Loading

The Vicon VR plugin for Unity works with Unity 2020.3(LTS) and earlier. We recommend using Unity 2020LTS for your projects to make the most of ongoing support and improvements.

Unity projects that use the Vicon VR plugin must be built as Windows 64-bit applications. No other platforms are supported.

Required set up

Add the Vicon VR plugin to a Unity project

To add the Vicon VR plugin to a Unity project, complete the following steps:

Create or open your chosen Unity project.
Download the Vicon VR for Unity plugin .zip from vicon.com.
Double-click the ViconDataStream package file to open it in the Import Unity Package window in Unity.
Select All to ensure all of the components of the package are installed.
Select Import to install the plugin in your project.

If Unity has successfully installed the plugin, the ViconUnityPlugin folder is visible in the Assets section of the Project view, as shown below.

For an in-depth explanation of the Vicon Unity plugin and how it works, see Understand Vicon plugin components.

Set up the ViconDataStreamClient

To stream data between Vicon software and Unity, there must be an instance of the ViconDataStreamClient set up in the current scene.

Locate the ViconDataStreamClient prefab in the Project view at Assets > ViconUnityPlugin > Prefabs.
To add it to the current scene, drag and drop the prefab into the scene or hierarchy.
Open the instance of the ViconDataStreamClient in the Inspector, and set the Host Name and Port fields in the Vicon Data Stream Client component.
1. Set the Host Name as the IP address or hostname of the machine running the Vicon Software.
2. Set the Port to one of the following options:
  1. 801 Full output, includes paused and live data.
  2. 804 Low latency, object-only output. No subjects.
  3. 8802 Full output, live only, no pausing.

For more information on the other available settings in the ViconDataStreamClient, see ViconDataStreamClient in Understand Vicon plugin components.

Advanced set up

Set up Unity for virtual reality

To use a head-mounted display (HMD) with Vicon technology and Unity, set Unity up to work with VR. If your project only uses full-body and prop capture, you can skip these steps.

Supported headsets

These HMDs have been tested for use with the Vicon Unity plugin:

Oculus Rift / Rift S
HP Reverb
HTC Vive / Vive Pro*

* Due to the requirements of the HTC headsets, they must also be visible by an HTC Vive Base Station v1.0. HTC SteamVR Base Station v2.0 is not supported.

The Vicon VR for Unity plugin works with SteamVR and Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR.

Add SteamVR to the Unity project

Add the SteamVR Unity plugin to your assets. Visit the SteamVR Plugin page on the Unity asset store and select Add to My Assets.
Locate the SteamVR project in your Unity Project. Open the Package Manager (Window > Package Manager) and use the Packages tab to view My Assets. If added correctly, SteamVR is in this list. Select it to view the package details.
Select Download to download the plugin data to your machine.
Select Import to open the Import Unity Package window. Select All and then Import to add the package to the current Unity Project.
After Unity has successfully imported SteamVR, it displays a window of recommended settings. Select Accept All to use the recommended settings and finish the installation.

To check if it was successfully installed, locate the SteamVR folder in the Assets section of the Project window. If a folder named SteamVR isn't present, repeat the steps above, or see Unity's documentation on installing packages for further information.

Finally, with SteamVR successfully added to the project, navigate to Edit > Project Settings > XR Plug-in Management and enable the OpenVR loader checkbox.

Set up a multi-route connection

Multi-route is a data streaming mode that simultaneously connects two routers (using two different WiFi channels) to create redundancy in the WiFi network. The client uses whichever frame arrives first from either connection.

Multi-route connection is useful for latency-critical applications such as VR. We recommended this solution for very busy WiFi environments or routers/access points that experience interference. It ensures a robust and low latency stream of Vicon data to the client application.

To set up multi-route connection, go to the ViconDataStreamClient prefab in the current scene and edit the Host name field in the Inspector. Enter the IP addresses of the two adapters separated by a semicolon, in the format #.#.#.# ; #.#.#.#