Map Making with Vive Focus 3

November 2024 (this can change with Vive's updates..)

Map preparation

ArUco Markers

Make Aruco Markers with the Vive Aruco app. Ideally, they should be as big as possible. If you print on A3, you can make them 28x28 centimeters.

Make them as « relocation based markers ». Drift correction should have precise distances between them, and it’s not ideal for fast map making.

Headset Preparation: offline or Normal mode?

Before making the map, check if the HMD is online (normal) or offline mode:

- If it is offline, you want to import the map locally. It’s not ideal but can be useful if you don’t have access to the internet. But that means you’ll have to individually import the map to the headset without making a group, and that once they are back online they’ll synchronize with the map of their group.

- Ideally, put them in normal mode (online) and make sure they connect to the Vive Business+ Cloud (they should be connected to the internet) and that the one you are using to make the map is in a new group with no map assigned to it. That way, when the map is done, you can directly export it via Vive Business +. If your headset disconnected from the internet, you can always connect it through the vive manager phone app.

Vive Manager App (on the phone)

- Make the map with your HMD, using the Vive Manager app on your phone. Pair your phone with the « golden headset », the HMD you want to use to create your map. If your HMD is connected to another phone, make sure you unpair the other phone via the settings in the headset.

Settings>Connectivity>Phone pairing

- On the app: Enterprise Features>LBE map configuration>Map Creation>Select Marker> import the Json file created earlier (the ids are always the same so it can always be the same one)>start



Map making

The map should be made with sections.

(nb: I noticed that after the first section, the % goes back to 0. What I do is I quickly hide the captors and click on next.)

For each section:

1- Make sure your cameras are clean

2- In the middle of the section, do 1 slow 360 turn with the HMD at shoulder level

3- Do 1 slow 360 turn with the HMD at knee level (better for trackers who have lower angles)

4- Do 1 slow 360 turn moving the headset up and down

5- Walk around the corners of the section

6- Repeat for each section

7- (you can hide the captors of the headset if you want to do each section on the app by clicking on « next »).

8- When you click on finish, lay the headset on the floor and wait for the saving of the map

After map creation, VR Space Setup

- Chose your center (ideally in front of a marker)

- Lay the HMD on the floor on a flat surface with the chosen direction, and do « Map center and direction », and « Calibrate floor » to 0.

- You should do the previous steps two times because sometimes it doesn’t work (?).

- Export the map

Once the map is exported, you can check if you want with if the headsets reconnects with most of the markers and the environment. If it’s not the case in all of the space, use Vive Environment scanner app on the headset and check if every location has enough tracking points. (should be over 50 points).

Map refinement

If some parts don’t have enough points or if the environment/light changed too much, you can refine your app with the Vive manager app on your phone. Move a bit around the space so the headset has found back tracking (go near a sweet spot), soon after you’ll be able to scan the part of the space that was not tracking well.

Save your modification and export the refined map on Vive Business+