Frequently Asked Questions

A. We believe that the largest value for our customers and for Valve will come from allowing SteamVR Tracking to proliferate as widely as possible. The existence of more SteamVR-compatible devices will make the SteamVR community more valuable for customers and developers. Having a wide community of hardware developers pushing the platform forward will result in innovations that we Valve would never think of or pursue on our own. Also, all SteamVR devices and hardware components will become cheaper if more of them get made.A. No catch - it’s just the best tracking tech out there, and you can have it for use in your product. There is a cost for the introductory class, so that’s kind of a catch if you want to call it one. But: No licensing fees! No royalties! See the SteamVR Tracking page for details.A. For now we need to make sure that there is complete compatibility among base stations and tracked devices. Longer term, we do want the hardware community to help us evolve base station design and to help innovate in that area, but given our own limited bandwidth we need to push that collaboration out to some future date.A. You can get them from our ASIC partner Triad Semiconductor, and you can buy as many as you want. Email Triad at info@triadsemi.com for more information.A. Yes, you can sell your own products wherever you want. No, you don’t need Valve’s review and approval to ship your product, but you do need to comply with the license to be able to use our technology, brands, names, or trademarks.A. Once you sign up as a licensee here , you will gain access to an application on Steam called SteamVR Tracking HDK. That install includes all of the documentation, design files, and training materials you need in English and Simplified Chinese.A. You only need Valve’s permission to use SteamVR Tracking, worldwide. You may use SteamVR Tracking to create an HMD, controller or other tracked object.A: You don’t need approval for your project. Once you agree to the license, what you build is up to you.A: That’s up to you. As long as your gizmo connects to a computer running SteamVR you can build whatever you want.