VR Full Body Tracking - Ultimate Immersion VR
VR Complete Body Tracking
The best way to experience virtual reality is by being fully immersed in the virtual world. But when it comes to VR tracking full-body movement, there are many limitations and challenges. However, with the help of the latest technology, and the like Oculus Quest 2, it’s now possible to track full-body movements with a high degree of accuracy. In this post, we’ll walk you through the process of using the new VR full body tracking for a truly immersive virtual reality experience.
What Is Full Body Tracking for VR?
Full body tracking for VR is a system that allows you to use your hands and whole body to interact with virtual objects.
This is different from motion controllers, which are used to control objects within a virtual environment. Full body tracking allows you to stand up and move around a space while still feeling like you're actually there.
You may have seen VR full body tracking in action if you've ever been to an arcade, where you can pick up a plastic gun or sword, point it at a screen, and see your avatar do the same thing on the screen. You can then move the object around, and it will stay right in front of you. This is full body tracking in action.
Full body tracking is also used in many video game consoles such as PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift. It allows users to take control of their avatar with their hands and bodies, rather than just their eyes. VR full body tracking of Oculus allows for real-time feedback so that there are no delays between what you see happening on screen and what happens when you move around the room (or whatever environment it might be).
How Does VR Full Body Tracking Work?
In order to understand how VR full body tracking works, let’s first look at how we currently interact with our physical environment.
Most of the time, we interact with our physical environment using a combination of sight, touch, and hearing. For example, when we look at a picture or a book, we use sight to read the text and feel the texture of the page. When we touch an object, we use touch to determine its size and shape. And when we hear a sound, we use hearing to determine the location of the sound.
Tracking the full-body movement of a person in VR requires a combination of hardware and software. For the hardware, we need to create a 3D sensor that can accurately track the position of every point on a person’s body. This is why we chose to use a 3D camera. A 3D camera can be used to track a person’s head, hands, arms, legs, and feet.
For the software, we need to be able to process the data from the 3D camera.
Best Body Tracking Upgrades for Your VR Setup
Vive Full Body Trackers and Base Stations
If you're using the new Oculus Quest 2 and SteamVR, you have a few extra steps to take in order to get the two working together.
First, make sure your Oculus headset is recognized by SteamVR. From there, everything else fits into the SteamVR ecosystem, including Index Knuckles and Vive Full Body Trackers. You'll also need to make sure that you're using a Vive Base Station for your tracking so that your headset can be seen by both SteamVR and Oculus sensors.
The only problem is that the SteamVR tracking (with the base stations) will not immediately sync with the Oculus VR full body tracking (what it's using to track your position/headset and the various controllers), so you need to use a calibration tool.
And these will cost a pretty penny, adding more than $440 (with one tracker and one base station). To get VR full body tracking with the Oculus, you need at least three trackers and two base stations. If you're willing to spend the money, this is a somewhat affordable way to get full body tracking.
Kinect
If you already own a gaming PC, an Xbox One, and a Kinect sensor, you can use Driver4VR software to play virtual reality games. The software costs $17.99, but you'll need a beefy PC for SteamVR to work. This is the cheapest way to play Oculus-compatible games with your full body tracking in VR.
The driver is available on Steam and works with Windows 10 64-bit operating systems. It's compatible with the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, or any other SteamVR headset that supports motion controllers.
The software lets you use your Xbox controllers in place of the motion controllers that come with most VR headsets. You just plug in your controller and start playing!
The only downside is that your computer will need to meet certain requirements: at least Intel® i5-4590/AMD FX 8350, an Nvidia GTX 970/AMD Radeon R9 290 GPU, 8GB of RAM, 1GB of VRAM, and Windows 7 SP1 or newer.
Antilatency
The Antilatency VR full body tracking system is another way to get full-body tracking with your Oculus. It's more expensive than the other methods because it operates in B2B space (business to business), so its price isn't very consumer-friendly.
Your Oculus will track your hands with its controllers, while Antilatency comes in and tracks your legs and head with its camera and tags.
Antilatency system is very easy to install, and you don't have to calibrate any of your equipment—it'll track everything independently. You also have the option to set up a ceiling or floor customized tracking area (at least 10 meters squared). This will give you a much better result than the Kinect or Vive Body Trackers Sensors, but it's also very expensive because the camera itself is $1350, and it takes at least 2 tags ($120 each for each leg), plus $450 foam layout for tracking area, and a USB socket ($85).
If you're a VR enthusiast with money to burn, you could spend at least $2125 to experience full body tracking in VR with your Oculus and Antilatency system.
Last Thoughts on VR Full Body Tracking
Hopefully, this article has given you a greater appreciation for the complexities of VR full body tracking and allowed you to see how true virtual reality, rather than a simple visual experience, is indeed within our grasp. With the combination of Vive Body Trackers, Kinects, and Oculus Rifts/Quests, there is plenty of potential for new and exciting forms of entertainment and gaming now available to us.