VIVE Full Face Tracker

Overview

VIVE Full Face Tracker adds eye tracking and lower-face tracking to the HTC VIVE XR Elite in one module. HTC opened orders on January 9, 2024, and the US price was $199. HTC's business site now says the VIVE Full Face Tracker is no longer available and points buyers to the HTC VIVE Focus Vision, which has eye tracking built in.

Design and specs

The tracker weighs 80 g, plus or minus 5 g. It attaches to the headset with magnets and plugs straight into the XR Elite's USB-C port, so there is no cable. The lower face camera folds up for storage. The box includes the tracker, a VR Face Gasket, two gasket spacers and printed guides.

Two eye cameras with infrared illuminators output gaze data at 120 Hz with 0.5 to 1.1 degrees of accuracy after a five-point calibration. They report gaze origin and direction, pupil size and position, and eye openness. A single face camera runs at 60 Hz with a 151-degree diagonal field of view and captures 38 blend shapes across the lips, jaw, cheeks, chin, teeth and tongue.

Features

The tracker measures your interpupillary distance and an internal motor sets the XR Elite's IPD for you. That helps when several people share one headset. HTC notes auto-IPD precision varies from user to user. Eye tracking also enables dynamic foveated rendering, but only in content that supports the VIVE Foveated Rendering plugin. HTC adds that eye surgery, eye disease, heavy makeup and high myopia can affect eye tracking.

Software support

Standalone apps built for VIVE Focus 3 eye and facial tracking work with it, and developers can use the VIVE Wave and OpenXR SDKs in Unity, Unreal Engine or native code. For PC VR, OpenXR and SRanipal content is supported through VIVE Business Streaming. VRChat works in both standalone and PC VR modes, but avatars must support VRCFaceTracking. Each app has to support face tracking for it to do anything.

Who it is for

The Full Face Tracker was made for VIVE XR Elite owners who want expressive avatars in VRChat, and for developers, researchers and trainers who need gaze data. It works with no other headset. Because HTC no longer sells it, you will only find it second-hand or as remaining retail stock.