Thanks for choosing Spawnpoint for your freeroam arena, this guide will get you up and running with our platform software so you can start serving customers as soon as possible
You will have received an email with your login details for the Spawnpoint Account Manager, if you haven't already done so please login and set a new password when prompted. If you're having trouble logging in or didn't receive your login details, please contact support@spawnpoint.io.
NOTE: Due to the limitations of Meta Quest headsets and Meta's integration with the Unity Game Engine, you will need to ensure your Meta Quest boundary (Guardian) is enabled at all times. Not doing so will cause your Spawnpoint Calibration to not be retained between games.
Before you Begin
If you have not yet done so, you will need to put your Quest headsets into Developer Mode to enable sideloading over USB.
This guide assumes you have already setup your Meta Quests with a user account and have the Meta Horizon app installed on your phone. We recommend using the same account for every headset for ease, but you can also use a separate account on each one.
- If you have not already done so, you'll need to sign up to be a Meta Quest Developer and agree to the Developer Agreement. You only need to do this for one account, as you can invite the rest to your Developer Organisation later.
- Open the Meta Horizon App on your phone
- Navigate to the Menu tab, locate the Devices icon and select your headset from the list. You may need to connect it to your app if you haven't already.
- Look for a section titled Manage your Device, and find the Headset Settings option
- Select Developer Settings or Developer Mode and toggle Debug Mode / Developer Mode on. The exact wording for these options varies depending on the Horizon App version
- Repeat this process for each of your headsets
Once you have enabled Developer Mode on your Quest headsets you are ready to proceed.
Installing Spawnpoint
In the Spawnpoint Account Manager, click Begin Controller Setup in the sidebar and download the Spawnpoint Controller software. You may be prompted by Windows SmartScreen when launching the installer, in which case you will need to click More Info > Run Anyway. No need to panic, Microsoft SmartScreen is incredibly overzealous and we are working with them to ensure this message stops appearing.
During the install process you will be asked if you would like to also setup your PC as a game server. For the majority of users the answer will be yes and you should leave the checkbox selected. A second installer will appear to install our game server service, and you will be prompted to select the drive you would like your game data to be stored on: you should select a drive that has plenty of free storage, which for some PCs may be a separate "Data" drive. If you only have one drive available on your PC, simply leave this at the default value.
Once everything has been installed, the operator interface will open in your default browser. This is the heart of your Spawnpoint setup, while it is browser-based it is hosted locally on your network and completely offline-friendly.
If you cannot find your Spawnpoint user interface, you can open it again by visiting http://localhost:4376 in your browser on the PC you installed Spawnpoint on.
Spawnpoint Setup Process
1. Linking your Account
Once the operator interface has opened, you will be asked to connect your Spawnpoint account. Select the venue to link this Spawnpoint install to, click Link Venue and your venue will be linked in a few moments. You can then click Next to proceed with setting up your arena.
2. Setting your Arena Size
Enter the size of your arena in meters, using the shorter of the two measurements for the width (e.g. 6m width, 9m length). This will be used to filter out game maps so that you only have access to maps that fit your playspace. You can change your arena size at any time via the Settings tab in the Spawnpoint interface. Click Next to continue.
3. Downloading your Games
You will now be given the option to pre-download your Spawnpoint games. This may take a while, so once you have started the download you may proceed to the next step and your games will be downloaded in the background.
We recommend enabling "Admin Mode" while adding your headsets later on so that we can deploy your games wirelessly to your headsets, however in some cases this may not be possible (e.g. if you are using an existing Mobile Device Management tool such as ArborXR or ManageXR). If so, you may wish to wait for the downloads to complete so that your games can be installed on the headsets during the enrolment process.
4. Adding your Game Server
You now need to add your game server to your Spawnpoint install. If you kept the "Setup this PC as a Game Server" checkbox during setup then the PC should show up in the list already and can be setup immediately. If for some reason it does not show up, locate "Launch Spawnpoint Agent" in the Windows Start Menu. We recommend setting the Spawnpoint Agent to launch at startup to ensure you can always launch games. Don't worry - it will simply run in the background without getting in the way.
The Spawnpoint Agent should automatically detect your controller, but if it doesn't just select "My Spawnpoint Controller is on this PC" in the agent pairing Window to auto-connect to the locally installed controller.
Once you've added your Game Server and it shows as "Installed" the Next button will be clickable, click this to proceed.
NOTE: If you're setting up a second arena, or your Game Server is a separate PC, simply select "My Spawnpoint Controller is on another PC" and enter the IP address shown in your operator UI similar to the below.
5. Adding your Headsets
Now you can add your headsets to Spawnpoint. Plug one of your headsets into the PC via a USB cable. You will also need to authorise the connected computer before the headset will show up as available in Spawnpoint, this is an option displayed inside the headset - we recommend selecting "Always Allow" to prevent having to do this as often, however it may sometimes show up again despite this. Your headset will appear in the list of detected devices and you can begin enrolment.
If your headsets have not yet connected to your WiFi, you should enable Auto-Connect to WiFi and enter your WiFi details. Don't worry, these are stored in your browser's local storage and do not leave your network.
Don't forget to give your headset a name to identify it in Spawnpoint, you can enter this where the serial number is displayed in the list.
Repeat this process for each of your headsets. Once you're finished, click the Next button to proceed. If you need to add more headsets in the future, you can do this by visiting the Devices tab in the Spawnpoint interface and clicking the "Add Device" button in the top-right.
Please note that due to restrictions placed on newer OS versions by Meta, the Device Admin feature is no longer available for Meta Quest.
Your arena setup is complete, congratulations! Click the Complete Setup button to be taken to your arena's new dashboard.
6. Running a Session
Now that you're up and running, it's time to run your first Spawnpoint session. Click the Play tab at the bottom of your screen and select the Manual option. A Spawnpoint Session contains your logged in players and the headsets they're attached to, allowing you to carry your players across games and quickly end the session and log out all users when they're done.
If you have downloaded the Spawnpoint Lounge, it will launch on the server PC immediately when starting the session. You may need to Alt-Tab out of this to get back to your operator controls if you're only using one monitor.
Now it's time to add a headset to this session:
- Select the headset you would like to add to this session and click Add Player
- Enter a name, click the dice button to give it a random one, or simply leave it blank to use the default name for that headset (right now this is likely the headset name but you can change this in Device Settings later)
- Click the Login button to add the user and headset to the session
- Repeat this for each headset you'd like to use.
TIP: You can also click the Quick Login button at the top right of the page to quickly add any number of headsets to a session. This option will prioritise headsets that are currently online, and will only use offline headsets if no more are available. You can also one-click login individual headsets using the Lightning Bolt button for that headset.
If the Lounge is active, each headset will immediately launch into the Lounge as a staging area for your players to enjoy while they wait to be launched into a game.
Calibration
Now is the perfect time to calibrate your Quest headsets. We have a separate article that details this, so head on over to Setting up player calibration on the Quest 2/3/Pro for a guide on calibrating your Quest headsets. You'll need to calibrate each of your headsets in the same way within the lounge, and this will be shared across all our games.
Launching Games
Once you've calibrated your headsets, click the Game Controls link on the right-hand-side of your operator UI and select the game you'd like to launch. After a moment you will see the launch status of all of your headsets, and once your game server has launched this will be replaced with the operator interface for your selected game. However no matter the game, you will see a list of all the headsets you added to the session and their current status - if they are greyed out, you can check why by hovering over the hourglass next to their name. To help conserve battery, headsets won't launch into the game until the screen is on, so if they are not on someone's head they will likely not have loaded into the game yet.
If you'd like to switch game, simply click the Switch Game button in the top-right and select a new game to launch. Your headsets and game server will automatically switch over to that game.
Congratulations, you've just launched your first Spawnpoint game - try out the game controls for each game and play a few rounds with your team. If this is your first time setting up Spawnpoint, you will have some free trial credit to try out our games with your team and customers.
TIP: We also offer an "Evaluation Mode" for certain games, when creating a session this can be found below the "Player-Lead", "Playlist" and "Manual" options as a separate session type. Evaluation Mode will only allow you to launch games that are supported in this mode, and you will not be billed for these games.
What's next?
Now that you've setup your arena, we recommend checking out our Recommend Customisations article, which has a number of tips and tricks for enhancing the Spawnpoint experience for you and your customers.