SlimeVR #
SlimeVR is a set of open hardware sensors and open source software that facilitates full-body tracking (FBT) in virtual reality.
SlimeVR is an open source IMU based full body tracking system. Being open source it has Linux support and there are a few variants you can either buy or build yourself.
You can pre-order the official SlimeVR trackers from their crowdsupply page, but at the time of writing this if you order them right now you’d need to wait approximately 4 months for your orders to ship, due to the very high demand driven by low cost and good quality tracking compared to other solutions.
Building #
Alternatively you can build it on your own, and you have a few variants to choose from:
- Official SlimeVR DIY builders guide
- Frozen Slimes V2
- while a bit bigger, Frozen Slimes V2 tend to be cheaper and a lot easier to build, being approachable even for people that are inexperienced with soldering
It’s generally highly recommended to opt for the more expensive but higher quality BNO085 IMU module. This should offer the highest quality tracking with best precision and minimal drifting.
Add and register the SteamVR driver #
Download the SlimeVR driver for SteamVR, extract it and place the slimevr folder in the $HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/ folder. This path may change depending on where your SteamVR install is located. To make sure you moved the right folder, make sure that the following path exists: $HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/slimevr/bin/linux64/driver_slimevr.so.
Then you’ll need to register the driver using the following command.
Important: make sure to NOT run this command twice, adding a driver twice will cause problems.
$HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/bin/linux64/vrpathreg.sh adddriver $HOME/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/slimevr