Do you have a liaison with Valve?

If not, with your permission, I’d like to see if I can set that up so that development can more closely tie in with SteamVR.

@anon74848233 @Matthew.Xu @SweViver @PimaxUSA

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Pimax does have a liaison, or close contact, with Valve and with recent PiTool versions there has been improvements made thanks to that. But do you have any specific feature request on your mind?

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Do you have a specific feature or concept you are referring to? We regularly work with Valve.

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I’m brand new to Pimax, so maybe this is something that already exists, but I can’t seem to find any way to do it. Base station power management: so that the base stations power up when steamvr runs and power down when it turns off. I have tried with a Vive Link Box as well but no luck. I read online that it was changed a long while back by Valve so that it is only available when an HTC Vive is plugged into the link box - it isn’t enough to just have the link box. I don’t know any more on the subject, but I would love to have power management back with the PImax.

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I’ve solved that problem with remote-controlled power outlets. There are a number of different models, manufacturers, and price ranges. I use one for my (single) base station and another for my 8K. I’ve linked the one I bought below, which means I have spares, if I ever need one. I like it a lot and have had no issues with it; I’ve had it for ~3 months.

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Yes thats a very good point. Im not sure if its possible though, as the lighthouses are only communicating with the linkbox (through bluetooth), as far as I i know, and thats probably linked to the HTC Vive headset. Not sure if there is any way to create a bluetooth communication between the HMD and the lighthouses. I remember this has been discussed in the past already during m1/m2 beta days. I will check with the devs and follow up as soon as I get any feedback.

Yes thats a good idea. Im also using cheap “smart power plugs” with built in Wifi from “lightinthebox” for my Lighthouses connected to Google Home. I say “Hey Google turn on/off base stations” and it powers them on/off. You can use any Google Home/Amazon Alexa compatible plugs for this.

These are the ones I use:
lightinthebox

Link (no its not an affiliate link hehe):

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Thanks Martin and Neal. @SweViver: One more thing I’ll mention is that I found multiple users who said they used to be able to do power management with just the link box and no vive attached. Apparently a steamvr update took that away, but we don’t know if that was intentional (which doesn’t really make sense to me from Valve’s perspective) or just a bug.

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Yes indeed I remember some users back in 2018 syccessfully used HTC linkboxes with Pimax and it worked with power management. But indeed the support got broken with some SteamVR update (or was it maybe a LH firmware update?) so unless HTC fixes that, Im no so sure Pimax can do much about it…

I’ll see if the Pimax devs have any clue, but for now I assume the only thing that would help would be to use/create a custom firmware for lighthouses that can communicate with the headset instead or maybe a Bluetooth connection/dongle on your pc. But that will unlikely happen anyway…

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@PimaxUSA @SweViver if nothing else, it would be nice if Valve included Pimax when it lists the other major headsets. Is there some adoption rate you need to be mentioned, or do they just not think to write it out?

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I don’t think it’s a firmware update because nobody mentioned it and also because I have base stations 2.0’s from Valve. Just trying to gather what I can from the old posts and my experience. I also can see the linkbox in a steamvr device scan, including the bluetooth radio, but on the steamvr bluetooth tab says the system has no bluetooth. So it seems to me like a steamvr bug on the surface.

My reason for posting here is the discussion is on communication between Pimax and Valve and it seems to me Pimax would really be the only HMD manufacturer that would benefit from fixing this bug, so it would be nice for it to come from them to Valve.

I think that will happen at some point.

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How about asking for a listing in their Steam Hardware Survey. And an icon stating compatibility with Pimax headsets on the store page?

Would go a long way (marketing wise) , if people browsing steam saw Pimax icons confidently listed next to the other recognized HMD’s

We haven’t gone down the “marketing” path with them yet. The communication revolves around engineering, software and components etc…The topic of being recognized that way has been discussed but so far it hasn’t been high on the list. I’m sure we’ll visit that in more detail again coming up.

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I understand the best time to do that would be after the complete kit is available.

The function if you have bt on the computer thta you then get a option to turn off/on lighthouses should be in Pitool or so it works directly from steam vr.

I agree, this is a good point. I actually have a friend that has different IPD values for each eye (left eye is 3-4mm further away from centre) and its been a problem for him with most headsets he have used.

I will talk about this with the team tomorrow morning!
Thanks

Yeah we have been discussing this in another thread. Im not sure if its possible though, as lighthouses usually communicates with the Vive Link box only. But there might be a way to go around this…

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the linkbox has a mini displayport, has anyone tried plugging the pimax through it?

its a minDP input so you will not be able to use it this way
(i used my vive on a DP port for a while that way)

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please do ask :slight_smile: i have exactly the same problem as your friend, for now i try to solve it with putting the headset assymetrical too but its far from ideal and something feels off in one eye. i’m sure there must be more people with this problem too. I hope Pimax can pull it off, because this headset simply needs more precise adjustments.

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Ok,

I finally have a chance to reply.

Notwithstanding all the other things people above have mentioned, it seems that periodically when a SteamVR update occurs it breaks something with Pimax. Pimax should be given a heads up before a SteamVR update, and they should have access to that code to find any incompatibility issues with PiTool. Also, SteamVR should tell Pimax any changes that are going to be made beforehand so they can prepare.

And I still don’t understand why PiTool can’t be integrated within SteamVR. I understand that Valve is now a competitor because they’ve come out with their own headset, but for the sake of standardization, all headsets that are supported by SteamVR should have the ability to be integrated, eliminating the need to have a separate tool. It would be good for the consumers and good for SteamVR if the user only had to only launch one program.