State of Gear VR

[aussieburger]

Thanks for finally giving us some feedback - transparency is always best even if it isn’t the shiny package we were hoping for

One thing missing from your list is the distribution build bug - when exporting with Distribution build ticked the app crashes when starting it.

@Deiter;325629

Hey Everybody,
MSAA Support
MSAA on mobile isn’t currently officially supported in the engine. We provided an alternative implementation on GitHub, but as most of you know, Lollipop broke that implementation. We’re investigating a proper implementation with our Mobile team, and will hopefully have an ETA soon.

This is really a must have and very disappointing 4.8 did not have it already as the competitor engine does - I hope we get a github branch soon with it working and we don’t have to wait for 4.9 …

@Deiter;325629

Swipes & Example Content
We do have some tasks and time set aside for creating an example Gear VR project that shows you how to set up a lot of the things you are asking for. However the Learning Resources team has had to shift focus for the time being but this task has not been forgotten and will be picked up again once we get a few other tasks off our plate.

Does that mean it is already possible in 4.8 without code modification? Looking forward to seeing that …

@Deiter;325629

Gear VR Global Menu
Last Thursday a new section to the Gear VR docs was added that shows you how to get a very basic global menu to come up. It is very basic but it will give you a better idea about to call the global menu in your game. It should go live with the next doc update so be sure to check the Gear VR docs.

Could you drop a quick note in this thread when it’s live? Saves a lot of pressure on our F5 keys

@Deiter;325629

Oculus Audio SDK
Unfortunately, in general, UE4 does not support spatialized audio on Android. Our audio programmer is currently in the process of overhauling the audio engine across all platforms, which will in turn bring Android into more feature parity with other equivalent platforms. In the meantime, the current Android audio engine support wouldn’t be able to support the Oculus Audio plugin without significant work, and it would be questionable on whether or not it’d be performant enough for the device. Also, as an FYI, if you were to use the fMOD hack to get Gear VR to have specialized audio you would also need to acquire a license for fMOD as it is not free to use.

dam I guess it’s a while off then - thanks for the note about FMOD - as an approx ETA for spatialized audio on Android, is 4.9 realistic?

@Deiter;325629

Documentation
The Learning Team has been making updates to all the Gear VR docs as new things come on line. However I must admit that during the time that I have been using Gear VR modifying .INI files has never come up. I will talk to W more about this so that I can better understand what Gear VR specific .INI settings there are and how to best use them and then document my findings.

This is a really important feature actually - see the chart in the section “Fixed Clock Level API” in the Oculus doc: https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/mobilesdk/latest/concepts/mobile-power-overview/
Very important for a power hungry engine like UE4 - without this setting many of us struggle to keep 60FPS! Would be great to have it outside of ini files and in the gearvr plugin settings for example

Thanks, and looking forward to hearing your ETAs - fingers crossed the ETAs still make UE4 viable for the GearVR - the first commercially launched VR device, which for VR freaks like ourselves is already a great entrance and something we want to get in on while still on the ground floor!