Minimal requirements

HMD: PTVR has been tested with an HTC VIVE Pro HMD (no eyetracking) and an HTC VIVE Pro Eye (with eyetracking).
See VIVE Pro Series.
PC : see System requirements
Note: a PC with the label VR READY is recommended for the longevity of the PC updates.

Setup of headset, hand controllers, base stations, etc...

Literally everything you need is very clearly explained here in the VIVE Pro Eye support or here to get their user guide in pdf format.

You will thus learn quickly how to setup the headset (figure 1), the link box (figure 2), the base stations (figure 3) and the (hand) controllers (figure 4) with figures such as those below (images from Vive site).

Figure 1: Headset

Figure 2: Link box

Figure 3: Base stations

Figure 4: Controllers

😎 Tip: with a laptop PC, it is likely that you will need a mini display port (miniDP) to mini display port (miniDP) cable between the link box and your PC (as most laptops only have a miniDP).

Software Installation

1/ Steam and SteamVR Installation

If you do not need to measure ocular behaviour (gaze position, pupil size, ...), you only have to install Steam and SteamVR to control the Head-Mounted Display - HMD. Once these softwares are installed, you can test your Head-Mounted Display (even if PTVR is not yet installed)..

If Steam is not installed yet on your PC, download it here, and install it.
If you do not have a Steam account yet, create one to be able to install Steam.

Open Steam software within which you can directly look for SteamVR software and install it.

Run SteamVR : this should open the following window (it might be hidden in the Windows task-bar):

Figure 1:.

Figure 2: .

😎 Tip: This MINI Window is very important!!! It will allow you to control many things.

Note the icons in the bottom bar (from left to right: headset, controller #1, controller #2, base station #1, base station #2) : when colored, this means that they are detected and active.

Most importantly, click on the 3 bars in the top-left corner, and you'll see all the important tasks that you can accomplish, such as the Room Calibration process see section Calibrations.

😎 Tip: The SteamVR program will be launched automatically when you run a PTVR script.

2/ Eyetracker Installation (if ocular measurements are needed)

This section has been updated on 20. October 2023 !

There are two recommended options to install the eye tracking software:

1/ Install the Vive Console for SteamVR from the Steam website
This will automatically install the eyetracking software.
You can check that the console is correctly installed by checking the "Vive Software" line in the Windows Start menu: you should then see what is shown in the figure below.
Until further notice, PTVR uses this option to enable eyetracking.

Note the line with the robot's head which indicates that the eyetracking software (Vive Sranipal) is installed.
Clicking on this line will launch the eyetracking software.

2/ the second option - not currently used in PTVR - is to use OpenXR
OpenXR will enables XR portability across hardware VR devices

The two options presented above are summarized with important additional information in this Vive web page.
This important page is reproduced below (retrieved on 20. october 2023).

The important point to note in the figure above is that the OpenXR option is now strongly recommended so that future PTVR developments will aim at replacing the current Sranipal eyetracking software by the OpenXR approach.

😱 Warning: After installing these softwares, do not forget to calibrate the Room and the eye-tracker within the SteamVR environment (see details here). It is also possible to launch the eyetracking calibration from a PTVR python script.

😎 Tip: if the eyetracking software is running, you should see its icon in the system tray as a robot's head.

*The System Tray is another name given to the Notification Area, which you can find in the right-side of the Windows Taskbar. The System Tray features different types of notifications and alerts from your computer like your Internet connection, or the volume level.

Eyetracking Troubleshooting (for installation and use) See Vive developer's page

General error codes and messages from Vive Support

See here what you can do depending on error codes.