SteamVR reference hardware and training
When opening licensing for anyone to develop products for SteamVR Tracking in 2016, Valve involved Synapse to design & manufacture reference hardware for the new SteamVR Tracking licensees to jump-start development. Valve had limited bandwidth to provide support and partnered with Synapse to implement onboarding, educational, and consulting services for all SteamVR Tracking licensees.
Synapse’s team set to work creating a Hardware Development Kit (HDK), with an accompanying course curriculum and documentation to bring Licensees up to speed on the hardware. The course covered topics from initial concept generation, simulation, and prototyping, through software integration, calibration and troubleshooting; while the HDK provided each attendee with all of the necessary tools and documentation to design and integrate tracked objects:
In late September 2016, Synapse opened the doors of the Seattle office for SteamVR Tracking trainings, providing attendees with a view into our culture and community. Over the course of 6 months, Synapse engineers taught over 15 open enrollment courses, 3 private trainings, and hosted over 140 attendees from across the globe. In the time since, our Synapse SteamVR Tracking team has presented a condensed workshop at SXSW 2017 and continues to provide support to a key Valve partners in their VR program development.
