Category: Valve Index

UPDATED: AltspaceVR Support for the Valve Index VR Headset

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The Valve Index

In a disappointing piece of news, it appears that the popular Microsoft-owned social VR platform AltspaceVR has dropped support for the Valve Index virtual reality headset (which is, of course, the one I currently use at home). All mention of the Valve Index has been removed from the documentation on its website:

A year ago, the Road to VR tech website reported that the Valve Index was the second most-used VR headset on Steam, and even as recently as last June, demand for the product has remained strong. So it is a bit of a puzzle as to why AltspaceVR would decide to stop supporting the still-popular Valve Index.

One person on the RyanSchultz.com Discord server reports:

It worked a year ago, but now when I try to start up the app using the Index, the login screen is skewed and distorted and appears on the bottom right of my field-of-view. Totally unusable now. So no more AltspaceVR for me.

Another noted, “It’s not even on the website anymore, I wonder why they keep it as supported on Steam, it confuses users.”

The Steam page for AltspaceVR still lists the Valve Index as supported

There has been some speculation that, with the recent announcement that Microsoft is working with Meta to integrate Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Teams with Horizon Worlds and Horizon Workrooms, Microsoft might be preparing to shutter AltspaceVR. I do find this a little hard to believe, since it is still a popular social VR platform, supporting dozens of meetups and events. I guess we’ll see.

UPDATE Oct. 13th, 2022: BenG tells me:

Just saw the new blog post, the Valve Index was never listed as a supported headset anywhere except for the Steam page and that was only because it was automatically added to all SteamVR games when the Index launched. I’ve been asking for Index support ever since I got mine in 2019, but I was always ignored. So they didn’t drop support for it, they never supported it in the first place. It somewhat worked, but the controllers were seen as Vive wands, so it wasn’t great. I had a much better experience using Revive to get into AltspaceVR, since the Index controllers match up with the Oculus controllers.

Thanks for the clarification, Ben!

Thank you to passTheKetchup and CGVR on the RyanSchultz.com Discord server for the heads-up on this news!

ARGH! My Valve Index Has Died

My adventures in virtual reality have come to a screeching halt.

My Valve Index headset suddenly stopped working (black screen). It might have happened earlier, but I only noticed it today, when making preparations to join up with some other people in VR.

All the other components (base stations, etc.) seem to be fine. I now get a Headset Display Disconnected error when I start up SteamVR, and if I select Reset Headset all the icons show up as per normal. If I select Display VR View I can see SteamVR Home on my flatscreen display, but not in my headset.

I have worked through the online troubleshooting section and nothing fixes it. I get two steady red LED lights on the front on the headset. If I unplug and replug the breakaway cable, sometimes I get the blue LED display back, but when I restart SteamVR it goes back to steady red LEDs. I’ve unplugged and replugged all the cables and nothing fixes it.

Even more irritating is that I have tried and tried to create a system report and attach it to this problem report, but I cannot find the text file it generates in my folders after I save it! I have tried saving the system report to multiple folder locations but when I search for it, it’s gone. Is there some trick to finding this text file on your system?

So I have TWO problems. I am ready to tear my hair out tonight. I’ve been so happy with my Valve Index so far, since I installed it early last year it’s been working flawlessly. Answers to help me fix either problem would be appreciated, thank you! I’ve already submitted a problem report to Steam, but (of course) I can’t attach any system reports! I feel like such a doofus for not even being able to figure that out!

Rig specs attached if that helps. Thanks in advance!

UPDATE Feb. 19th, 10:05 a.m.: Currently digging through the wiki on the Valve Index subreddit on Reddit; I had originally posted my problem there too, but I was informed I should have contacted Steam Support first (which I did), then searched the subreddit for any repeat questions (which I did), search their wiki, and then and only then post. So I deleted my post on Reddit.

I am not getting off to a great start here, folks. I am trying to be zen about this, but you all know how un-zen I can be about things. Some people are unflappable; I am, unfortunately, flappable! 😜 *sigh* Please bear with me while I try to figure out what’s wrong.

There are going to be a few impacts until I can get my Valve Index fixed. The already-long-delayed Season 2 of the Metaverse Newscast project I am working on with my co-producer Carlos Austin will, once again, be delayed, since we record in VR. Sorry!

And, obviously, I won’t be making any in-world visits to any social VR platforms in the near future. However, I will still be writing about them on my blog. And there is certainly no shortage of stories happening out there for me to write about!

Oh, and I finally figured out why I couldn’t find any of the SteamVR System Reports I created; I forgot to double-check in my Windows folder display settings that it was set to “All Files” (I had it set to Image Files only; see image below). D’oh! I’ve already received a response from Steam, and I have in turn responded, attaching the SteamVR System Report they asked for. Fingers crossed!

A Vive Facial Tracker Update: Good News and Bad News

Well, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that have attached my Vive Facial Tracker to my Valve Index VR headset, set it up, and got it working! The bracket I ordered arrived last week via FedEx from Japan (here’s the page I ordered from, although by now you I suspect you should be able to find several other models of brackets via the internet!), and last night I put it all together. Here’s what it looks like:

The bad news? Well, it started even before I installed the Vive Facial Tracker, when I took my weeklong course in content creation in NeosVR, taught by sirkitree and Medra (highly recommended, by the way). I kept crashing out of the classroom, and Medra finally set up a private tutorial session with me in my home world, which worked fine.

But, ever since I set up the facial tracker, I have been unable to stay in NeosVR for longer than ten minutes before crashing out! It would appear that I am bumping up against the limits of the CPU and GPU on my high-end gaming computer, which I bought four years ago.

I will be reaching out to NeosVR for support, and perhaps we can troubleshoot the issue. I did turn my refresh rate down from 120Hz to 90Hz, which is supposed to help with any GPU strain, but I am still stuttering and crashing. Unfortunately, I was thus far been unable to take pictures or video of my avatar in a mirror in NeosVR, but if I succeed, I will share them here with an update to this blogpost!

It is disappointing, but frankly I knew that at some point, for some app, I would reach the upper limits of what my PC is capable. So perhaps it’s time for Ryan to start shopping for a new computer (I already have the store picked out, the same place I bought this computer, which has a stellar reputation for both sales and support). In the meantime, I will keep testing.

Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck!

UPDATE April 22nd, 2021: It would appear that, alas, the CPU on the computer I bought four years ago is the bottleneck here. Apparently, both Neos and the Vive Facial Tracker are very CPU intensive, and even though I have a good graphics card (a NVIDIA GeForce GTX1080), I will probably have to either upgrade my CPU and add more memory, or simply trade up to a newer, faster, more powerful computer.

I’d like to thank the staff at NeosVR (especially Shift, their Quality Control Lead), and the ever-helpful community on the Neos Discord server for all their assistance in troubleshooting. Thanks, guys! For now, I will be packing my Vive Facial Tracker and its Japanese bracket (which is, thankfully, detachable) and stowing it away until I can upgrade my PC. *sigh*

UPDATED! Pandemic Diary, January 18th, 2021

Today is officially Day 309 of my working in self-isolation from my apartment for my university library system: 309 days, or 7,416 hours, or 444,960 minutes.

I have not left my home in the past month, except to drop my trash bags into the nearest dumpster, and to start the engine on my car in the parking lot and let it run for 10-15 minutes, to make sure that my car battery doesn’t lose its charge during our bitterly cold Winnipeg winter. (As a matter of fact, I am typing the first part of this blogpost out on my WordPress app on my iPhone, sitting behind the steering wheel of my car in my apartment’s outdoor parking lot, while my car is warming up.)

I’ve actually completely lost track of how long it’s been since I’ve been in the vicinity of another human being! The province of Manitoba is still under a code-red pandemic lockdown, and I don’t expect that any of the social distancing and other restrictions will be relaxed or lifted anytime soon. Vaccination is still mostly limited to front-line healthcare workers, and it is happening here at a frustratingly slow pace, with announcements of vaccine delivery delays by Pfizer over the next few weeks to add to the delays.

My car battery recharged, I come inside from the -18°C/-1°F cold, shed my parka, gloves, and face mask, and thoroughly wash my hands, singing Happy Birthday to myself twice under my breath.*

I have been going through a rough patch these past few weeks, which started as I concluded my Christmas holidays and returned to my full-time paying job with the University of Manitoba Libraries. I know that many people are in much worse circumstances than I am during this pandemic, and I know that I am lucky to be able to work from home. But I do not feel very lucky at the moment. All of the classic symptoms of depression are present: low mood, lack of motivation, insomnia.

My brand new Valve Index VR headset and my fancy Knuckles hand controllers sit on my desktop, infrequently used since I installed them in early January.

The Valve Index VR Headset

I do believe that using my then-new Oculus Rift headset four years ago was instrumental to my recovery from my last bout of serious clinical depression, as I wrote on my blog back in May 2018:

I first got my Oculus Rift headset back in January 2017, when I was on sick leave for depression from my job, and my life was feeling pretty bleak. Shortly afterwards, I also got the Oculus Touch hand controllers to be able to handle objects in VR.

I have no scientific proof, but I do believe that using that VR headset regularly—creating art using TiltBrush and Oculus Medium, using apps like Guided Meditation VR and Nature Treks VR, and interacting with other avatars and exploring new experiences in High Fidelity and the then-closed Sansar beta—was indeed a beneficial factor in my most recent recovery from depression. The best way I can describe it was that VR got my neurons firing again!

Now, I am not feeling as depressed as I did four years ago, but I can already see the warning signs. Therefore, I intend to slip on my Valve Index and explore as many social VR platforms, games, and creative apps as I can over the next few long, cold months, as a sort of preventative inoculation against isolation, depression and acedia. And, of course, blogging about them here.

Stay tuned for reports from my virtual excursions and adventures!

*No, today is not my birthday; I only sang Happy Birthday twice because that is how long you are supposed to wash your hands for. My actual birthday is on January 23rd (hint, hint, hint).

UPDATE January 20th, 2021: Wow! Somebody sent me a $50 Amazon gift card! Thank you!! The gift is much appreciated, and will definitely be put to good use. 🙂