Epic's low priority on GearVR and VR in general makes me sad

Ditto, I can’t participate in Oculus VR Jam unless there’s a GearVR template.

Just to let others know, Gear VR does work with the 4.7.2 binary. For those still getting the “only renders in left eye” bug and you are sure Mobile HDR is off, please make sure you are not running any of these commands:

  • stereo on/off
  • hmd mirror on
  • fullscreen
  • hmd sp #
  • Enable Low Persistence

AFAIK, they are unnecessary for Gear VR. I had these runningin the level blueprint for Oculus Rift support, and once I stopped that branch from firing the Gear VR render bug stopped. I’m not sure which command is the culprit.

Has anyone gotten GearVR head tracking to work yet? With latest 4.7.2 binaries the image finally renders in both eyes but it doesn’t pick up head tracking. Head tracking is working normally in my DK2 and it works on other apps on the GearVR. I’m pretty much stuck and have been banging my head against it all day. Tried both C++ and Plugin projects. Tried the DK2 VR project.

After spending some time with Gear VR I have a few questions:

  1. Are we stuck with Mobile HDR off?
  2. Can anyone explain exactly what restrictions we have on lighting?
    Using this document as a reference, it appears we have “Basic Lighting” since we can use baked lighting. Does this mean we can’t have any dynamic shadows?
  3. Are any basic gestures on the touchpad supported (forward, back) or do we have to roll these all ourselves?
  4. Is there any event fired for a touchpad ‘tap’?
  5. What event does the BACK button fire?
  6. Why does holding BACK for two seconds not open the global home/passthrough/brightness menu?
  7. Related to the Gear VR Template, are there any .ini tweaks we should consider using?

Lastly, I have a very general question. How are you all profiling the device? This may be more of an Android question than Gear VR, though being in VR makes it harder to see built-in stats like “stat unit”, etc.

The best I’ve managed so far is doing a “stat startfile” and “stat stopfile” on the device itself and load the profile in the Session Frontend. I’m not good enough to make sense of the profile yet, but it seems to be the route to take.

Overall I’m pumped to participate in this year’s Mobile VR Jam using UE4! Really hope support can be polished in the next few weeks, as we’re one month out from the jam start. Oculus has already chosen UE4 as their flagship engine for desktop experiences – let’s show them we can do mobile too!

Everything works great for me in 4.7.2 binary including headtracking. Just now I created a test project with minimal effort after following this post:

  • Make sure your oculussig file is in the right place
    For me it is in “C:\Program Files\Unreal Engine\4.7\Engine\Build\Android\Java\assets”
  • New C++ project [Mobile, Scalable, No Starter Content]
  • Enable Gear VR plugin, restart
  • Drop some BSP cubes and a static directional light into the scene
  • Project settings -> Platforms -> Android -> APKPackaging -> Configure now
  • Project settings -> Platforms -> Android -> APKPackaging -> Minimum SDK Version = 19
  • Project settings -> Platforms -> Android -> Advanced APKPackaging -> Configure the AndroidManifest for deployment to Gear VR = true
  • Package project -> Android (ETC2)

The only Android setup I’ve done on my PC is installing the bundled TADP 2.0r8.

I’ve tried all of that with no luck. It loads the app for me and I get stereoscopic vision but no tracking. I’m running an exynos note 4 so I’m guessing it isn’t supported yet. I’m using the first person shooter c++ template. All the included apps in the oculus store work great.

I can tap the side of the headset and here the gun shoot. However I don’t see it shoot at all. It seems like it stops rendering after the first full frame.

I have an oculussig file - the app prompts me to insert the gearVR.

  • I’m doing mobile/scalable/no starter content
  • Tried doing an empty map with some BSP cubes and a static light - same issue, no head tracking
  • Done all the android setup - configure now/minimum SDK Version = 19
    Configured the android manifest for Gear VR
  • Tried both packaging the project and running the .bat and launching through the editor.

I have the bundled TADP installed. I can run non GearVR unreal projects fine on android. I’m running on Windows 7.

Anyone else experiencing the same issue? I have Unity 4 working on the GearVR and I can rotate fine. I’d prefer to use Unreal though.

Hi Rjmig88,

I also have the exynos note 4 and am having no luck with GearVR with UE4.7.2. No head tracking plus I only get ‘quarter’ vision, how did you get that to work using the C++ first persion shooter template? I followed all of these instructions countless times and always the same result:

Which android version do you have on your exynos note 4?

The ‘quarter’ vision I’m talking about: (notice where the crosshair is - hense the quarter of resolution idea) - perhaps the render is not working correctly if it does not detect a snapdragon 420 adreno gpu?? If so perhaps there is a config setting in the deviceprofile.ini we could use to trick it?

I have Snapdragon. It’s sounding like Exynos may be the source of the problem.

I’m running 5.0.1 Lollipop. I’m running a rooted phone using this firmware - http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4/general/n910h-lollipop-touchwiz-stock-t3029783

As far as the C++ first person shooter template its the only one that renders fully in each eye for me. Other templates have quarter eye rendering issues. It also doesn’t really seem to be rendering, it just seems to render the first frame then the graphics portion freezes. The rest of the game is playable, I can tap the side of the phone to fire the gun, hear it fire, but I don’t see it firing.

I can do the first person template on non GearVR mode on my Exynos Note 4 and it runs fine. The dual controllers pop up on the phone and I can move around the world and it renders fine. It is definitely GearVR related.

If I take off the headset and put it back on it resumes rendering for 2-3 seconds and lets me head track before the render thread freezes.

Hi Rjmig88,

I was on stock 4.4.4 previously - after upgrading to the official 5.0.1 lollipop rom it now renders in stereo! however like you experience it freezes pretty much instantly :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

All apps in the oculus store are running fine so it’s definitely a UE4.7 issue with Exynos Note 4s :frowning:

Epic any chance of getting this fixed for the parts of the world with Exynos Note 4s to enter the Mobile VR Jam?

Hey all!

As promised, here’s a post-GDC update.

Rendering Bugs:
Here’s a list of the bugs that are our top priorities on the rendering front to fix, along with their Jira tag numbers. Jira isn’t publicly exposed that the moment, but having the numbers listed by the issue will make it much easier to follow up.

  • Anim Trails (fixed in 4.7)
  • Orbit Mesh Particles (UE-5584)
  • Mobile HDR (UE-11846)
  • Decals issues (UE-11849)
  • LPV (UE-9765)
  • Subsurface profile (UE-11847)
  • Distance Field Shadowing (UE-11848)

The order there is a combination of how basic the engine feature is, and how much time it will take to fix it. It’s not guaranteed they’ll be fixed in that exact order, but that’s our guess at how easy it will be to fix things up. These will be posted on the public Trello in the coming days, but wanted to give you guys an early preview since you all seemed interested!

Documentation:
J.J. has submitted more thorough docs to the doc team, and they’re being verified and published very soon! We had to wait to get more devices in house, so that the docs team could take the documentation that J.J. had fleshed out, run through it, and then fill in any gaps. That should be coming through shortly!

Templates:
We’ve also got a rough template that we’ve passed off to the docs team as well. We’re hoping to get that up in the learn tab. In the meantime, I’ve uploaded the sample here to get you started:

Here’s the notes from J.J., in raw form:

Again, this is being updated and improved by the docs team, but wanted to get you guys something to start with.

Also, I want to mention that if you start your project with the Mobile settings, and Scalable, and then turn off MobileHDR, you’ll be at a good base level to start with, even without the template, so give that a shot if you’re having trouble!

Exynos Note 4 Support:
J.J. would be the expert on that, and he’s out of the office for a few days, but I do not believe that the Exynos Note 4 is officially supported by Gear VR. From what I’m reading, it seems you have to flash the Exynos Note 4 with a modfied firmware to even get the Gear VR stuff to install. We’ve only tested on officially supported Note 4’s (https://support.oculus.com/hc/en-us/articles/204113096-Samsung-Gear-VR-Innovator-Edition-Samsung-Galaxy-Note-4-Compatibility)

@thanks for the update on those features, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the time I can use DF Shadows in my project…they just look so good (seem to be quite fast for my purposes too - though that may just be because they’re only rendering for the one eye).

Any updates on the engine getting the general VR performance improvement overhaul, e.g., sending two matrices for the cameras and doing things at once instead of doing the whole render path twice?

thank you for the update. Oculus is working on getting the Exynos note 4 supported and I’m not sure what the holdup is on that. The firmware being flashed is the stock 5.0.1 lollipop Samsung firmware and the only other modification being made is changing the phone’s reported model number to bypass the Oculus store model check.

I think it would be worthwhile for Epic to start looking in supporting the Exynos chipset as the US Galaxy S6 and future Samsung phones will be Exynos based only. You don’t want to be behind on support when the Gear2/Gear3 are released. I’ve started my own game company focused on VR and Mobile VR titles and I’ve been evaluating Unity and Unreal. I’d like to support the unsupported platform and also have confidence that upcoming platforms will also be supported quickly, which is why I have a hacked Exynos Note 4. As much as I love Unreal and its awesome features and editor, currently at this time I have to go with Unity. Unity works on both the Exynos and Snapdragon Note 4s without issue and at equal performance.

Disappointing to hear for the unlucky ones of us who bought this model unknowingly - not just as someone wanting to use the Unreal engine to make my own Gear VR experiences but as a consumer - I have no problems with all the current gearvr content and will be have to filter out all Unreal engine content from stuff that comes out of the mobile VR jam. Once oculus add the official support all Unreal developers will then need to re-export and re-upload on the fixed engine …

We’ve done a bit of R&D into this, and have some plans in the works. We’ve begun refactoring the stereoscopic rendering path in the engine to be more efficient, and to allow for multiple GPU support for VR, and with those goals, as well as the single GPU alternative rendering paths in mind, we’ve been cleaning things up. We’re not sure if going full geometry shader is the right call for single GPU yet, but this will open the door for more efficient issuing of draw calls.

We actually had the same problem, due to a mistake in purchasing. However, I’ll bring up the support issues with Oculus today and see what they say about support for the other chipset!

Nick! Many thanks for that update!

Thanks for the update and example project, Nick. I’m using UE4 for the Mobile VR Jam and it all helps with getting started. Once I get the rendering all sorted out, I’ll be looking for information on trackpad gesture handling, as well as displaying standard overlays (volume adjustment, return to Oculus Home, etc.). I’m hoping the upcoming documentation will fill in those gaps.

Thanks!

  • Dave

Any insight as to the desktop version of a VR template / project settings? This would be a nice addition to the engine if/when you guys release a “large open world environment” demo.