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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for cmn32480

[Valve w]ill allow anyone to build trackable sensors into hardware meant for VR experiences.

If a hardware maker wants to create physical objects that will interface with SteamVR—like a pair of gloves, a two-handed shotgun, a piece of fake medical equipment, or whatever else you can imagine—the object in question needs to be tracked by the system's "room-scale" pair of infrared boxes. The HTC Vive's headset and wands play nicely in VR mostly because they're each covered by dozens of IR receiver dots. The headset and wands are spread out in such a way that, no matter how you hold or use them, one of the Vive's two tracking boxes can be seen by enough of the IR dots.

Third-party hardware makers have flooded recent gaming expos with their own hacked-together attempts at this sort of thing, usually by attaching extra hardware to existing HTC Vive wands. Now, they can reach out directly to Steam and request a trackable-peripheral dev kit, which includes EVM circuit boards, Vive tracking boxes, and 40 individual sensors, to create their own working hardware prototype. This kit will be made available for free to approved licensees, and it will include documentation and information that hardware manufacturers can use to eventually mass-produce any finished product.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/08/valve-will-grant-royalty-free-licenses-to-anybody-making-steamvr-peripherals/

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