SteamVR tracking technology to be free to developers
Complete a special course and its all yours, royalty and licensing free
Valve is giving third party developers royalty-free licensing for its SteamVR tracking technology, allowing them to make new controllers and peripherals for VR spaces. Think VR golf club peripherals or swords - this tech lets your game and your devices know exactly where they are.
"We believe that the largest value for our customers and for Valve will come from allowing SteamVR Tracking to proliferate as widely as possible. The existence of more SteamVR-compatible devices will make the SteamVR community more valuable for customers and developers," said Valve.
"Having a wide community of hardware developers pushing the platform forward will result in innovations that we Valve would never think of or pursue on our own. Also, all SteamVR devices and hardware components will become cheaper if more of them get made."
The only requirement is the developers complete an introductory course on the tracking technology which costs $2975 per participant. Each course is 3.5 days long and will take 10-12 attendees and is provided by Synapse Product Development.
"Valve has limited bandwidth to provide licensee support, but wants to make sure that licensees are not constrained by that limitation. To that end Valve has partnered with Synapse Product Development to provide onboarding and educational and consulting services for all SteamVR Tracking licensees."
The first advertised course starts next month and you can find out more at the official Valve FAQ.