Guides How to use Hand Tracking in VAM | 2.0 (Quest)

[AndyMa]

May I ask how you can bind the penis part of your tracker?

 

[garibaldi18]

Hi, this looks amazing but I can’t get it to work. For some reason when I try to launch VAM via SteamVR it just gets stuck showing the main UI, with no version listed and a swirling red hourglass.


When I launch outside of steam vr (using vr) but via a batch file to bypass steamvr VAM works fine, but without this level of hand tracking.
Any idea on if there is some fix? Thanks!

Update—it looks like I can’t open VAM from steamvr even when hand tracking is disabled, so it must be a separate issue.

 

[thinoreos]

Hi, this looks amazing but I can’t get it to work. For some reason when I try to launch VAM via SteamVR it just gets stuck showing the main UI, with no version listed and a swirling red hourglass.


When I launch outside of steam vr (using vr) but via a batch file to bypass steamvr VAM works fine, but without this level of hand tracking.
Any idea on if there is some fix? Thanks!

Update—it looks like I can’t open VAM from steamvr even when hand tracking is disabled, so it must be a separate issue.

Yup it's something to do with SteamVR interacting with your Vam. Possibly some add on you added like a Vr perf kit or Toolkit, or maybe running from the wrong runtime

 

[garibaldi18]

Yup it's something to do with SteamVR interacting with your Vam. Possibly some add on you added like a Vr perf kit or Toolkit, or maybe running from the wrong runtime

Thanks. So hopefully if I reinstall SteamVR it might work?

 

[DorianD]

Hello Thinoreos,

I use a Quest 2 and I am stuck after VAM opening: My Touch controlers are not working in Virtual Desktop.
They work correctly when I launch VAM via Airlink.
They work also in Virtual Desktop with other games but not with VAM.
Do you have any idee about that problem?

Best Regards,

Dorian

 

[thinoreos]

Hello Thinoreos,

I use a Quest 2 and I am stuck after VAM opening: My Touch controlers are not working in Virtual Desktop.
They work correctly when I launch VAM via Airlink.
They work also in Virtual Desktop with other games but not with VAM.
Do you have any idee about that problem?

Best Regards,

Dorian

Are you launching in virtual desktop with SteamVR? Or which runtime?

 

[DorianD]

Are you launching in virtual desktop with SteamVR? Or which runtime?

I start with a batch containing: START "VaM" VaM.exe -vrmode OpenVR

 

[thinoreos]

I start with a batch containing: START "VaM" VaM.exe -vrmode OpenVR

Try launching normally with SteamVR first

 

[HappyHenry]

All I got was 3 seconds of hand tracking and frozen hands in VAM when the controllers went to sleep. What the ?
Hand tracking is working nonstop outside of games though. I think the VAM check the controller sleep status.

 

[DorianD]

Try launching normally with SteamVR first

In SteamVR I see only my Steam games. How to proceed to launch VAM from there?

 

[HappyHenry]

In SteamVR I see only my Steam games. How to proceed to launch VAM from there?

Add a non-steam game at the bottom of Steam (in non-vr mode)

 

[thinoreos]

All I got was 3 seconds of hand tracking and frozen hands in VAM when the controllers went to sleep. What the ?
Hand tracking is working nonstop outside of games though. I think the VAM check the controller sleep status.

That's weird, are you sure your hand tracking options are all set correctly in Meta settings & VD input settings?

 

[DorianD]

Add a non-steam game at the bottom of Steam (in non-vr mode)

Thank you Henry.

 

[DorianD]

That's weird, are you sure your hand tracking options are all set correctly in Meta settings & VD input settings?

Same problem when I launch VAM from SteamVR.
Note that the problem is the same with "Hand tracking" configuration (index controllers) and native configuration (Touch controllers).
it seems that the controllers stream does not pass for VAM while it passes for the others games.

 

[thinoreos]

Same problem when I launch VAM from SteamVR.
Note that the problem is the same with "Hand tracking" configuration (index controllers) and native configuration (Touch controllers).
it seems that the controllers stream does not pass for VAM while it passes for the others games.

This is actually not the right post for this as this is about Hand tracking... but I'll help anyways.
Don't try advanced things like hand tracking before your regular controllers work.

I advice a fresh clean install of VAM or syncing/repair core. Fresh install is better imo

 

[groinc]

Can you explain how you got the individual fingers tracked? All I seem to get is the two basic grab poses. Plus I notice jittering. Did you find this too?
Ta!

 

[DorianD]

This is actually not the right post for this as this is about Hand tracking... but I'll help anyways.
Don't try advanced things like hand tracking before your regular controllers work.

I advice a fresh clean install of VAM or syncing/repair core. Fresh install is better imo

YES!!!!! With a fresh install the problem is gone.
Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial and your adivices.
One more question: Do you have any idee how to prevent fingers from bending in the opposite direction when they collide with something?
The VAM's hands appear to be made of rubber. Real fingers should breake with such opposite flexion.

 

[thinoreos]

Can you explain how you got the individual fingers tracked? All I seem to get is the two basic grab poses. Plus I notice jittering. Did you find this too?
Ta!

Hello, you're the guy from the review, if you only get two basic poses that means you didn't follow the steps correctly and your hand isn't tracking right. Did you follow everything exactly?

YES!!!!! With a fresh install the problem is gone.
Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial and your adivices.
One more question: Do you have any idee how to prevent fingers from bending in the opposite direction when they collide with something?
The VAM's hands appear to be made of rubber. Real fingers should breake with such opposite flexion.

No worries, that's unfortunately just the default hand of VAM. You could look around for plugins for that but I don't really know off the top of my head

 

[Barumm]

Hello, you're the guy from the review, if you only get two basic poses that means you didn't follow the steps correctly and your hand isn't tracking right. Did you follow everything exactly?


No worries, that's unfortunately just the default hand of VAM. You could look around for plugins for that but I don't really know off the top of my head

Same issue, partial tracking only. Did the whole setup 3 times.

 

[thinoreos]

Same issue, partial tracking only. Did the whole setup 3 times.

A) When you're in default SteamVR or SteamVR home, do you see the Index controllers on your hands?
B) This is with or without the SteamVR controller bindings?
C) Inside VAM settings, send a screenshot of your VR settings page 1 & page 2

 

[Barumm]

A) When you're in default SteamVR or SteamVR home, do you see the Index controllers on your hands?
B) This is with or without the SteamVR controller bindings?
C) Inside VAM settings, send a screenshot of your VR settings page 1 & page 2

A)

PASS
B) Without any steam controller bindings, just default settings.
C)

I use a new install of VAM.

 

[thinoreos]

A) View attachment 356946View attachment 356947 PASS
B) Without any steam controller bindings, just default settings.
C)View attachment 356948View attachment 356949View attachment 356951
I use a new install of VAM.

Okay I see your issue, your virtual desktop isn't hand tracking with Index controllers. That is the first step needed to get everything working.

This isn't the best video, but if you see at 2:23 your controller should be Index controllers, not Quest controllers like yours. Follow STEP by step exactly how I did, and also how this guy did it in the video:

 

[Barumm]

Okay I see your issue, your virtual desktop isn't hand tracking with Index controllers. That is the first step needed to get everything working.

This isn't the best video, but if you see at 2:23 your controller should be Index controllers, not Quest controllers like yours. Follow STEP by step exactly how I did, and also how this guy did it in the video:

Actually you describe this in point 4 in your guide. I did that, multiple times. Still steamVR will only load my Quest/Rift controllers. Even if I completely deleted and reinstalled SteamVR (I manually deleted the config files). Simply put the emulate Index Controller feature does not work for me in Virtual Desktop. (The other emulation works for body tracking.)

 

[thinoreos]

Actually you describe this in point 4 in your guide. I did that, multiple times. Still steamVR will only load my Quest/Rift controllers. Even if I completely deleted and reinstalled SteamVR (I manually deleted the config files). Simply put the emulate Index Controller feature does not work for me in Virtual Desktop. (The other emulation works for body tracking.)

You might have some conflicting SteamVR driver or SteamVR addons, check and see. SteamVR drivers like infuse, alvr, etc etc could intefere

For addons it's under: Launch SteamVR > Right click SteamVR > Settings > Startup/Shutdown > Manage Add-Ons:

Make sure Virtual Desktop Streamer (Quest) is the only thing ON, the rest should be OFF

Can also try reinstalling Virtual Desktop

 

[Barumm]

You might have some conflicting SteamVR driver or SteamVR addons, check and see. SteamVR drivers like infuse, alvr, etc etc could intefere

For addons it's under: Launch SteamVR > Right click SteamVR > Settings > Startup/Shutdown > Manage Add-Ons:
View attachment 357124
Make sure Virtual Desktop Streamer (Quest) is the only thing ON, the rest should be OFF

Can also try reinstalling Virtual Desktop

This solved my issue. Thank you for your patience and help. I hope everyone can profit from my case.