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You Can Use A Kinect For Full Body Tracking In SteamVR; Here’s How

When HTC launches the Vive Tracker universal tracking devices in the consumer market before the end of the year, it will enable full-body tracking in room-scale experiences. But if you have an old Microsoft Kinect, you can use it for full body tracking today. Driver4VR has released a free utility that lets you use a Kinect sensor to emulate three

Pucks Vive Tracker for Full Body Tracking

in SteamVR.

Several years ago, Microsoft made a big deal out of its Kinect sensor. The company released the first-generation version for the Xbox 360, but market response was mixed at best. Consumers didn't seem to care, and developers responded in kind. Microsoft made another attempt to revive the Kinect by bundling it with the Xbox One console, but again interest was limited. Microsoft finally threw in the towel last year when it launched the

Xbox One S without Kinect port

.

Even though the Xbox 360 and Xbox One communities haven't embraced the Kinect as Microsoft had hoped, the Kinect lives on as a DIYer's gadget. With an inexpensive adapter you can buy on Amazon, you can convert your dusty Kinect sensor into a PC peripheral, and with Driver4VR's utility, you can use it to enhance your VR experience with full-body tracking.

Driver4VR's free utility works with HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, as well as

Nolo VR controllers

paired with mobile VR headset and utility

Riftcat

, but the version of the Kinect sensor you have will determine which headset you can use. The Xbox 360 Kinect sensor supports all three platforms, while the Xbox One Kinect 2.0 sensor is only compatible with Oculus Rift.

For a while, Microsoft sold a standalone Kinect device

for use with your PC, but the company discontinued version 1.0 in early 2015, and it

discontinued production of Kinect for Windows 2.0

in April 2015. Microsoft currently sells a

official adapter

which converts the proprietary Xbox One Kinect port to a USB port for use with a Windows 10 PC or

Xbox One S / Console X

. If you have an Xbox 360 Kinect, you can use the

Hyperkin Kinect PC Power Adapter for Xbox 360

to use it on your PC.

Once you have the hardware that allows you to use your Kinect sensor on your PC, you will need the runtime driver that allows Windows to recognize the device. Xbox 360 Kinect sensor requires

Kinect for Windows Runtime v1.8

, and the Xbox One Kinect Sensor

requires version 2.0

. Once the Kinect drivers are installed, you install the Driver4VR utility, which you can

find on the Driver4VR website

. The developer requires you to create an ID for the site before you can download the app, but the free subscription gives you access to the utility and installation resources.

Once the Driver4VR utility is installed, you calibrate the Kinect Sensor for full body tracking. Open Driver4VR utility and enable Body Tracking option from Kinect. To start the emulator, press the Start Driver4VR button at the top of the window. You should see a D4 icon appear in the SteamVR Devices window along with three Kinect icons. If they don't appear, you may need to restart SteamVR and Driver4VR or reinstall the Kinect runtime software.

When you see the sensor icons in SteamVR, you can run the calibration utility to fine tune the tracking accuracy. The Driver4VR utility offers a step-by-step guide that walks you through body calibration. The software should measure your body from multiple viewpoints and positions, including standing and squatting poses at multiple locations in the tracked VR game space to create a model of your body movements.

Once you've calibrated Driver4VR, you should be able to use your feet in a variety of SteamVR titles, including

Climbey

,

VRChat

, Final Goalie< /p>

, and

Tornuffalo

. Once the

Vive Trackers will be available

for consumers, there should be several other titles with full body tracking support, such as

Cloudgate's

Island 359

.

Kevin Carrotte

Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes news and reviews of graphics cards and virtual reality hardware.