Question for the Reverb G2 owners: Tracking

[Sr.]

While understood going in that the controller tracking with the G2 would be iffy at best, I wasn't too worried since I primarily play DCS and only while seated.

 

However ; I am having what I guess are tracking issues while flying. Everything will be fine, then out of no where I get a sky blue screen, the POV flips to the left or right while it tries to re-determine where my head was in space. Leaves me looking left or right for a few seconds as the cockpit reappears.

 

I haven't had a session yet where this hasn't happened at least once. It's over quickly but isn't much fun when I'm landing or on a 30+ degree gun run.

Is it just me or is this a G2 lousy tracking thing? 

[DayGlow]

Any mirrors, windows, etc that can reflect light which can confuse the headset?

 

Also if your room is really dark it can cause issues as it uses visible light for tracking. 

[Full Refund]

Yeah, I'd echo DayGlow.  I use a Reverb and learned to always make sure the room is as bright as I can make it.  The inside-out tracking needs to be able to see the room clearly.  If I play in a dark room I get the symptoms you describe.  

[unlikely_spider]

Someone also told me earlier to clear the seated position setup from WMR and use the standing setup, where you walk in a square with your headset pointed at the monitor. It is counter-intuitive for sim use, but that made tracking better for me. Of course, it may have just been caused by the environment info being reset, but either way it's better for me than before after doing that.

[TimberWolf]

I've never had an issue with head tracking on my G2.

[dburne]

No problems here with my G2 in head tracking at all.

Also the controller tracking in other VR games is pretty good as well.

[Sr.]

Thanks for the tips. I'll be adding some lighting today.

 

I already have a 4' LED fixture overhead, but it's still pretty dim in my home office.

[unlikely_spider]

Oh, also make sure the four cameras' lenses are clean. I looked at mine yesterday and they were all fogged up for some reason. Not sure if it makes a difference in actuality, but it can't hurt.

[dburne]

1 hour ago, unlikely_spider said:

Oh, also make sure the four cameras' lenses are clean. I looked at mine yesterday and they were all fogged up for some reason. Not sure if it makes a difference in actuality, but it can't hurt.

 

Yes - when I wipe my headset lens with micro fibre cloth I do the same with the camera lens on the headset.

[VampireNZ]

Also make sure there are plenty of objects in the room/on the walls for the cameras to reference. My tracking improved after I chucked up a few pictures, and also added some segments of black foam draft strip to the skirting board to my right as I sit in a sim rig which is about a foot from the wall, so when I looked down to my right to look at switch console etc in cockpit there wasn't much to track and it wandered a bit. Now with those strips down by the floor it is rock solid.

[Sr.]

Have tried all this, even a light meter after having added a 6' LED straight overhead. Meter reads 360 Lux (w/e that means)

Now on with HP support chat... FML they are impossible to get help from.

[Sr.]

Starting to think this is a WMR issue. This only happens in the WMR Cliff house, HL Alyx and DCS. Hasn't happened yet in the SteamVR Home

[yeshkamesh]

I had a similar problem with my G1, I put a grid on the wall with painters tape next to where I sit and problem solved. Haven’t needed to do the same with the G2 because the new house has better contrast. 

[VampireNZ]

21 hours ago, Sr. said:

Have tried all this, even a light meter after having added a 6' LED straight overhead. Meter reads 360 Lux (w/e that means)

Now on with HP support chat... FML they are impossible to get help from.

 

With saying you need light, I have read you can have TOO MUCH light in the room as well lol. So it essentially washes out any contrast with items the cameras need for tracking etc. Use the 'Torch' mode to see what the cameras are seeing and check it out.

 

Have you tried the reset your environment option in WMR and starting again.

[Sr.]

1 hour ago, VampireNZ said:

 

With saying you need light, I have read you can have TOO MUCH light in the room as well lol. So it essentially washes out any contrast with items the cameras need for tracking etc. Use the 'Torch' mode to see what the cameras are seeing and check it out.

 

Have you tried the reset your environment option in WMR and starting again.

Yes, I have reset the environment more times than I can count.

 

I have played with the torch mode. Cool feature. I can make out my are pretty well through it, I assume it is grainy, low res, black and white by default?

[VampireNZ]

19 minutes ago, Sr. said:

Yes, I have reset the environment more times than I can count.

 

I have played with the torch mode. Cool feature. I can make out my are pretty well through it, I assume it is grainy, low res, black and white by default?

 

Yes it is, so you can see what the tracking system has to work with lol. All I can suggest is just add a few more reference markers. I have black tape along some edges where the walls blends with ceiling or a door etc, just to try and break it up. There are a few videos on YT I have seen in the past that show in real time the cameras 'seeing' and tracking these objects which helps get a feel for what it needs to work properly.

[Sr.]

Doorway to my left, another wall 4' to my right.

 

Straight ahead.

 

 

[VpR81]

Have you tried to dim the light in your room a bit and place a few smaller light sources around you? Sometimes (after late shift) i'm playing in a relative dark room with just a very dim light and i have not the slightest tracking issues. Seems like the LEDs of my cougar MFDs, keyboard and the throttle are enough for the G2. My screen/TV is usually turned off when using VR, so in the evening/at night there isn't much light besides my peripherals.

 

Cheers

[Sr.]

32 minutes ago, VpR81 said:

Have you tried to dim the light in your room a bit and place a few smaller light sources around you? Sometimes (after late shift) i'm playing in a relative dark room with just a very dim light and i have not the slightest tracking issues. Seems like the LEDs of my cougar MFDs, keyboard and the throttle are enough for the G2. My screen/TV is usually turned off when using VR, so in the evening/at night there isn't much light besides my peripherals.

 

Cheers

I had considered switching off the monitor, thinking it was overpowering or washing out the view. Though most report their device either shuts off completely or just blacks out for a second.

 

I did finally get a few things to try from one of the HP "VR support guys" . He mentioned a bug of sorts with running the audio over 50%, would cause the headset to draw power spikes from it's USB connection.  I tried a few sessions of listening to music while walking around in the WMR cliff house. There was a significant difference with volume (Windows volume slider) 60%-100%... Very frequent.

 

I'm now running the volume at about 50% and have not had a repeat. Seems like a pretty strange bug, but considering the dozens of threads I've read concerning the G2 bein finicky with USB port types, I'm not surprised.

[VpR81]

That sounds like a realy strange bug. I must be lucky then, as my Win sound volume is at 100% and the room i'm playing isn't realy bright. I have zero issues wth my headset, wether tracking nor connectivity. Are you running an AMD mainboard? Those are said to have USB connectivity issues with the G2, at least the X570 boards. Not sure what you meant with the device blacking out (G2 or monitor), but i turn off my TV (i use my PC on it, don't have a monitor anymore) manually as soon as i launch a VR game. Not to enhance tracking or anything, but more like to save a bit of energy and lengthen my TV's lifespan.

[Sr.]

4 hours ago, VpR81 said:

That sounds like a realy strange bug. I must be lucky then, as my Win sound volume is at 100% and the room i'm playing isn't realy bright. I have zero issues wth my headset, wether tracking nor connectivity. Are you running an AMD mainboard? Those are said to have USB connectivity issues with the G2, at least the X570 boards. Not sure what you meant with the device blacking out (G2 or monitor), but i turn off my TV (i use my PC on it, don't have a monitor anymore) manually as soon as i launch a VR game. Not to enhance tracking or anything, but more like to save a bit of energy and lengthen my TV's lifespan.

Some of the post I've seen reported the display in the headset blacking out. Mine would start with a sky blue screen, then blink black, then back to game.

 

I am running an MSI B450 Tomahawk MB, AMD Ryzen 3900X. I did have to resort to plugging my G2 into a PCIE USB riser card I added several months ago... none of the on board ports would work with the G2.

 

All is great now... I just flew for several hours with no issues.

[dburne]

7 hours ago, Sr. said:

Some of the post I've seen reported the display in the headset blacking out. Mine would start with a sky blue screen, then blink black, then back to game.

 

I am running an MSI B450 Tomahawk MB, AMD Ryzen 3900X. I did have to resort to plugging my G2 into a PCIE USB riser card I added several months ago... none of the on board ports would work with the G2.

 

All is great now... I just flew for several hours with no issues.

 

Back when I first got my Reverb G2 I was playing around with a sound mixer I had downloaded to try and get a more rich sound out of the headset speakers. When I did this suddenly my headset started blacking out. I restored the sound to default and uninstalled that program.

Have not had a black out since. I also switched to extended earbuds running through my Creative onboard sound.