SteamVR Setup Checklist

Hello, congratulations on purchasing your new VR hardware! This page is a step by step guide to help you with:

  1. Setting up a brand new computer
  2. Pairing your computer with your VR device
  3. Running the Equal Reality application.

Stage 1 - Computer setup

Setting up a brand new computer

Ensure laptop is plugged in and charging.

This is to ensure the laptop won't die while being setup.


Accounts & Login

We would recommend setting up a dedicated email address for all VR-related registrations and logins. You will use this email address to set up the dedicated VR computer/laptop.

A VR-dedicated email address makes remembering logins and passwords easier, and it also removes the risk of an email access being lost when a person leaves an organisation.

Create the account now, and we will user it later in the setup process.

Update your graphics card drivers.

Once you are logged in, you will want the latest drivers to run your VR hardware.

1 - Open the "GeForce Experience" application. This can be done in the search menu, by searching for "GeForce Experience".

2 - Login to Nvidia using your new e-mail account.

3 - Click the driver tab at the top.

4- Click the “Check for updates” button on the top right.

5 - Install any updates if available.

Next step is to download an unzipping program.

I recommend 7-Zip (https://www.7-zip.org/).

  1. Click on the download button for the 64bit .exe file.
  2. Open and install 7-zip.

Install Steam, SteamVR and Oculus.

On the video library, the video titled “How to install your VR software” goes through the steps and provides the links to Steam and Oculus.

When Steam, SteamVR and Oculus are installed, your computer is ready to go.

I recommend placing shortcuts to Oculus and SteamVR on your desktop for easy access.

Click here to install Steam

Click here to install Oculus

When you first install Oculus you will need to allow Unkown Sources so our application can run.

Stage 2 - VR setup

Pairing your computer with your VR device

The videos on the video library titled “How to setup your Oculus Rift and VR computer” and “Calibrating your Oculus Rift” follow these steps

Plug in your VR hardware to the appropriate ports.

This will vary slightly depending on the VR hardware you are using and the configuration of ports on your laptop.

Open the Oculus Application.

If you are not using Oculus hardware, skip these steps relating to Oculus

  1. On the left side menu select “Devices”.
  2. Click "Setup Rift" (or Rift S).
  3. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the Oculus Setup.


Open the SteamVR Application.

  1. Open Steam. This can be done in the search menu, by searching for "Steam".
  2. Click the VR button on the top right corner of the Steam Application to open SteamVR.

OR

1. Open SteamVR directly. This can be done in the search menu, by searching for "SteamVR".

Run SteamVR Room Setup.

  1. Click the down arrow on the SteamVR window to access a drop-down menu, select “Run room setup”.
  2. Go through the “Standing only” setup procedure following the on-screen prompts.
  3. When you put the headset on you should see a blue circle on the ground where you set the centre.

Your VR hardware is now ready to go.

Stage 3 - Equal Reality Software setup

Downloading and setting up the Equal Reality VR applications

The video on the video library titled “Downloading and Setting up” follows these steps

Create a folder called VR on your desktop.

This will be where all your VR applications and supporting documentation will live.


Download the Equal Reality VR applications from the Client Portal.

  1. Click on the VR applications link on the left sidebar.
  2. Click the blue “Download VR Application” button for Gender and Disability.
  3. Follow the prompts to download the file. It will be called “Gender and Disability.rar”


Extract the file

  1. Locate the file and move it to the VR folder on your desktop.
  2. Right click on the file and under the 7zip menu, select extract to “Gender and Disability”.


Create a desktop shortcut.

It is important to keep all the files in this folder together, or the application will not run correctly.

  1. Open the newly created folder “Gender and Disability”.
  2. You should see an application file called “Gender and Disability” with a blue Equal Reality logo next to it.
  3. Right click on the application file and select “Send to → Desktop (create shortcut)”.
  4. You can now double click on the desktop shortcut to start the application.


Repeat from Step 2 for installing new VR applications.