https://vimeo.com/1002592033

View the SteamVR open early access roadmap here

Required Materials

Software

The below software is required for this guide, except those marked as optional:

TIP: Installers for the StretchSense App for SteamVR can be downloaded from the My Account → Software Downloads section of the StretchSense website.

Hardware

This guide supports the following hardware options:

Gloves	Image
StretchSense Studio Gloves, Pro Studio for Xsens, Pro Studio.

XR Trackers (choose one)	Image
2x Vive Tracker 3.0
2x Tundra Tracker (includes 2x SteamVR dongles).We recommend using a Super Wireless Dongle – Tundra Labs with Tundra trackers as this only requires a single USB port.

Tracker Mount	Image
2x StretchSense Studio Optical/Universal Mounts(if using Tundra or VIVE Tracker 3.0)

VR Headsets (choose one)	Image
Vive Pro
Vive Pro 2
Valve Index (headset only)
Other SteamVR & Valve Base Station 2.0 compatible VR headset.

Other Required Hardware	Image
3-4x Valve Index Base Station 2.0(A minimum of 3 base stations are required for optimal tracking performance)

This guide assumes you have already setup your VR headset and you have two SteamVR compatible trackers such as VIVE trackers or tundra trackers and are using the Optical/Universal mount that was shipped with your Studio Gloves.

1. SteamVR Tracker Setup

1. Follow these instructions to assign the trackers role in SteamVR so they can be detected by the StretchSense Driver.

In the Steam VR settings select Manage Trackers (see below)

For the Left and Right trackers set the Tracker Role set to HELD IN HAND, then set the Hand value to match the glove you have attached the tracker to. Click Closeand also close SteamVR Settings.

2. Leave SteamVR running in the background.

2. StretchSense Driver Add-On for SteamVR

1. Go to SteamVR Settings → Startup / Shutdown → Manage SteamVR Add-Ons
2. Toggle Open Gloves OFF (if installed)
3. Run the StretchSense App for SteamVR installer.
4. Go to SteamVR Settings → Startup / Shutdown → Manage SteamVR Add-Ons
5. Check stretchsense is toggled ON.
6. Restart SteamVR

3. Calibrating StretchSense Controller Emulation App

Configuring Hand Engine

1. Install Hand Engine v3.2.0-Lite
2. Open Hand Engine and go to Edit → Settings → Open SDK

3. Make sure Enabled is switched ON (should be ON by default) and that the following settings are toggled ON:

4. Streaming Ports: 9400

5. performer/glove/status: ON
6. animation/rotation: ON
7. animation/slider/all: ON

8. animation/capacitances/all: ON

   4. Ensure Windows Firewall has not blocked the outgoing connections on port 9400. This is used to communicate with the StretchSense Driver for SteamVR.

Configuring StretchSense App for SteamVR

1. Ensure SteamVR is running.
2. Launch the StretchSense App for SteamVR.
3. A message should appear, saying that the connection is successful. If it doesn’t, try restarting your PC, then follow steps 1-3.

Calibrating Glove Data

Prior to training or loading a model you must calibrate the glove. This step is currently required each time you start the StretchSense App for SteamVR, even if you have already calibrated the glove in Hand Engine. These normalize the range of motion that your hand can perform and sets a baseline for any trained button models.

TIP: Always calibrate and train with the trackers mounted to your gloves. This ensures the calibration accurately reflects the additional weight and pull from the mount and trackers.

1. Click the left hand Calibrate button.

2. Move your hand to make the following gestures before the timer runs out. You may need to practice this a few times.

Example Side	Example Front	Gesture	Description
		Paddle	Start with this pose. Keep fingers together and straight.
		Reach	Splay your fingers outwards to spread them evenly. Reach as far as is comfortable.
		Reach + Thumb Curl	Splay your fingers, similar to the Reace pose. Pull your thumb in towards the center of your palm, keeping it close to the palm surface.
		Fist	Curl your fingers in to make a fist, keeping them tight against your palm, but don’t squeeze too hard. Curl your thumb over the middle of your index finger.

3. Repeat for the right hand.
4. When calibration is complete for both hands, the training and button testing columns will be visible:

Mounting the Trackers

Use the universal mount and position the trackers to mirror one another as pictured. Other 3D printed mounts that put the trackers in a similar position and orientation will also work.

INFO: Additional tracker mounts will be selectable in the near future.

Tundra Tracker Mounting

1. For Tundra, mount on a diagonal with the tracker USB ports pointing towards the USB port on the glove.

Left Hand	Right Hand

2. In the StretchSense App for SteamVR, select Tundra from the tracker list, then restart SteamVR when prompted to automatically update the tracker offsets in the StretchSense Driver Add-On for SteamVR.

VIVE Tracker 3.0 Mounting

1. For HTC Vive Tracker 3.0, mount with the status led pointing away from the fingers.

2. In the StretchSense App for SteamVR, select Vive from the tracker list, then restart SteamVR when prompted to automatically update the tracker offsets in the StretchSense Driver Add-On for SteamVR.

Training a Controller Model in StretchSense App for SteamVR

For stability, we recommend training locomotion / joystick controls only on your left hand.

NOTE: Always calibrate and train with the trackers mounted to your gloves. This ensures the calibration accurately reflects the additional weight and pull from the mount and trackers.

Training a New Model

TIP: After training a few gestures, we recommend saving incremental numbered versions of your model, in case you make a mistake and need to roll back. Good points to save a model are: After initial idle binding. After binding the Grab and LT/RT buttons. After binding the Menu button. After binding the A and B buttons. After binding the 4 Up/Down/Left/Right directional buttons. After binding multi-button gestures. After fully training gestures for a single hand.

1. Calibrate the Left-Hand Controller and Right-Hand Controllers as described in calibrating glove data.
2. On a freshly calibrated left hand controller model, for each button on the list click Capture and perform the gestures listed under Training a Controller Model for Interaction.

Tuning a Previously Trained Model

NOTE: Models trained between different versions of the StretchSense App for SteamVR may fail to load, so you may have to train these again from scratch.

TIP: From v0.9.0 and later, when starting the StretchSense App for SteamVR your previously loaded model will automatically load on startup.

1. Perform glove calibration for both hands.
2. Click Load Model and select a left-hand model using the file browser.
3. Click Tune next to the button to capture an updated gesture. This will add more training data to the original capture to improve the button’s gesture detection and the original training data will be retained.

4. Repeat for the right-hand.

TIP: You can refine and improve a trained model over a few SteamVR sessions by taking the Studio Gloves off, recalibrating in the StretchSense App for SteamVR, then loading the model and checking for flickering between detected buttons. Make any adjustments by using the Tune button over existing button gestures or use the idle pose to refine the “sweet spot” for each button. Eventually you’ll get a robust model that works consistently for your hand.

Training a Controller Model for Analog Joystick

There are several variations of the base gesture which activates the joystick. While making this gesture the primary digit of your hand (e.g. Thumb) will be used to drive the analog joystick axis. You need to move this digit to follow the direction of the small circle within the joystick during training.

The analog joystick supports the following:

• Full scalar value outputs for the left and/or right joystick X/Y axis to SteamVR.
• Configurable deadzone radius

- A delete button to clear the joystick model so it can be re-trained from scratch without deleting your previously trained button gestures.

Analog Joystick Training Process

TIP: Read the below instructions to familiarize yourself with the gestures and process for training the joystick. You can optionally try the training with your thumb pointing upwards and tilted in position and direction the joystick indicates. Try training any button gestures before the joystick for best results.

INFO: You can press and hold the Delete icon at any time to clear your joystick and start training again.

Pose	Name	Description
	Joystick Centered	Make the horns gesture, then move your thumb straight up. This represents the centered position of joystick and will start the joystick activation when this pose is reached. Going out of this base pose will snap the joystick back to center inside the dead zone. Click Capture to set this as the activation pose for the joystick.
	Training #1	1. Make the horns gesture with your thumb curled in, with your knuckle arching up and the tip pressing towards and touching the surface of your curled middle finger. Use the circumference of your curled finger to represent the range of the joystick. 2. Click the Capture button beside the joystick entry in the training list. This will train the joystick model’s relationship between your thumb pose and the current joystick position and allows for small movements to control the joystick. You may not be able to hit the circle exactly but try and follow it as closely as possible. 3. Keeping your thumb bent, follow the small circle with your thumb as it moves around the outside of the joystick, aiming the tip of your thumb in the direction that matches the small circle’s position. 4. Follow the joystick as it spirals in towards the center of the joystick.
	Training #2	4. Repeat the above training a second time, making sure that you follow the circle as closely as possible.
	Training #3	5. Repeat the above training a third time, making sure that you follow the circle as closely as possible. 6. Test out the joystick and make sure you can get a good range of motion and repeat additional trainings if necessary.

NOTE: See notes on Training Model Button Gestures as some of these may interfere with joystick training and/or activation during use.

Training a Controller Model for Digital Joystick (Legacy)

NOTE: These instructions to train a d-pad joystick which supports 4 directions are for v0.10.0 of StretchSense App for SteamVR. For training a joystick in v0.11.0 or higher, follow our Training a Controller Model for Analog Joystick .

We recommend configuring your in-game controls to perform forwards/backwards movement on the left hand up/down stick direction and have the left/right movement of stick control strafing. You will have greater precision by using your entire body to turn in game while using StretchSense gloves but can optionally train the left or right joystick direction on your right hand if you don’t want to physically turn or prefer to play seated.

TIP: From v0.9.0 of the StretchSense App for SteamVR, training grab + joystick directions are supported. This allows more buttons to be trained while also allowing the joystick to be used on the same hand.

Pose	Name	Description
	Idle	Make the horns gesture, then move your thumb straight up. This represents the centered position of joystick.
	Up	Make the horns gesture with your thumb forward, parallel to your index finger. This is the most important gesture to have reliable as this is used for the forward direction in smooth locomotion or teleportation in SteamVR Home. Since you will make this gesture a lot, it should be comfortable to perform.
	Left	Make the horns gesture with your thumb pulled towards the left side of your hand, away from your palm. TIP: The gesture must be mirrored if you are training your right hand, so make the gesture for the right direction instead. INFO: Many games use the right hand’s left/right joystick direction to control smooth turning. We recommend leaving this untrained on the right hand to avoid accidental rotation movement and instead turn your physical body.
	Right	Make the horns gesture with your thumb pulled towards the right side of your hand, towards your palm. TIP: The gesture must be mirrored if you are training your right hand, so make the gesture for the left direction instead INFO: Many games use the right hand’s left/right joystick direction to control smooth turning. We recommend leaving this untrained on the right hand to avoid accidental rotation movement and instead turn your physical body.
	Down	Make the horns gesture with your thumb curled in, with your knuckle arching up and the tip pressing towards middle of your middle finger. This direction is not used often as it is a fatiguing pose for the thumb.
	Idle	Create an additional idle pose. Make a relaxed pose as pictured and move your fingers between being fully extended to a slightly relaxed curled pose. This represents no buttons being pressed.

Training a Controller Model for Interaction

For object interaction using controller buttons, only a subset of gestures is required.

TIP: From v0.9.0 of the StretchSense App for SteamVR, the following gestures can be trained on either hand if you also train multi-button gestures afterwards.

NOTE: In addition to the below gestures, train multi-button gestures to avoid dropping held objects in VR while moving or activating the objects.

1. Train the below interaction gestures:

Pose	Name	Description
	Idle	Make a relaxed pose and move your fingers between being fully extended to a slightly relaxed curled pose. This represents no buttons being pressed.
	Grab	Make a finger gun pose with your thumb pointing upwards and your middle, ring and little fingers curled.
	LT/RT	Point gesture with thumb pointing upwards. Fully curl in your index finger, as if you were pulling a real trigger.
	Menu	Touch your little finger to your thumb, with your thumb resting on the middle part of your little finger. Keep your other fingers extended. This gesture activates the SteamVR Dashboard. Train it so it can be pressed accurately. You may need to go back and train the idle pose again to stop it accidentally triggering. INFO: SteamVR controller bindings for SteamVR Dashboard can be adjusted to change the system/menu button to long press to avoid accidental activation. You can also bind the power button of your Vive 3.0 or Tundra Tracker to be the system/menu button in your SteamVR Dashboard controller bindings within the SteamVR Settings → Controllers menu.
	A Button / Primary Button	Touch your middle finger to your thumb, with your thumb resting on the middle part of your middle finger. Keep your other fingers extended.
	B Button / Secondary Button	Touch your ring finger to your thumb, with your thumb resting on the middle part of your ring finger. Keep your other fingers extended.
	Pinky Touch (optional)	Touch the tip of your ring finger to your thumb. When making this gesture in the future, the hand skeleton animation data will be forced into the pictured pose. In VRChat this pose is used on the left hand to toggle the built in VRChat gesture recognition on/off. On the right hand this pose will summon the world space VRChat radial action menu, and this menu can be navigated using laser pointer controls from either hand.

INFO: You may need to repeat the Idle pose to compensate for any outlying data introduced with the other buttons. This is less common in v0.9.0 of the StretchSense App for SteamVR and later.

Training Multi-Button Gestures

After training the base set of gestures from the previous tables, you can train button combinations to allow buttons to be pressed at the same time (e.g. Grab + Trigger, Grab + Up, Grab + Down, or A + B).

It can take up to 30-45 minutes to train and tune a model with multi-button gestures, especially if joystick directional inputs are also trained. Be sure to test inside a SteamVR game as your train the model for maximum responsiveness.

TIP: Be sure to use the grab button to refine the activation range after training this list of multi-button gestures.

NOTE: Before training these gestures, remember to save a backup copy of your model in case you need to roll back.

Pose	Name	Description
	Grab + LT/RT	Point gesture with thumb pointing upwards and make the grab gesture. Fully curl in your index finger, as if you were pulling a real trigger. This allows held tools and objects like pistols to be fired/activated while held. NOTE: Avoid squeezing your index finger too hard as it will make it harder to repeat the gesture.
	Grab + A Buttons	Make the grab gesture and touch your thumb to your middle finger, with your thumb resting on the middle part of your middle finger. TIP: Some SteamVR games may use this to activate a function on a held object (e.g. using a health syringe) NOTE: If you have previously trained grab + joystick this may intersect with this gesture, causing accidental activations. You will need to fine tune the directional controls to avoid this. Alternately don’t train grab + joystick gesture if you also want to press A and/or B at the same time.
	Grab + B Buttons	Make the grab gesture and touch your thumb to your ring finger, with your thumb resting on the middle part of your ring finger. TIP: Some SteamVR games may use this to activate a function on a held object (e.g. ejecting a gun magazine) NOTE: If you have previously trained grab + joystick this may intersect with this gesture, causing accidental activations. You will need to fine tune the directional controls to avoid this. Alternately don’t train grab + joystick gesture if you also want to press A and/or B at the same time.
	Grab	Tune an additional grab pose after you have set the above button combinations. This represents no buttons being activated and will refine the range of the other combos on this list.
	A+ B Buttons	Touch your middle and ring fingers to your thumb, with your thumb resting on the middle parts of both your middle and ring fingers. Keep your index and little finger extended. INFO: This gesture is unlikely to be used in SteamVR games. NOTE: If you have previously trained a joystick model’s activation pose, this may intersect with this gesture, causing accidental activations. You will need to fine tune the directional controls to avoid this. Alternately don’t train joystick on that hand if you also want to press A + B at the same time.

Grab / Trigger for Smooth Locomotion

Some games may require you to grab and/or activate held objects while moving with smooth locomotion (e.g. Bonelab and Boneworks). Train these gestures:

Pose	Name	Description
	Trigger + Joystick	Point gesture with thumb pointing upwards and make the grab gesture. Fully curl in your index finger, as if you were pulling a real trigger. This allows held tools and objects like pistols to be fired/activated while held. Your thumb can be used to move the joystick; bend your thumb and repeatedly train this gesture to ensure the joystick is activating in various locations on the joystick. You may need to go back and train Grab + Trigger if you have also trained this gesture. NOTE: Avoid squeezing your index finger too hard as it will make it harder to repeat the gesture.
	Grab + Joystick	Make a finger gun pose with your thumb pointing upwards and your middle, ring and little fingers curled. Bend your thumb and repeatedly train this gesture to ensure the joystick is activating in various locations on the joystick.

Optional Multi-Button Gestures

NOTE: Additional multi-button gestures are supported, such as the following, but these are experimental. Training these will significantly increase your training time and run the risk of making your trained model unusable. Make sure to save a backup copy of your model first! Trigger + A - Unlikely to be used Trigger + B - Unlikely to be used Trigger + Menu - Unlikely to be used Trigger + Joystick - Make a finger point gesture and curl your index finger inwards as if pulling a trigger. This can be quite unreliable in some cases so you may need to tune it until you get the behavior you want. Grab + B + A - Unlikely to be used Grab + Menu - Unlikely to be used and hard to perform on the Studio Glove due to the sensor layout. Grab + Trigger + A - Make an index finger pointing gesture with your thumb touching the middle of your middle finger. Grab + Trigger + B - Make an index finger pointing gesture with your thumb touching the middle of your ring finger. Grab + Trigger + B + A - Make a closed fist gesture while training this gesture. Grab + Joystick - Make a finger point gesture. This is an optional joystick activation pose to let objects be grabbed while moving with smooth locomotion. You may need to train this a few times while moving your

Training Grab and Joystick Directions

In v0.9.0 and onwards of the StretchSense App for SteamVR, holding the grab button and joystick directional movement is supported. Some SteamVR games like Boneworks/Bonelab and frameworks like the Unity XR Interaction Toolkit require you to hold the grab button to carry or move objects using near manipulation mode. If you also want to perform smooth locomotion at the same time while holding these, you will need to train the below gestures in addition to the regular joystick directions.

NOTE: The Grab + A or B gestures may intersect with this gesture, causing accidental activations. You will need to fine tune the Grab + directional control gestures to avoid this.

Pose	Name	Description
	Grab	This acts as the idle pose for the Grab + other button combination gestures. Make a finger gun pose with your thumb pointing upwards and your middle, ring and little fingers curled.
	Up	Make the grab gesture and hold your thumb forward, parallel to your index finger. This is the most important gesture to have reliable as this is used for the forward direction in smooth locomotion or teleportation in SteamVR Home. Since you will make this gesture a lot, it should be comfortable to perform.
	Left	Make the grab gesture with your thumb pulled towards the left side of your hand, away from your palm. TIP: The gesture must be mirrored if you are training your right hand, so make the gesture for the right direction instead. INFO: Many games use the right hand’s left/right joystick direction to control smooth turning. We recommend leaving this untrained on the right hand to avoid accidental rotation movement while holding objects or activating Grab + A or B at the same time.
	Right	Make the grab gesture with your thumb pulled towards the right side of your hand, towards your palm. TIP: The gesture must be mirrored if you are training your right hand, so make the gesture for the left direction instead INFO: Many games use the right hand’s left/right joystick direction to control smooth turning. We recommend leaving this untrained on the right hand to avoid accidental rotation movement while holding objects or activating Grab + A or B at the same time.
	Down	Make the grab gesture with your thumb curled in, with your knuckle arching up and the tip pressing towards middle of your middle finger. This direction is not used often as it is a fatiguing pose for the thumb. NOTE: This gesture may interfere with Grab + A if trained on the same hand, so fine tuning both gestures is required.
	Grab	Tune an additional grab pose. This represents no stick directions being activated and will refine the range of the other combos on this list.

Exporting a Model

Once you have trained a model for a hand:

1. Click Export Model
2. For each hand you will be prompted to select a location on disk to save the current model for that hand as a DAT file.
3. Give the model a descriptive name (e.g Left Hand D-Pad Trigger) to help remember what buttons the model is trained on when loading it next time.

INFO: Save numbered or descriptive versions of these if you need to roll back to a previous model.

TIP: You can save and load models optimized for different SteamVR games and SteamVR controller binding profiles. Keep these organized in different folders under C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\StretchSense\SteamVR App

5. Running SteamVR Games

1. Start SteamVR and wait for the SteamVR status window to appear. The two StretchSense logos will appear when the StretchSense Driver Add-On has loaded:

2. Open the Companion App. 3. Perform the calibration for both hands.

4. Click Load Model to load a compatible model from disk for your game and the correct settings will be automatically applied. 5. Check the buttons on screen highlight white when making the appropriate gesture.

6. Turn on your Tundra or Vive Trackers. 7. Check the gloves are detected in the SteamVR status window, indicated by two filled StretchSense logos.

8. Start your SteamVR compatible game. 9. Check your in-game hands track correctly.

TIP: If you need to restart SteamVR during your play session, click the Reset Connections button in the SteamVR App. Re-connections to Hand Engine are automatic if you need to restart Hand Engine for any reason (make sure to select the gloves in Hand Engine again when you restart).

INFO: Validate SteamVR is receiving emulated controller button presses by going to SteamVR → Settings → Controllers → Test Controller

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