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Haptics and vibration

Open Setting → General and find Haptic. Haptics control Tracker vibration. They are separate from magnetometer settings and calibration.

Haptic and Hold to Vibrate controls, cropped contiguously from the native Settings screenshot.
Haptic and Hold to Vibrate controls, cropped contiguously from the native Settings screenshot. · Open image at original size.

Test the Tracker vibration

  1. Make sure the USB dongle is connected and the Trackers are online.
  2. In Setting → General, turn Haptic on.
  3. Press and hold Hold to Vibrate.
  4. Check that the connected Trackers vibrate while you hold the button.
  5. Release the button to stop the test.

This test vibrates the connected Trackers as a group. The app also accepts VRChat HapticHub OSC messages. It does not set up an avatar or OSC on your behalf; see the separate VRChat setup guide for that.

Configure a VRChat avatar for vibration

This is an advanced manual setup for an avatar creator or Unity editor. Watch the user-provided video first: EXCap tracker haptics with the Haptic plugin. The video follows the HapticHub + Modular Avatar style of setup. The menus may look different in a newer Unity or SDK version.

EXCap tracker haptics with the Haptic plugin

 Booth HapticHub

The short version is:

  1. Open the avatar project in Unity with the VRChat SDK and the HapticHub/Modular Avatar packages installed. If you do not build avatars, send this section and the video to your avatar creator.
  2. Add the HapticHub avatar package or the HapticHub MA quick setup to the avatar. Keep one vibration point for each Tracker position you want to use.
  3. For a vibration point, create or select an empty object at the matching avatar bone. Start with Left Foot as the example. The current parameter name is HapticHub/v1/LeftFoot; older tutorials may say LeftAnkle.
  4. Add a Contact Receiver to that point. Add the collider tags that should trigger it, usually Hand and Foot. Choose whether Allow Self and Allow Others should be on.
  5. Set the receiver's trigger type to Proximity and enter the matching parameter, for example HapticHub/v1/LeftFoot. Add the same parameter to the avatar's FX layer. The HapticHub parameters do not need to be added to the synced parameter list.
  6. Repeat for the other points you want to feel. Keep the names and left/right positions matched: LeftFoot goes to the left foot, RightFoot to the right foot, and so on.
  7. Upload the avatar, wear the published version, enable OSC in VRChat, and start the HapticHub/Excap OSC path. In the haptic app, assign each physical Tracker to the same body position used by the avatar.
  8. Test one point at a time. First test a self-trigger, then test an interaction from another avatar if Allow Others is enabled.

If nothing vibrates: check that Haptic is enabled in Excap, the Trackers are online, VRChat OSC is enabled from the Action Menu, the avatar is the published version, the HapticHub/OSC application is running, and the parameter name matches exactly. A Build & Test avatar may not create the same OSC configuration as a published avatar, so publish before diagnosing the final path.

This manual Unity route is temporary documentation for the current product. We plan to add automatic avatar scanning and HapticHub configuration in Excap, so users will not need to add every parameter and receiver by hand. Do not treat that future automation as available in the current release.

Useful references: VRChat OSC avatar parameters, VRChat OSC guide, and HapticHub avatar adaptation notes.

For magnetometer settings and calibration, see Magnetometer calibration.

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