How to Reset Steam VR When It Can't Talk to the Rift

Periodically in the coarse of writing an OpenVR app, I find that SteamVR can't talk to my HMD. One of the 500 processes that collaborate to make VR work has kicked the bucket. Here's the formula to fix it.

First, kill the process tree based on OVRServer_x64.  All the Oculus stuff should die and then immediately respawn. Minimize their portal thingie.

Kill every vrXXX process (vrserver, vrmonitor,vrcompositor, vrdashboard).  SteamVR should not look like it's running and will not auto-relaunch.

Now you're good - relaunch your game and SteamVR should restart and be able to communicate with the headset.

"Quick Recalibrate" Fixes the SteamVR Floor for the Oculus Rift

I have the same problem that a lot of users report on the web: while my Oculus Rift knows where my floor is when I am in the Oculus home room, SteamVR gets confused and moves the floor up a foot or two, which makes me 3 feet tall when using a "standing" game. You can tell this problem is caused by SteamVR because even the SteamVR loading screens and settings are wrong, not just games.

Turns out there is a quick fix! Go to SteamVR settings, and in the developer section, you can use "Quick Calibrate."  Put your HMD on the floor in the middle of your play area, click once, and everything is fixed.

The only down-side is: you need a play area where your sensors can see the floor.  For me, this means putting the center of the play area unnecessarily far back, since the Rift sensors are on my desk.

Now I just need to find a way to fix the condensation inside the Rift.