OpenVR – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

June 25, 2020

Valve: Future SteamVR Features Will Be On ‘OpenXR Side’ As Valve Transitions From OpenVR

Valve’s transition toward the open standard OpenXR API from its earlier OpenVR efforts is gaining steam as the company announced they “expect new features on SteamVR to appear on the OpenXR side.”

Valve recently rolled out initial support for the standard in a beta release while saying today that more than 4000 titles released on Steam in the last four years and that “OpenVR applications will continue to work not just on hardware that exists today, but also on the headsets of tomorrow.”

“The challenge we as an industry have faced with many of these titles is that for developers targeting multiple VR platforms, it requires extra time and effort to build polished applications that work across SDKs. In order to solve this and support the next generation of VR applications, we are moving forward to the OpenXR API,” a Valve announcement explains. “OpenXR was created with the goal to enable engines and developers to target a single non-proprietary SDK, easing the friction in creating polished VR experiences. Valve has worked closely with VR hardware vendors, game engine developers, and graphics hardware providers to develop this new API and we believe it represents a big step forward in cross-vendor application support.”

Future “new features on SteamVR” then will utilize OpenXR “rather than as new OpenVR” application programming interfaces, the announcement explains.

Though there are big differences between Android-powered and PC-based VR systems, OpenXR carries wide industry support and should generally make it easier for developers to target multiple platforms with a single API. Facebook’s Oculus Quest Android-based standalone includes “prototype” support for OpenXR and Rift is also expected to gain support for the API as well.

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June 12, 2020

Valve Releases OpenXR Preview for Steam Game Developers

Valve just took a big step in prepping Steam game developers for the full arrival of OpenXR, the new industry-wide open standard for AR and VR headsets. Developers can now download a beta version that will let them start integrating OpenXR apps into SteamVR.

The company has released what it calls “initial support” for the 1.0.9 version of OpenXR. To the VR team at Valve ‘initial support’ means that SteamVR is currently passing “95% of conformance tests,” so the company concludes that it’s come time to “start testing things.”

Valve says in the official announcement that although OpenXR for Steam is not yet enabled for broad general use, interested devs can opt-in from now until September 1st.

Valve Releases Beta OpenVR Support For Unity’s New XR Plugin System

Valve released a beta OpenVR package for the Unity game engine’s new XR plugin system. Unity is used to make the majority of VR games.

When the Unity 2019.3 publicly shipped in January, the engine deprecated support for the built-in VR support, including for OpenVR– Valve’s application programming interface (API) for SteamVR. This was replaced by a new modular XR Plugin system.

Under the new system, Unity ‘officially’ worked with 7 XR platforms: Apple’s ARKit, Google’s ARCore, Microsoft’s HoloLens & WMR, Magic Leap, Oculus, and PlayStation VR. Support for these platforms can be enabled with a few clicks. These platforms are “fully supported” by Unity, and the company is “directly” working with them on “deep platform integration, improvements to our engine, and optimizations to our XR tech stack for the platform”.

However, the engine also allows third parties to write their own plugins. At the time, Unity stated that Valve was working on such a plugin for OpenVR, which would be shipped separately from Unity by Valve.

That is what has now been released, and it’s available on Valve’s GitHub.

Input System Not Yet Complete

Valve describes this initial version as a Beta, and warns that developers should not release titles with it just yet.

Currently, the input system works by mapping specific buttons on a simulated per-controller basis. Games developed with this plugin cannot yet create OpenVR Actions.

That means players won’t be able to use SteamVR’s built in system for remapping controls. It also means developers don’t yet have access to the SteamVR Skeletal Input API.

Valve plans to rectify these issues in future versions. For now, Valve offers the following workaround:

We’ve created custom legacy bindings and hooked them up to the Unity Input System to give you individual access to as many controller sensors as possible. You can modify these bindings while in play mode by going to the SteamVR interface, Menu, Settings, Controllers, Manage Controller Bindings, and Custom. These are saved to a folder in your project at Assets/StreamingAssets/SteamVR/[bindings].json. We’ve included default bindings for a variety of supported SteamVR controllers.

If you would like your controller included in this default list please create an issue on our github with your preferred legacy binding and unity input system layout.

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May 1, 2020

Valve Ends SteamVR Support For macOS

Valve just ended SteamVR’s support for macOS. ‘Legacy builds’ will continue to be available.

SteamVR is Valve’s PC-based virtual reality platform, supporting Windows and Linux. Mac owners can continue to use the latest versions of SteamVR by installing Windows as a secondary OS.

Facebook’s competing Oculus Rift platform hasn’t supported Macs since early development kits, which preceded the Rift. In 2016, founder Palmer Luckey claimed this was due to Apple’s lack of priority on GPU power.

Apple Went All-In

Support for macOS was announced by Apple itself during its annual developer conference in 2017. Craig Federighi, who reports directly to Tim Cook, revealed the support with excitement- VR would be a showcase of Apple’s new commitment to high performance graphics.

At the time, Apple released updates to Metal, its equivalent of Vulkan/DX12, to make it suitable for high performance low latency VR rendering, including via external GPUs on MacBooks.

The company even worked with Unity and Unreal Engine to make this available to all developers.

Later in the conference, employees from ILM gave a live on-stage mixed reality demo of VR on macOS- a Star Wars scene powered by Unreal Engine.

In September 2018, Apple added support for HTC’s Vive Pro, including giving developers access to the onboard stereo cameras, presumably for AR development.

What Happened?

Less than two years later, Valve is announcing ending support for macOS. Apple doesn’t seem to have made a statement on this yet, but we’ve reached out to employees who worked on Metal’s VR support.

According to Valve’s Hardware Survey, just under 4% of Steam users are using macOS, with over 95% using Microsoft’s Windows. Given that just over 1% own a VR headset at all, it’s easy to see just how niche VR on macOS likely was.

Valve states it will now “focus on Windows and Linux”. Despite being even less popular than macOS, Linux is preferred by developers, and required for certain advanced enterprise and government use cases.

Apple is reportedly working on a standalone mixed reality headset slated for 2022. The company may decide to support this in MacOS in a similar way to Facebook’s Oculus Link. Alternatively, it may have decided that the tethered market just isn’t big enough to focus on.

We’ll keep a close eye on Apple this year for any further news about its support for virtual reality.

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March 16, 2020April 7, 2020

Oculus Quest Gets ‘Prototype’ OpenXR Support

Android game engine developers can now support Oculus Quest using OpenXR instead of Facebook’s Oculus Mobile API.

The support is currently described as ‘prototype’. OpenXR 1.0 doesn’t offer a standard Android loader, but Facebook provides one as part of its OpenXR SDK Package.

OpenXR is the recently finalized open standard for VR & AR. That means that apps built for Quest using OpenXR should theoretically also work on any future Android-based Quest competitor.

The Oculus Rift will also get OpenXR support soon. When SteamVR adds support for OpenXR, that means PC game engine developers will be able to support all platforms with one API.

Just to clear up any confusion here: OpenXR is not the same thing as OpenVR. OpenVR is Valve’s API for SteamVR, entirely unrelated to OpenXR. While OpenVR works on all PC VR headsets, it doesn’t support Android headsets like Quest and due to Facebook’s policies cannot be used on Oculus Rift store apps. Valve said last year it plans to support OpenXR in SteamVR but that doesn’t appear to have happened as of yet.

The Problem OpenXR Solves

An API (application programming interface) allows software to interact with other software or hardware. VR developers use APIs like Facebook’s Oculus and Valve’s OpenVR to build apps. The API is often part of an SDK (software development kit), and informally these terms are often used interchangeably.

The problem with the Oculus API is that apps developed with it can only run on Oculus hardware (without hacks). In addition, for developers using a custom engine, there are actually two separate APIs between Quest and Rift.

This means that if a developer wants to support all VR headsets, they need to use multiple APIs. This can be time consuming and increase complexity.

Engines like Unity and Unreal make this easier, and both are trying to separately unify VR APIs under their own new engine subsystems, but the problem still exists.

What Exactly Is OpenXR?

OpenXR is an open standard for VR/AR. It was developed by a working group managed by Khronos, a non-profit industry consortium. The working group includes the major VR companies such as Facebook, Valve, Microsoft, NVIDIA, AMD, HTC, Google, Unity, and Epic.

The API allows developers to add universal VR support to their apps, so in the future any Windows OpenXR app should technically run on any PC VR headset, and any Android OpenXR app should technically run on any standalone headset.

When OpenXR 0.9 was released back in March 2019, Facebook stated that it planned to support it on Rift and Quest “later this year“. The Rift platform actually has hidden preliminary support already.

It’s also important to note that most VR apps are built with the Unity game engine, which has not announced any plans to support OpenXR yet (Unity is a member of the consortium, though).

A few years ago, OpenXR seemed like a distant dream. But now it’s here, and soon engine developers will be able to develop for VR without worrying about what hardware they’re supporting. This should shorten the time taken to develop cross platform VR apps, and may encourage developers to jump into making VR software who were originally put off by proprietary APIs.

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January 25, 2020

Unity Updates XR Platform to Improve Multi-Platform Offering on 2019.3, Removes Gear VR & Google VR Support

Videogame engine Unity has supported the XR industry from the early days of virtual reality (VR) through to the current crop of augmented reality (AR) hardware. That has included a lot of different hardware support, some of which is still relevant while others less so. This week has seen Unity update its XR platform, removing support for some devices whilst reaffirming official functionality for the latest headsets.

Unity Supported Platforms

Affecting Unity 2019.3 and beyond, the company has confirmed that Samsung Gear VR and Google VR support will end due to the fact the relative companies have moved their interest away from these products. It’s worth noting Gear VR and Google VR will remain supported in Unity 2018 LTS for developers working on existing projects.

Additionally, built-in OpenVR will be deprecated in 2019.3 because Valve is using Unity’s XR SDK to develop its own OpenVR Unity XR plugin for 2019.3. As such, Unity confirms in its blog that: “Until that plugin is available, built-in support of OpenVR will continue to be functional and available in 2019.3, and we will support our users with any critical fixes.” Just like Gear VR, and Google VR, OpenVR will remain supported in Unity 2018 LTS.

When it comes to what is officially supported in Unity 2019.3 and beyond, it’s now: ARKit, ARCore, Microsoft HoloLens, MagicLeap, Oculus, Windows Mixed Reality and Playstation VR. These are all part of Unity’s “Build once, deploy anywhere” motto, allowing creators to easily deploy content across a range of platforms.

Currently, Unity 2019.2.19 is available as the official download version for projects in development. Or you can test the beta version, Unity 2019.3b, the final edition before the official launch.

Unity is one of the most popular videogame development engines for VR and AR, available for free for beginners and small indie developers. As further improvements to Unity are made, VRFocus will keep you updated.

January 25, 2020

Unity Deprecates Built-In Support For Daydream, Gear VR, And Valve’s OpenVR

Unity 2019.3 introduces a new plugin system for XR headsets, and deprecates official support for Gear VR, Google VR, and Valve’s OpenVR (the API for SteamVR).

Valve is working on a plugin for the new system, according to Unity:

“Valve is using our XR SDK to develop their OpenVR Unity XR plugin for 2019.3 and beyond,” the blog post from Unity explains. “They will share more information on where to access it once it is available. Until that plugin is available, built-in support of OpenVR will continue to be functional and available in 2019.3, and we will support our users with any critical fixes.”

What This Doesn’t (Yet) Mean

This doesn’t yet mean that developers can no longer build Unity games for these platforms. For now, it simply means that bugs & issues introduced by the engine which affect the support for these platforms “may not be prioritized”. This also serves as a warning that they will be removed from the engine in the future.

That actual removal won’t happen until version 2020.1. Despite using years in version numbers, 2019.3 has yet to be officially released, so 2020.1 is likely months away.

Of course, developers can continue to use older versions of Unity to build their games — although obviously that means they won’t have access to new & future engine-level features and optimizations.

The New Unity Plugin System

The new XR plugin system is intended to simplify the way VR and AR works across the various platforms in Unity in the long term, and allow for new XR features and software plugins to work across all VR & AR hardware.

Under the new system, Unity is “officially” working with 7 XR platforms: Apple’s ARKit, Google’s ARCore, Microsoft’s HoloLens & WMR, Magic Leap, Oculus, and PlayStation VR.

These platforms are “fully supported” by Unity, and the company is “directly” working with them on “deep platform integration, improvements to our engine, and optimizations to our XR tech stack for the platform”.

Valve?

Notably absent from the list of officially supported platform partners is Valve, the company behind the popular SteamVR platform.

However, the new plugin system does allow third parties to develop XR plugins for Unity separately from official support.

Valve’s application programming interface (API) for SteamVR is called OpenVR. According to Unity, Valve is “currently developing their OpenVR XR Plugin, and they will share more information on where to access it once it is available“.

There are two Unity designations Valve could be delivering this system through. One is as a ‘Verified Solutions Partner’ (VSP) and the other is as an ‘Innovator’. Being a VSP “offers various levels of support, including test verification and promotion of the plugin once released.” It has not yet been revealed whether or not Valve is a VSP.

Will This Really Matter?

There are no announced plans for an unofficial plugin for Daydream or Gear VR, however, there are plans for an open source plugin for Google Cardboard. This means developers will eventually have to resort to non-current versions of Unity to develop for Daydream or Gear VR.

For SteamVR, the change means that responsibility for support of Valve’s platform in Unity now rests solely on Valve. It also may make it more difficult for Valve to work around engine-level bugs or introduce new features that require engine support.

Unity’s own OpenVR Plugin is now deprecated, and will be removed in 2020.1.

At the end of the day, however, this probably won’t really mean much to the average SteamVR developer other than the fact that the party responsible for the core OpenVR support in the engine changed.

It could be argued that a lack of official support would be important to large publishers/developers choosing which platforms to develop for, but even this seems like a stretch for now.

We’ve reached out to Valve for clarity on the current state of its relationship with Unity, plans for future support, and any other statement on the topic. We’ll update this article if we receive a reply.

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December 12, 2018

Russian Startup DEUS Reveals OpenVR-compatible Headset ‘Odin Pre’

The Moscow-based VR headset manufacturer DEUS announced the latest version of their Odin VR headset that incorporates support for SteamVR content and higher resolution LCD displays than Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

Update (11:00 AM ET): Deus tells us that the Horus Pre basestation is indeed proprietary and “not compatible with SteamVR controllers from other brands.”

Dubbed the Odin Pre, the headset boasts dual 2,160 × 2,160 LCD displays clocked at 90 Hz. Using Fresnel lenses, Deus claims the headset’s field of view (FOV) is around 110 degrees—the same as Oculus Rift, and both HTC Vive and Vive Pro variants.

Going by raw numbers currently available, at very least Odin Pre will have higher resolution displays than even Vive Pro, which touts dual 1,440 × 1,600 pixel OLEDs.

The company is also producing a SteamVR-style laser position basestation they call the ‘Horus Pre’ which will track Odin thanks to sensors embedded in the headset and controller.

Deus says their Horus Pre basestation is however their own design, so it’s uncertain if that means standard SteamVR controllers such as Vive’s controllers, or both the upcoming Valve ‘Knuckles’ and Pimax’s SteamVR controllers, will work with the system (see update).

We’ve reached out to the company to clarify whether Horus Pre is indeed a true SteamVR basestation, or a proprietary design that will only work with Odin’s own controllers. We’ll update this article when we hear back.

Deus claims Horus Pre can cover up to 200 square meters with only two base stations with its 170 degree horizontal and vertical tracking angles. This also includes the ability to add “an unlimited number of base stations and local multiplayer support allows you to scale the tracking zone, including indoors with corridors.” The headset supports both its own DEUS SDK and the OpenVR SDK.

Epic Aims to Take on Steam with Newly Announced Epic Games Store

Steam is widely considered the de facto platform for PC games, VR or otherwise, but Unreal Engine creators Epic Games want change that with a new storefront that they say will leave more revenue to developers than Steam and other major digital distribution platforms.

Update (12:20 PM ET): Tim Sweeney has confirmed in a Game Informer interview that VR games will have a home on the platform, although the store “doesn’t have any sort of VR user interface.”

Both Steam and the Oculus Store take an industry standard cut of 30% of a game’s revenue, although Epic CEO Tim Sweeney today announced in a blogpost that the company would soon be creating their own dedicated storefront that will only take a 12% slice of the pie; that includes games created with Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, Unity, and other game engines.

Fittingly dubbed ‘Epic Games Store’, the distribution platform will likely take the place of the Epic Games launcher on PC and Mac, which most famously features battle royale sensation Fortnite and the Unreal Engine itself.

There wasn’t a specific announce surrounding support for VR games (see update), although as Khronos Group’s OpenXR standard marches ever onward in its mission to make market fragmentation a thing of the past, it’s possible those “open platforms” will also include VR. Epic Games is a prominent member of the Khronos Group working alongside a host of industry pros including Oculus, HTC, Valve, Microsoft, Google, AMD, NVIDIA, and Unity.

Epic Games Store is said to launch soon and begin what Sweeney calls “a long journey to advance the cause of all developers.” The store will first launch with a set of games curated by Epic for PC and Mac, and then allow other games and “open platforms” throughout 2019.

Why You Should Steal Yourself A Look At Grand Theft Auto V In VR

While Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5) doesn’t have any official VR versions or ports, modders have been working on ways to allow players to experience the title with the greater measure of immersion that virtual reality (VR) provides.

VR still hasn’t quite broken into the mass market due to the high initial investment required, however the industry is working on various ways to solve that issue. Many of the biggest entities in the videogame sphere have backed the new platform by making highly popular IPs available in a VR format, including the likes of Bethesda and CCP Games.

Since GTA 5 is one of the best selling and most widely enjoyed AAA titles of the current generation, many voices were asking whether it too will join the ranks of VR enabled videogames. During the early years of VR’s growth, Take-Two Interactive’s (the parent company of Rockstar Games, and publisher of GTA) CEO Strauss Zelnick expressed scepticism about the viability of VR, however more recently one of Rockstar’s titles made the leap – L. A. Noire.

This is a hopeful development, but we’re still waiting on GTA V(R) meaning third-party mods are still the way to go. Grand Theft VR is leading the charge in this regard – a free mod that can be downloaded by anyone, GTVR is compatible with both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive due to being based on OpenVR.

So which features make GTA 5 truly a great VR experience? (No, not the strip club…) Videogame design follows somewhat different rules when VR titles are developed than traditional videogames, however when previously non-VR titles are made available to play with the headsets, balancing authenticity with VR-compatibility is tricky business.

A screenshot of GTA 5 but in Grand Theft VR.

Exploration

Much of the praise for GTA 5 was centered around the highly detailed videogame world. Los Santos and Blaine County were crafted with such extreme attention to detail. The AI governing NPC behaviour, building placement, foilage, dynamic clutter and the low amount of asset re-use made GTA 5 feel like a real, living, breathing world.

We were brought closer to that world when the Enhanced Edition added optional first-person view to the title, but VR takes things to the maximum allowed by current technology. A ridiculous amount of research was put in by Rockstar’s developers to replicate Los Angeles in a way that it would still be recognizable and familiar – all this in spite of the sweeping changes made to layout and size due to the constraints of what last-gen consoles were capable of.

Even without VR, one can spend countless hours just exploring the videogame world, mulling over all the touches of detail the developers filled it with. With VR however, it becomes a veritable sightseeing tour.

Driving

Driving is a central part of GTA 5’s gameplay and experiencing it in VR ties in to our previous point of exploration. Driving fits in with VR fundamentally because it bypasses the potential motion sickness issue of walking, which is usually solved by using teleportation for movement.

When you drive your body remains motionless (relative to the vehicle) and the same discrepancy isn’t present as opposed to the VR sensation of walking clashing with your actual body staying still. Since teleportation is fairly immersion-breaking, driving is a better way to experience the world of and take in the sights without teleporting around.

This applies to flying as well, even if GTA 5’s flying control are iffy at best. A title as visually stunning as GTA 5 just begs to be witnessed in VR from high up in the sky with the city of Los Santos laid out before you, Mount Chiliad rising in the distance. Speaking of driving…

Police Chases

Combat in VR experiences has some fundamental differences compared to how combat is designed in traditional videogames, meaning that ported VR titles usually don’t shine in this area – and then GTA 5 by default has some floaty gunplay. However, there are multiple sources of gaming thrills in GTA 5 and police chases are one of them.

As opposed to some other titles in the franchise, GTA 5’s cops aren’t pushovers. Rather, they’ve sometimes been described as overpowered due to the title’s mechanics. They have near-perfect aim at long distances, never stop coming at you and are apparently omniscient because if you shoot one mook in the middle of the desert without anyone else around, the SWAT teams will have already zeroed in on your exact location.

As police chases are usually conducted from behind the wheel, the advantages of using vehicles to move around in VR are present here as well – except you’ll be fleeing for your life instead of having a calm sight-seeing tour. This adds challenge and, well, gameplay to the experience.

As a title that was in no way developed for VR, playing GTA 5 with a headset may leave some things to be desired. GTVR modifies some elements of GTA V to make it better suited to VR but it still isn’t a flawless transition. Should Rockstar ever bring their flagship IP to this growing platform, we’ll be able to experience it in its full glory.