Installation Guide

Vive Pro Wireless VR

Unboxing

Everything in the box, and bits that you won’t need.

Installation

Step by Step detailed guide to wireless Vive Pro VR

Usage

Your new wireless way to play, and what HTC forgot to tell you.

Wireless Games

Our Top 3 games played better wireless

Vive Pro Wireless

Unboxing

Curatorial Affairs

Jun 3 – Sept 14

A History of Pottery

Jun 3 – Sept 14

Black & White

Jun 3 – Sept 14

Vive Pro Wireless

Installation

Click on Images for detail

#1 - Open Up PC

Installing the wireless card which communicates with the Wireless device means getting into the guts of your PC. Here’s what it might look like. You are looking for a spare PCIe slot to take the Wireless Adapter.

#2 - Find a spare PCIe slot

In this case, the top PCIEX1_3 slot is free, but it is right under the GPU fan. To avoid restricting airflow around the Graphics card, the wireless adaptor will be slotted into the PCIEX8 slot you can see just under the battery.

More detail at vive.com

#3 - Install PCIe WiGig Card

With the PC power supply disconnected, align the card with the slot and push it home firmly. The panel can then be screwed to the rear of the case. There’s nothing more to do here, so put the case cover back on and grab the wireless link box for the next step.

#4 - Connect Link BOX TO CARD

Your new link box is going to connect to the newly installed card, and the other end will sit on top of your monitor, just like a webcam. Take the shiny gold end shown here and connect it to the newly installed Wigig card as shown below.

#5 - WiGig Card Connection to Link Box

Connecting the cable to the card is a simple case of holding the connector in place then screwing it hand tight. It’s a tool-less connection.

#6 - Mounting the monitor Clip

This was perhaps one of the most fiddely parts of the exercise! Depending on the shape of your monitor, the clip may slide up at the rear which has the negative effect of pointing the link box downwards.

You can see the problem with this monitor as it has a bevelled case on the rear which causes the clip to slip into a position where the seat is very much off level.

#7 - Placing the clip

This monitor however has a straighter back panel which allows the clip to sit more comfortably. Due to the tightness of the spring however I found the clip did still rise up a little, pointing the detector in the wrong direction. 

#8 - Adjusting the Collar

The metal screw ring to tighten the link box mount has a small gap in the collar. If it wasn’t for the cable, this could be rotated to the rear and used to lean the box backwards to counter the downward angle caused by the clip closing itself. You may need to fiddle around with this a little, but in the end I found it had no effect on the performance of the wireless connection.

#9 - HMD Velcro removal

Now we get to what is probably the most nerve racking part of the wireless upgrade – HMD cable upgrade. First of all, gently ease off the velcro padding around the headset.

#10 - Cover Plate Removal

To removal the old cable, the cover plate has to come off. Prise it off using your fingers, starting at the left hand side where it is narrowest. It is held in place by some tiny clips, so it needs a firm, but not reckless effort to remove it without snapping off any small legs.

#11 - Replace the cable

Pull out the existing cable and replace it with the new shorter version that will plug into the wireless unit once it is fitted to the top of the headset. Refit the cover – and it should look like this.

#12 - remove vive clip

In this photo you can see the Vive clip bedded in the Wifi unit, held by three tiny screws. This needs to be swapped out for the Vive Pro clip which is slightly different.

The Vive Pro clip comes with its own screws so no need to save these ones.  

#13 - Insert the Vive Pro Clip

Here you can see the old clip is removed and the new clip is ready to be fixed in place. Unfasten the velcro strips on the Vive Pro clip and screw it in place.

 

On mine, there were two tiny washers rather than a single one on one of the screws. This made it impossible to screw it in until I realised there was an extra washer on the screw. 

#14 - Vive Pro CLip in Place

Here you can see the Vive Pro adapter clip in place – and the extra washer!

The HMD top headband goes through the two plastic tabs you can see here, then the two velco straps go round the headband to secure the wireless unit in place. 

#15 - replace hmd foam pad

Now the foam padding has to be removed and replaced with a larger pad that can hold the Wireless unit in place.

Here you can see the new larger piece ready to replace the existing foam on the back of the headset.

#16 - replace foam

Here you can see the new Vive Pro foam padding in place. The small indented section is whre the velcro strips from the new clip will wrap around and hold the wireless unit in place.

Almost done now….

#17 - FIT WIRELESS DEVICE

As described above, slide the headband inbetween the two plastic tabs on the clip, then wrap the two velco strips around the foam pad to secure it in place.

Now all that’s left to do is make the two connections shown. The connection on the left is the other end of the cable fitted to the front of the unit in Step #11. The smaller cable on the left connects to the batttery, which you can clip to your pocket when playing.

You did start the battery charging before you started the assembly – didn’t you? It needs a full charge (4 bars) before the first usage, and usually arrives with only a 50% charge. It can take a few hours to charge up fully.

#18 - extra cables

We are almost finished with the hardware upgrade and ready to move onto the software. Before we do though – you might notice you still have some cables left over.

 

These are to connect the original vive for a wired connection, and are not of any use for the Vive Pro, so these can be placed back in the box. 

#20 – Battery Holder

Here’s something that the Vive Pro Wireless instructions forget to tell you, but will save your battery from flying across the floor – like mine did.

 

If you look at the two batteries shown above, at first glance they make look exactly the same. Look closer however and you will see that a clip has been engaged on the image on the right. This tiny difference is what locks the battery securely into the holder. Please make sure you do this.

#20 - Breakout Box

So you may be wondering what to do with the original breakout box, it looks a little useless without the now discarded HDMI cable plugged in.

Don’t disconnect it just yet though, there are a couple of reasons you might like to leave it occupying a USB slot and taking up a plug socket. Firstly, if you like your base stations to power down automatically when you quit SteamVR, they will still need the Bluetooth signal from this link box.

Secondly, if you like to do you firmware updates over bluetooth, the linkbox will be required to send the signal.

For those two reasons, I left my plugged in – it’s a personal choice though.

Vive Pro Wireless

Usage

What HTC’s install guide forgot to tell you

 

Now that you are all connected up and raring to go, here’s a run down on your new launch procedure for wireless gaming.

Wait, there’s a launch procedure?

In my experience there is! If wireless VR is started in the wrong order, you can end up with some frustrating game stopping effects such as the HMD not displaying an image, the base stations not starting up, or the wireless failing to connect.

To avoid these frustrations, I eventually found that the following steps had to be carried out in this exact order – otherwise I would not be VR gaming.

 1. If you are using the original breakout box to manage the base stations, make sure it is switched on.

2. Connect the wireless battery pack, switch it on.

3. Click the HTC logo on the HMD mounted wireless device to switch it on.

4. Now on your PC start up  the Vive Wireless App. I like to have it docked on the taskbar for simplicity.

 5. Now open Steam and click on the SteamVR button at the top right.

Your base stations should now whir into action, and the HMD should be recognised and display a green light on the side of the headset.

Hopefully this 5 step routine helps new Vive wireless gamers as it took me some frustration and a few re-starts before I realised this was the easy solution to a gauranteed no-nonsense wireless VR gaming session.

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Vive Pro Wireless

BEST WIRELESS GAMES

VR GAMES THAT WORK BEST WIRELESS

 

Now that you are up and running with wireless VR, you’ll be keen to know which games are best played wireless. For me this was an easy list to compile because I just had to think of the games that caused me the most frustration being tethered with a HDMI cable to the PC’s breakout box. Be sure to let me know if I have missed any games that are best suited to untethered play, in the meantime, here’s my Top 3 VR wireless Playlist, in no specific order.

1. Racket NX is a single/multiplayer game that places the player in the middle of a domed play area where the ball can come at him from any angle. As this involved turning through 360 degrees, playing this otherwise excellent game tethered was an absolute nightmare. Cable management apps were even developed to help players untwist themselves from the tangled mess of cables that result from playing Racket NX. But all this is resolved with wireless VR gaming, leaving a solid workout game that can also be played competitively online.

2.  Holopoint is a bow and arrow game where the player is static in the middle of the pay area, and attacked from all sides either by exploding cubes and samurai warriors. This game arguable requires even faster reflexes than Racket NX as the player is continually turning through 180 degrees to repel the targets. This is a great workout game which truly benefits from wireless play.

3.  The Thrill of the Fight differs from Racket NX and Holopoint in that it requires the player to use the play space to avoid incoming blows and encourages more movement. Play this while tethered was more than frustrating,m it could be quite dangerous, risking the headset being pulled off the head when the cable was at its maximum reach. Playing wireless however is a revolution, and changes the way the player can play the game and interact with the opponent in a much more realistic manner. 

 

 

Let us know your favourite game that was transformed by playing wireless.