Just under a year on from more than doubling its Kickstarter crowd-funding goal, the Tundra Labs SteamVR Tracker is about to go on general sale, with some caveats.
The Tundra Tracker is a small, lightweight device that serves the same function as HTC’s own Vive Tracker pucks. You can connect them to real-world objects or your own body to bring virtual approximations of them into VR. Tundra’s solution is designed to weigh a maximum of 50g and offer seven hours of battery life. Already the company has shipped over 11,000 units to Kickstarter backers.
But, in a blog post from last week, the company revealed it will start its first batch of general orders for the device across the US, Canada, Asia and Australia on March 10th, with orders for Europe planned for March 15th. However, ongoing issues with component shortages have led the company to raise the prices of its bundles.
For example, whereas a bundle of three trackers costs $300 during the Kickstarter campaign, the set costs $360 through general sale. You’ll also be able to buy four trackers for $480. These will also be available in a limited capacity, with the next set of orders expected to go live between four to six weeks from now.
“We really wish that neither of these tactics were necessary,” the team said of securing more expensive components and thus raising the price, “but in the spirit of being transparent, this is what is needed in 2022 to deliver product to you and that is our number one priority!”
Will you be picking up the Tundra Trackers later this week? Let us know in the comments below!
Tundra Tracker, a SteamVR Tracking puck born out of a successful Kickstarter last year, was sold to the general public for the first time yesterday, March 10th. Tundra Labs says that all available stock was sold out in only three minutes after launch.
Tundra Labs announced in a tweet that their “very limited inventory” of trackers sold out in just three minutes yesterday.
Like many companies, Tundra Labs says it’s suffering from key component shortages, and as such has been forced to buy some parts from third-party brokerages instead of directly from the supplier, which it says is due to larger companies getting priority.
Tundra Labs says its first wave of orders will ship “approximately 8 weeks after purchase,” with inventory tentatively scheduled for May 10th, 2022. The company hasn’t mentioned when it plans to open up orders again for its pint-sized SteamVR tracker, however in a previous update a 4-6 week lead time was quoted, which would put the next availability window sometime in April.
Tundra Labs says it’s opening up sale of a limited number of Trackers starting March 10th. The company hopes to pace availability every 4-6 weeks thereafter.
Here’s the initial March 10th release schedule below:
Release on tundra-labs.com at 12:00 CST (local time here) for purchase in United States, Canada, Rest of World (not including European Continent)
Bundles have changed somewhat from the original Kickstarter. Now a three tracker bundle costs $360 and a four tracker bundle $480. Read more on Tundra Labs blogpost for additional details on pricing and availability.
Original Article (October 27th, 2021): The Tundra Tracker Kickstarter raised nearly $1.4 million earlier this year to bring to life a VR tracking puck for the SteamVR Tracking ecosystem which is the first direct alternative to the longstanding Vive Tracker. The device can be used to track arbitrary items inside of VR, with many aiming to use the tracker for full-body tracking to enhance social VR experiences.
Tundra Tracker (left), Vive Tracker 2.0 (right) | Image courtesy Tundra Labs
Though shipments for the Tundra Tracker have slipped from their initial estimate of September, the campaign has seen an incredibly quick turnaround compared to most hardware-based crowdfunding projects which often take years to complete; the latest estimate from Tundra Labs is that the first shipments should begin in early November, which would be just over five months from the completion of the Kickstarter campaign. Here’s the current shipping estimates from the company:
November 10th: Early Bird Shipments begin for Americas Region
November 22nd: Early Bird Shipments begin for Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand & SE Asia
November 29th through December 31st: Regular Backer Shipments
Tundra Labs says the delay from the original September estimate was in part caused by electricity shortages in China which impacted manufacturing. However, the company says that a “very small” number of Tundra Trackers have already been shipped to some ‘early bird’ backers in China.
Tundra Labs celebrated success back in March as Tundra Tracker, the company’s SteamVR-based tracker device, not only exploded past its Kickstarter goal in less than 24 hours, but went on to pass the $1 million mark. It’s proved to be so popular that it’s actually become a victim of its own success, as the company has drastically limited future orders through Kickstarter.
Back in late April, Tundra Labs founder Luke Beno announced that, due to supply limitations caused by ongoing global manufacturing disruptions, the company would need to put an upper limit on the number of Tundra Trackers it could sell. Now the company says it’s reached that limit with a majority of its hardware bundles.
Reward tiers featuring Super Wireless (SW) dongles ‘SW3’ and ‘SW7’ have “hit the limits,” Tundra Labs collaborator Jason Leong says in a tweet, leaving only bundles with the ‘SW5’ model available to purchase. The SW USB dongle is used to connect a variable number of trackers to the user’s computer: 3, 5, and 7 trackers respectively.
Image courtesy Tundra Labs
At the time of this writing, the only way to buy multiple Tundra Trackers now is to purchase a single tracker (either $95 without dongle, and $130 with) and then add a second tracker for $89 upon checkout. All other multiple tracker bundles are now sold out.
Many companies have faced similar supply issues throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which is in large part due to a shortage in chips. Manufacturers of smartphones, cars, graphics cards—essentially anything with a microprocessor—are being affected currently. It’s possible the shortage could last into 2023, so with such uncertainty it makes sense why Tundra Labs wouldn’t put the cart before the horse and take orders it may not be able to fulfill.
It’s always difficult to gauge how well a crowd-funded Kickstarter will do, especially where hardware is concerned. Tundra Labs launched its campaign two days ago for its Tundra Tracker, instantly proving there’s an appetite for SteamVR compatible tracking solutions by smashing past its funding goal in the first day.
The team set out to raise $250,000 USD during the course of the campaign, already achieving just over $750k (£546k) in the past couple of days. That’s quite the haul considering it’s just a wireless tracker and that the first funding tier for a Tundra Tracker and Dongle is $130. The Early Bird x3 Bundle has sold out but the standard Tundra Tracker x3 Bundle – which includes three trackers and one dongle – for $300 (£219) has been the most popular with 1,126 backers so far.
Tundra Tracker is all about offering a small, lightweight solution for virtual reality (VR) enthusiasts to track their entire body within a digital space. As your hands and head are already tracked thanks to the headset and controllers, the trackers are attached to your waist and feet to make an entire virtual skeleton. It’s the sort of framework which is ideal for titles like Rezzil Player 21, a platform based around real-world football drills.
Tundra Labs’ system is modular should developers need it. While adding those three body points provides a basic structure, using the right Tundra dongle users can add a maximum of seven trackers to one system for even more accuracy. One of the benefits of this solution is that only one dongle is required for all the trackers. Compare that to the more widely known Vive Tracker which needs one dongle for each tracker, that’s a lot of USB ports.
The SteamVR tracking space has really begun to hot up in 2021. Not only do you have the Tundra Tracker which is slated to officially begin shipping in September, British firm TG0 has just launched its eteeTracker which looks significantly different, there’s the Manus Pro Tracker at the top end of the market and let’s not forget the third-generation Vive Tracker HTC Vive recently announced. So there’s no shortage of options.
The Tundra Tracker Kickstarter concludes on 28th May so the campaign has plenty of time to up that funding tally even further. As that happens VRFocus will keep you updated.
Tundra Tracker, the SteamVR-based tracker in development by Tundra Labs, exploded past its Kickstarter goal in less than 24 hours, securing the company well beyond the $250,000 it initially hoped for back at its late-March launch. The company has now made it well past the $1 million mark with one month remaining in the campaign.
Update (April 28th, 2021): Tundra Tracker previously inched past the $1 million mark on April 10th. In the meantime, Tundra Tracker has managed to push forward, albeit at a slower pace, and secure around $1,175,000 in Kickstarter funds.
Tundra Labs says in a recent update that, due to current issues in the supply chain, it will be limiting sales of trackers during the Kickstarter.
“You may have read about the crushing supply limitations that exist in the electronics industry right now,” says Luke Beno, founder of Tundra Labs. “This means that there is an upper limit to the number of Tundra Trackers that we think can produce by the dates discussed in this campaign. We have not reached this limit yet but want to be upfront with the community that there does need to be a limit.”
All funding tiers, save the $300 Early Bird bundle, are still available through the campaign, which you can find here.
Update (April 6th, 2021): At the time of this writing, Tundra Labs has secured $932,525, and is rapidly approaching $1M. The campaign still has 52 days to go, so there’s no telling how high it may go.
With the funds, the team has also announced it’s hired long-time VR developer Olivier JT, who will help manage the day-to-day in Europe. Tundra collaborator Jason Leong is also currently traveling to Asia from the company’s Wisconsin base to oversee production of both the developer and production versions of the tracker.
Original Article (March 30th, 2021): Backers of the Tundra Tracker Kickstarter today showed strong demand for a SteamVR Tracking compatible tracker that aims to be smaller and cheaper than the market incumbent, the Vive Tracker.
The initial $250,000 goal was crushed within hours of the Kickstarter campaign’s launch, and as of writing the project has exceeded $600,000. At present, the funds are from some 1,570 individual backers who backed tiers ranging from $42 to $630.
While the vast majority of backers so far have chosen the 3x Tundra Tracker bundle (67%), a surprising number of backers went for the largest 7x Tundra Tracker bundle (17%).
Ostensibly many users will be using the trackers for body-tracking in VR; with three trackers that typically means adding tracking points to the feet and waist (in addition to tracking of the head and hands provided by a VR headset). Seven trackers can enable even more accurate body-tracking by tracking the movement of feet, knees, elbows, and the waist.
The majority of the product’s tiers include “basic” elastic straps for attaching the trackers to the body, as well as a storage case. The Kickstarter versions of the trackers also include two base plates which offer different mounting options: a 1/4 tripod screw, or a strap loop.
Image courtesy Tundra Labs
Tundra Labs expects the earliest Tundra Trackers to be delivered to ‘early bird’ backers beginning in July, while the remainder are expected in September. The campaign currently doesn’t have any listed stretch goals.
As the only other SteamVR Tracking tracker on the market, the Tundra Tracker is naturally directly compared to the HTC Vive Tracker 2.0 and recently released Vive Tracker 3.0. The pricing comparison is broken down here:
Tracker Count
Tundra Tracker
Vive Tracker 2.0
Vive Tracker 3.0
1x
$130
$100
$130
3x
$300
$300
$390
5x
$460
$500
$650
7x
$630
$700
$910
For more on how the Tundra Tracker and Vive Tracker compare from a price and feature standpoint, so our previous article.
For those that are interested in tracking multiple objects in virtual reality (VR), full-body motion tracking, for instance, 2021 is set to offer plenty of choices for the SteamVR system. HTC Vive has just launched its third-generation Vive Tracker or for a third-party alternative, there’s the upcoming Tundra Tracker which is going to launch a Kickstarter later this month.
The Tundra Tracker is designed to be a smaller, lighter solution to the Vive Tracker 2.0 which retails for £109.99 GBP – the new Vive Tracker 3.0 also boasts a small form factor but retails for £129.00. However, the biggest benefit the Tundra Tracker could have over its rival is connectivity. Vive Trackers all require a dongle, one for each unit which means you’d either need plenty of free USB ports on your PC or a USB hub.
Making that process a bit simpler, the Tundra Tracker only needs one dongle to do all the work, you just need to make sure you buy the right one for your needs. There will be three dongles available supporting 3,5 or 7 trackers all of which will be available in bundles. Starting from $94.99 USD for a single tracker, bundles will begin at $130 rising up to $630 for 7 trackers and one compatible dongle.
Tundra Trackers
Dongle
Price
1
N/A
$94.99
1
Super Wireless Dongle (max 3 devices)
$129.99
3
Super Wireless Dongle (max 3 devices)
$299.99
5
Super Wireless Dongle (max 5 devices)
$459.99
7
Super Wireless Dongle (max 7 devices)
$629.99
N/A
Super Wireless Dongle (max 3 devices)
$42.99
N/A
Super Wireless Dongle (max 5 devices)
$59.99
N/A
Super Wireless Dongle (max 7 devices)
$79.99
The Tundra Tracker Kickstarter is slated to launch on 29th March. The device will support SteamVR compatible headsets like HTC Vive, Vive Pro, Vive Pro Eye, Cosmos Elite, Valve Index and Varjo. To attach it to peripherals or your body the trackers will include an integrated strap loop baseplate as well as compatibility with screwthread 1/4-20 mounts. It’ll also support SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 base stations.
Offering another alternative SteamVR tracking solution is the Manus Pro Tracker set to launch later this year. Mainly designed to work comfortably with its Manus Prime II gloves, the trackers do have a universal mounting system for wider compatibility but will retail for €299 EUR.
Once the Kickstarter concludes on 28th May, delivery to backers expected to begin over the summer – a tentative release date for early backers is 19th June. When the crowd-funding campaign launches VRFocus will bring you further updates on its progress.
Tundra Labs, the company developing the Tundra Tracker SteamVR Tracking accessory, has revealed pricing for the device starting at $95. Previously planned for earlier in the year, a Kickstarter campaign for the tracker is set to launch on March 29th with the first deliveries expected in July.
Compared to the new Vive Tracker 3.0 revealed this week, Tundra Labs says the Tundra Tracker is still the smaller of the two, though it isn’t clear yet how the improved battery life of the Vive Tracker 3.0 will compare to the Tundra Tracker (Tundra Labs previously said its tracker would have better battery life than the Vive Tracker 2.0).
This week has brought the first look at the official pricing for the Tundra Tracker. Pricing is slightly confusing because the company is actually selling three different dongles, all of which connect via one USB connection, but are capable of connecting a different number of devices. We’ve labeled them A, B, and C for clarity:
Tracker
Dongle
Price
1x
–
$95
1x
Dongle A (up to 3 devices)
$130
3x
Dongle A (up to 3 devices)
$300
5x
Dongle B (up to 5 devices)
$460
7x
Dongle C (up to 7 devices)
$630
–
Dongle A (up to 3 devices)
$43
–
Dongle B (up to 5 devices)
$60
–
Dongle C (up to 7 devices)
$80
Tundra Labs is positioning its multi-device dongles as a unique advantage over the Vive Tracker dongles.
Vive Trackers need one dongle per tracker, so if you want to use 5x Vive Trackers for body tracking, you’d need connect 5x Vive Tracker dongles to your computer (each on their own USB port, or with a third-party USB hub).
All of the Tundra Tracker dongles, on the other hand, use a single USB port but can connect multiple devices. Tundra Labs says its dongles are also capable of connecting Vive Trackers, controllers, and other peripherals which use SteamVR Tracking (including the ability to mix and match), and its dongles are designed to fit inside the ‘frunk’ USB accessory port on the Valve Index. (Vive Tracker dongles can also connect any SteamVR Tracking peripherals, but only one device per dongle.)
Tundra Tracker prototype next to Vive Tracker 2.0 | Image courtesy Tundra Labs
Tundra Labs told us at the outset that it was aiming for “slightly cheaper” pricing than the Vive Tracker 2.0; here’s how pricing compares between Tundra Tracker, Vive Tracker 2.0, and the new Vive Tracker 3.0:
Tracker Count
Tundra Tracker
Vive Tracker 2.0
Vive Tracker 3.0
1x
$130 (Dongle A)
$100
$130
3x
$300 (Dongle A)
$300
$390
5x
$460 (Dongle B)
$500
$650
7x
$630 (Dongle C)
$700
$910
Tundra Labs said this week that it’s still on track for a March 29th Kickstarter. Assuming the campaign succeeds, initial delivers are expected to begin in July.
Tundra Tracker, the upcoming SteamVR tracker alternative to the Vive Tracker, was originally expected to hold a Kickstarter in January, but the company behind the project, Tundra Labs, says the crowdfunding campaign has been pushed back in light of delays in component sourcing.
Image courtesy Tundra Labs
In the latest official update on the project, Tundra Labs notes, “Right now the semiconductor industry is going through incredible supply shortages due to a ‘double whammy’ of dropping factory capacity due to COVID-19 and skyrocketing demand also due to the pandemic. For this reason, since November 2020, we have been tracking components used in the Tundra Tracker and many are showing 26 to 30 week lead time for high volume deliveries. This means that If we place orders today, components may not be delivered until August. Thankfully we already started placing component orders in Q4 of 2020. We are also working directly with vendors to ‘pull in’ deliveries as much as possible and pay expedites when available.”
Given the long lead time, Tundra Labs says it has opted to delay the Kickstarter campaign to “shorten the time between when crowdfunding ends and when all backers receive their orders.”
The company now plans to launch the Kickstarter on March 29th for 30 days, and expects the first units to start shipping to early-bird backers starting in mid-June, while the bulk of backers can expect shipments in mid-September.
Beyond Kickstart plans, the company also revealed some more details on the Tundra Tracker’s design, including a closer look at how the swappable base plates will work.
Image courtesy Tundra Labs
“The rendering above demonstrates the production product design, especially about the swappable baseplates for Tundra Tracker. Based on feedback there will (at minimum) be options for an integrated strap loop baseplate as well as a backwards compatible with 1/4-20 mounts.” The company says it’s investigating additional base plates for other uses.
Tundra Labs also shared the first look at a functional prototype in action:
In addition to being smaller and lighter, Tundra Labs is aiming to make the price of the Tundra Tracker slightly less than the Vive Tracker, though pricing hasn’t been finalized yet. “We are still resolving the pricing question,” the company said in its latest update.
Tundra Labs, which makes chips and development kits for devices which use SteamVR Tracking, is building its own tracking accessory for the tracking ecosystem. The company is positioning its Tundra Tracker as a smaller, cheaper, and better alternative to HTC’s Vive Tracker. A Kickstarter campaign to fund the project and gather feedback is planned for next month.
The Open SteamVR Tracking Ecosystem
SteamVR Tracking Base Stations
Valve’s SteamVR Tracking is an open tracking system which allows any third party to build devices which are tracked by SteamVR Base Stations. Valve’s own Index headset, along with third-party headsets from companies like HTC and Pimax, make use of the shared system for high quality room-scale tracking. The flexible system allows users to mix and match devices (like being able to use an Index headset with Vive wand controllers), and also allows additional devices to be added into the mix—like HTC’s Vive Tracker, which is a general-purpose SteamVR Tracking device that can be attached to things like props or limbs to track those objects in VR.
As the only consumer-available device of its kind, the Vive Tracker has become the defacto general purpose tracker for the SteamVR Tracking ecosystem. It’s commonly used to augment VR motion capture by attaching to a user’s feet and hips, thus providing six points of body tracking (head, hands, waist, and feet) rather than the usual three (head and hands). This allows the movements of players to be captured and represented more accurately, giving VR avatars an impressively wide range of motion.
Friendly Competition
Image courtesy Tundra Labs
As the defacto choice, comparisons to the Vive Tracker are inevitable; Tundra Labs founder Luke Beno says the Tundra Tracker will best the incumbent in several ways.
Specifically the device is expected to be “60% smaller, consume about 50% less power, weight 50% less, and have twice the battery life,” compared to the Vive Tracker, he tells Road to VR. Beno also plans to deliver the Tundra Tracker at a slightly lower cost than the $100 Vive Tracker, along with additional discounts for tracker bundles.
But the Tundra Tracker isn’t purely a competitor, it can also work in tandem with the Vive Tracker, allowing users who have already invested in Vive Trackers to augment their tracking setup without needing to completely switch from one tracker to the other.
In fact, users will be able to pair Vive Trackers, Tundra Trackers, and even Index controllers to the Tundra Tracker’s USB dongle. “It’s the beautiful nature of SteamVR’s open ecosystem,” Beno says.
Placement & Mounting Options
Image courtesy Tundra Labs
With its reduced size and weight, Beno says the Tundra Tracker will also offer more flexible placement options.
“The tracker shape is also designed to fit in places that Vive Tracker cannot. The default baseplate has two loops where a user can thread though a strap or shoe laces. I’m also considering integrating magnets into the base so that it can snap onto a metal plate that can be embedded or sewn into clothing.”
Image courtesy Tundra Labs
Tundra Labs is also considering other base plates for different applications, but is waiting to lock down the options until gathering feedback from potential customers. “I’d like to sort of ‘crowd source’ ideas [for the tracker’s mounting options] such that it is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution like Vive Tracker,” he says.
Tundra Tracker Kickstarter
Image courtesy Tundra Labs
To that end, Tundra Labs will run a Kickstarter campaign for the Tundra Tracker, which is planned to start in January with units shipping later in the year.
While the Kickstarter details are still being finalized, Beno tells Road to VR that Tundra Labs will also offer ‘multi-port dongles’ through the Kickstarter, which will allow users to pair multiple trackers (Tundra Trackers or Vive Trackers) using a single USB connection.
The plan is to offer multi-port dongles capable of pairing up to three, five, or seven trackers, respectively. They will also be small enough to fit into the opening in the front of the Valve Index headset (AKA the ‘frunk’), which would ensure the dongles stay close to the trackers for a strong connection.
Beyond the consumer Tundra Tracker and the multi-port dongle, Beno says the Kickstarter will also offer a ‘Dev Edition’ tracker which includes a “very comprehensive expansion connector,” which could be used by other companies to build functional, tracked accessories like VR guns, gloves, and more.
