#slimevr — Public Fediverse posts

the temptation to buy a bunch of extra Ring Fit leg straps to holster four more joy-cons so I can do slime vr body tracking... despite the fact that I don't have anything set up yet which would require body tracking

like, okay, arm tracking would be nice so that I can pet my friends in VRChat. is there a way to do that while still playing in desktop mode? I don't actually need to be able to look around in 3D and I don't have a headset, I just want to move my arms

#question #vrchat #slimevr

Does anyone know where you could get SlimeVR trackers without having a credit card? On the SlimeVR website credit cards seem to be the only way to pay unfortunately. And I don't see myself capable or motivated enough to build the trackers myself.
#vr #slimevr

One of my VR Lighthouses died last month. These things are gyroscopically spinning 24 hours a day for, what, a decade now? Nearly.

No wonder. Mostly the industry seems to be settling on using head-mounted cameras rather than sweeping infra-red beams and receptors on the head anyway.

It is true that lighthouses give accurate positioning, but means I can't easily take the headset next door, say. Or to a party.

So inside-out, as they call it, is fine for the headset now and mostly okay for the hand-controllers.

But it offers no solution at all for the foot-trackers and hip-tracker that I need for puppetting the characters in the Starship Schrodinger's Destiny project.

I found Slime VR, which do a set of five trackers for around the same price of a single one of the light-house-style trackers anyway!

They just dead-reckon distances from accelerometers and then try to compensate for how badly that works with a skeleton model and some constraints.

They're fully open and free-software. Make your own trackers if you know about printed circuit boards and accelerometers and things. Or make a company that makes them if you like.

Or since I don't want to do any of that, just 'pre-order' them.

I Ordered some of them. Trouble is, that it is a 'pre-order'. Join the queue mate. Could be a while.

So it was good when, as I sadly packed away the broken lighthouse, I found in the place that I would store them a backup lighthouse! I bought it when I bought a whole second-hand Vive set coz my old headset failed.

Hurray! The lighthouses live for a while yet. I even have another spare backup to go.

The SlimeVR actually arrived fairly quick though in the end. Just a few weeks. Less than a month for sure.

The software didn't work on Linux/Debian/XFCE 😦 or even on Gnome when I tried that instead. 😢

I spent an actual whole day failing to get that working before I gave up and joined my first tech-support Discord to seek help.

Discord sucks. I have no idea what is happening. Why are people using this instead of a nodebb or something? I dunno. Can't wait to quit it again when this is all working.

One of the reasons I'm so loath to 'join a community' to get access to a support forum is that the community don't own their own support forum. Madness.

Anyway, after the annoying unhelpful robot, some cool helpful person on there said to try the new beta: it's GUI is built with Electron, but that sucks less than Tauri/Webkit which is why the GUI won't work for me.

And that did indeed work.

I was hoping the five trackers could be set up on each foot, hips, and elbows.

But the system to avoid sensor-drift and compensate for the errors you get from dead-reckoning needs a particular skeletal model. A five-set of trackers have to be: Ankles, Knees, Chest.

And I definitely need Hips.

My characters dance. 💃

So had to pre-order some more.

The next one is Hips, so maybe 6 would be enough, but after Hips come the 'foot' attachments: They can be mini-trackers which don't have wi-fi themselves, and cable-connect to the ankles. Makes them cheaper.

Then after feet you can do Elbows with another couple.

They go on further than that, you can use 20 apparently, but I just ordered enough to get to the 10 (two of which are the minis that attach by cables to others)

So that's my advice on these so far: Get the ten-tracker set: the five tracker set takes all five just to do legs really. If you gotta dance, you need hips and elbows!

And use the beta software, at least on Linux: the stable release can't draw it's window for some reason.

I am pleased though. They seem like they'll be good enough and when the project is opened this year the hardware cost barriers to entry of anyone else using it will be much less than I thought.

#vr #slimeVR #trackers

Another broken Slime, another 3D-printed replacement

#3dprinting #slimevr

I think we're seeing the final major iterations of #VirtualReality Controllers, and #VR #technology is about to hit that maturity point where there isn't much else to do beyond making what's there better.

Unless someone comes up with a groundbreaking new way to do input with them, #VRControllers will condense to buttons / sticks that you attach to your hands (either literally just half a #gamepad on a strap or harnesses for your fingers that push back) and cameras on the headset and in the room do #FingerTracking, #FullbodyTracking, and #FaceTracking. In other words, the designs where you actually hold controllers or attach extensive trackers to your body are kind of dead, aside from maybe #SlimeVR being marketed for a while longer as a way to improve that tracking and compensate for occlusion issues.

After that, attaching stuff to your body will be all about #haptic feedback, like a #HapticVest or a #gigglepuck.

The rest will be #software for #VRExperiences like #Resonite and #VRChat.

Good news! I finally got my slime trackers! This is after I think 4 or 5 months of delays or something crazy. It was getting to the point that I was worried that they won't arrive before I moved. I don't know if I'll get to use them at all before I move but at least I have them now and once I'm settled in Japan I'll be able to use them
These are the vr trackers for 3d streams that I bought ages ago
#vtuber #envtuber #slimevr #vr

Has anyone experience on selfbuilding #slimeVR https://github.com/SlimeVR/ ?
Wondering if its worth it.

Well, i might have been overly optimistic about making the bmi270 modules myself. I should have checked the size before buying all 10 of them 😭 even under 30x optical zoom, it's very difficult to trace the pads and my printer can't even print that well elements this tiny (yes this is a regular needle on that pic, the pads are 0.25mm x 0.475mm in size). I think i will have to order PCBs or just ready modules 😔
(part 2 of my slimevr project)

#slimevr #esp32 #bodytracking #vr #vrchat #electronics

justada
(@)adaofgreengables(@)eldritch.cafe :

I assembled a bunch of those modules and ran a quick test. Looks like the chips work so i suppose i can start flashing the actual slime vr firmware onto it

(part 4 of my slimevr project)

#slimevr #esp32 #bodytracking #vr #vrchat #diy #electronics

https://eldritch.cafe/@adaofgreengables/114778526151544989

I assembled a bunch of those modules and ran a quick test. Looks like the chips work so i suppose i can start flashing the actual slime vr firmware onto it

(part 4 of my slimevr project)

#slimevr #esp32 #bodytracking #vr #vrchat #diy #electronics​

Finally came back to the slime vr project. I have all the components so here is a timelapse of me assembling the pcb of the bmi270 module. Don't worry i corrected all the pieces after the recording

(part 3 of my slimevr project)

#slimevr #esp32 #bodytracking #vr #vrchat #diy #electronics

birkenhack
(@)birkenhack(@)chaos.social

Birkenhackers Julian and Andy have been trying out #SlimeVR full body tracking in #vrchat

#weeknotes #birkenhack #birkenheadisthenewberlin

https://chaos.social/@birkenhack/114479598651930219

Birkenhackers Julian and Andy have been trying out #SlimeVR full body tracking in #vrchat

#weeknotes #birkenhack #birkenheadisthenewberlin

Well, i might have been overly optimistic about making the bmi270 modules myself. I should have checked the size before buying all 10 of them 😭 even under 30x optical zoom, it's very difficult to trace the pads and my printer can't even print that well elements this tiny (yes this is a regular needle on that pic, the pads are 0.25mm x 0.475mm in size). I think i will have to order PCBs or just ready modules 😔

(part 2 of my slimevr project)

#slimevr #esp32 #bodytracking #vr #vrchat #diy #electronics

Gonna start a new project soon. My partner tasked me with crafting a full body tracking suit for her vr headset. I will be making the slimevr with 10 BMI270 sensors. I find it incredibly neat that there is an opensource solution for this :neocat_cute:

Link to slimevr documentation: https://docs.slimevr.dev/diy/tracker-schematics.html
Sensor chip datasheet: https://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/1137432/BOSCH/BMI270.html

(part 1 of my slimevr project)

#slimevr #esp32 #bodytracking #vr #vrchat #diy #electronics

Bit of a easier song, I still got two left paws it seems.

#VRChat #SlimeVR

Okay Got Around to doing some dancing, Such a confused wolfo.

But the Slimes slipped a bit on my foot so I was messing around at the end.

#VRChat #SlimeVR

This is a warning for everybody who is using the original #SlimeVR trackers!

One of my trackers failed and when I opened the case to check the electronics I noticed that one of the pins of the On/Off switch was burned and that also the outer plastic cover of the Lipo battery was partially molten. Thankfully it didn't catch fire. I hope that this is just a case of bad luck and a very rare thing to happen but I highly recommend to everybody who owns those trackers to open the case and check the inside from time to time. Also, always charge the trackers on a fire resistant surface and keep an eye on them. These devices have the potential to burn your house down.

BTW, I got those trackers second hand from another VRChat user, the set I ordered from SlimeVR directly in March 2023 still didn't arrive. The trackers were like new, never used and the failed one worked well for about 3 months.

Stay safe!