OpenVR / OSVR

vvvv beta general
1

Hey, friends of virtual space

Last week I received my Vive. And to say just a few things: it is freaking amazing. Walking around freely in virtual space is easily the holy grail of VR, and having virtual controllers that are represented 1:1 in both physical and virtual space is key to immersive manipulation (the possibility to “skin” them is even cooler though).

Right now, of the main content engines only Unity3d and Unreal provide easy access to the tech. While this is certainly viable for testing, I would prefer to have it available in vvvv. Who else?

There is an sdk called OpenVR from Steam, which provides access to the “poses”, which means the place and rotation of the controllers, and the two eyepoints. It seems quite well thought out, as it even provides ways to get future estimates of the poses to make latency feel even tighter.
It is basically C, but there are some interop mechanisms demonstrated for the unity interface.

From what I gathered, the main cornerstone is something called Compositor, which kinda “takes” a context from EX9 or DX11 (or even OpenGL) and “presents” it in the vr glasses.

Now, my personal opinion is, it is vital for the future course of vvvv to support VR. Unfortunately, the c interop stuff is still something I cannot wrap my head around, so “just making it myself” is not an option this time.

This post is really about asking about interest. Who else’d be willing to go down the rabbit hole that is VR?
Also, I’d like to ask the devvvs and vux (as they are maintaining EX9 and DX11 respectively) if they see a way to incorporate it into their pipelines.

2

Hallo, who isn’ t ?? ;)
We are looking into fabricating a low cost gear, currently shopping for 4k 6" hdmi displays, that is another thing I know but on the same idea.
S.

3

the price of the vive and the rift is a little bit steep for me to play around. i think if that pricetag won’t go down below $500 or better $400 VR won’t spread as much as they’re suggesting with the hype. and the machine which can power those things is an other story

4

you know nothing, david snow.

edit: on a serious side note, I don’t care much about the hype among gamers, etc. the vive is a great tool for substituting a dome, for showcasing concepts and interiors to clients, and ofc for immersive installations.
and i guess you’d be quite impressed about the progress it’s made since the early dk’s.

edit: before this derails too far, this thread is about bringing OpenVR to vvvv

5

sorry about the rant, yeah I forgot the demoing capabilities and the client wowing factor.

6

integrating OpenVR is beyond my capabilities but i’d support the development in a financial group effort if a willing dev turns up.

7

yes, i’m also very interested in that topic. though my head also can’t handle the c interop stuff, i can imagine contributing code and/or financial support.

8

The only way to make it work is to contribute Vive to vux hehe

9

Form what I’ve heard, this is already in the making… So before starting a new effort, I would wait a bit.

10

totally with you about the real new possibilities, if you think about it (disregarding hype and clients)

is openvr something that can cross vr brands ?

if so lets do another bountysource type of common effort maybe ?

11

does anyone know about advantages/disadvantages of openVR (closed source) compared to OSVR (open source)?
Just wondering because there is a .Net binding for osvr and a lot of apparently supported devices (including vive)…

12

@soriak

thanks for the hint. In fact, OSVR seems to be the weapon of choice for Unity and Unreal. I updated the thread’s topic to broaden the perspective here.

13

hi,
just tested Vive last week and yes it’s amazing!
i’m of course in for any kind of support

14

ok, butter bei de fische.

i put 500€ on the table and i hope more people join.

15

Can we clarify a bit first what we want to achieve here?

  • transformation matrix on render for output to VR
  • readings of 9dof sensors
  • applicable to any VR set, given its parameters
  • … else?
16

im also in with 250e if it will cross to oculus3

for a more clear approach to finance and expectations, we could get managed by https://www.bountysource.com/

17

hey again,

just to give you a quick update about the happenings:

Tech

we talked some about the differences between OpenVR and OSVR. While Valve did in fact support OSVR about a year ago, they eventually decided to start off their own dev. It has been criticized, that this is not as open source anymore.
Others argue, that there is very little that needs to be open, because it is just a API between actual device drivers and actual apps, with no other purpose than to communicate between hardware and game without the game developer having to know the exact hardware.

Both tools support Rift and Vive. OSVR also supports a shitload of other VR tech (after all, it got started by Razer and Sensics), but also seems more bloated (careful, this is just a quick and sloppy assessment).

Both tools provide bindings to c#, so I guess that’s good.

Bounty

It is great to see people pledging money here. I had a look at the potential ways to organize this, and ofc the more intricate the organizing tools, the higher the fees.
Bountysource takes a whooping 10%. Indigogo ends up taking around 5%.
And of course just doing it with paypal or square (snapcash) is around 3%.

We talked about this a little, and for now it should be totally fine, when pledges are handled with honor among us, here in the forum. This way the overhead and fees can be kept to a minimum, and satisfy even proper billing (if the entity making the dev can provide those).

So who is a cool bunny so far?

@u7angel 500€
@ggml 250€ (under the condition, that it supports the rift as well?)

I hope more people pledge, once a feature description is appended here.

Features

Which brings us to features. I am sure, @tonfilm will be able to fill in more details soon, and lay out some kind of road map. Please be patient until he comes back from the mapping festival :)

18

@bounty: confirmed re supporting rift 3
@features: can we expect inclusive hand-gear support?

19

the first step that is funded by MLF will be just the HMD device support in a similar fashion as the oculus node. the immediate advantage we gain is that one node supports multiple devices. in this case oculus rift and htc vive.

@oculus rift 3
i am not sure what you mean by that? i have not found anything on the internet about it. anyways, since OpenVR supports multiple devices it will in there by a mere dll update once its a thing.

@OSVR
we don’t have to worry since there is an OpenVR driver for OSVR: https://github.com/OSVR/SteamVR-OSVR

further steps funded here in the forums:

  • handheld devices output since the library just outputs them for free
  • test texture handle binding, if the texture handle from vvvv matches the texture bind method in the library it would be awesome because that means directmode for free.

if there are complications with the further steps it will need a significant more amount of time and money that i don’t have at the moment.

more results end of the week…

20

successfully tested a DK2 today with this development, thanks tonfilm for the live debuging

is this project really not of interest to the community ? you dont have to buy the expensive kits. the trusty DK2 does the job as well and can be bought on ebay.

please support the dev, anything helps