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Holy shit it works
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Off and on this day, I thought of the WMR HMD. The phrase “just try it” kept going through my mind. As much as I really wanted to get back in VR, was it really worth going through the hell of doing the playspace again?
Eventually I had enough of it nagging me and finally tried. Ohh how much I ‘missed’ this.
“Hold your headset infront of you and then use your mind powers to click on the Center button, without moving the headset.” Because humans totally have mind powers. But I did my best and managed, even trying desperately to draw my boundary (aka playspace). It took two attempts but I finally had something that was ‘OK’.
Alright, now to finally bind my Index controllers to this thing. …And I was getting the same exact results as before. What the HELL! Chase, I listened to you. I set up a damn playspace. WHY is it STILL HAPPENING?! The controller (my left controller) was nowhere where my hand actually was. Thankfully for me, the program has a Discord server I can ask for help, which I did.
One of the admins linked me this video, saying it’s likely the motion I’m getting
wrong. Now Chase suggested to do a ‘figure-8’ movement and that’s what I’ve been doing. But after watching the video, I clearly wasn’t doing it that way. So I did it exactly as the video showed (but with the HMD and the controller). Though I had to do it very carefully due to exposed wires of the HMD’s cable. And much to my surprise.. it WORKED!! 😃 My left Index controller is now exactly where my left hand is! And it also worked for my right controller as well! YES! Finally!! Finally some good vibes for once!
Now to just fix the HMD’s speakers and mic to be compatible with Voicemeeter. This took quite a lot of time, and one time I thought I was never going to get it. The speakers were working, but not in SteamVR. That was until I clicked on something in SteamVR and I heard a sound. Freaked out saying “OMG IT WORKS!!”
Got on VRChat, in VR. Glad to finally use my arms again. Only problem is I couldn’t move my playspace. OVR Advanced Settings was uninstalled and I got that undone, but that didn’t help. I forgot how I did it (yet again).
I won’t talk about what happened in VRChat as it has nothing to do with the current topic. Plus.. I’m getting tired blogging about the game. Like, physically tired just thinking about it when it’s the same ole thing of “I went here and saw this person”. It’s just boring nowadays.
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Steam Support’s late night good news
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I stayed up trying to work on blog posts and noticed Steam Support got back to me. I’ve been waiting almost two days for them to respond and I’m glad they finally did, but knew it would likely be bad news. So I went to bed and grabbed my phone, readying myself for being told “we only use FedEx SORRY!”
When I saw the message, I stared with huge eyes. …I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
They’re. willing. TO WORK WITH ME!!! 😲😲😄😄 Ok, this is truly a God given miracle!! Messaged Jero with all caps. However I still remembered they sent me that FedEx shipping label. In the afternoon I’ll call around and see what I can do.
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The afternoon came. I hardly got any sleep due to staying up so late (try not to do that again). Tried to call my ‘local’ post office (at least I thought it was local at the time). Finally got to speak to a human, who told me it’s “not really likely” then putting me on hold. Then she says it is possible “in certain post offices” and tried to look it up. I never got a red flag until she asked for my city. “Is that in one word?” she asked. “Uhhh… I thought this
was the {my city} Post Office,” I said. “No sir it’s not. This is the west coast”.
The FUCK?! HOW in the… whatever, I tried to look for my actual post office and found the correct number. And the computer was all “thanks for calling the {my city} post
office.”
Ahh. Finally. Now to wait to speak to someone about this. And I waited.. and waited.. and waited. The phone kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing. …Noone wanted to pick up the damn phone. Eventually I got a busy signal.
I called again.. again the phone rang off the hook. I yelled “PICK UP, DAMNIT!!”, but I still couldn’t get ahold of noone. Oy!! So much for calling my post office, Kovo. I then looked up my UPS Store’s phone number. Got to speak to someone, who flat out
said “no, you have to have a UPS or USPS label. We don’t accept FedEx.” Felt pretty damn burned and pissed after that.
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Ok Steam, can I do this?
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Calmed down eventually, then thought “actually wait. Since Steam’s willing to work with me, why not just use the address instead and have UPS or USPS print their own label? This should work, right?”
I asked Steam Support and to the date I’m typing this (the 15th), I am still waiting for them to get back to me. It has been nearly two days. But something tells me they assume I got this under control and don’t need to respond, even though I specifically said “please let me know if this will work”.
Kovo feels I should take an Uber up to my post office just to ask if it’s possible. I told
him “that’s one expensive way to find out, dude”. So, nah. I’d rather wait for Steam Support to give me the green light.
EDIT: They finally responded. But it’s not really ‘supportive’. Basically they say “if you choose not to go to a FedEx Store (which doesn’t exist here), you are on your own.”
Wow. Way to show your ass, Valve. I totally feel like a valued customer after that response.
They didn’t even answer my damn question if I can use the address!!
I told Jero and he said “you can still do it. You don’t need them to tell you. They’re hinting at it already”. Hmm. Alright then, guess I’m going Saturday. I was going to go Monday but figure if I do it earlier, they’ll start shipping it to Valve by early Monday morning. And I can’t do it Sunday because they’re closed, and it’s going to rain that day.
So Saturday it is. Jero also highly suggests I put a piece of paper in the box with
my name, address, and RMA number. Said it’ll help expedite the replacement.
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In the meantime, I wanted to use my FBT again. Trying to look up Steam controller dongles isn’t possible. Infact I’m told it’s not possible to find them “at a reasonable
price”.
And Amazon doesn’t sell just the Vive tracker dongles either. But I found someone that does: iFixIt. Huh. Aren’t these the guys I keep hearing about from tech Youtubers who get sponsored by them? They should be legitimate then. So I got two of them (for $100 as they’re $50 each). To me these were reasonably priced, but later I read “$50 for one of them is ridiculous”. Whatever. I got the money.
I also got (from Amazon), another USB 3.0 Hub that’s exactly like my current one. I wanted to find a 5-port version but they don’t exist. It’s either 4-port, 7-port, 10-port, and so on.
Now I can daisy chain them where there’s still only one plug going to my computer. But incase I can’t I got another 3FT extension cable. Always good to have spares anyway.