HTC’s Vive Tracker has been available to VR developers for a few weeks now and the community is already getting pretty creative with its ideas. Just like full-body tracking with three Trackers, some of these ideas could be beneficial to multiple developers, thus it’s today released a new batch of files and tutorials.
Perhaps the most surprising tutorial to be released is for mobile room-scale tracking, which was engineered by the team at Master of Shapes as seen three months ago. The creative studio stuck the Vive Tracker to a plastic gun that holds a mobile phone that acts as a window into the virtual world. They can then use it to shoot enemies, enabling local VR co-op. Sadly Master of Shapes’ work in mobile room-scale VR, in which the team attached the Tracker to a Daydream VR headset, wasn’t mentioned.
Also from Master of Shapes is a Virtual Graffiti can, allowing you to spray paint in VR with an actual can — not a Vive controller — in your hand.
When it comes to actual files, HTC teamed up with Two Bit Circus to release documentation for Piñata Party!, showcasing how the Tracker can be used for location-based VR. A Piñata has a Vive Tracker placed on it as does a bat, and you can then swing around and smash it in VR. The idea is to show you how you can make experiences that others wouldn’t host in their own homes.
Finally, HTC has added the option to film in mixed reality using the Tracker connected to a camera.
Handing these experiments and documents out to the developer community should ensure that more developers create more innovative experiences for the Tracker by the time it launches for consumers later in the year. We’re looking forward to seeing what else is on the way.
