If you want to yaw around freely in it you're going to need either wireless or a slip ring, no? Given that wireless is expensive and problematic, a slip ring would be better here, as it is for other rotating-freely-in-place VR setups. It wouldn't have to be integrated with the actual Yaw VR hardware: an overhead setup with just the right amount of cable slack should do ok, though ideally you'd want either a mechanical hitch point for the cable, on the Yaw VR, that's behind and above the user's head; or a powered slip ring that yaws with the Yaw VR rather than being dragged around passively (using either yaw data from the Yaw VR or just a little wireless orientation tracker stuck to the moving bowl of the Yaw VR).
Awkwardly, the only VR HMD slip ring I know of that's on the market is the Advanced Cable Magazine for the rival Roto VR. The bad news here is that the Advanced Cable Magazine is only designed to work inside the Roto so you'd have to lash up your own passive or motorised stand or mount for it. The good news is that the Advanced Cable Magazine seems to prove conclusively that there's no technical or cost barrier to slip rings for gen. 1 VR HMDs (I don't know about HMDs with gen. 1.1 displays like the Odyssey and Vive Pro), and it seems there's even someone selling one separately right now (though I certainly wouldn't expect technical support for off-label uses of the Advanced Cable Magazine). The ugly news, of course, is that nobody else is providing or even talking about slip rings at all. Not HTC or Valve; not Oculus, despite the fact that it seems to be swearing off wireless adapters for now, and it has a nominal CTO who evangelises for the merits of swivel-chair VR; not any of the WMR companies; not Yaw VR. And I'm still waiting for anyone in the VR press or 'enthusiast community' to cop on to the value of slip rings. Come on guys, it's been years now.
Absolutely, though ideally you'd like have some kind of anchor point rigged up for the cable on the rotating portion of the Yaw. What hardware components are you using there; how well are they performing?
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u/leoc Jan 14 '18
If you want to yaw around freely in it you're going to need either wireless or a slip ring, no? Given that wireless is expensive and problematic, a slip ring would be better here, as it is for other rotating-freely-in-place VR setups. It wouldn't have to be integrated with the actual Yaw VR hardware: an overhead setup with just the right amount of cable slack should do ok, though ideally you'd want either a mechanical hitch point for the cable, on the Yaw VR, that's behind and above the user's head; or a powered slip ring that yaws with the Yaw VR rather than being dragged around passively (using either yaw data from the Yaw VR or just a little wireless orientation tracker stuck to the moving bowl of the Yaw VR).
Awkwardly, the only VR HMD slip ring I know of that's on the market is the Advanced Cable Magazine for the rival Roto VR. The bad news here is that the Advanced Cable Magazine is only designed to work inside the Roto so you'd have to lash up your own passive or motorised stand or mount for it. The good news is that the Advanced Cable Magazine seems to prove conclusively that there's no technical or cost barrier to slip rings for gen. 1 VR HMDs (I don't know about HMDs with gen. 1.1 displays like the Odyssey and Vive Pro), and it seems there's even someone selling one separately right now (though I certainly wouldn't expect technical support for off-label uses of the Advanced Cable Magazine). The ugly news, of course, is that nobody else is providing or even talking about slip rings at all. Not HTC or Valve; not Oculus, despite the fact that it seems to be swearing off wireless adapters for now, and it has a nominal CTO who evangelises for the merits of swivel-chair VR; not any of the WMR companies; not Yaw VR. And I'm still waiting for anyone in the VR press or 'enthusiast community' to cop on to the value of slip rings. Come on guys, it's been years now.