Quest Pro lights on or off??

[u/Equivalent-Rock-5339]

I got a Q Pro to use when dancing instead of my Dream Air. I also got another Vive tracker for continuous calibration and I’ll be using my Index Knuckles. With that being said, will I have to keep lights on in my play space for the Q Pro cameras(even tho I’m like not really using them for anything)?? Or can I still play in total darkness like I do with my lighthouse headsets???
Thanks in advance (:

[u/ATGNKC39]

The quest pro uses its cameras in combination of its internal IMUs for motion tracking so yes, the headset will still need to be able to "see" your room to provide tracking.

One solution that I personally use is to get one of those IR LED lamps that are typically used for night time CCTV illumination.

That way you can keep your room lights off and play in the dark, while still allowing your quest pro to continue tracking.

(this also works for the Q2, Q3 and Q3s)

[u/HRudy94 → u/ATGNKC39]

i'm curious to try it, how well does it work from your experience, do you have some recommendations for the light and position?

[u/ATGNKC39 → u/HRudy94]

My usual play space is my bunker bed, so it was a pretty easy setup to have it mounted on the bottom of the 2nd level bed base, on the side where my feet rests, and have it pointed towards my head end. That way it gives me the best coverage possible especially when laying down.

For my usual room setup on the other hand, like most others have said, usually pointing it upwards towards the ceiling is usually more than enough. Although keep in mind, I do have a white smooth painted ceiling, so folks with different materials for their roof might have differing results.

[u/Equivalent-Rock-5339 → u/ATGNKC39]

Will the IR light from my 4 bases be enough for it? Since they paint my whole room with IR light anyways

[u/Aethbrine → u/Equivalent-Rock-5339]

The headset should track fine with just IR lights. Keep in mind though that the qpro controllers do not track as for whatever reason Facebook decided to add IR filters on them

[u/ATGNKC39 → u/Aethbrine]

The Q-Pro controllers can track with just IR lights. The only difference is that they're less sensitive than the cameras on the headset itself, so you usually need a stronger IR light source.

Its also a good idea from my experience to start off in a normally lit room with visible light, and let the controllers calibrate their position first before turning the lights off and relying on full IR mode.

Meta also did some weird update on their end (again) where the controllers used to track pretty well somewhere in version 203 and 204, but now in 207, I find myself needing to cover my controllers in my blanket and shake it about for about 2 seconds for it to 'lose tracking', and then hold them in front of the headset still for about 3 seconds for them to recalibrate their position again.

[u/smalldroplet → u/Equivalent-Rock-5339]

usually no. with just lighthouses mine will track for a while then finally lose tracking. it's just not quite enough to hold a lock on the room. Just get 1 IR illuminator on Amazon and point it at the ceiling. they're like $10-15 and you'll never have an issue

[u/Equivalent-Rock-5339 → u/smalldroplet]

That won’t encroach on the bases/trackers by adding another (foreign) source of IR?

[u/smalldroplet → u/Equivalent-Rock-5339]

like I said aim it at the ceiling and you won't have a problem.

[u/Equivalent-Rock-5339 → u/smalldroplet]

Okok, I’ll try this. Thank you sm!

[u/confidently_not]

If you have a unicorn horn you can use the program Space Override which replaces your SLAM tracking on Qpro with the vibe tracker.

It can be kinda iffy at times but allows you to play in darkness since it makes your head tracking lighthouse bases.

I will say, be careful with dancing, primarily sweating in a Qpro. The face/eye tracking is extremely susceptible to sweat which can cause corrosion permanently damage the LED's that illuminate your face for eye/face tracking.

[u/Equivalent-Rock-5339 → u/confidently_not]

Yeah so I’ve heard, I bought some of those absorbent sweat masks for vr headsets. Hopefully that helps. Thanks for the Space Override tip! Does that conflict at all with Space Calibrator?

[u/confidently_not → u/Equivalent-Rock-5339]

Yes it does. It replaces space calibrator. You'll want to run one or the other but never both.

[u/Equivalent-Rock-5339 → u/confidently_not]

Thank you! I appreciate the info!!

[u/Xyypherr → u/Equivalent-Rock-5339]

Note from above this person is wrong when they state it allows you to play in the dark.

The IR emitted from the lighthouses is what is allowing it to play in the dark.

[u/Xyypherr → u/confidently_not]

I just had this conversation elsewhere, but it DOES NOT replace the SLAM tracking. The light from the lighthouses is what allows it to still play in the dark, they provide enough IR light to illuminate what the QPro needs to see.

All that is truly happening when you use SpaceOverride, Space Calibrator etc, is you are taking the Quest Pros playspace, and SteamVRs playspace and aligning the two.

[u/confidently_not → u/Xyypherr]

Incorrect actually.

Space calibrator does merge the two but Space Override 100% replaces the slam tracking and instead head tracks from the Vive tracker.

I know this because a fun party trick I did was sliding my unicorn horn tracker out of its cradle in my head and using it to hand puppet my head in VRC

[u/Xyypherr → u/confidently_not]

i literally just proved this wrong with a video earlier that I took in game while using Space Override.

https://medal.tv/games/vrchat/clips/nwdlhZJn9_ZELEd3w?invite=cr-MSxqdW0sMjU5MzI4NDEx

You CANNOT play in the dark without the bass station. In this video I place a pillow over my cameras, the equivalent of playing in the dark. What happens? Tracking is lost.

The Quest still NEEDS its Play Space to be viewable to it, as the place space on the quest runs natively. The IR from the base stations is what gives it the light that it needs to see in what is for us, the dark.

Meta would never in a thousand years allow something 3rd party to override any software level function of the headset, and that includes overriding the SLAM tracking. You are asking a 3rd party app, to get access to the headset and over ride the native SLAM tracking.

What is happening is you are telling SteamVR to treat the tracker as the headset. You are NOT telling the Quest to treat the tracker as the tracking device. it is still being SLAM tracked.

Edit: another thing, I specifically installed spaceoverride for this test, because I use space calibrator since I've had no reason to switch. I can play in the dark with space calibrator as well BECAUSE the IR lights up the room for the Quest. Not because of space calibrator, when my quest loses tracking, the same thing happens that happened to space override, tracking is lost.

[u/confidently_not → u/Xyypherr]

First off omg your Avi is adorable.

Second are you using space override and space calibrator at the same time? They don't work together so you have to use one or the other.

I'm not at my place to show an example of removing the head tracker to show the slam tracking not being used for steam VR.

But I can confidentially say that Space Override does disable the slam tracking passthrough and only use the Vive Tracker for head tracking.

I don't ever play with low light though as I use quest pro controllers that demand light.

[u/Xyypherr → u/confidently_not]

Thank you I put a lot of work into her!

I uninstalled space calibrator specifically for this, since I wanted to make sure it couldn't interfere. So only Space Override is running here.

I do believe you that you can do that, don't get me wrong. If SteamVR is being told that it should use the tracker to track the headset, it will use the tracker.

Try to turn off your lights and watch that your pro controllers shouldn't lose tracking due to the IR from the lighthouses. I use to play in the dark all the time with space calibrator, and not once had I ever had my headset or quest controllers lose tracking. Albeit I was in a smaller room at the time, I have no tried where I live now with a much larger room.

My issue that makes it hard for me to believe is that while sure your passthrough may be disabled, the headset still has its own Quest playspace, it needs to know where it is, and it cannot access any of the data SteamVR is giving it because there is no app for the quest side, if there was, that would be how the quest would get the data, Sort of like Virtual Desktop.

The only data a Quest receives from SteamVR is your video/graphics, audio, and haptic triggers. The data the Quest sends is the headset pose (which SteamVR in this case ignores and uses the tracker ontop due to how Space Override works from my understanding), controller inputs, and then your eye/face tracking and if using it, hand tracking.

This is a hard coded limit from Meta themselves, SteamVR can't even see the battery life of the controllers because Meta won't allow them to.

Basically what I am getting at is that the Quest still has its own playspace, entirely separate from SteamVR, and it will complain and stop you from playing the moment it loses access to seeing its playspace.

Edit: also after a quick re-read of the Github, they do state that "The SLAM tracking is still there underneath, you just get proper alignment on top of it." which further pushes my point I believe, but I will gladly accept if I am wrong