I’m currently working on another big update for SpaceSync, and this one is special! With SpaceSync 2.5, you will no longer need an additional tracker on your head to keep everything aligned. And it gets even better: recentering your headset or sudden tracking hiccups should no longer cause your... Lighthouse tracking space to drift away. The new Stay Aligned feature I’m currently working on detects these changes and uses your Hip/Waist tracker as a reference to automatically realign yaw and pitch. But that’s not all! I’ve also been working on locking Base Stations to their actual positions, preventing SteamVR from letting them suddenly jump around and potentially cause additional drift. Both features are coming with SpaceSync 2.5. I’ve also improved the tracking accuracy even further. In my 6-hour tests, SpaceSync 2.5 accumulated only around 0.01 mm of drift. For comparison, Space Calibrator 2.0.2 Beta accumulated over 16.75 mm of drift over the same 6-hour test while being fed the exact same tracking input. No head tracker. Automatic realignment. Even less drift. SpaceSync 2.5 is getting closer. In the video: Using SpaceSync without a headtracker. Repo: #VRChat #SteamVR #SpaceSync #LighthouseTracking #Viveshow more

Tested on the Galaxy XR, which has some of the worst SLAM tracking I’ve tested. The reason I’m holding my finger on the side of the HMD is because I intentionally reset the playspace to show that the Index controllers still stay perfectly in place after a recenter, without any tracker attached to the headset at all. That means this is especially useful for people who don’t have a 4th tracker available for head tracking :)

I have to correct myself! SpaceSync 2.5 had 1.65mm drift and SpaceCalibrator 2.0.2 Beta (Continous Calibration + Relative Calibration) had 16.75mm of drift. Both had the same input there was not a single difference in that test.

I just bought and attached a vive 3.0 to my steam frame this has to be a joke if this works I'll be happy and mad at the same time

It does work with Steam Frame + Vive 3.0 have fun :)

I thought you said it no longer needed a tracker on the headset?

It does also work without a tracker mounted on the headset. But why would you do that? If you want to be synced to both spaces you have to use a tracker. If you don’t use a tracker mounted to your headset you will have to do a one-time calibration and from that point it will drift after the headset had some tracking hiccups. You will not be fully happy with this neither with Space Calibrator 2.0 or SpaceSync.

Ah okay, i thought you solved it and never needed a tracker now

Well what i „solved“ is that it survives most of the hiccups. As long as you use Stay Aligned it will prevent drifts (tires to prevent drifts). For Stay Aligned you need a Waist/Hip tracker. If you play 1-3 hours with Stay Aligned you should he fine without a headtracker depending on how you play. (If you dance/run etc.)

It is important to note: If you use SpaceSync with Stay Aligned, it tries to survive SLAM tracking hiccups by using your Hip/Waist Tracker as an additional reference. You will still drift over time if you do not use a Head Mounted Tracker. Stay Aligned can reduce that drift significantly, but it does not nullify drift completely. I am specifically working on Stay Aligned for people who already have 3 Vive Tracker 3.0/Tundra trackers and either cannot afford a 4th tracker or simply do not want to mount one to their headset. So to clarify again: Stay Aligned does not completely fix the long-term drift. Some drift will still exist, and without a Head Mounted Tracker, that is not something that can be fully eliminated. If you want the best possible tracking result, mount a tracker to your headset.

eta? O.O

Already released! The specific update in this video today/tomorrow :)

Do you have a Frame? If so, have you tested this with the Frame yet?

It does work with the Steam Frame! i recommend to put a Vive or Tundra tracker on it. there's currently also 3D Files for a mount out there :)!

I'll try this with my HP Reverb G2, which is possibly the worst head tracking that one could possibly get

Im sure the GalaxyXR sucks more than the Reverb G2. i literally use the GXR as a benchmark for this.. 😅

I hope u know ur a life savior i love u and u save so many people seriously

Not really a live savior. using spacesync without a tracker on the head is still extrem unreliable/not even close to what you have with a tracker mounted to your head. If you plan to walk around in your room, dance, sleep and change pose often then i still recommend a tracker on your HMD

bleh windows only

It doesn’t make sense to make a linux port right now. SpaceSync is in beta and i wouldn’t want to make a port right now while in this experimental state

Wow, This is so cool!, I will give it a try. I normally use the Space Calibrator with continous calibration with Quest Pro + VIVE Tracker 3.0 mounting at the top of HMD

You should keep using a Vive 3.0 on your head that os highly recommended. Although spacesync will have less issues than the actual SpaceCalibrator 2.X build. Give it a try and see yourself :)

That's genuinely incredible, keep up the amazing work!

Thanks! Will do! Although I have to admit, it won't completely eliminate drift when using SpaceSync without a head tracker. It will improve it significantly, but it will never come close to the tracking quality you get with a tracker attached to the headset.

Wait, so with this you can use SLAM headsets and then just have basestations to use like index controllers? No trackers necessary?

Yes that works too :). But you would need to calibrate every 1-2 houes as without a tracker mounted to your head there can be drift due to SLAM Tracking hiccups/recenters

i mean it can only get better and better with time right?

I wouldn’t say it gets better after time. Having no tracker on your head means automatically we can’t re-sync or recalibrate continuously with your movement. The ideal case would be that your headset doesn’t have any tracking hiccups or you never recenter with the Meta Button/Pico/GXR Button at all. It is not fully preventable that drift occurs due to the difference of tracking space. That is why i always recommend to use a Vive or Tundra tracker on your head. This update will improve drift fixes if you don’t have a tracker on your head. However; it doesn’t „kill“ drift.

Holy crap that sounds like a huge update! I can't wait

I'm using a Pimax headset, but when I try to calibrate after attaching a tracker to the HMD, I get stuck on this screen and can't proceed. Please help.

When you press calibrate with a tracker attached to your headset please move your head fast around so it detects the tracker on your head

The calibration screen appears only for a moment, and then this screen immediately follows.

So, the calibration doesn't even start in the first place.

I was trying out SpaceSync recently and kept running into the weirdest issues. It kept closing after a few minutes, which basically made it useless to me. ): I just re-installed Windows today, so I'll give it another shot later.

Please try the latest version (2.1.1) of it. You might had bad luck because i published a broken build that didn't installed the driver correctly. Make also sure to NOT install SpaceOverride/SpaceCalibrator at the same with with SpaceSync as the driver will do some funky stuff to each other.

Gotcha. I'll reply again once I did some testing. 🫡

This is actually really cool. If we DO use a head mounted tracker though, how's it compare to space calibrator? It sounds like development is active and you're tackling new ground, so either way this is super interesting.

This is data from a 6-hour VRChat session. SpaceCalibrator 2.0.2 Beta with Continuous Calibration + Relative Calibration vs. SpaceSync. Both received the exact same tracking input, and both used a Vive Tracker 3.0 mounted on the HMD. After 3–6 hours of playtime, SpaceSync had a maximum drift of around 1–2 mm, while SpaceCalibrator 2.0 reached around 15–25 mm of drift. To be fair, in both cases you probably wouldn't really notice the drift during normal gameplay. But SpaceSync is definitely more accurate than the current version of SpaceCalibrator. I also found some issues in SpaceCalibrator related to yaw/pitch when rotating, where the controllers can move slightly in ways they shouldn't. SpaceSync doesn't have this issue since I've specifically corrected for it. Overall, you can use SpaceCalibrator or SpaceSync, whichever you prefer. I mainly just take a different approach to preventing drift. SpaceSync is especially better at handling heavy SLAM tracking hiccups, headset recentering, and laying/sitting poses compared to SpaceCalibrator. The calibration process is also much simpler. No stroking the controllers around and no "unicorn calibration." You just look Up, Down, Left, Right, and then play the game.

Well that's me convinced. I keep getting SLAM hiccups (maybe it doesn't like my floor pattern?), and I also transition between laying and sitting, so seems like it'll be a good fit! Thanks!

Well, I benchmark SpaceSync on a Galaxy XR, which has some of the worst SLAM tracking I've tested. I get tracking hiccups even in daylight, sometimes every 30–60 seconds. This headset was literally the reason I started working on SpaceSync It's actually a very good benchmark headset for this kind of testing because I can't really think of a worse-case scenario. So if you're using a Pico, Pimax, Quest, or Vive headset with a tracker mounted on the HMD, you should be completely fine :)

I'm using a frame, so hopefully it works fine with that. Haven't had a chance to test it heavily till I get my lens inserts. I know you recommend against a tundra, but that may be the only thing I can comfortably fit up there...

It will work with tundra just not as good as with vives.

Q3+5 vive (head, chest, hips, foots) alot of jitter hips with jump or fast standing on one leg

Then use Slow Calibration or check your lighthouse setup. I did play with Quest 3 + 5 vives just an hour ago without any jitter.

You are saying that we no longer need a tracker on the headset to perform continuous calibration anymore? If what you are saying is true, I am gonna be so amazed and appreciate it so much.

No that is not what i did say.

I still appreciate this project, I think it is cool and could reduce drift and since I play like 2-3 hours or sometimes more I think the drift will be fine with the help of this tool

"you will no longer need an additional tracker on your head"- I had to read that part 3 times.

Yea you won’t need one. As long as you have a hip tracker attached the Stay Aligned mode will prevent most of the SLAM tracking hiccups. But you can - and will still drift over time (obviously). It just minimizes it.

Works! Can't wait to take the tracker off my headset for good. Could you add an auto floor fix based on the feet trackers? I'm on a Quest Pro with the boundary off, so the floor is different every session. I have to do open OVR and press Fix Floor every time. Thanks ;)

this doesn’t work with tundra head-mounted trackers though, right?

It does but i do recommend Vive 3.0 :)

would you say your software is still superior to continuous space calibrator regardless of whether using a tundra or not? i prefer the long battery life

Wait so I shouldn't need to finger fuck my Quest3 for a tracker on top to play with my index controllers? What black magic is this? Also, would this run on Linux?

Eh, i do still highly recommend you to use a Tracker mounted to your Head. with SpaceCal/SpaceSync it does work without a Tracker mounted on your head but this will still drift over time or when heavy tracking hiccups occur on your Quest 3.

Oh man this is so cool, do you think the tracking would be better than space calibration with a tundra mounted to the headset?

Yes :D!

Hmmm. SteamVR tracking stays basically solid right. Couldn't you put a few aruco markers on the ground or wall to use that to sync?

So there is no need for a head tracker with this release?

Correct me if I'm wrong but, if the basestations position inside the headset playerspace are fix, that means that the only drifting that you would have would be from the headset vs their own playerspace? Or is there any other source of drift im missing?

If you use SpaceSync without a tracker mounted to the HMD, it will start to drift as soon as you move around a lot or if a SLAM tracking hiccup occurs. With Stay Aligned, I try to compensate for drift caused by these hiccups. A hiccup is when the headset suddenly corrects its own rotation or position, which you may notice as a short tracking jump or lag. It will still drift over time because the only reference SpaceSync has is the calibration snapshot from the beginning. Without a tracker mounted to the HMD, there is no continuous recalibration or continuous resync. What Stay Aligned mainly tries to fix is "surviving" these tracking hiccups and recenters. Even that will not be perfect, but it should be an improvement. When using a tracker mounted to your HMD, SpaceSync works very differently. It continuously resyncs the Lighthouse and HMD tracking spaces and merges them into one unified playspace. The HMD playspace acts as the reference, which means your Lighthouse-tracked devices are aligned to the HMD-driven playspace and continuously synced to it every frame.

I see, thanks for the explanation I might try it on when I get my hands on the frame (in reservation limbo rn).

whydont you coop with spacecal devs and make flawlesss common app? is 16mm drift with spacecal+tracker happening while gameplay/moving? or after turning off/on steamvr? i hate g2 environmental tracking so it drifts a lot. hope you guys make it flawless