> setup_guide
Setup, honestly explained
Recordings need nothing — install the app and a race plays. Live racing needs one small free PC program, set up once. Every step below says why, because the two things that ever go wrong (a security warning and a firewall prompt) are exactly the two things nobody explains.
0. No PC? You're already done
Install the headset app (see the install guide), put it on, and a recorded race opens by itself — nothing to set up, nothing to sign into, works out of season. Everything below is only for live racing.
1. Get the bridge (once)
Download PoleView Bridge from globalphoenix.co.uk/bridge and run it. A status page opens in your browser with two lights. The bridge watches for a racing data feed on your PC and broadcasts your PC's address on your home network so the headset finds it — nothing to type in VR. It installs nothing and runs only while its window is open. To restart it ever: just run it again.
Windows will warn you the first time (“Windows protected your PC”). Click More info, then Run anyway — and don't take our word for it: the download page publishes a SHA-256 checksum and the exact command to verify your file is ours. The warning appears because the bridge isn't code-signed yet — a certificate costs a few hundred pounds a year, which a free fan project doesn't have — not because of anything it does.
Two things that silently break everything:
- The Windows firewall prompt — tick “Private networks” and allow it. Dismiss it and Windows writes a Block rule: the lights stay red with no other symptom. The bridge notices after ~45 seconds and tells you the fix (Windows Defender Firewall → Allow an app → PoleView Bridge → Private networks).
- Turn off any VPN. A headset cannot reach a VPN address. The bridge names the VPN address when it sees one.
2. Every race after that
Open-wheel and endurance racing
- Open your timing app and load the session.
- Start the feed; the bridge shows Data feed: green and names what it found.
- Put the headset on. It connects by itself.
Recorded sessions replay the same way, with no subscription and nothing live running.
Stock-car ovals
- Sign in on the series' website with their free rewards account — enrolment is what turns live car positions on.
- Open the live race page with the dot map showing, and leave that tab open — it holds the live connection the bridge reads from.
- The bridge goes green, measures the track for about a lap and a half (it says so while it waits), then the headset can connect.
Timing and the lap counter need no account at all — they come from a public feed, so the leaderboard fills in either way.
3. When a light is red
The bridge diagnoses itself and tells you what to do on its status page. The causes, in the order they actually bite:
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| Feed green, headset red forever | Firewall block on the bridge (step 1) |
| Headset red, a VPN address listed | VPN capturing the route — turn it off |
| Headset red, same Wi-Fi confirmed | Router “AP isolation” stopping devices talking to each other |
| “No race data to send” | A timing app is open but no session is loaded |
Still stuck? The status page prints your PC's address to type into the headset menu as a last resort — and report it so we can fix the real cause.