WalkOVR & HL:Alyx

Accessories Controllers
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From Walk[color=Orange]Ovr[/color]!!

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Half Life: [color=Orange]ALYX [/color]

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Tested and [Color=green]Verified[/color]

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Everybody was waiting for Half Life, right?
We too! It would’ve been better to meet with Alyx under better circumstances, however, it is better than never.

I’m old enough to see the G-Man of Half Life in its lowest resolution. So Alyx can be called a revolution in comparison to its predecessors. We tested it on HTC Vive, Oculus Rİft, Oculus Rift S and Oculus Quest (via Link) on SteamVR; and I’m happy to share that WalkOVR is compatible with Half Life: ALYX, tested and verified.

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About [Color=cyan]Valve Index[/color] [color=red]Issues[/color]

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Walk[color=orange]OVR[/color] has issues with [color=cyan]Valve Index[/color] because we had issues with ‘our [color=cyan]Valve Index[/color]’. The problems will be fixed in the following weeks. We know the issues and we’ll fix them as soon as possible. Our team members will be updating you on this further.

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SDK is available for Game Developers

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If you are interested, we already shared our Unity SDK with some of the game developers who contacted us. We would be more than happy if you would like to check-in and get the SDK. Please contact us, we are currently providing it as per request basis to follow up in person and get your feedback.

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Current Release

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Currently, the latest version of OVRPortal is v1.4.91. In the last month or so, we had to roll back and restructure the core system of OVRPortal for the sake of future products and services.

The current version has better connectivity and guidance over the user’s avatar. You can see your movement directions and sensitivity before starting your game and you can change the movement parameters to test on the client. You can also change the parameters while playing your game.

But most importantly, especially with Half Life: Alyx, we started the integration of game profiles in the current release. You select your headset and our client behaves accordingly if you start playing Half Life. This will be applied for any game and headset in the next releases. More in the below section.

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Next Releases - Roadmap

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There will be more detailed release updates with every release.

However, I’d like to summarize our roadmap here:

Next Release Planned: v1.5

Expected Release Date (ERD): week 14 (March 29 - April 5)

Expected Features:

  • decoupling
  • dominant hand selection
  • extended calorie consumption

Release Planned: v1.5.1

ERD: week 16

Expected Features:

  • [color=cyan]Valve Index[/color] Compatibility
  • Game Profiles

Release Planned: v1.5.3 to v1.6

ERD: week 17 to week 20

Expected Features:

  • minor features, UI improvements planned and potential bug fixes

For the later releases, below dates ‘may’ change due to unexpected situations:

Release Planned: v1.6

ERD: week 20

Expected Features:

  • MOCAP

Release Planned: v1.7

ERD: week 20

Expected Features:

  • in VR (on-screen) client to see OVRPortal while your headset is on.

Any changes to this are planned to be reported as well. We are also going to put this roadmap on our website.

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Would be interested to hear if anyone is using this tech and if yes your opinion?

I’ve only watched some video reviews - on the plus side it looked good for immersion and a work out, on the negative seemed very clunky to put on and lots of wires?

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I have it but haven’t really used it as of yet. The wires really are not that much a bother as it’s just wired to it’s hub and is wireless otherwise.

I also have Katloco (haven’t used it either yet) less wires but not as expandable.

At present though may have wires. @MarcoBalletta custom solution for locomotion might be the real winner. He has both above and tried AgileVR but disapointed with each for a variety of reasons.

I think @DrWilken has both and possibly @vrgamerdude(whom did also get AgileVR)

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Looks interesting! But yes, needs wireless.
Edit: Ah, it’s (almost) wireless. That’s better than!

For me the separate headphones are already one thing too much - looking forward to the 8k-X with deluxe audio strap, even though it most likely is a downgrade audio-wise (But I totally look forward to get a shortcut for: take headset on, take headphones on, something doesn’t work, take headphones off, take headset off, fix thing, take headset on, take phones on, recognize that the game doesn’t support in-game volume (beat saber- I look at you), take… you get the pattern).

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I have both, yes.

The WalkOVR software is better as You don’t need to calibrate it every time You use it like You do on the Kat Loco.

The wires (between sensors) are a bit annoying but once it’s on, it doesn’t really matter. The Bluetooth connection from the master unit has to be stable but that of course makes sense and it works well. It does not come with a Bluetooth dongle, but any good dongle should work.

The KAT Loco is all Bluetooth and uses it’s own Bluetooth “router” (looks like a small router) and it has to be in line of sight and close to where You play.

The calibration sequence is annoying and the product doesn’t seem very important to them (they sell much more expensive products like treadmills).

Another really annoying thing with the KAT Loco software (“KAT Gateway”) sometimes start without being minimized to tray and there’s not even an option to start it minimized or even to prevent it from starting with Windows. Trying to minimize the window then sends it to right above the start button (looks like the top of a very small window there). Really bad software (and they haven’t updated it since launch AFAIK). Their SteamVR dashboard is kinda cool though.

EDIT: There’s a new version of KAT Gateway out (1.3.0) which I haven’t tried yet so they might have fixed some of the issues.

EDIT2: It seems they have added some options:
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Haven’t tested functionality though (just installed it while writing this)… :wink:

That said, I don’t use either much currently as I don’t do much roomscale gaming. Maybe that’ll change soon as Alyx is waiting… :wink:

Bottom line is, both devices are really cool, but it has to be very easy to use for me. Otherwise I just won’t… :wink: I don’t want to spend hours trying to get locomotion to work perfectly, after tweaking PiTool settings… :smiley: I’m sure they’ll all get there eventually, hopefully… :smiley:

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