . ForceStartWeaponSingleHandThe gun which is automatically equipped at the start of a level (only used when using a supported peripheral which is held by the player with two hands, see InputDeviceLeftModelType, InputDeviceRightModelType) . If empty, the player will not automatically be equipped with a gun. Default: “K50M”. For a list of all guns, please refer to the ‘Weapon List’ . AutoSkipEndScreenTimeAfter a horde mode session, the session score is displayed, as well as the top scores from the leaderboard of the played level. This configuration option determines after how much time the screen is skipped. The format is HH:MM:SS. LocalLeaderboardNetworkFolderPathIf not empty, and configured to an existing folder’s network path (for example: \\COMPUTER-NAME\SharedFolderName\leaderboards). If empty, the Windows registry will be used to store leaderboards, and they will be synced to other players in the session at the end of a multiplayer session. LastScoreAdditionalSaveDirectoriesLastScore files will also be saved in all directories specified here, in addition to the directories mentioned under ‘ Latest score saving ’ at the top of this document. The paths specified can be absolute, or relative to ArizonaSunshine.exe. For example, to save the latest score files in C:\ArizonaSunshineLatestScores and C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arizona Sunshine Arcade\LatestScores, specify: [“C:\ArizonaSunshineLatestScores”, “LatestScores”]. InputDeviceLeftModelTypeConfigure this if using one of the supported peripherals. If using a two handed peripheral, configure both this and InputDeviceRightModelType to the same value. Supported values: “”, “ViveController”, “HyperkinBlaster”, “PPGunRifle InputDeviceRightModelTypeConfigure this if using one of the supported peripherals. If using a two handed peripheral, configure both this and InputDeviceLeftModelType to the same value. Supported values: “”, “ViveController”, “HyperkinBlaster”, “PPGunRifle” MainMenuQuitButtonIf configured as “yes”, the main menu will have a quit button. If configured as “no” it won’t. This can be used if you don’t want players shutting down the game. PlayerNamePresetThe default player name. This will appear as the starting value in the menu, and it’ll be used as player name when AutoStart is used. WalkingLocomotionIf configured as “yes”, the default locomotion type is walking. If configured as “no”, the default locomotion type is teleportation. This can be used in combination with AutoStart, since it can also be configured by players in the menu. MatchMakerBranchThe match list will only show matches of players which have the same MatchMakerBranch configured. For example, you could configure all of your PCs as “MyVRArcadesName” to only show matches created in your arcade. RenderScaleLower values decrease image quality (less GPU heavy), higher values increase image quality (more GPU heavy). GraphicsQualityLevel0: low, 1: medium, 2: high, 3: very high, default: 2 AUTOSTART CONFIGURATION OPTIONS These configuration options are used for the AutoStart feature, in which the main menu isskipped and the configured level is loaded directly. The AutoStart feature is enabled if a value isconfigured for the AutoStart configuration option. An explanation of the AutoStart configuration options: AutoStartConfigure a level to be loaded automatically. Supported values: Holdout_Canyon, Holdout_Caves, Holdout_Warehouse, 01_Base (singleplayer only), 02_CarCrash, 03_Canyon, 04_Caves, 05_Traintracks, 06_Refinery,08_Trailerpark, 09_Sunshine, MissileBaseDLC. IsMultiplayerConfigured as “yes” if playing a session with more than one player. IsHostConfigure as “yes” on one of the players in the session. NumberOfPlayersConfigure as the number of players in the session (not used if IsMultiplayer is “no”). ConnectIPAddressConfigure the IP Address of the player which has the IsHost configured as “yes”. WEAPON LIST One-handed weapons: 44Magnum = “_44MAGNUM” 44MMGL = “_40MMGL” Blackhawk = “BLACKHAWK” DesertEagle = “DESERT_EAGLE” FiveSeven = “FIVE_SEVEN” FortyCal = “FORTY_CAL” Glock17 = “GLOCK17” M9 = “M9” M1911 = “M1911” Mac11 = “MAC11” Makarov = “MAKAROV” MicroUzi = “MICRO_UZI” MP5 = “MP5” MP9 = “MP9” P250 = “P250”
Arizona Sunshine and Game Plugins
This article will provide a practical use for Game Plugins while also showing you how to set up multiple versions of Arizona Sunshine (Horde Mode, Campaign, and Single Player). The first step is to head to the Your Games section: From there, search for Arizona Sunshine Arcade and open it up. We first need to create 2 Variations. More could be made once you understand this whole process, but we just need 2. To create Variations, click on the Add Game Variation and you’ll want to do that twice to create 2 Variations: Once you the 2 Variations are there, you’ll want to rename them. Rename them to Arizona Sunshine Horde Mode and Arizona Sunshine Single Player. If you want, you can rename the primary Variation to Arizona Sunshine Campaign but that’s optional. Naming them will be important so we can find them later. Once you’ve renamed them, click on the Save button at the bottom and you’ve completed step 1. The next step is to head to the Game Plugins section: Once in the Game Plugins, you need to create 3 new Game Plugins and we’ll start with the first one. To create a new Game Plugin, click on the 3 dot menu and click on the Add Option: For our first one, we’ll create the Horde Mode Game Plugin. Follow the image below exactly. Note that the Title is internal to this section and is not critical, but we recommend naming it something like the image so you can identify it if you need to edit it later: To add more Selection Options, you would need to click on the Add New Selection Option + button. If you need to remove one, click on the red x on the option you want to remove. Now that we’ve entered all the information above, we need to edit the Conditions tab to tell the system what game to associate things with. In the Conditions tab you need to click on the Enable For Games button and using the drop down menu you’ll need to find the Arizona Sunshine Horde Mode game variation: Once you’ve selected the Arizona Sunshine Horde Mode you can Save Changes. The final step is to edit the Config File for the settings for Horde Mode. To do that you need to click on the Advanced Games Settings button. To keep things simple, copy the following code into the field: Note that you should not click on the Load Default if you want to allow the automated SynthesisVR Provisioning to do its thing. Additionally, you can feel free to edit any of the above if you want to change some of the parameters once you feel comfortable. Once you’ve copied this info, click on Save. And that’s one Game Plugin done! 2 more to go. Create a new Game Plugin and for this one we’re going to create the Campaign Variation (for 2 players). Please refer to the following image for all the settings: And in the Conditions tab, you’ll want to add the main Variation of the game (and if you renamed it to Arizona Sunshine Campaign, you’re ahead of the game ?). Save Changes and now copy the following code into the Advanced Game Settings: And Save when done. We’re almost there! One more Game Plugin. For that one, we’re going to create the Single Player Variation. When you create the new Game Plugin, you’re going to actually use the same settings that we did for the Campaign Variation above and this time you’ll choose the Single Player Variation in the Conditions tab: And for the Advanced Game Settings, copy this code: And that’s it for the Game Plugins, not so hard, one more step and you’ll be done and the magic will begin! The final step would be to add each one of these Variations into at least one Game Categories. We won’t be going into detail about that here, but one thing to note is when you go to add a game into a Game Category, you would want to use the search field for Arizona Sunshine and drag the appropriate game into the appropriate Game Category. Finally at the end! But you’re probably wondering what all the above does. Glad you asked. When you launch a session on your stations and go to choose Arizona Sunshine, you’ll be presented with several choices at this point: Depending on which version you choose, you will then be presented with additional options: And now when the game launches, it puts people directly into that specific variation together without the need of having them go into the menus to create things. The additional bonus is if you do use customer’s name in the session launch (and you keep the SynthesisVR parameters in the Advanced Game Settings), the names will be automatically interjected in the game and they don’t have to do that part either.
How To Change Currency
Synthesis VR supports your local currency denominations in the admin panel as well as for online booking using the Synthesis VR booking platform. In order to change your currency from the default US Dollars: visit my.synthesisvr.com and login as an administrator. Click Administration on the Left and Click on your Location Name – Click the Location Tab as Shown Below Change the $ to the currency of your preference.