Visualizing your data in Virtual Reality (VR) creates an immersive experience where you can surround colleagues with valuable insights and collaborate together to increase engagement and understanding. Review the guidelines below for a successful VR setup with Virtualitics.

Requirements

Please note that at least one (1) Virtualitics Explore Desktop installation with a graphics processing unit (GPU) is required to use VR.

• GPU is required on the desktop to run VR. 
• You will need at least one Desktop Leader with a GPU. (Recommend NVIDIA GTX 1060+ or any graphics card noted as “VR ready” / “VR capable” or dedicated/discrete)

Tethered vs Standalone

Virtual Reality (VR) headsets are tethered (wired) or standalone (wireless). While standalone headsets provide more comfort and mobility, tethered headsets are more powerful in that they can support higher processing speeds and higher end graphics. For the best VR experience, we recommend using tethered VR headsets. Note that at least one (1) headset must be connected to Virtualitics Explore Desktop to access data. 

Virtualitics Explore Desktop is compatible with both Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2. For more information on setting up Oculus Quest headsets, see this knowledge base article.

Shared Virtual Office (SVO)

Shared Virtual Office (SVO) is a collaborative space where multiple users can connect, share visualizations, analyze data together, and discuss insights with colleagues. Below are some important considerations when using SVO and VR:

• SVO sessions support mixed environments where some users can be on desktop and some users can be in VR.
• When the Leader of an SVO session leaves, this disconnects the other participants.
• When running on the standalone headset, when the headset goes to sleep this disconnects from SVO per Quest power saving features.
  • Pro Tip: You can put a sticky note on the forehead sensor to prevent the headset from sleeping in case you need to take it off.
• When running on the standalone headset, if you are disconnected from SVO you must reset to go back to the login page.
• Ensure your security network firewalls are not blocking SVO URLs. Whitelisting the URLs is typically necessary.
• SVO utilizes Port 443.

For more information on SVO please refer to this knowledge base article.

User Types

Virtualitics Explore Desktop is compatible with both Oculus Quest and the Oculus Quest 2 with two (2) user types: Leader and Viewer/Collaborator.

Leader 

• Connects Virtualitics Explore Desktop to an Oculus Quest Headset.  
  • A Leader must be tethered or using Oculus Air Link (Quest 2) to work with their own datasets.
  • Standalone provides access to sample data only.
  • Tethered provides the best performance.
  • Air Link is Wi-Fi dependent. Wi-Fi speeds will impact throughput of data.
• Can initiate an SVO session from Virtualitics Explore Desktop or VR Headset.
• Can open and share datasets and collaborate on data visualizations and analysis with other Viewers/Collaborators in an SVO session. 
• Can load and save data.

Viewer/Collaborator

• Connects Virtualitics Explore Desktop to an Oculus Quest Headset.  
  • For the best experience, all users should have Virtualitics Explore Desktop installed and a tethered Oculus Quest Headset.
  • Viewers/Collaborators can access the standalone Virtualitics Explore App on an Oculus Quest Headset but keep in mind that this setup provides a limited VR experience (see below for details).
• Must join a Leader-instantiated SVO session to connect to other users and access data.
  • Cannot instantiate or lead an SVO session.
• Accesses external files through the Leader’s loaded data.
  • Viewers/Collaborators cannot load their own data.

Recommendations

For optimum performance, we recommend adhering to the following guidelines:

• Connect VR headsets tethered to Virtualitics Explore Desktop.
  • This enables you to load a wider range of datasets, as the standalone headset can only load sample data.
• Due to the wireless nature of the Oculus Quest, all of the processing and rendering is done locally on the headset itself. This means that there are some performance trade-offs for the freedom of being a standalone device. 
  • You will only be able to load or view datasets with fewer than 130,000 rows; if an Oculus Quest user is in a Shared Virtual Office (SVO) session with another user who attempts to load in a dataset with more than 130,000 rows, the Oculus Quest user will be removed from SVO.  
• Standalone users using SVO will perform along with the ‘slowest’ user and network. Therefore connectivity and network performance is important to keep in mind.

Please note that the web version of Virtualitics Explore does not currently support SVO or VR.