Loses tracking until I press menu button ?! (at times constantly)

[ntblood]

I get the light grey screen on my Vive HMD which indicated lost head-tracking. Sometimes it just happens a bit then other times it's happening constantly until I press the menu button. The menu comes up and the headset image is restored for just a bit longer than I leave it open. What's strange is that the amount this happens varies greatly from none to non-stop. Also why would the menu restore the tracking and there-by the HMD image. Any ideas? *other than opening menus the other thing that can help is moving my head though this has limited success it does at least for a bit bring back the tracking if I'm getting constant grey screen (lost tracking).

I noticed most often this happens in outside environments when it's especially bad (100% grey screen until menu button pressed then after a second image restores). Its not that it can't happen inside but just today I was in an inside cell and the grey screen was not that bad, then I go outside and it's horrible. I also noticed that lowering the VR performance settings doesn't seem to help at all, even after a reboot. Then later the same outside area will run like butter, so hard to nail down what it is. Removing my other USB cables, lowering the room temperature with AC, "tickling" the HMD to keep it reasonably away while the game boots up, nothing seems to nail down the issue in a predictable cause. It took me a long time to realize this was a tracking issue and not a video, or performance, or mod issue for when it's really bad. A few grey blinks here and there seems normal from what I've seen, especially when enemy NPCs are coming into action.

Thanks

PS. I tried using the sync cable with the Vive base stations but that didn't help. I also checked in SteamVR>Settings>Developer>Room Overview and it looked good there. I'm surprised none of that seemed to help at all.

Edited August 15, 2018 by ntblood

[ntblood]

I've found that so far the only things that seem to help constant tracking loss (grey HMD screen) other than opening the menu is if I move my head more and maybe keeping the temperature down for my computer.

[cptmrcalm]

Never seem to have time to use my PC these days. Been a while since ive been to this forum also -but just saw your message. I hope you've figured it out by now - but if not and for those coming across this wishing to know the answer:-

 

M8 - go into the settings and turn off the camera on the headset. Make sure its plugged into USB 2.0 and not 3.0 as well.

 

I'm sure i had this problem too. When suggested to me - it seemed totally unrelated. But I did it and it worked fine again.

 

I've since learned that you can have the camera on - but I had to move the slider bar to half way on the camera setting. This fixed it for me.

 

Also -if playing in a dark/dim room, make sure there are no strong "kinks" of light anywhere.

[ntblood]

@cptmrcalm, thanks though in SteamVR Settings the Camera is set to off by default.

2 things solved it: Lower display settings to minimum (draw distances, etc) & keeping the Windows focus on MO2 (mod organizer 2).

My unique situation: running SkyrimVR through MO2 & my Alienware laptop's nVidia graphics card has it's HDMI output run through the motherboard which probably bottlenecks to some degree the connection to the HMD, headset.

I found that lowering the performance settings in all of my games (though especially SkyrimVR and FO4 VR) helps the Grey-headset/screen issue a lot. Also I have to be aware if the Windows focus changes and where it is. I'm running SkyrimVR and FO4VR through MO2 so the Windows focus needs to be on MO2 (unless I need to quickly enter some console commands/cheats, then toggle the focus back to MO2 with Alt+Tab). Also running the SteamVR RoomSetup is a good idea every once is awhile or if tracking and grey-screen issues raises it's ugly head. Things are working well now that I've figured out how.

Edited September 26, 2018 by ntblood