Hello ,
Let me first say how relieved I am to be connecting with staff, very much appreciate if we can follow this conversation through. When you first posted your reply to my question, I was on the road reading from an iPhone, completely missed the reply, much less who it was coming from.
To your question, our needs vary, but first priority would be basic SxS (side-by-side) output, independent of platform, we have both. My previous email describes what we’ve tried with what results, not to repeat that, but this first requests comes with two ideas for a solution or work around. Since the output for most every HMD begins with a SxS format, all that’s needed is to identify and deleted the two (more?) bits of code that call for an alpha mask and the barrel distortion that HMDs need for their specific lens/display systems. The user simply opts out from those addons, leaving true SxS, a relatively simple solution it would appear.
The workaround, and this is something we’ve yet to test, just thought of it, relates to what I said in the original post from back in February about the crazy aggressive wide fov I got when adding “-emulatestereo -fullscreen” to the shortcut in Windows. Who knows what causes this wide fov, but my thought was to chop fov in half for starters in the Editor, see if that can be used to compensate for the issue when packaging. Your thoughts on that.
At least with SxS I can present to clients where this project is going (developing VR content for a traveling exhibit for international distribution in the science museum space). As we lose 50% horizontal resolution with SxS, what we really need (long term, and want now) is Blue-ray quality 3D HD (and eventually 4K 3D), which if UE4 supported it, is no issue on this end. We work with the firm that licenses the MVC codec to Sony and others, implemented it for us into a Unity demo, but we just couldn’t take the lighting and other issues, so we’re back to trying to make things work in UE4. Understand, our clients in the museum space expect quite literally “museum quality”, which is why we see no option but to stick with UE4, but the 3D aspect itself needs to be museum quality, and this remains a huge problem for us just getting it to work on the most basic level, and consumer level HMDs simply aren’t enough.
While we’re seeing HMD competitors breaking ground on angular resolution in their displays, the VR space is focussed on the consumer market, competitive pricing forcing a dumbing down of the technology, which I agree is temporary, but a nonstarter nonetheless for applications in museums and beyond. A visible pixel grid or screen door effect takes imagery back to the Stone Age circa pre-Standard Definition, though TV began with that ;^) We happily shave off fov in the display (not the game engine virtual camera) in support of proper HD or possibly 4K. Again, we’re working with the firm who owns the MVC patent, they produce their own HMD with full HD per eye, we’ll be working with them to develop a custom display for use in museums, and I’ll be speaking to the CEO this weekend about bringing his plugin to UE4. I’d like to facilitate a real dialogue between Epic and this firm. Can you advise me? MVC, btw allows a single HDMI 1.4 to carry frame packing out to a 3D display, whether built into an HMD or not.
So, thank you so much if you help us and the others writing to this issue here in tracking down real answers to both questions, can we enable basic SxS in support of 3D displays and can we go one better with the MVC plugin, to open a dialogue regarding that possibility.
Best,
Benjy