Getting started

Zapbox Link allows you to experience PC VR using your iPhone and Zapbox. It’s the most affordable way to play AAA games in VR or to access professional PC VR software.

This guide details all the steps needed to get started using Zapbox Link, including all relevant prerequisites and downloads. If you have any issues getting set up, please join our Discord server and ask for help.

You can stream PC VR to Zapbox Link from a local gaming PC within your network. If you don’t have a compatible PC already, it’s also possible to set up a Windows PC with a cloud computing provider such as Amazon Web Services and stream PC VR content “from the cloud” to Zapbox Link.

Local PC Requirements and Setup

Your PC must have an NVIDIA GeForce 10-series (e.g. GTX 1060) or later GPU, with at least a quad-core CPU and 8GB RAM. Some games and applications may have higher system requirements. Make sure all your drivers are up-to-date.

1. 1. Install Steam and set up a free account if you don’t already have one.
2. 2. Install SteamVR and start it. We find CloudXR works better with SteamVR 2.7.4 rather than the latest 2.8 version. You can revert to this version by clicking the cog in the steam library page for SteamVR, going to the “Betas” tab and selecting “previous” from the dropdown.
3. 3. Download and install the CloudXR server application. Restart SteamVR after installing.
4. 4. If you would like to send microphone input from your phone to the PC, you’ll need to add a config file so the server will allow receiving audio.
1. 4.1 Navigate to your user folder (C:\Users\user-name) in Windows Explorer.
2. 4.2 From there, navigate into AppData\Local\NVIDIA\CloudXR\SteamVR. The AppData folder is hidden, so ensure the option to view hidden files is ticked in the Windows Explorer view menu.
3. 4.3 Right click inside the folder and go to New -> Text File. Set the name to CloudXRServerOptions. The actual file name will have a .txt extension but by default Windows Explorer doesn’t show file extensions.
4. 4.4 Open that new file and add the text -enable-receive-audio (including the dash at the start) and then save the file.
5. 4.5 Restart SteamVR.
5. 5. Identify the local IP address of your PC. Click on the network icon in the taskbar, click on the connection and select “properties”. Look for the “IPv4 Address”. You’ll need to enter this in the Zapbox Link app.

You can see steps 1-4 in the video showing the cloud-based PC setup, starting from here.

Cloud-based PC Setup (AWS)

We have successfully tested using Zapbox Link with a server running in Amazon Web Services (AWS). If you’d like to try this yourself, see the video that walks through the full end-to-end process. Feel free to ask on our Discord server if you need any extra help.

Your AWS account will be billed for any resources you use - the setup described in the video incurs fees of around $0.65 per hour before tax. It’s your responsibility to stop any instances when you have finished using them. There is also a charge for maintaining the volume (virtual hard disk) used by your instance, so you may wish to terminate the instance and delete the volume to avoid any ongoing charges and just start from scratch each time. The video demonstrates using a 30GB volume for the main Windows drive, which is currently free for the first year under the AWS free tier.

One other fee to consider is for data transfer. The AWS free tier currently allows each account to transfer 100GB of data to the internet per month, which equates to around 10 hours of usage of Zapbox Link. AWS will charge for any data transfer above that monthly allowance.

Network Recommendations

A 5GHz Wi-Fi network is strongly recommended for the best Zapbox Link experience. Ideally you should use Zapbox Link in the same room as the Wi-Fi router.

If you’re connecting to your own PC you will get the best results if you can use an ethernet cable to connect it to the Wi-Fi router - that way all the Wi-Fi bandwidth is available for the Zapbox device.

If you’re streaming from a cloud-based server you will need a good internet connection, ideally 50Mb/s or more. The latency of the experience will also be affected by the physical distance to the cloud server, so you will need to choose the region for the server based on your physical location.

Phone setup

Once you’ve got a PC with the CloudXR server installed and SteamVR running, you’re ready to connect.

1. 1. Install the Zapbox Link app on your phone from the App Store.
2. 2. Enter the IP address of the PC. This should be the local IP if you are using your own PC (usually starting with 192.168) or the public IP address if you are using a cloud-based server.
3. 3. Select Local or Remote as appropriate to tune the connection for the setup you are using. The other options are probably fine left as the defaults.
4. 4. Hit launch and go through the standard Zapbox controller pairing flow.
5. 5. After a second or two you should see the SteamVR “void” shown. You can now place the headset on and interact with SteamVR. Press the menu button on the left controller to summon the SteamVR dashboard.

Preparing your space

You’ll need a bit of clear floor space for most PC VR experiences. You should also aim to use a space that is lit brightly and evenly for the best tracking results.

The world marker from your Zapbox accessory box with the “Zapbox” text on it should be placed horizontally at the front edge of your space.

For best results we recommend placing the other two markers higher up at the front side of the playspace so they will be in view of the phone camera when looking forwards. They do not need to be in any particular orientation so can be rested leaning slightly backwards on a shelf or furniture. The full markers need to be visible, so don’t prop them up between objects, and if you are putting them on a shelf then aim to have them towards the front edge of the shelf.

Tips and Tricks

You will need to have at least one world marker in view for positional tracking of the headset. Most VR apps have a “snap turn” feature with one of the controller thumbsticks that should allow you to alter your viewing direction in the VR content without the need to physically rotate. The open peripheral Zapbox design makes it easy to glance down at the floor so you will always know where you are in the physical space too.

The controllers are reported as Meta Quest controllers, as many PC VR apps and games already have input bindings for those controllers, and they are a very close match for the Zapbox controller inputs. The rendered models are positioned so the grip and trigger are aligned, but the buttons are in a slightly different place on the Quest controllers.

The A/B/X/Y buttons are positioned diagonally on the Quest controllers. In each case they have been mapped to the left-most or right-most A/B button on the equivalent Zapbox controller.

Some games (such as Half-Life: Alyx) require reaching over your shoulder for certain actions. Zapbox currently only updates the controller positions when they are in view of the iPhone ultra-wide camera which makes this action a challenge. To address this we have added an “over-shoulder detection” option which is based only on the controller orientation. When the controller is pointed back towards you and slightly down, with the trigger pointing upwards, then we assume it is positioned near the shoulder and report that to the PC. This makes a natural “reach over shoulder” gesture work as expected and is unlikely to be triggered accidentally as it is hard to otherwise rotate the controller into that orientation.

If you want to send microphone data from the phone to the PC, you first need to ensure the server options file is set as described in step 4 of the local PC setup instructions above. Then enable the “Send Microphone Audio” option in the Zapbox Link app. SteamVR assumes the configuration doesn’t change once the client connects for the first time in each session, so you’ll need to restart SteamVR on the PC if you want to change this option during the same SteamVR session.