How to Connect the Varjo VR Headset to Vizard and SightLab VR Pro - Updated
January 16, 2025
The Varjo line of headsets provides access to high quality, professional features such as human eye resolution, mixed reality and hand tracking, providing researchers with excellent tools for increasing the immersion in their studies. Here’s how to get these headsets up and running with Vizard and SightLab VR Pro, two powerful software tools for VR development. Together, they greatly simplify the process of creating VR applications for research experiments, providing a wide variety of out-of-the-box tools for experiment creation, as well as saving, viewing, and playing back data.
Before getting started you can check the system requirements for various Varjo headsets here. For more information also see the set up instructions on the Varjo website.
First you need to create a Varjo account on their website here https://account.varjo.com/login . You can create either a commercial or personal account. Once an account is created log in to your account.
Download the Varjo Base software.
Note: you may be prompted to also install Microsoft Visual C++ 2019 X64 Minimum Runtime if this is your first time installing the Varjo base software.
Start Varjo base and login, then run the initial setup and hardware check on your headset (a screen will pop up to allow you to select which headset you are using).
Connect the cables for your headset. For the XR-3/XR-4 it uses two headset adaptors to two display ports and two USB 3.0/3.1 ports.
Enable OpenXR, as Vizard connects to Varjo via OpenXR (SteamVR will also work, but does not give you eye tracking). Go to the System tab within the Varjo Base app Under the Compatibility section make sure OpenXR is enabled.
Set up tracking:some text
For the Aero this can be either SteamVR tracking using the lighthouse tracking system or an optional third party tracker you can add manually.
For the XR-3 and VR-3 you can use SteamVR, a third party tracker or inside out tracking (for inside out tracking you will just need to enable that in Varjo Base and do a quick calibration).
For eye tracking calibration navigate to the Tools menu in Varjo Base, select the Analytics window and choose Eye tracking > Calibrate (you can choose to remember the calibration so you don’t have to do this every time and you can also use a quick calibration method).
For connecting to Vizard, see the page on OpenXR and the examples in the \examples\openxr\ folder. The Varjo can also be added and set up in vizconnect. Here is code for running the Varjo in Vizard:
import viz
import openxr
# Initialize graphics window before initializing OpenXR
viz.setMultiSample(8)
viz.go()
# Check that OpenXR client is valid
xr = openxr.getClient()
# Initialize HMD
hmd = openxr.HMD()
For SightLab VR Pro you can select “Varjo” from the dropdown list of hardware to start using the headset and collecting eye tracking data. After setting up your experiment you can then run it in the Varjo, choose configuration options and collect and playback visualizations of the data.
11. For the XR-3/XR-4 see the mixed reality examples in Vizard and SightLab VR Pro for using the passthrough.
Chroma-Key:some text
The XR-3/XR-4 also allows a chroma-key feature which allows you to select any color to be replaced by virtual content.
Using the UNIX Timestamp in both the Varjo and SightLab data you can synchronize the two, combining all the built-in data collection of SightLab with the added data from Varjo.
All these next steps have to be done while wearing the headset
Open Analytics window in Varjo Base
Click on “Eyetracking”
Calibrate
Click to log data
Press Record
Run SightLab script and choose “Varjo”. It is best to run with these settings, as while wearing the headset you wouldn’t be able to click past the GUI or pid. See ExampleScripts/Varjo_Sample for a template sightlab = sl.SightLab(gui = False, pid = False)
After session is done, click “Escape” to close SightLab window
Go back to Varjo base (while still wearing the headset) and press “Record” to stop the recording
Find the Varjo data log and video in your videos folder
The UNIX time stamp in both Varjo and SightLab will be matched up
SightLab data is in your “data” folder in your SightLab project
For more information on how you can utilize hardware such as the Varjo line of headsets along with additional VR headsets and setting up VR labs, or for any information on any of WorldViz’s products, please contact sales@worldviz.com.
