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

[cheeeeellin]

Wow, I must live under a rock cause I never knew you could do this! Really cool. I've been reluctant to use SteamVR in the past due to noticeable loss in performance, but maybe this feature is worth the compromise? Do you notice any performance loss when using VD with SteamVR?

 

[thinoreos]

Wow, I must live under a rock cause I never knew you could do this! Really cool. I've been reluctant to use SteamVR in the past due to noticeable loss in performance, but maybe this feature is worth the compromise? Do you notice any performance loss when using VD with SteamVR?

It's true, SteamVR does cause some performance loss. However, with SteamVR you can use the OpenVR-FSR-App with the Foveated plugin which helps with performance

 

[cheeeeellin]

It's true, SteamVR does cause some performance loss. However, with SteamVR you can use the OpenVR-FSR-App with the Foveated plugin which helps with performance

Cool! I'll check that out.

 

[myers]

Hello,

first off, great job! I do have a question regarding Passthrough. Is there a possibility to hide VR hands but keep the physics of hands still on, so that i am able to use my own hands, which i can obviously see in passthrough ?
If i toggle VR hand visibility, the problem is, that the physics of the vr hands is also turned off.

Regards,

 

[thinoreos]

Hello,

first off, great job! I do have a question regarding Passthrough. Is there a possibility to hide VR hands but keep the physics of hands still on, so that i am able to use my own hands, which i can obviously see in passthrough ?
If i toggle VR hand visibility, the problem is, that the physics of the vr hands is also turned off.

Regards,

Thanks! So we don't have universal hand occlusion yet, and VAM doesn't have a function to "use" hands like normal when it's disabled. I don't know any methods, if anyone else has a method of doing so let us know, would be great

 

[dzft3w]

Hand tracking is working, feels like what a VR game should have, thanks for the guide. but the UI interaction is not made for this. During playing, the game often thinks I want to grab something and glue some random object or joint to my hands, ruining the character's pose, I wish the grabbing is not included in the gesture, or it should not be a toggle to grab.

 

[thinoreos]

Hand tracking is working, feels like what a VR game should have, thanks for the guide. but the UI interaction is not made for this. During playing, the game often thinks I want to grab something and glue some random object or joint to my hands, ruining the character's pose, I wish the grabbing is not included in the gesture, or it should not be a toggle to grab.

It's funny you mention that, because a new Beta just came out and has tons more customization I'm working on to make this better...

 

[thinoreos]

thinoreos updated How to use Hand Tracking in VAM | 2.0 (Quest) with a new update entry:

2.0

Update 2.0 is here baby! NEW: Brand new input, no more accidental grabbing, movement (finally), Steam Link, and more

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Saint66]

Excellent update, didn't know about the new Steam Link features, thank you!
I assume there is still no way to use passthrough through Stem Link?

 

[thinoreos]

Excellent update, didn't know about the new Steam Link features, thank you!
I assume there is still no way to use passthrough through Stem Link?

Thanks a lot, and no passthrough yet in Steam Link... To be honest I'm not sure if they're even considering it, but would be nice to have

 

[vamnewbiexx]

Hey I've created another thread but going to post it here too. I have problem with my quest 3 and I can't see controller when opening VirtaMate. I tried both VaM.exe and VaM (OpenXR) and tried lauching though VaMUpdater and selecting Start VR.

So I run VaM only with Virtual Desktop with runs flawlessly but now I wanted to try the hand tracking from some guide which requires starting VaM via Steam Link and SteamVR. The game runs but I cannot see my controllers in game, they do not respond to anything. I can still call the SteamVR menu but that's it. How do I run it properly via SteamVR?

I've confirmed in Meta App that current runtime is set to "OpenXR: SteamVR".

Also I have another issue (or at least I think so). I tried changing the controller to hand controller anyway in SteamVR settings. When I select hand tracking controller and go back it automatically switches to default instead of custom and says "Active controller: Oculus Touch" (even if I am in hand tracking mode). Is this how it should be?

 

[thinoreos]

Hey I've created another thread but going to post it here too. I have problem with my quest 3 and I can't see controller when opening VirtaMate. I tried both VaM.exe and VaM (OpenXR) and tried lauching though VaMUpdater and selecting Start VR.

So I run VaM only with Virtual Desktop with runs flawlessly but now I wanted to try the hand tracking from some guide which requires starting VaM via Steam Link and SteamVR. The game runs but I cannot see my controllers in game, they do not respond to anything. I can still call the SteamVR menu but that's it. How do I run it properly via SteamVR?

I've confirmed in Meta App that current runtime is set to "OpenXR: SteamVR".

Also I have another issue (or at least I think so). I tried changing the controller to hand controller anyway in SteamVR settings. When I select hand tracking controller and go back it automatically switches to default instead of custom and says "Active controller: Oculus Touch" (even if I am in hand tracking mode). Is this how it should be?

Make sure you don't have any 3rd party programs like VR Perf kit or OpenXR toolkit or something conflicting with it.

Best way to make sure is to do a clean install of VAM and double check your SteamVR settings and AddOns

 

[vamnewbiexx]

Make sure you don't have any 3rd party programs like VR Perf kit or OpenXR toolkit or something conflicting with it.

Best way to make sure is to do a clean install of VAM and double check your SteamVR settings and AddOns

Yeah, I disabled openXR toolkit previously and now I've tried disabling SteamVR addons (there was virtual desktop addon for meta)... still no luck. Thanks for the tips thou, I'll see what I can do

 

[Johninvr]

Fantastic guide!!! Ran into an issue where the VR hands in VAM just randomly disappear for no reason at all that I can find. I’ll have a scene setup and put my controllers down, raise my hands and they appear exactly as instructed and each finger is reactive exactly like you want. But within 5 mins of playing or so if I grab the controllers to switch a look and then go back to VR hands, the hands are suddenly invisible. Seems to only affect VAM and not steam. Any ideas?

 

[thinoreos]

Fantastic guide!!! Ran into an issue where the VR hands in VAM just randomly disappear for no reason at all that I can find. I’ll have a scene setup and put my controllers down, raise my hands and they appear exactly as instructed and each finger is reactive exactly like you want. But within 5 mins of playing or so if I grab the controllers to switch a look and then go back to VR hands, the hands are suddenly invisible. Seems to only affect VAM and not steam. Any ideas?

That's strange, have you tried restarting everything pc, headset, modem, router and it still happens?

 

[linck]

shame u have to run in on steam. when i run it on steam i lag so bad and crash a lot

 

[Johninvr]

That's strange, have you tried restarting everything pc, headset, modem, router and it still happens?

I have and think I’ve at least identified the problem. Whenever I go to the controller bindings for hands and select your created binding for whatever reason the hands disappear. Whenever I change the bindings back to the default then the hands show back up in VR and work exactly as they should, with the exception of the grabbing problem which is what caused you to create the custom binding in the first place.

I’ve tried to customize the default binding but when I go to save it something in my Steam VR seems to glitch and I just get a blank blue screen, it does this both in VR and on the desktop. Also when I try to go back to your custom binding I’ll click the activate button and it just doesn’t do anything, like it’s not acknowledging the request to send it on yours.


Please don’t take this as a critique of your work, you’ve done an amazing tutorial here and it works for everyone else, my system just seems to have a bug somewhere so I’ll keep messing with it.

Thanks for the reply and all you do!

 

[thinoreos]

I have and think I’ve at least identified the problem. Whenever I go to the controller bindings for hands and select your created binding for whatever reason the hands disappear. Whenever I change the bindings back to the default then the hands show back up in VR and work exactly as they should, with the exception of the grabbing problem which is what caused you to create the custom binding in the first place.

I’ve tried to customize the default binding but when I go to save it something in my Steam VR seems to glitch and I just get a blank blue screen, it does this both in VR and on the desktop. Also when I try to go back to your custom binding I’ll click the activate button and it just doesn’t do anything, like it’s not acknowledging the request to send it on yours.


Please don’t take this as a critique of your work, you’ve done an amazing tutorial here and it works for everyone else, my system just seems to have a bug somewhere so I’ll keep messing with it.

Thanks for the reply and all you do!

No you're right, I believe this is a bug with the latest SteamVR beta, bindings savings. It has happened to me before too, reported to SteamVR bugs. Hopefully they acknowledge it and fix it

 

[henshin]

I'm a bit confused with the two alternatives:

1. Use only SteamVR (you need to enable beta).
PROS: better hand tracking, without grab problems
CONS: no passthrough

2. Use VirtualDesktop with SteamVR
PROS: passthrough
CONST: grabbing issues and worst performance

Is this correct?

 

[thinoreos]

I'm a bit confused with the two alternatives:

1. Use only SteamVR (you need to enable beta).
PROS: better hand tracking, without grab problems
CONS: no passthrough

2. Use VirtualDesktop with SteamVR
PROS: passthrough
CONST: grabbing issues and worst performance

Is this correct?

Yup that's about right, and don't forget the biggest one: SteamLink is free, Virtual Desktop is paid

 

[henshin]

Yup that's about right, and don't forget the biggest one: SteamLink is free, Virtual Desktop is paid

Are you still using VR-Mod App by tappi287 ?
It seems only works with SteamVR but the post is old, before Quest3, so I'm not sure if it's useful now.
And if it is, what do you think is faster?
A) VirtualDesktop without SteamVR
B) VirtualDesktop with SteamVR and VRMod
C) SteamLink with SteamVR and VRMod

 

[thinoreos]

Are you still using VR-Mod App by tappi287 ?
It seems only works with SteamVR but the post is old, before Quest3, so I'm not sure if it's useful now.
And if it is, what do you think is faster?
A) VirtualDesktop without SteamVR
B) VirtualDesktop with SteamVR and VRMod
C) SteamLink with SteamVR and VRMod

This post is about hand tracking, you can ask in the other performance guides

I have one of those performance guides too somwhere on this site

 

[henshin]

Finally I was able to make it work, but I have some issues:

1. Is very difficult to point the laser to the correct buttons
2. When I open VAM menu is usually rotated and difficult to manage in that way
3. Is possible to "reduce" the interaction of the body female with our hands, it feels too strong, if I touch her mouth it opens a lot, it feels like an horror movie, and if I touch her breast they move like gelatin (thanks for your no accidental grabbing solution!)

Do you have some tips for those "problems"? (I guess are not real problems, it's just me not knowing how to use this properly)

 

[thinoreos]

Finally I was able to make it work, but I have some issues:

1. Is very difficult to point the laser to the correct buttons
2. When I open VAM menu is usually rotated and difficult to manage in that way
3. Is possible to "reduce" the interaction of the body female with our hands, it feels too strong, if I touch her mouth it opens a lot, it feels like an horror movie, and if I touch her breast they move like gelatin (thanks for your no accidental grabbing solution!)

Do you have some tips for those "problems"? (I guess are not real problems, it's just me not knowing how to use this properly)

1. Like mentioned in the post try not to use it for the main menu or UI, use controllers for laser pointers
2. Like mentioned in the post rotate your hand vertically before opening the menu
3. It's the same as normal VAM with controllers, you can disable the plugin Titty magic to reduce it