top of page

Release Notes

Version 43 Release​

  • Please update everything, including the VR shoes firmware, Steam VR driver, mobile app, and any other programs or utilities we've provided to you.

  • This version of the mobile app is available on the public Google Play and Apple App Stores. You can download it there.

  • Please reach out for SDK samples if you want them!

​

Stopping Setting Improvements

Thanks to the feedback we got from some of you on the new stopping features we introduced in version 41. We've worked on improving these and tuned the settings with different default values.

​

You can create a new normal profile, or reset the settings on your current profile, and see how it feels! As a reminder, these settings are on the Advanced Stopping Settings page, and have these names:

​

  • Forward Speed Decay (Decay Threshold and Decay Amount)

  • Lifted with Low Speed Detection - Back Shoe (Speed Threshold and Reset Interval)

  • Lifted with Low Speed Detection - Other Shoe (Low Delta Speed Threshold, Low Delta Speed Delay, Held and Lifted Threshold)

  • Estimated Stride Length (Low/Medium/High Speed)

​

Kneeling and Sitting

When not using a frame, you can now kneel down and even sit on the floor, see this video for a demonstration.

​

It works by disabling movement, where the shoe motors hold their position, if you crouch down below a certain height. The height can be configured. Please see our user manual, the "Automatically Disable Motion When HMD Lowers" section, for more details!

​

Note: This feature does not currently work with the Steam Frame headset. It seems this headset has a bug where it reports the wrong user height. We will submit a bug report and hopefully Valve can fix it soon. For now, please leave this feature disabled if you use a Steam Frame.

​

Extra Haptic Feedback for Backwards Walking

There is a new checkbox in the backwards walking settings that make it so the haptic motors in the shoes buzz whenever the direction calculation algorithm resets. If you're familiar with backwards walking (from the training course), you know that to switch between forward and backwards walking you need to briefly pause. There is now a buzz that happens when you pause, letting you know the exact moment that you can then switch directions, either from forward walking to backwards or backwards to forwards.

​

Other Changes

  • Fixed a bug with treadmill mode where it would sometimes stop the shoe when lifting the other shoe.

  • Made it so if the Steam VR driver disconnects from the shoes, the in-game speed is set to 0, preventing you from continually moving in-game after a disconnect.

  • Changed some other default settings for the normal profile.

  • Massive rework to the SDK to make it easier to compile, distribute, and use.

  • Added several new Steam VR input bindings for games like Pavlov, Quantum Void, etc.

  • Internal firmware refactoring to reduce memory usage.

Version 41 Release​​​​​​

This is an important update with new features and improved walking behavior, especially when stopping.

​

  • Please update everything, including the VR shoes firmware, Steam VR driver, mobile app, the updater, and any other programs or utilities we've provided to you.

  • When you open the Freeaim Updater it should ask you to download and install a new one. It will be version 8.

  • This version of the mobile app is available on the public Google Play and Apple App Stores. You can download it there.

  • Please reach out for SDK samples if you want them!

​

Below is the list of changes. Please pay extra attention to unlockable features and the note about wireless updates.

​

Note: Updating wirelessly to v41

We have found a bug with wireless updates in v40 where the wireless update sometimes fails. If you are on v40 please try to update to v41 wirelessly. If it fails you can try again, but if you find it is not working please update using the USB cable. Please use care when plugging the USB cable into the ports on the shoes. As a reminder, there are 2 ports on each shoe, 4 ports in total that you will need to use to update.

​

Unlockable Features

There is a new way to enable access to all the settings.

​

  1. Turn both VR shoes on.

  2. Open the updater.

  3. Click the unlockable features button.

  4. Click the "shoes are on and ready" button.

  5. Wait for features to be retrieved from the shoes.

  6. If you are a trusted partner, a checkbox should appear for showing all settings. Check it, wait for it to say the feature is enabled.

  7. Now you should see all the settings in the mobile app.


As you can see, unlockable features is our new way of giving you access to features. If you are a trusted partner, you will see the show all settings checkbox. For the general public, you will not see this checkbox and hence will not have access to the settings that we only want to use internally or allow trusted partners to use.

There are a few features the general public can access. In the updater on the unlockable features page, you may have noticed there are a few buttons for taking quizzes to unlock position correction and backwards walking. Members of the general public can read through our training material and take a quiz to unlock those features.

​

Improvements to Treadmill Mode in VR

We recently introduced what we call treadmill mode in VR, or joystick mode. Please see the user manual for how to set it up. This is where you can push on the joystick on the controller to power on and off the VR shoes. This feature has some improvements.
 

  • The ramp up and down time can be changed. Previously the ramp up could either be slow (~3s) or fast (asap). Now this time can be configured.

  • There is an option to keep moving in-game while the power is ramping down. Previously when you let go of the joystick and the shoes slowed down, you'd instantly stop in-game but still have to walk a few steps in real life while the power ramps down. Now the in-game movement can keep going while ramp down happens.

​

Gamepad mode for PC

The shoes can be configured to emulate a BLE gamepad. We've used this mode to connect the VR shoes to a Meta Quest and be able to use the VR shoes to move in some Meta Quest games. However, this didn't work as well when connecting the VR shoes as a gamepad to a Windows PC.The VR shoes should now work for PC games as a gamepad. Please see the new section in the user manual on gamepad mode for how to set it up.

​

Stopping Improvements

We were at AWE in June and got some helpful feedback. We've introduced some new features to make stopping better, especially stopping with a heel up or a foot tilted up.

These new settings are available in the mobile app on the Advanced Stopping Settings page. The new settings are:

​

  • Forward Speed Decay (Decay Threshold and Decay Amount)

  • Lifted with Low Speed Detection - Back Shoe (Speed Threshold and Reset Interval)

  • Lifted with Low Speed Detection - Other Shoe (Low Delta Speed Threshold, Low Delta Speed Delay, Held and Lifted Threshold)

  • Estimated Stride Length (Low/Medium/High Speed)

​

Please click on the iballs for these settings for more information on what they do.

We've defaulted these settings to values that we like after testing them. We would appreciate it if you could either create a new profile with the defaults, or reset your current profile, and see if you notice a difference, especially when stopping with a heel up or a foot tilted up.

​

Other Changes in v41​

  • Battery scale: Default was 11.9, now 12

  • The way the battery percentage is calculated from battery voltage has changed a bit

  • The user should now still be able to send wifi credentials to shoes even if the mobile app is at a different version than the shoes

  • Fixed a few bugs we found with wireless updates

  • We've made new guide videos that are available on the User Guide's playlist on our YouTube channel

  • There is now a getting started page on our website

  • We've made many updates to the user manual, like how to set up the frames, tiles, gamepad mode, etc.

bottom of page