So (You) Want to Pico Like a Pro

One Man's Guide to the Comfiest Pico 4 Pro Setup

Introduction:

Once again I, your resident Pico hater, am back trying to make the Pico livable from the perspective of someone who's far too spoiled by his Index. I figure I'm deep enough down this rabbit hole that I don't mind spending a little more money trying to take what I've learned and find the end-game definitive Pico setup for someone who really just wants an Index 2 and is tired of waiting for Gaben to give it to us. So, if you've got a Pico or are thinking of getting one and you're wondering what one unhealthily-obsessed person's perspective is on the best way to set it up, I'm writing this guide to potentially save you a little time and cash. Before we get to the setup though, I'd like to semi-quickly go over what I'm trying to accomplish here, because if you have different priorities from me then this guide will basically do nothing for you.

The goals of the setup:

1. No batteries, infinite runtime.

This will probably be the main sticking point for many people with this guide. One of my primary goals with this setup is to make it equivalent to wired headsets insofar as I never want to deal with swapping batteries or charging the headset. I want this thing to go as long as I feel like being in VR for, and I don't mind using a cable to do it.

2. Comparable sound quality to Index.

Quite possibly the one thing no other headset has ever touched compared to the Index is audio. Index audio quality is by far and away the best out there, so I want something that at least sounds almost as good. For this reason we won't be relying on the Pico's built-in audio, at least for the speakers.

3. Comfort is king.

A next-gen Index is probably going to be more compact and lighter than the initial gen, and I want to accomplish the same here. There's no point in using a smaller, lighter headset if in the course of upgrading it you make it bigger and heavier, so I am trying to be as bare-bones as humanly possible with this setup, while maintaining the other goals.

4. True room-scale tracking.

Another stellar part of the Index is that your tracked devices don't care if your headset can see them, so this setup will do the same. As a related, additional part of this setup, I want to keep my Index finger tracking and my SteamVR based full-body tracking, so the setup will use Index controllers and SteamVR trackers where possible.

The Setup:

With all that laid out, you should be able to tell if this is the sort of setup you'd like with your Pico or not. You can of course also just pick and choose parts of the setup and combine it with your own, this is just what I've found to be maximum comfort for me personally. Most of this should also apply to Quest headsets if you want to adapt it for that.

What you'll need:

• A Pico 4 or Pico 4 Pro headset (duh)
• (Optional) The AMVR Face Cover for Pico 4 (Much more comfortable than the stock facial interface)
• A USB-C to 3.5mm AND charger adapter (I'm using this one)
• (Optional) A right-angle USB-C adapter (I'm using this one, this just makes the setup cleaner by redirecting the splitter along the headband)
• A pair of KOSS Porta-Pro or Sporta-Pro headphones (or another lightweight and minimal set of your choice. I am using Sporta Pros because they can also optionally be worn as behind-the-head, but can confirm they fit under the headset while worn with the headband upright without discomfort. They are also well-known to sound pretty nice. I would not recommend earbuds for this!)
• A 15ft USB-C to USB-C cable (I'm using this one, you can go shorter or longer depending on your needs, but 15ft roughly matches the Index's cable length so should be sufficient for most people)
• A USB-C charger of sufficient wattage (I am using a 60W Anker one that came with my PowerCore 26800 battery bank, but you want one that will exceed the max wattage of the Pico 4, with preferably some overhead due to cable length)
• A SteamVR tracker (If you don't have a spare, I recommend a Tundra Tracker because they are the most compact, and come with a base plate that will fit on the Pico's middle strap without additional hardware. Yes, this is a solid enough attachment point for continuous calibration if your straps are taut.)

What you do:

Most of this is probably painfully obvious, but I'll cover it anyway.

First you mount the splitter to the Pico's headband. I'd recommend leaving a little bit of slack in the cable of your splitter so it doesn't strain when moving the head strap. You can use pretty much any method you want for this but I'd recommend you choose something pretty solid, so that you don't have to worry about the adapter sliding down the strap when un/plugging things. I specifically mounted mine with the USB-C port on the bottom so that a right angle cable could also be used, but I don't recommend it to avoid cable strain.

Mount your tracker. For a more stable fit, you may want to fashion a spacer to hold it a little more firmly. I used some folded up duct-tape for this.

You can now plug in the things, make sure to support your cable.

Add your very most favorite headphones.

Congratulations you've got the setup. Wear the headphones first and adjust the headband as close to your head as possible (while remaining comfortable, of course), then wear the Pico over them.

There are far better guides to wireless hybrid VR setups than I could ever write here but here are a few tips that should make things a little smoother:

• The best version of Space Calibrator with continuous calibration is this one.
• Disable automatic geometry updates in Space Calibrator so that doesn't fuck with Playspace Mover.
• Disable the boundary in Pico's developer options so it also doesn't fuck with Playspace Mover.
• Don't buy this piece of shit. Virtual Desktop's Discord has some good guides to dedicated routers if you need/want one.
• If you have a compatible Bluetooth adapter you can use this program to start and stop your base stations manually since Pico Connect won't do it when you launch SteamVR without an Index or Vive plugged in.
• If you do have an Index or Vive plugged in (for example, to use it for its dongles and aforementioned Bluetooth Base Station controls, make sure you use Pico Connect to launch SteamVR, or it'll start the Index instead.

• If you're having problems getting face tracking to work with Pico Connect, go to C:\Users\[YOUR USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\PICO Connect find the file settings.json, open it and find the following section:
  

  ⎗

  ✓

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

  "lab": { "quic": false, "superResolution": true, "gamma": 105, "faceTrackingMode": 4, "faceTrackingTransferProtocol": 0, "bodyTracking": false, "controllerSensitivity": 50 }

  edit the line "faceTrackingTransferProtocol": 0, so it reads "faceTrackingTransferProtocol": 2, and save it, then grab the Pico Connect specific module for VRCFT from this link and install the .dll manually by placing it into C:\Users\[YOUR USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\VRCFaceTracking\CustomLibs. Also make sure you start Pico Connect FIRST, then VRCFT. If you're still having issues, make sure the internet connection you're streaming over is set as a private connection, or Windows Firewall will block the face tracking data.

F.A.Q. and/or miscellaneous tips

Q: Wouldn't earbuds be lighter/comfier?

Yes. This is what I originally tried because I, too, didn't think about it hard enough. The reason I don't recommend them is that having something in your ears blocking them is incredibly distracting when you're talking. If you can get past this go for it, but on-ears are almost as lightweight and still plenty comfortable, while allowing you to talk relatively normally without hearing your own voice booming in your head.

Q: Why not bluetooth or 2.4GHz wireless earbuds/headphones?

Bluetooth has too much latency. I did test this and there was over a full second of latency over standard SBC, and using another headset I own that uses AptX it was just about as bad (granted I didn't have an AptX Adaptive headset to test, which the Pico does support). It's a shame because it would be nice to use a powered link cable and eliminate the need for a router, but the trade-off is never worrying about audio latency and access to some real great headphones to use. As for 2.4GHz "gaming" sets all I found were earbuds which suck for the same reasons I mention in the first question.

Q: Why didn't you use the Logitech Chorus from your review?

Several reasons: It's more janky to mount than this splitter, it covers the volume buttons on the Pico, and without that stupid charge splitter it doesn't pass through enough power to keep the Pico charged. It's also fairly heavy.

Q: Couldn't you mount the headphones to the strap?

Certainly, and if you want something more permanent I would highly recommend it, but like this they still work fine, you can use the headphones for other things if you like, and if you actually bring your headset around when traveling it's a little easier to pack things into a headset case without mounting them.

Q: Why the fuck is this guide so long and detailed for such a simple setup?

Fuck if I know, I just like making them I guess.

Conclusions:

For my purposes, I'm calling this the definitive Pico setup. I'm still not sure it'll fully replace my Index, but with this I'll certainly be tempted when I'm watching movies or finally get face tracking rolled into my main avatar in VRChat, and if my Index died tomorrow, I am reasonably confident I could comfortably live with this. I'm fully aware this is not what many people want with a headset technically capable of fully wireless VR, but for those that don't mind the wire because they love spending a lot of time socializing, listening to music and watching movies, this is a damn fine setup that maximizes comfort and will let you spend a long night being a degenerate with your internet friends.