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API72
New Participant
October 9, 2023

Wrapping my head around Oculus shared spatial anchors. Questions?

Hello All, I am using Unity and going through the Unity-SharedSpatialAnchors-main sample on github. I have some questions?

1) Can spatial anchors be shared across a local wifi network, rather than sharing via the cloud? Or is there some "trickery" that happens on Meta's online platform services that are required?

2) What exactly is the data being shared? Is point cloud data being shared - downloaded from the cloud to another user?

Thanks.

1 reply

API72Author
New Participant
October 10, 2023

So looking deeper into the code, OVRSpatialAnchor includes two properties OVRSpace and Guid. The storage location of OVRSpace is set to either local or the cloud. When you save a spatial anchor to local, saved someplace on the quest, and the Guid is saved to PlayerPrefs. I assume OVRSpace encapsulates point cloud data, so when you reload a saved anchor - grabs the Guid from PlayerPrefs, uses the Guid as a lookup key to find the correct OVRSpace, the app then knows where to place the anchor in your environment. When uploading to the cloud, the spatial anchor which I guess includes both the point cloud data and the Guid is uploaded and then can be shared to a user. If someone can elaborate on this, would be helpful.

If this is the case, why not just allow sharing the spatial anchor across local wifi network since all the players are in the same physical space anyway and therefore not use cloud services? Though it seems Meta makes this a requirement. Please let me know if I am misunderstanding something. Thanks.

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