During long sessions of Half Life Alyx, i noticed that my left Index Controller looses tracking for about 0,5s before plopping back in.
This will stop my locomotion in game, because its bound to the left thumbstick. Also there is a light on the left controller, which disappears, this is when i notice it the most.
This will appear randomly but can be as often as 10 times a minute, which is VERY Immersive breaking. SteamSupport says the Tracking is LightHouse bound but also some sort of radio connection between the HMD and the Index Controller is going on. This is why they can not fix it for my Pimax 5K+. Restarting the controllers does not help, which indicates its an HMD Problem. Also its always the left controller, the right controller never looses tracking and i use full room scale all the time, with 360° movement.
So my Question is did anyone get this too, or fixed the Issue?
Exactly the same issue, it’s a total bummer, it has something to do with the efficiency/bandwith that pimax is taking up to track, and sometimes the controller data itself (pressing buttons, finger axis data, realtime updates) can overload it and skip the tracking data. I’d prefer they just lowered the tracking framerate if that became a problem that they can’t figure out, but the index controllers track sublimely with a vive, pimax seems to be the problem. I’ve told them this before but they don’t seem to know how to fix it.
Sounds made up. Like any support, those not well informed will make stuff up rather than admit ignorance. If the alleged radio connection was the cause we would all have it. My ICs work perfectly in all my games on my 5K+ and V1 base stations, including many continuous hours in ALYX
Steam initially tried to tell people the left mini-stick click issue was the way it worked. They also had a problem with that left stick not travelling properly (RMA’d mine for that issue). These 2 faults alone indicate there is a QC issue in the company building the controllers.
Restarting the Pimax HMD seems to reliably improves the issue, but you may have to restart twice to completely get rid of it.
The issue seems to “compound” over time. That is, playing for an hour you notice nothing, after two hours it may start flicking out every 5-10 minutes, and if you put up with it long enough, it will be just every few seconds, constant disconnections making everything fully unplayable.
Restarting the controllers does NOT help. This is a pretty good indicator that it’s a headset issue and not a controller issue.
Oh! One thing to make sure of, is the controller that is experiencing tracking issues is the /second/ controller that you pair, the first one seems to get priority. I have gotten the tracking issues to switch before by pairing left-right, not right-left. And it also seems to be most buggy when in certain rotations in view of both lighthouses, when the left controller is only seen by one lighthouse it tracks better at the weird rotations then if both see them, and sometimes at the moment it flickers between certain censors being used (going from one rotation to another I assume activates certain tracking points than others), it can drop tracking drastically.
FWIW when I experience issues it is usually with both controllers, not just one. To me it sounds like some sort of memory leak or other resource leak, likely in the PiService.
Following up to say I believe this is a headset or pimax software issue as well. I’ve purchased a dedicated PCI-E x4 USB 3.1 card, unpaired and repaired in every possible way, re arranged base stations, tried a few different pitools etc. The left controller continuously loses tracking every minute or two. The problem seems to get worse with time. I have no issues with my vive wands
Ive had two sets of Index controllers and both had the same tracking issues with my 5k+ and zero tracking issues on my Vive so I dont believe it is a problem with the controllers but a problem with Pimax…
That they work with Vive would also rule out the excuse Steam support gave @eight.one about radio connection with the Index headset.
Still doesn’t rule out a replacement set of ICs also being faulty.
I disagree, I think steam is entirely correct. The controllers connect wirelessly to the HMD, the HMD transmits controller data to the PC via USB. This is why USB has been considered a potential source of the problem. But it could easily be a bandwidth issue inside of the HMD, or a shoddy bluetooth connection to the controllers. I have hopes that a firmware update or pitool update could fix this, but it definitely seems to be due to the HMD or pitool so far.
If the controllers work perfectly fine on a vive and index, clearly it’s pitool or the pimax hmd.
Only responding to the info as presented ie:
“SteamSupport says the Tracking is LightHouse bound but also some sort of radio connection between the HMD and the Index Controller is going on”
Not saying it isn’t a usb issue. That’s obvious since people report a wired connection works. Just responding to the afore mentioned quote as it was laid out.
As tech support goes, it offer jack all in clarification and says nothing about usb or any solution beyond suggesting the controllers need to link to their Index which is not true as the Vive works, as do Pimaxs in cases like my own.
What’s causing (some) people to have a usb problem is the open question.
True, I think what they were getting at though is they have no idea how the pimax HMD takes in controller data and sends it over USB to the PC (what bluetooth IC is in the HMD, what frequency is tracking running at etc) and they truly can’t help without that info. If it were an index they obviously would have some insight.
That isn’t to say the index kit is perfect and their customer support is perfect though, there were clear issues with the first batch of controllers so it’s worth checking to see if your controllers have good sensors. This can be done pretty easily using the lighthouse command line tool to check sensor counts and sensor data though without going down the RMA route.
Agreed that they may not know exactly how Pimax works and that is the ignorance I referred to. The word itself was not used as derogatory only meaning without knowledge.
However the radio communication explanation between the Index and the Index controllers was irrelevant to the issue of why some Pimax’s are having trouble and others aren’t. I am not saying the tech should know the answer only that he was “dancing” because he didn’t was all.
The proper response would be something like “I’m not familiar with how the Pimax interfaces with our controllers, but I will pass it along to a supervisor to see if we can help you” or some such. Don’t even know if he didn’t. Just responded to the info in the post.
I have a 203 and no issue which is why I suggest maybe in combo with certain Pitools which (could) also mean different firmware. As indicated just a thought.
Since most are not posting much if any specifics about what they are running and running it on, it’s all thinking out loud in a vacuum.
Even Pimax could need more information to track why some are affected. They ran ICs with the Pimax at CES and I don’t recall anyone talking about this issue either.