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Hobo VR

hobo_vr is a collection of tools made to prototype SteamVR headsets.

hobo_vr tools and features:

• hobovr a flexible SteamVR driver(see driver/ and hobovr/)
• virtualreality API to communicate with the hobovr driver from other languages and processes(see bindings/)
• poser is a term used to describe a program that implements a tracking system and uses the virtualreality API to integrate it's tracking system and devices with SteamVR
• Installers to make the setup process as easy as possible(see installers/)
• Linux support, so far hobo_vr is the only open source SteamVR driver solution that works on Linux(more info on the topic can be found below)

Upcoming hobo_vr features and tools:

• New tracking systems
• New lens calibration tools
• New camera calibration tools
• New configurable controller types
• New poser packages and installer support for them

hobovr SteamVR driver

There are 2 main features of this driver that distinguish it from the rest.

One is an open and flexible communication protocol which allows developers to fully control the driver without the need to directly use openvr_driver API, more info here, for convenience the said protocol is implemented in virtualreality.

And the other is generic device configurability, one can configure devices either at runtime or not, hobo_vr provides 3 types of generic devices at the moment of writing this: 1. Headset, inputs(tracking) outputs(headset view) 2. Controllers, inputs(tracking, buttons, trigger, touchpad) outputs(haptic signals) 3. Tracker, inputs(tracking) outputs(haptic signals)

More info on device types can be found here.

virtualreality API

A simple yet flexible object oriented implementation of the hobovr driver protocol and a runtime for the said protocol, more info can be found here.

This API has multiple language implementations, currently Python and C++, see bindings/.

Poser(s)

As mentioned before poser is a term used to describe a program/process/solution that implements the hobovr driver protocol(via virtualreality API or otherwise) to implement tracking and hw communication, be it tracking(constellation tracking, SLAM, blob tracking, IMU tracking, etc.) or inputs(button events, trigger readings, touchpad coordinates, joystick location, etc.).

Most extensive poser examples can be found in bindings/python/examples/. C++ poser examples are also available of course, but are way less informative and there are fewer of them at the moment of writing this, the said C++ examples can be found in bindings/cpp/examples/.

Linux support

Linux support is a huge concern, however it is not made easy by the absent openvr_driver API documentation not to mention the blatant disparities in the API functionality between platforms with no explanation what so ever, bugs, dead interfaces, undocumented interfaces, etc. working with openvr_driver API especially on Linux is downright repulsive!

However despite all of that hobo_vr has Linux support, not without issues of course, HMD component openvr issue #1583, spawning a controller device spams binding config loads and kills SteamVR and ALL of this behavior is produced by the same openvr_driver API implementation for both platforms, and to add insult to injury, there are no debugging tools, and the only tool for registering drivers opens a browser, the only cli tool we have to register our drivers opens a fucking browser...

Linux support will get better, no matter how painful it will be or how long it will take, it will be improved and hopefully openvr_driver API will be improved as well.

Why?

Because the alternatives suck and prototyping with openvr_driver API is a huge pain.

Contributing

Is always welcomed. Join the discussion over at Discord here, but pull requests are welcome here too. Please explain the motivation for a given change and examples of its effect.

Also it is strongly encouraged to follow these contribution guidelines

License

This project falls under the MIT license.