HTC Vive Base Station 2.0

HTC Vive Base Station 2.0
Basic Info
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Type	Tracking base station
Subtype	Lighthouse / SteamVR Tracking 2.0 emitter
Platform	SteamVR
Creator	Valve Corporation
Developer	Valve Corporation
Manufacturer	HTC
Announcement Date	January 2018 (SteamVR Tracking 2.0 hardware)
Release Date	2018 (with HTC Vive Pro Full Kit); 2019 (standalone retail unit)
Price	US$149.99 (single unit)
Website	https://www.vive.com/us/accessory/base-station2/
Versions	SteamVR Base Station 2.0 (model 99HATV000-00)
Requires	SteamVR Tracking 2.0 compatible headset (e.g. HTC Vive Pro, Valve Index); 12V power adapter
Predecessor	HTC Vive Base Station (SteamVR Tracking 1.0)
Successor	None announced
System
Operating System	N/A
Chipset	N/A
CPU	N/A
GPU	N/A
Storage
Storage	N/A
Memory	N/A
SD Card Slot	No
Display
Display	N/A
Resolution	N/A
Refresh Rate	N/A
Image
Field of View	150° horizontal / 110° vertical (per base station)
Horizontal FoV	150°
Vertical FoV	110°
Optics
Optics	N/A
Ocularity	N/A
IPD Range	N/A
Adjustable Diopter	N/A
Passthrough	N/A
Tracking
Tracking	SteamVR Tracking 2.0 (single-rotor laser sweep)
Base Stations	Acts as a base station; up to 4 per setup
Eye Tracking	N/A
Face Tracking	N/A
Hand Tracking	N/A
Body Tracking	N/A
Rotational Tracking	N/A
Positional Tracking	Provides positional reference for headset and controllers
Audio
Audio	N/A
Microphone	N/A
Camera	N/A
Connectivity
Connectivity	Wireless laser sweep (no sync cable required)
Ports	DC power input
WiFi	No
Bluetooth	No (uses Bluetooth-based standby control via headset on some setups)
Power	12V DC (compatible with the original HTC Vive power supply)
Battery Capacity	N/A
Battery Life	N/A
Charge Time	N/A
Device
Dimensions	Cube-shaped emitter
Weight	approx. 454 g
Material	Plastic housing with glass front
Headstrap	N/A
Haptics	N/A
Color	Black
Sensors	Rotating laser emitter, LED flood array
Input	N/A
Compliance	SteamVR Tracking 2.0

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The HTC Vive Base Station 2.0, also marketed as the SteamVR Base Station 2.0 and the HTC SteamVR Base Station 2.0 (model 99HATV000-00), is a tracking base station for Virtual Reality manufactured by HTC. It is a hardware implementation of the second-generation Lighthouse (SteamVR Tracking 2.0) system designed by Valve Corporation. The 2.0 hardware generation debuted in 2018 (shown at CES in January and shipped that year with the HTC Vive Pro Full Kit), and the unit was later offered as a standalone retail accessory in 2019 alongside the Valve Index. It serves as a stationary infrared laser emitter that gives compatible SteamVR headsets and controllers a precise positional reference within a room. Unlike a camera-based tracker, the unit does not see the user; instead, fixed lasers inside it sweep across the play space roughly 100 times per second, and photosensors on the headset and controllers detect the sweep to calculate their own location with sub-millimeter precision.

The 2.0 base station replaced the original HTC Vive base station with a simpler single-rotor design, a wider field of view, support for up to four units in a single setup, and the elimination of the sync cable that the first generation needed. A trade-off of the new design is that 2.0 base stations are not backward compatible with the original Vive headset; they only work with hardware built for SteamVR Tracking 2.0, such as the HTC Vive Pro, HTC Vive Pro Eye, HTC Vive Pro 2 and Valve Index.

Background and development

The base station belongs to a class of outside-in tracking devices that Valve calls Lighthouse and markets as SteamVR Tracking. The first generation shipped in 2016 with the original HTC Vive and used two spinning rotors, one sweeping a horizontal laser plane and one sweeping a vertical plane, together with an array of LEDs that emitted an omnidirectional flash to synchronize the sweeps. Valve began publicly discussing a second-generation design in early 2017. In a hands-on with an engineering sample, Valve's Joe Ludwig described the redesign as "cheaper, it's smaller, it's lighter, less noise, lower power, and we think it will be able to track a little better, have a little better field of view," summarizing it as "the next-generation. Better in every way."

Valve made SteamVR Tracking 2.0 available to third-party hardware licensees so that manufacturers could build their own tracked devices and base stations. The company priced the base stations for original-equipment manufacturers at roughly US$60 per unit plus shipping, far below the retail cost of a first-generation unit, and said the parts would ship to licensees in early 2018. HTC showed the new base stations publicly alongside the HTC Vive Pro at CES in January 2018, and the Vive Pro became the first consumer headset to support SteamVR Tracking 2.0. Developers began receiving physical 2.0 base stations around early March 2018, and HTC bundled them in the Vive Pro Full Kit later that year. The same tracking generation was subsequently adopted by the Valve Index in 2019, whose bundled emitter is Valve's own equivalent of this device, and the unit was sold as a standalone retail accessory at US$149.99 around that time.

How it works

The base station is a stationary box that is typically mounted high on a wall or on a tripod and aimed down across the play area. Inside, a rotating assembly sweeps a fan of infrared laser light across the room about 100 times per second, while photosensitive diodes embedded in the headset and controllers register the exact instant the beam passes over them. By timing the sweeps from one or more base stations, the headset computes its own position and orientation in space, a technique that delivers sub-millimeter resolution and resists occlusion because the tracked device, not the base station, does the sensing.

The headline change in the 2.0 design is the move from two rotors to a single rotor. Condensing the horizontal and vertical sweeps into one sweep halves the number of moving parts, which reduces mechanical failure points and improves reliability, and a curved front face with a flood LED array widens the coverage area. Each 2.0 base station also encodes its own identifier directly onto the laser beam. Because every unit can be identified from its beam alone, the base stations no longer need to be cabled together for synchronization and no longer require line of sight to one another, which is what allows more than two of them to be used in a single space. Encoding the ID on a single coded sweep, rather than relying on an omnidirectional sync blink, also gives the system better immunity to interference from other infrared devices such as depth cameras and motion-capture rigs.

Specifications

Specification	Detail
Tracking system	Lighthouse / SteamVR Tracking 2.0
Emitter design	Single rotating laser rotor with LED flood array
Laser sweep rate	~100 sweeps per second
Tracking precision	Sub-millimeter
Field of view	150° horizontal x 110° vertical per unit (VIVE figure)
Operating range	Up to ~7 m
Base stations per setup	Up to 4
Maximum play space	Approx. 10 m x 10 m (about 33 ft x 33 ft) with four units
Synchronization	Wireless; beam-encoded ID, no sync cable or inter-unit line of sight
Power	12V DC, compatible with the original HTC Vive power supply
Mounting	Standard 1/4 in - 20 threaded mount (wall mount, tripod or stand)
Weight	Approx. 454 g
Color	Black
Model number	99HATV000-00
Launch price	US$149.99 (single unit)

Published field-of-view figures differ slightly between vendors. HTC's VIVE listing states 150 degrees horizontal by 110 degrees vertical, while Valve's documentation for the equivalent Index emitter cites 160 by 115 degrees; both describe the same SteamVR Tracking 2.0 hardware generation.

Coverage and play space

A single base station can track a seated or standing experience, and two units positioned in opposite corners of a room provide a standing or room-scale volume. According to Valve, a two-station 2.0 setup covers a play area about four times larger than a comparable first-generation setup. The defining capability of the 2.0 generation is scaling beyond two units: because the base stations identify themselves over the beam and need no sync cable, up to four can be combined to cover roughly 10 by 10 meters, which HTC promoted as more than three times the area of the original Vive when it launched the Vive Pro Full Kit. Each retail base station ships with its own power adapter, so a multi-station setup requires one power outlet per unit.

Compatibility

The 2.0 base stations are not interchangeable with the first generation. They cannot drive an original HTC Vive headset or first-generation Vive Tracker, because those devices' sensors cannot decode the identifier that 2.0 units encode onto the beam. Conversely, headsets and accessories designed for SteamVR Tracking 2.0 remain backward compatible with the older 1.0 base stations. HTC's official guidance is that 1.0 and 2.0 base stations cannot be mixed in the same setup because they use different synchronization methods.

Hardware that works with the HTC Vive Base Station 2.0 includes the HTC Vive Pro, HTC Vive Pro Eye, HTC Vive Pro 2 and Valve Index headsets, the Valve Index Controllers and Vive Pro controllers, and the 2.0-generation Vive Tracker; third-party SteamVR Tracking 2.0 headsets such as those from Varjo also use the same emitters.

	SteamVR Tracking 1.0 base station	HTC Vive Base Station 2.0
Rotor design	Two rotors (separate H and V sweeps)	Single rotor (combined sweep)
Inter-unit sync	Sync cable or optical sync flash	Wireless; ID encoded on beam
Units per setup	Up to 2	Up to 4
Field of view	~120° x 120° (1.0 generation)	150° x 110° (VIVE figure)
Max play space	~3.5 m x 3.5 m (two units)	~10 m x 10 m (four units)
Compatible headsets	Original Vive (and 2.0 headsets)	Vive Pro / Pro Eye / Pro 2, Valve Index, Varjo

Reception

Commentators and reviewers generally treated the second-generation base station as a clear technical improvement rather than a new product category. Road to VR characterized the redesign as "better in every way," highlighting the lower part count, improved reliability and the ability to scale past two units. Coverage of the 2018 HTC Vive Pro launch emphasized the much larger 10 by 10 meter play space as one of the platform's most meaningful upgrades for room-scale users and commercial installations. The most frequent criticism, repeated across HTC's own support material and community discussion, was the loss of backward compatibility, since owners of the original Vive could not simply buy 2.0 base stations to enlarge their play space without also upgrading their headset.

See also

• Lighthouse
• SteamVR
• HTC Vive Pro
• Valve Index
• Outside-in tracking
• Comparison of tracking systems