The HTC Vive was the 2016 VR headset that introduced room-scale tracking through Valve’s Lighthouse system.
The original Vive used external Lighthouse base stations to sweep the play area with infrared light. Sensors on the headset and controllers detected those signals, allowing the system to calculate position and orientation with enough accuracy for users to walk around a defined room-scale space.
This approach distinguished the Vive from early seated VR setups. Users could physically move, reach, and use tracked controllers inside the virtual environment. The system still required a compatible gaming PC, and the base stations had to be positioned so their signals covered the play area.
Lighthouse was developed by Valve and used in SteamVR hardware. Later versions and other headsets adopted different tracking methods, especially inside-out tracking with cameras mounted on the headset. The HTC Vive name refers to HTC’s headset platform, not to the tracking technology alone.