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Dante606
New Participant
May 3, 2018

Is it possible to deactivate Oculus sleep mode when removing HMD in Unreal builds?

Hello everyone! My team and me are working on a VR game.

My game goes like:

-The experience START when HMD detecting a player wearing it.

-The experience STOP when HMD detecting nobody wearing it

-then ***screensaver Mirrored on screen*** with the VR still activated (Working in Unreal Preview).

We are using the proximity sensor of the Oculus to know when changing the level. (So it is impossible to just Tape the sensor to solve the issue).

THE PROBLEM: The Oculus Rift in standalone builds, for performance issues or something, will not render camera when not weared, and then will not mirror any images on screen, making the screensaver full black.


Is there any option, or modifiable SDK code to prevent Oculus to stop render? 

Thank you!

13 replies

VintageGreen
Inspiring
July 23, 2021

also looking for solution, and there should be one as you cannot count on a host not making sure they turn off sleep on the headset native

PITTCANNA
Honored Contributor
July 23, 2021

just put tape over the sensor.

    VintageGreen
    Inspiring
    July 23, 2021

    I'm sorry but that is not the answer we are looking for exactly lol

    VintageGreen
    Inspiring
    July 23, 2021

    We are developers trying to make sure a user who is hosting a game doesn't freeze the game for others when the headset is taken off for any duration of time.

    Telling people who will buy your game to bloody tape the sensor that is needed to detect if its on your face or not is ridiculous and not very helpful in this regard.

    Thank you.

      PITTCANNA
      Honored Contributor
      July 24, 2021

      A lot of people put tape on the proximity sensor, it's not ridiculous.  Design a game where you don't need to take off the headset.  Heck a lot of AAA titles tell users to rest headset on forehead for desktop inputs 

        VintageGreen
        Inspiring
        July 29, 2021

        you don't need to take off the headset that isn't game mechanic I think you're confused what the issue is here for us.

        If someone is hosting a game needs to take off the headset and it goes to sleep it ruins the experience for everyone else connected to that host player. Sure they could answer the door or attend to a child in the next room trying to balance a headset on their forehead but that is insane to ask of people in my humble opinion.

        there is a very simple function called run in background its a simple blueprint node you can call in your apps on android but for some reason oculus seems to have effectively blocked its functionality.

        We just need the game thread/replication thread to keep running in unreal engine for our game. The render thread can go inactive to save power thats fine.

        There is custom engines that do not have this problem its a oculus plugin code issue in the engine and os.

        We need it fixed. period really lol

          VintageGreen
          Inspiring
          July 29, 2021

          Sorry are you a developer? I just don't think you understand the issues Unreal Engine is having on this platform

          1. There are not many Quest games to compare
          2. Most VR and Quest games using engines like Unity and other custom engines do not have this issue.
          3. Oculus controls a custom source build of the engine they tell us to use
          4. Unreal on Quest has multiple issues other engines are not having
          5. Unreal on Quest does not even work for online game sessions out of the box even using their custom source code version doesn't have any fix applied yet


          Here is a guide I made this is the source code fixed and other changes you need to make to fix the online sessions for unreal engine on the Quest platform.

          https://www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/optd6y/the_secret_oculus_quest_2_multiplayer_guide/

          Until recently with this guide many indie developers had no ability to even test a game online using Unreal Engine in the first place. Unreal 4.13 with a fix from Turtle rock was rumored to work at one time but we are far beyond version 4.13. And anything past that until very recently has not worked online unreal devs have been stuck unable to even test online to find these issues to begin with. Unless you had a team of C++ engine programmers who could fix it for you 99% of unreal indie devs have been out of luck making an online game.

          Due to changes to the code and the android Quest OS Unreal can no longer use a simple node called run in background its built in the engine allowing the apps on android to run in background when the device sleeps. I'm sure you have seen this with many apps on your phone. 

          For some reason this is disabled in the unreal engine on the Quest platform alone. It really is an oversight and is effecting developers who want to make these games for players so their players never have these issues in the first place. 

          and if you're a player you should appreciate how much some devs care about this, and support us in getting it fixed.

          PITTCANNA
          Honored Contributor
          July 29, 2021

          I am a real life mechanical engineer and software engineer.  I do programing for business, and engineering firms.  You are overly complicating something a small blocker over the sensor will solve the problems your having.  Got to love software engineers and developers they jack up the cost of a project because they can't figure to put a simple blocker over the sensor.

          VintageGreen
          Inspiring
          July 29, 2021

          I'm not putting some stupid tape that will get all gunky on my headset and nor should anyone else 

          we want that feature to work like you are not at all helping

          Why would I not want the headset to turn on when I put it on???? 

          VintageGreen
          Inspiring
          July 29, 2021

          the sensor isn't the issue nor is its function

          the send to the engine to shut down game thread is when other engines don't have that issue at all

          Abs22x2
          Abs22x2
          New Participant
          December 10, 2021

          Hello ! I'm having the exact same issue and I am currently trying to avoid my OQ2 to go into sleep mode when it is removed from the user head.
          (I am NOT going to put some TAPE on my Oculus because I would like a SOFTWARE solution (: , sorry not sorry Mr the real life engineer)
          I am wondering if a workaround is possible with the 'HMDPut on Head Delegate' and 'HMDRemoved from Head Delegate' (in VRNotifications) like forcing the Oculus to "stay awake"?

          I don't know if you found a solution to this, but if I have something I'll tell you!

          - Abs
          winning777
          Inspiring
          October 8, 2023

          did anyone figure this out. the tape thing is ridiculous I agree. there has to be a way to disable sleep. we have HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF USERS. We definitely are not in the 0.01% of developers. We need a real solution to this, disconnecting people from an online experience because they need to drink some water or answer the door is AWFUL UX... How do you tell 300,000 people to put tape on their headset LMAO. that is the dumbest thing I ever heard.

          https://imaginegames.itch.io Let's make great games!
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