Lets make a SDK 0.4 Linux nagging thread!

"jherico" wrote:

"Ybalrid" wrote:
I'm glad to wait the developers get something that works properly before shipping it. I'm realy looking forward the "new way" of displaying on the rift under Linux. It's one of the software features I was waiting the most :)

You're quite the optimist. I'm personally doubting if they'll go as far as supporting the 'non-desktop' display functionality in Linux.

I found something interesting on page 29 in the current developer guide:

In addition to setting up rendering, staring with Oculus SDK 0.4.0 Windows users will need to call
ovrHmd_AttachToWindow to direct its swap-chain output to the HMD through the Oculus display
driver. This is easily done with once call:

[...]

Going forward, we plan to introduce direct rendering support on all platforms.

To facilitate cross platform projects it would be very nice to have a simple/consistent way to setup the display across different systems. Especially when you are already in a cross platform environment like the JVM. I had a lot of trouble with display setup using lwjgl since it just lacks the necessary platform-specific functionality like controlling on which display you want to run fullscreen etc. So imho it would be great to encapsulate all these things in the SDK.

Overall I understand the OP's disappointment about the low priority of Linux support. But since there was a lot of pressure to release an updated SDK to get all these DK2s shipped postponing a Linux release makes sense to me. But just this time :).

So far I'm pretty much unconvinced that the Direct HMD mechanism is worth the extra complexity and fragility it brings. People are reporting that their computers are becoming unusable after installing the runtime, which I can only guess is related to the Direct HMD functionality and not the sensor sharing or optical tracking code. It doesn't appear to run properly with OpenGL in my tests.

I think there are easier ways of resolving the 'extended desktop metaphor to a non-standard display' problem without these problems.

"Ybalrid" wrote:
I don't know well Os X, but on Linux, X (graphical server) is a very old system that wasn't designed for multiscreen applications. Sometimes it's capricious.

Hem, the X Window System was specifically designed to support multiple monitors, that was its primary use when it was released in the 80's (one computer server, multiple terminals). And this was way before MS Windows or OS X even existed.

The problem with multiple monitors today is not X Window, it's the NVIDIA proprietary driver which doesn't play nice with standards (uncomplete XRandR support, recently broken Xinerama support, pushing proprietary TwinView instead).

How is direct framebuffer access supposed to work in practice anyway?

Yeah there is Wayland but proprietary AMD drivers don't support it and it's not even on the roadmap. There are working FOSS drivers for Radeon cards but I tried them and they aren't even mature enough to run webgl shader demos properly. And their performance is so bad that you'd have low-end card performance with high end cards.
Nvidia promised eventual support, but that's not enough to base short term operation of the DK2 on it.

So how is the DK2 supposed to run in the mean time?

https://support.oculus.com/hc/en-us/articles/201835987-Oculus-Rift-Development-Kit-2-FAQ

Q: Can I use the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 on my gaming console?

A: No. The Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 only works on computer systems running Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.

:x

Yes, other platforms are in the works. It was just important to get the SDK out for the DK2 launch, which is why Windows came out first. However, we have not forgotten about Mac and Linux. Unfortunately I don't have an ETA to when they will be ready.

"cybereality" wrote:
Yes, other platforms are in the works. It was just important to get the SDK out for the DK2 launch, which is why Windows came out first. However, we have not forgotten about Mac and Linux. Unfortunately I don't have an ETA to when they will be ready.

Thanks, that is at least something. I was really hoping I can use the SDK with Linux when I get my DK2.
Would you say if the timing of SDK support is done so by design, did you plan to release the Mac and Linux SDKs later?

That should have been better communicated. I can deal with Windows, I just should have known I'd have to.

https://twitter.com/cmonkey/status/493134731966304256 :lol:

"cybereality" wrote:
Yes, other platforms are in the works. It was just important to get the SDK out for the DK2 launch, which is why Windows came out first. However, we have not forgotten about Mac and Linux. Unfortunately I don't have an ETA to when they will be ready.

Well..... If it's not out for Mac and Linux then it isn't really out is it.
A DK2 that only supports Windows is a brick to me.

No ETA is pretty poor if you ask me.

Dual booting is always an option.