Razer Hydra Plugin

[devbeatz]

Hi Getnamo.

Very new to UE4 been trying to follow the guides etc on how to setup the controllers but each example shown seems to have different nodes (older versions?). Like a couple of the other guys in here I'm having trouble filtering the results from "Event hydra controller moved". In the 0.7 guide to filter it suggests using 'Is left/right hand' function but I can't seem to find the function in blue prints (latest engine and plugin).

P.s thanks for the guides and info!

[devbeatz]

Scratch that, I've worked it out by sheer luck.

Cheers again.

[Filoppi]

Hello, i just wanted to share what i have done with UE4 and Razer Hydra and thanks getnamo for his plugin.

[Mrob76u]

Hi Filoppi

That's really awesome. I like your calibration process. Can you tell us a bit about how that calibration was done in blue prints? Thanks

[Filoppi]

Hi Filoppi

That's really awesome. I like your calibration process. Can you tell us a bit about how that calibration was done in blue prints? Thanks

Yeah sure. No blueprints scripting was used in the project.
I wanted the gameplay to be the same for everyone, independently from your arms length or body height.
So, i ask the player to press start with the hydras in front of their eyes and then with their arms extended;
this way i can calculate the player approximate height and arms length, and standardize their movement with a multiplier that multiplies the hydra position.
Every player can reach the same distance inside the game when they extend their arms.
The multiplier is a FVector that directly multiplies the hydra position i get from the hydra plugin,
in addition to that, i store the centre of the hydras (average of both hydras x y and z), so if a player moves his chair or walks away from the hydra base, he can just do a quick recalibration that just changes the stored centre. the centre is subtracted from the hydra position.
I guess that is everything you need to know.
i thought about the calibration process a lot and this was the best solution i could come up with.
i also tried to make the hydra base rotation independent from the hydra controllers rotation, but it turned out to be too complicated and i abandoned, but i think it is possible and would be amazingly comfortable.
What are you developing anyway?

[getnamo]

Yeah sure. No blueprints scripting was used in the project.
I wanted the gameplay to be the same for everyone, independently from your arms length or body height.
So, i ask the player to press start with the hydras in front of their eyes and then with their arms extended;
this way i can calculate the player approximate height and arms length, and standardize their movement with a multiplier that multiplies the hydra position.
Every player can reach the same distance inside the game when they extend their arms.
The multiplier is a FVector that directly multiplies the hydra position i get from the hydra plugin,
in addition to that, i store the centre of the hydras (average of both hydras x y and z), so if a player moves his chair or walks away from the hydra base, he can just do a quick recalibration that just changes the stored centre. the centre is subtracted from the hydra position.
I guess that is everything you need to know.
i thought about the calibration process a lot and this was the best solution i could come up with.
i also tried to make the hydra base rotation independent from the hydra controllers rotation, but it turned out to be too complicated and i abandoned, but i think it is possible and would be amazingly comfortable.
What are you developing anyway?

Just wanted to say that I think you've done a great job, looks like quite a lot of fun. Just needs some out of the box thinking puzzles and you have a winner on your hands

Also interesting calibration process you've chosen, I should try it out as it seems to be very quick. That said... having something like the leap motion attached to your oculus might allow for some automagic calibration... More on that later on!

[Filoppi]

Just wanted to say that I think you've done a great job, looks like quite a lot of fun. Just needs some out of the box thinking puzzles and you have a winner on your hands

Also interesting calibration process you've chosen, I should try it out as it seems to be very quick. That said... having something like the leap motion attached to your oculus might allow for some automagic calibration... More on that later on!

Thanks. I'll be uploading it shortly on some websites so you can play it if you want.
i just have to fix a few things to make it playable by everyone. Unfortunately i do not have the hydra anymore as it belonged to my professor (it was a University project) but i guess i'll buy a new one as soon as i can. this means that temporarily i cannot work on the level design, but the technical side and the hydra mechanics are pretty advanced so i'm confident i'm publishing as an alpha somewhere, also to get some feedback.

[Mrob76u]

Hi getnamo

Will you be doing a 4.8 version here or will you try and get all you plugins into the new plugins section in the market? thanks

[getnamo]

Hi getnamo

Will you be doing a 4.8 version here or will you try and get all you plugins into the new plugins section in the market? thanks

I don't think my plugins would be really eligible for the market so until I know more, they're going to remain linked here and on github as a primary location.

Update to 0.7.8
-Updated to UE4.8

grab the latest zip at the usual place.

[Mrob76u]

Thanks for the update getnamo. Much appreciated.

[mattratcliffe]

Hi Getnamo

Thanks for the great plugin. I am not sure if I am doing something wrong but when I create a blueprint that inherits from actor. Even though I add the hydra component and implement the interface I cannot get any of the hydra events to work (even though I can use them in the blueprint). If the blueprint is a pawn then they work fine.

Any help appreciated.

EDIT. Found a work around. I used event dispatchers from my character BP and hooked them up into my actor (which is a 3D button with rollover events etc). It would be handy to get at the hydra stuff in an Actor but I'm sure there must be a reason why you can't!

thanks
Matt

[getnamo]

Hi Getnamo

Thanks for the great plugin. I am not sure if I am doing something wrong but when I create a blueprint that inherits from actor. Even though I add the hydra component and implement the interface I cannot get any of the hydra events to work (even though I can use them in the blueprint). If the blueprint is a pawn then they work fine.

Any help appreciated.

EDIT. Found a work around. I used event dispatchers from my character BP and hooked them up into my actor (which is a 3D button with rollover events etc). It would be handy to get at the hydra stuff in an Actor but I'm sure there must be a reason why you can't!

thanks
Matt

This should work. Couple of things to check:
-Is your actor instantiated in the scene? E.g. do you have it placed in the map or used as the default pawn/etc
-Are you adding the right component/interface?
-What engine version are you using?

If the top two are still correct, show me a screenshot of your blueprint with the relevant hydra parts, perhaps we will be able to break down whats missing. There is also a convenience HydraPluginActor you can sub-class instead of the component which has everything hooked up (no interface needed).

[devbeatz]

Managed to get the hydras integrated and it works great. Just wondering has anyone setup a template which has the Player pawn move around based purely on the HMD position and orientation for yaw? I tried this and came up against a number of problems, i.e the positional tracking of the HMD getting added twice, once to the camera and once to the position of the pawn.

Cheers again getnamo!

[getnamo]

Managed to get the hydras integrated and it works great. Just wondering has anyone setup a template which has the Player pawn move around based purely on the HMD position and orientation for yaw? I tried this and came up against a number of problems, i.e the positional tracking of the HMD getting added twice, once to the camera and once to the position of the pawn.

Cheers again getnamo!

Patimpatam came up with a pretty cool method using the hydras and yaw/leaning to move around. With some tweaks it could be very compelling.

Regarding positional tracking, you have to take into account that by default the UE camera adds Oculus yaw to controller yaw and you should separate those values in order to have a decoupled viewing experience ( you can then add the right level of intended yaw to your input ).

[Brunohbk]

Hi getnamo, thanks for developing this plugin, it's great and it's really helpful.
Anyway, i have a question for you.
I'm trying to rig the arms of a 3D character with Hydra.
I have linked the wrist joints to the hydra controllers, but I would like to get the local rotation instead of the global rotation.
Is there a way to get it?

Any help appreciated.