A Comprehensive Guide to VR Space Requirements for a VR Training Center

Virtual reality requires adequate space for safe and effective use. The amount of space needed varies depending on the user type, the VR hardware being used, and the intended application.

At SHIIFT, our clients and often ask us “How Much Space Do You Need For VR?” and questions about what it takes to build a VR training facility for their company and the different things they need to know, so this article breaks down space requirements for businesses, education facilities or even gamers, to space out their ‘VR Stations’.

This guide will also help with differentiating between standalone tracking systems and SteamVR/HTC base station tracking and concludes with a detailed section dedicated to businesses aiming to create a VR training facility or universities that need to understand the logistics of bulk usage of VR headsets on their campus.

What is Roomscale VR, Standing VR, and Seated VR?

These terms are all simply referring to how you use the headset, roomscale means to use all the space in your room or at least a large amount where you can walk around physically, while standing VR and seated VR are based on staying in a central location with less physical movement.

Roomscale VR

• Purpose: Allows users to physically walk around and interact naturally within a defined area.
• VR Space Requirements: Around 6.5 ft by 6.5 ft (2 m by 2 m) minimum per user, though 10 ft by 10 ft (3 m by 3 m) is preferred for free movement.
• Best For: Training scenarios that require physical navigation, such as machinery inspections or emergency evacuations.

Roomscale VR – Needs some space to walk around

Standing VR

• Purpose: Users remain in one spot but can look, turn, and reach around them.
• VR Space Requirements: A clear radius of 3-4 ft (about 1 m) around the user.
• Best For: Simulations where users need to handle tools or equipment without walking, such as control panel operation.

Standing VR – Needs enough space to pivot and have both arms fully stretched

Sitting VR

• Purpose: Used for desk-based simulations where movement is minimal, or vehicle simulations where a user wouldn’t need to move.
• VR Space Requirements: A chair and a small clear space around it, 3.4 ft by 3.4 ft (1m by 1m) is enough.
• Best For: Office-based tasks, driving simulations,seated machinery operation, or a VR solution that relies fully on teleportation-based movement controls without needing to reach for anything.

Seated VR – Needs enough space to turn head and have both arms fully stretched

What’s the Difference Between Inside-out Tracking & External Tracking

Standalone VR Headsets/Inside Out Tracking

Standalone headsets, like the Meta Quest series, use inside-out tracking, relying on cameras installed in the headset rather than external sensors. This setup offers flexibility and requires less dedicated space.

• Recommended Play Area: Typically, a 6.5 ft by 6.5 ft (2 m by 2 m) square is advised for roomscale experiences. This allows enough room for walking, turning, and interacting without obstruction. Although if you are strictly using seated VR experiences, 3.4 ft by 3.4 ft (1m by 1m) is enough.
• Movement: Since no external sensors limit the space, users can freely move within the defined area, making standalone headsets suitable for smaller rooms or multi-use spaces.
• How It Works: Cameras on the headset track movement without external sensors.

Nowadays standalone headsets will often have a PCVR option where you can tether the headset to a PC to access a larger library of VR content, and draw power from the PC for higher visual fidelity, but they only need a detachable USB-C cable and don’t need base stations.

Inside-out tracking with PCVR

Inside-out tracking standalone VR

SteamVR/HTC Base Station Tracking

This tracking system uses external base stations, (also referred to as lighthouses) placed in the room’s corners to track headset and controller movement precisely.

• Minimum Space: The recommended play area is about 6.5 ft by 6.5 ft (2 m by 2 m), but ideally closer to 10 ft by 10 ft (3 m by 3 m) for full freedom. Although if you are strictly using seated VR experiences, 3.4 ft by 3.4 ft (1m by 1m) is enough.
• Setup Considerations: Base stations require mounting at elevated positions with clear line-of-sight across the play area, which can restrict room layout and furniture placement.
• How It Works: External sensors track the headset and controllers using ultra thin lasers. Each base station has a 120-degree field of view reaching ~18 ft (5m) that detects your headset and controller movements in that space.

Tracking with Base Stations

Tracking Accuracy: Base station systems generally provide higher precision, beneficial for detailed or complex tasks, but at the cost of more required space and setup complexity, as well as much higher hardware costs. Nowadays, this difference in precision will barely be noticed in most cases. The cases where it may be noticeable is if you have your hand/VR controller behind you, a standalone headset won’t be able to sense it since there are no cameras on the back, but if a base station is mounted to the wall or a tripod behind the user, this can be tracked.

This could matter in fringe cases where you might need to have the VR experience track your hands even in areas where you aren’t looking.

Installation: Standalone systems are plug-and-play, whereas base stations require mounting, calibration, and periodic maintenance.

VR Training Facility Space Requirements for Businesses and Educational Facilities

If you’re a business implementing VR for training or simulations, you probably plan to implement your training in bulk which means you’ll be considering additional factors such as space required for multiple users, equipment storage, and workflow. The same goes for if you’re a university or educational institute needing dedicated spaces for your students to access the VR experiences they need, so the below guide should be suitable for you too.

How to Set Up a VR Training Facility for Your Workplace

Things to consider before you start

• How many VR training stations are needed (How many employees would need a training space at one time)
• Whether you will be using tethered PCVR or standalone VR
• Available floor space per user
• How often the training will take place
• Storage and charging requirements
• Are the VR training stations going to be used with instructors present or independently?

Select a quiet, well-lit room with minimal trip hazards and enough space to move freely. Even if the VR training only requires seated use, adequate clearance around each station improves safety and reduces the risk of collisions.

Ideally, an empty room or warehouse building can be dedicated to VR training to maximize efficiency for a dedicated VR training area.

Deciding on the Number of Stations

Businesses should plan for the number of trainees who will be using the system at the same time. The number of stations depends on how many people need to train at the same time. A single station is fine for low-frequency use, but higher training volumes benefit from multiple stations running in parallel.

• One station works for occasional training or specialized roles.
• Multiple stations allow for simultaneous sessions, reducing downtime and improving training throughput.

Do Instructors Need to Observe the Training?

During training, it’s possible that an instructor will need to be present, to give their instructions or constructive feedback to users while they go through a VR training course. In this situation, it would be ideal for the instructor to see what the user sees, here are the different ways to make that happen:

1. Oculus / Meta Cast
Meta headsets, including Quest 2 and Quest 3, include a built-in casting feature. Trainees can cast their view to a smartphone, tablet, or compatible smart TV on the same Wi-Fi network. This method is straightforward to set up and does not require additional hardware. It’s ideal for small training rooms or single-station setups. The main limitation is that the casting quality depends on the Wi-Fi network, and some latency may be noticeable, particularly in large spaces.

2. Oculus / Meta Link (USB Link Cable)
For PC VR applications, the Meta Quest headset can connect to a VR-ready computer. Once connected, the headset’s view will be mirrored to the PC and displayed on a monitor or projector for the instructor. This method provides higher fidelity than standard casting and supports more graphically demanding applications. Wired setups require proper cable management to avoid hazards, while wireless setups require a strong local network to minimize lag.

3. SteamVR Mirror / Windows Mixed Reality
Most PC-based VR headsets, including Valve Index, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality devices, include a mirror mode. This outputs the headset’s real-time view to a connected monitor or projector. Mirror mode is simple and effective for observing multiple trainees in a room, supporting almost all PC VR content. Latency is generally low, though not zero, and the display must be close to the training area to maintain clear visibility.

Steps for a VR Training Facility

1. Allocate Space for Multiple Stations

Decide how much space you plan to use for the VR, as a reminder if you have minimal movement 3.3 ft by 3.3 ft (1m²) should be fine, other wise go for 6.5 ft by 6.5 ft (2m²) or above. You can use the existing walls in your building to reduce costs on the wall dividers for separating each VR station.

• Provide each user with their own defined area based on the VR mode required.
• Space stations apart or use physical barriers to prevent collisions and interference with tracking systems.

2. Layout and Equipment Storage

After deciding how much space you want for the users to be able to walk around or move in, you need to account for the extras like the desk or any storage for the VR headset, since you’d likely want each VR headset to be stored at each station with it’s charger, and it’s dedicated PC or base stations if you use them.

• Keep walkways clear for trainers and observers.
• Install headset racks or lockable cabinets for secure storage.
• Use charging docks for headsets and controllers to keep equipment ready at all times.

3. Safety and Ergonomics

Rubber mats can increase safety so that users can feel the ground under them to differentiate it from the non-vr space like the exiting area. This also helps soften any falls on the rare occasion someone trips over a wire, but this should be resolved by using cable ties to keep the cables away from the ground and on the walls or ceiling instead.

• Mark floor boundaries with tape or rubber mats for clear visual cues.
• Plan cable management carefully to avoid trip hazards, particularly with tethered VR setups.
• Ensure lighting is bright enough for trainers and observers while avoiding being too bright or dark on tracking cameras.
• Maintain ventilation and temperature control for user comfort.

VR Station Cable Management

4. Network and Technical Setup

Make sure to install the VR training builds onto each VR headset.

Also, for each VR headset, you will want to have it’s ‘boundary’ set up in the correct location. Each VR headset will remember the boundary, which is the zone the VR headset will be used in so that if a user is wearing the headset and walks out of the zone, they will receive a visual indicator showing them they are nearing the edge of their allocated area so they don’t walk into any furniture, pets, people or walls.

If you’re using a Meta Quest, use this guide for setting up your boundary on a Meta Quest VR headset or watch Meta’s video tutorial below.

If you’re on a PCVR dedicated headset, follow this video guide for setting up boundary in SteamVR which will work for HTC Vive, Valve Index or any other PCVR-only headset.

If you’re using PCVR, mount any external sensors if you’re using any, and set up the PC to be ready for VR-usage by installing the required software like Steam (and SteamVR) and/or the Meta Quest Link App, the VR training builds, and any other setup that might be necessary for your specific workplace policy.

In some cases if you’re using a gaming laptop, you might need to go through some extra steps to make sure your laptop is using the more powerful graphics card (GPU) option.

Follow these steps below to resolve this.

These instructions will work for laptops using an NVIDIA GPU, if your gaming laptop is using an AMD GPU you will need to follow the instructions from this guide for setting gaming laptops to use the dedicated GPU and set the setting to high performance separately for each application.

4.1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel

4.2. Agree to their terms if they haven’t been agreed to already.

4.3. Select ‘Manage 3D settings’

4.4. Under the global settings tab, click on ‘Preferred graphics processor:’ and select ‘High-performance NVIDIA processor’.

5.5. Click on the ‘Apply’ button at the bottom right of the window.

With that, your laptop should now be setup to always use the high-performance graphics processor. This means you can now use the gaming laptop to its actual potential and run the demanding applications that you can’t on a less powerful system. This will improve your laptop’s performance as well as use more power and drain the battery faster.

• Provide stable internet for software updates, analytics, and cloud-based training systems.
• For SteamVR setups, mount base stations securely at opposite corners of the play area with clear sightlines.
• Use a headset management platform to quickly reset and prepare devices between trainees, like the Meta app.

5. Managing Multiple Users

If you’re serious about your VR training facility, you’ll need it to be properly managed, especially if you’re expecting a lot of users often and have more employees that need to use the training then you have headsets or training spaces available.

• Implement a booking system to schedule sessions and prevent overcrowding.
• Assign a facilitator to guide users, handle technical issues, and enforce safety protocols.
• For instructor-led sessions, cast the VR feed to a large display so progress can be monitored in real time.

Estimated Costs Per VR Training Station (USD)

Check out this comprehensive guide to help you figure out software and hardware costs of VR training. Since this guide focuses on training staff or students in bulk with a dedicated training facility, the below are some additional cost factors for that purpose.

• Cubicles or dividers: $200–$700 per station
• Large display screen for instructor viewing: $700–$1400 each for a large wall mounted screen – These would also need to be connected to a PC ideally for easier set up of the display casting, but if you are already using PCVR, the small screen can still be visible too or you can use your phone or a tablet depending on budget.
• Cable management accessories: $20-$50 per station
• Rubber safety mats for VR training areas: $20–$40 per square meter (for example, a 3 m × 3 m space would cost $180–$360)

Examples Layouts of a VR Training Center

Assuming you went the most cost-effective route for a VR training facility (Standalone meta quest headset with standalone VR software), your VR training stations might look like this. If you went a different route, these might have PCs, additional screens, cable management, etc.