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.
VIVE Business+ Pro
If you are setting up your VIVE Focus headsets with VIVE Business+ for the first time, we recommend using Spawnpoint to enroll them into VB+ to make it incredibly easy to get up and running with both Spawnpoint and VIVE Business+. Before you start setting up Spawnpoint, we recommend connecting your VIVE Business+ account to your Spawnpoint account in the account manager and following the steps provided.
Our VB+ integration does not prevent you from using your VIVE Focus headsets with other software, and simply provides a quick and easy method to enroll your headset into VB+.
If you do not yet have VIVE Business+ Pro licenses for your headsets, please contact our sales team at sales@spawnpoint.io and we will help you get setup with VB+ Pro.
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 enrollment 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.
Once you've added your Game Server and it shows as "Installed" the Next button will be clickable, click this to proceed.
5. Adding your Headsets
Now you can add your headsets to Spawnpoint. Plug one of your headsets into the PC via a USB cable please note that the controller Y-cable bundled with the headset is not suitable for this process and you should locate a separate USB-C cable to proceed.
Your headset will appear in the list of detected devices and you can begin enrollment. As mentioned previously, we recommend keeping the "Admin" option enabled to allow wireless updates if you do not already have a Mobile Device Management service installed on your headset (if you do, Spawnpoint will show this and not allow the Admin option to be selected).
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.
If have connected your VIVE Business+ and Spawnpoint accounts, you may wish to also enable Auto Enroll in VIVE Business to automatically enroll your headsets into your VIVE Business+ organisation if you have not already done so.
Give your headset a name where the serial number is displayed in the list, then click "Install" to add your headset to Spawnpoint.
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.
Your arena setup is complete, congratulations! Click the Complete Setup button to be taken to your arena's new dashboard.
6. Creating a Map
To use Spawnpoint to manage your VIVE Focus tracking maps, you will need to enable Advanced Integrations before proceeding. This is a completely optional step and not required if you are already happy with your mapping setup - however we recommend using Spawnpoint for your tracking map management to benefit from map management with no requirement to be online and easier map switching when moving headsets between arenas.
To create a tracking map, go to the Tracking tab in Spawnpoint identified by the Map icon, here you can quickly create, store and swap out your tracking maps for VIVE Focus headsets.
- Click Create Map in the top-right corner of your screen.
- You will be offered the option to create a new map or copy an existing map from the headset. If you already have an LBE map on your headset you can simply Copy it from the headset for deployment to the rest of your arena, however if you have not yet created a map click Create.
- Follow the steps provided in the Spawnpoint interface, which will guide you through the process of creating and copying your map.
7. Running a Game
Now that you're up and running and have a shared map across your headsets it's time to run your first Spawnpoint game. Click the Play tab at the bottom of your screen and start a new Session. 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.
Spawnpoint has a powerful account management system allowing your customers to sign-up to track their sessions across every Spawnpoint game, this feature is completely optional but provides an additional touch-point between you and your customers and encourages repeat visits to improve their scores and level up their accounts. You can read more about the account system in An Operator's Guide to Spawnpoint Accounts, but for now let's use Guest Accounts to try out Spawnpoint:
- Select the headset you would like to add to this session and click Guest Login
- 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.
TIP: You can also click the Quick Login button 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.
Once you're ready, click the Game Controls link on the right-hand-side 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.
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.
Looking to add PCVR games to your arena? You'll need to follow a few more steps, check out our PCVR guide for more info: Adding PCVR Support to your Spawnpoint Arenas