VRCHAT Full Body Tracking Guide

[nova grey eden]

Here is a basic rundown with everything you need to know about full body tracking for VRChat.
I couldn't find a lot of information about how it all works when I was interested and hopefully this will help someone.

Currently there are two ways you can track your body that I know about. You can use a set of HTC Vive Tracker Pucks (Vive only) or alternatively an old Kinect.

I didn't get around to fully trying out the Kinect option but it seemed to work in the setting up process. As far as I understand a 360 or an Xbox One Kinect will work but it depends on what headset you have. Kinect is obviously limited as it can only track so well and can only see you from specific angles. The software to run Kinect with your headset costs 20 dollars. It is called Driver4VR.

The more expensive route is to buy 3 Official HTC Vive Trackers. They cost 100 dollars each. They are mostly designed to be used for accessories like guns and rackets but they work great for full body tracking. The hardest part is trying to secure them to your body. The easiest solution is to buy the TrackStraps from the website. These screw into the tracker puck and let you strap them to arms, legs, ankles, feet and even through your belt.

Here is the problem though with these: They can jiggle when making large or powerful movements. I decided to take the strap off of my belt and just used a bolt to screw the tracker into it. This eliminated a lot of the jiggle but caused a new problem. Now the tracker could freely spin because the bolt was too long. What I decided to do was get 3 hair bands and secure each of the 3 corners of the puck. Now it doesn't spin and stays firmly secured. This also allows me to use my belt as a dedicated VR device. I can take the belt off and charge it.

As far as the trackers that I put on my feet... I discovered that they had a tendency to drift to the sides of my foot. Obviously this would cause issues with your avatar in VRChat. In order to secure them better I used the trackstrap going around the foot. Then I used two hair bands going on top of the corners of the tracker and under my shoe into one of the grooves. I used the laces to secure the 3rd side. Now the pucks are firm, don't spin and shouldn't jiggle much. It also eliminates the drift that was happening constantly.

Now, as far as getting them to work with your computer: The pucks came with 3 micro usb cables, dongles and dongle cradles. I had no idea what a dongle cradle was before I got these. Basically the main issue here is that you are going to need to have 3 usb ports to plug in the dongles which are attached to dongle cradles which are attached to micro usb cables.

The issue here is that you also need to charge your tracker pucks. So you may need to look around your house or buy a few more micro usb cables in order to charge them all.

Once you have everything on you push the power button on the trackers and they should turn colors. In SteamVR you will need to pair them and they will show up on the display. To pair them you need to hold down the power button on the tracker while you have pairing mode open. After that they should work and connect whenever you turn them on. I have sometimes had pairing issues though with one puck not showing up immediately. Or sometimes with an extra controller or puck showing. This is known as a ghost.

Once everything is attached (top of feet and middle of waist) launch VRChat. When it launches you will notice that your preset avatar is in a T pose. What you need to do is stand straight, put your feet where their feet are, and your hands where their hands are. After that hold both trigger buttons. This will rig the model to your body based on the trackers locations.

I have had a lot of problems with the posture of the avatars after I assume the T pose. If you notice this problem, try changing your posture when assuming the T pose and holding the triggers. Otherwise you can lower the height of your avatar to reduce the squatting amount. I usually lower my height about 5 inches and it works better. I highly recommend you either put the midline tracker in front or behind you. For some reason when it is on the left side the hip would go with the leg when kicking. This isn't always the case though.

Another tip: make sure that your trackers are always visible. The tracker on the hip, which can be placed anywhere around your midline, can sometimes be obscured by a t shirt. This will cause your avatar to spazz out and sometimes fly into the air. The problem fixes itself when you tuck your shirt in.

One of the major problems with full body tracking is that not a lot of the avatars are supported. There are some avatars which will bug out and walk with their knees going the wrong way, or appear on the ground like some kind of monster. Sadly it seems like a lot of the anime avatars have this problem. One of my favorite avatars for dancing straight up does not work at all.

That is basically all that there is to know about Tracking. If anyone has any questions let me know. I hope this helps those who are intersted but not that informed about the process.

UPDATE: I recommend dedicating a belt to VR and wearing it over your shirt over the hip as tight as you can tolerate. Cut off the slack with a pair of scissors. If you notice a lot of jiggle when stomping around try using hard shoes like a pair of boots. Boots reduce the jiggle apparently.

[nova grey eden]

Update: If your avatar is in a squat position after the T pose, squat in the T pose. This should make the avatar stand up straighter. Also putting the puck on the side of hip seems to be the best solution after all because you can lay down front and back.

[LaserShark]

So the tracker will just work? like with no setup or anything?

[LaserShark]

i tried connecting my 3 trackers and my headset just goes black but still has a green LED on it

[nova grey eden]

Originally posted by LaserShark666:

i tried connecting my 3 trackers and my headset just goes black but still has a green LED on it

Trackers shouldn’t have anything to do with the headset going black. If SteamVR is open it should just show the home location.

[MeowMeowNyan]

Originally posted by LaserShark666:

i tried connecting my 3 trackers and my headset just goes black but still has a green LED on it

Common problem with me. Try to reconnect all hdmi connections exept one in headset. And restart PC. This kind of problem happens to me when my NVidia driver gets an update. Some people say that permanent solution for this is to change hdmi cables for minidisplay.

[nova grey eden]

Originally posted by MeowMeowNyan:

Originally posted by LaserShark666:

i tried connecting my 3 trackers and my headset just goes black but still has a green LED on it

Common problem with me. Try to reconnect all hdmi connections exept one in headset. And restart PC. This kind of problem happens to me when my NVidia driver gets an update. Some people say that permanent solution for this is to change hdmi cables for minidisplay.

I actually had this problem but my situation is pretty uncommon. I have an Alienware laptop and a box called a Graphics Amplifier. The amplifier has a 1080 graphics card that override the internal one. I fiddled with all of the cables for hours. The problem turned out to be that the Graphics Amplifier wasn't properly set up. This made the HDMI cable not work because it obviosuly had nothing to display.

The problem seems to be mainly based around the HDMI and the USB cables. Try different ports or different cables. Thats the general advice I have read. You can also try the minidisplay like you said but I never had to do that.

Also some people advocate skipping that connector box altogether and plugging in the USB and HDMI directly.

[LaserShark]

A hard reset followed by waiting until steam was loaded to plug everything back in and then re download vive setup, but i solved it and the trackers worked just as you said they would

[nova grey eden]

Originally posted by LaserShark666:

A hard reset followed by waiting until steam was loaded to plug everything back in and then re download vive setup, but i solved it and the trackers worked just as you said they would

Glad I could help some. If you are going to put them on your feet and want to dance make sure they are on tight. I put them on a pair of snow boots to reduce some of the jiggle. Hope that helps.

You can find me in Void and other clubs pretty frequently

[LaserShark]

Originally posted by ReflectingVoid:

Originally posted by LaserShark666:

A hard reset followed by waiting until steam was loaded to plug everything back in and then re download vive setup, but i solved it and the trackers worked just as you said they would

Glad I could help some. If you are going to put them on your feet and want to dance make sure they are on tight. I put them on a pair of snow boots to reduce some of the jiggle. Hope that helps.

You can find me in Void and other clubs pretty frequently

im in florida, no snow boots

[Cakeman]

I'm using an Oculus with the kinect driver and the tests in the driver program show it working and steam senses it but in VR chat the tracking isn't working.The avatar starts in T-pose and the white tracker balls that I assume you line up with are always far away from the model in random places. Anyone know how to fix that?

[Jademalo]

Just got my trackers, and I've got a few problems.

For whatever reason, most of the time my model is squatting. I have to change the height in VRChat options to try and get it to stand straight, but then I feel really small.

I also have a problem where the floor height in vrchat doesn't match the floor height in SteamVR. This is especially a problem because it means the foot trackers get registered almost at knee level

Finally, when I change avatar and try to do the T-pose alignment, it totally ignores my foot trackers and just tracks my hip, which results in the model's legs going crazy. I have to rejoin the world in order for the foot trackers to properly recognise.

Any advice?

[nova grey eden]

Originally posted by Jademalo:

Just got my trackers, and I've got a few problems.

For whatever reason, most of the time my model is squatting. I have to change the height in VRChat options to try and get it to stand straight, but then I feel really small.

I also have a problem where the floor height in vrchat doesn't match the floor height in SteamVR. This is especially a problem because it means the foot trackers get registered almost at knee level

Finally, when I change avatar and try to do the T-pose alignment, it totally ignores my foot trackers and just tracks my hip, which results in the model's legs going crazy. I have to rejoin the world in order for the foot trackers to properly recognise.

Any advice?

Make sure you have calibrated roomscale so that everything is accurate. There are applications that add onto the SteamVR menu to allow you to easily calibrate floor height. The program is known to get the floor height wrong often and for it to change when it reopens. Most avatars squat when you try to use full body tracking because they aren't designed for full body. I believe it has to do with the proportions of the model. I have noticed that either the avatars are in a squat or the upperbody is extra sensitive. When the upperbody is sensitive bending is exaggerated at the torso level. If the avatar is in a squat the only thing you really can do is change the height. I think you want to change the height before you put on the avatar because otherwise I think it will be hovering a little.

The best avatars I have found for full body tracking are the Raiden avatar at Ketchum and the Warframes at Avatar Ark as well as the Borderlands avatars at Grand Dad's. Anime characters are often broken or the tracker balls that show up are usually way above the height of the foot which won't usually be an issue unless you are sitting down, at which point you will basically be hovering above the floor. Best situation is when the balls are right above the foot or maybe slightly inside them.

Sometimes the trackers won't work when you join a world and you will have to rejoin several times for them to start tracking again.

[Jademalo]

Originally posted by ReflectingVoid:

Make sure you have calibrated roomscale so that everything is accurate. There are applications that add onto the SteamVR menu to allow you to easily calibrate floor height. The program is known to get the floor height wrong often and for it to change when it reopens. Most avatars squat when you try to use full body tracking because they aren't designed for full body. I believe it has to do with the proportions of the model. I have noticed that either the avatars are in a squat or the upperbody is extra sensitive. When the upperbody is sensitive bending is exaggerated at the torso level. If the avatar is in a squat the only thing you really can do is change the height. I think you want to change the height before you put on the avatar because otherwise I think it will be hovering a little.

The best avatars I have found for full body tracking are the Raiden avatar at Ketchum and the Warframes at Avatar Ark as well as the Borderlands avatars at Grand Dad's. Anime characters are often broken or the tracker balls that show up are usually way above the height of the foot which won't usually be an issue unless you are sitting down, at which point you will basically be hovering above the floor. Best situation is when the balls are right above the foot or maybe slightly inside them.

Sometimes the trackers won't work when you join a world and you will have to rejoin several times for them to start tracking again.

SteamVR floor height is correct.
I know this for absolute certain. I can quite clearly see the edge of my chaperone bounds floating in mid air, well above the "floor" in VRChat.

The really basic red robot actually worked really well for me, but I had to set my height to 5'5 in order to not squat. I'm 5'9, so I'm not sure why that was. When it worked though, it worked REALLY well.

The problem I'm having isn't with the trackers when joining a world, most of the time that's the only way they work. My problem is when I switch avatar and get the T-pose to rig, it never detects the feet properly. The balls are there, but when I press in the triggers the only point that it actually assigns is the waist. This means that my legs fly around at random angles depending on the angle of the tracker on my waist.
Reloading the world works 100% of the time, changing an avatar works 0% of the time.

[nova grey eden]

Originally posted by Jademalo:

Originally posted by ReflectingVoid:

Make sure you have calibrated roomscale so that everything is accurate. There are applications that add onto the SteamVR menu to allow you to easily calibrate floor height. The program is known to get the floor height wrong often and for it to change when it reopens. Most avatars squat when you try to use full body tracking because they aren't designed for full body. I believe it has to do with the proportions of the model. I have noticed that either the avatars are in a squat or the upperbody is extra sensitive. When the upperbody is sensitive bending is exaggerated at the torso level. If the avatar is in a squat the only thing you really can do is change the height. I think you want to change the height before you put on the avatar because otherwise I think it will be hovering a little.

The best avatars I have found for full body tracking are the Raiden avatar at Ketchum and the Warframes at Avatar Ark as well as the Borderlands avatars at Grand Dad's. Anime characters are often broken or the tracker balls that show up are usually way above the height of the foot which won't usually be an issue unless you are sitting down, at which point you will basically be hovering above the floor. Best situation is when the balls are right above the foot or maybe slightly inside them.

Sometimes the trackers won't work when you join a world and you will have to rejoin several times for them to start tracking again.

SteamVR floor height is correct.
I know this for absolute certain. I can quite clearly see the edge of my chaperone bounds floating in mid air, well above the "floor" in VRChat.

The really basic red robot actually worked really well for me, but I had to set my height to 5'5 in order to not squat. I'm 5'9, so I'm not sure why that was. When it worked though, it worked REALLY well.

The problem I'm having isn't with the trackers when joining a world, most of the time that's the only way they work. My problem is when I switch avatar and get the T-pose to rig, it never detects the feet properly. The balls are there, but when I press in the triggers the only point that it actually assigns is the waist. This means that my legs fly around at random angles depending on the angle of the tracker on my waist.
Reloading the world works 100% of the time, changing an avatar works 0% of the time.

The height changing problem is something I and everyone else just have to deal with. The standard blue and red robots also work a lot better than most. Hopefully VRChat offers a patch for the squatting issue because I don't really understand it.

I THINK I know what the problem you are having is. When I first enter the T pose and click my triggers the only thing that works properly is the upper body. In order to get the legs to work I have to walk with the dpad a little bit. Then all of a sudden the trackers will override the legs.

Then when I go to another world it usually remembers that I entered the T pose and give me leg control but sometimes I have to reload a world to get the legs to work again. So basically I think your problem is that you have to use the dial to walk to get them to work first.

[nova grey eden]

Also regarding the height issue. I am 5'11'' and I have usually adjust the height to 5'7''. So basically the same exact situation you have.